Yet More Snow Tuesday

I was woken up by an excited Little Prince whispering that he didn't have to go to school. I'd heard the phone ring, and it was a member of staff informing us that school is closed, it seemed strange as the majority of the staff live very very close by. The High School and the College were open! So I swapped over today, Drama Teen went out and Little Prince stayed home. I was going to go over to OUR shop, but I didn't want to go with Little Prince as he gets so hyped up in the shop!! The snow was melting and the new snow wasn't sticking, so I decided that after Princess Lollipop had her nap that we would go out and buy the Christmas decorations for OUR shop. Princess Lollipop was fast asleep and I was about to start sewing name tapes in Little Prince's new school trousers, and shortening some of his original pairs. That plan was scuppered when the phone rang and woke Princess Lollipop up, I wasn't in the room and Little Prince was trying to answer the phone, so by the time I got there Princess Lollipop was crying hysterically. Once I'd calmed her down there was no chance of getting her back to sleep, so we started to get ready to go out when the phone rang again. This time it was Drama Teen saying College was closing early and could we pick her up.

Once we were finally in the car, I found one of my front tyres was almost flat!! I drove very very slowly to the garage, only to find that their air line was out of order!! I filled up with diesel and drove very very slowly to the next garage, whose air line was working. We then whizzed down the motorway to Drama Teen's College to collect her and then on to the first shop. I wanted large-ish decorations that won't look lost in OUR shop window. I found a Father Christmas and a Snowman that looked great, but not much else! Almost everything I saw had glitter on it - and I don't want glitter all over the shop, as it will get in Princess Lollipop's hair and be a nightmare to get out!! I found a lovely bright red cushion with black embroidered flowers, that will look great on the sofa. I didn't find much else so we went across the road to the soft furnishing shop too. They didn't have a dedicated area for Christmas decorations they were scattered all over the shop, so it was hard to find anything. I did get a red sparkly throw for OUR shop sofa and Drama Teen found a Christmas present for one of her friends. And just before we were leaving I found the softest, most gorgeous bright red sheepskin rug - so I blew the budget and bought that for OUR shop too!!

We were at the checkout paying for our purchases when we heard a loud noise outside. It was a helicopter landing in the carpark of the shop we had started in! When we'd finished I drove over there so that Little Prince could see the helicopter up close!! He was very impressed :-)

We then drove to yet another shop, as I still hadn't found a tree topper that I liked!! And by now Drama Teen had announced that she had plans to go to the cinema with her Boyfriend, in his town! I made her ring Mr Messy and check with him if he thought the weather would be ok later as she wanted picking up at 9pm. We went back on the motorway and drove to Boyfriend's town, it was snowing a little more heavily now and I took it really easy on the motorway, barely getting over 50mph. We were early to the cinema so we nipped to the Supermarket to get some shopping done. While we were there Mr Messy rang and said the weather had turned really bad and that he wasn't prepared to pick Drama Teen up later, so she couldn't go to the cinema. She was fairly upset, but held it together well.

Mr Messy had said it was pretty difficult for him to get home from OUR shop, and had to go the long way round and advised us to do the same. The motorway was even worse this time and I ended up driving at 30mph and I wasn't getting overtaken very much!! The slip road off the motorway lived up to its name and was hard to get up! We drove slowly through the village (B) but when we drove past the Pub at the exit to the village we got stuck in a stationary line of traffic. We barely moved for the next 20mins and in the end turned back round and went back to the motorway. Once again we barely got over 30mph, and when we were about a mile from the exit roundabout we again hit stationary traffic! I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get home!!! It took ages to get to the roundabout and to get over it and to our exit. The road we took is a fairly major one out of Drama Teen's College town, but it was covered in a couple of inches of snow and quite slippery. When we turned off the major road to go along the river and through the villages the roads were even worse. The snow was coming down very heavily and it was a scary drive! At one point Drama Teen saw a village green covered in fresh untouched snow, so I stopped the car so that she and Little Prince could get out and make snow angels!! They got back into the car wet and laughing :-) A little further on, just as we were about to enter the next village, Little Prince announced he wanted the loo!! I don't blame him we'd been in the car for hours at the point!! When we got to the other side of the village and away from civilisation, I pulled over to let him out!! There was no way he would have been able to manage to wait till we got home at the speed I was having to drive at and it seemed the only solution!!

Once he was back in the car I tried to drive off, but I was stuck!! Even in my 4x4 my wheels were spinning and I skidded and slipped back onto the road. The snow was getting deeper and coming down more and more heavily and I was getting really worried. I had to appear calm so that the children didn't get worried, but I seriously wished that I'd stayed in College town and booked into a hotel for the night!! We barely saw another car the whole journey, apart from a van in the ditch!! Not a great place to have an accident or anything - no one would see us or be around to help us - cheery thoughts to drive to!!

We finally made it to our own village and I was so relieved that I lost concentration a little and skidded!! OK back to driving like a snail and concentrating very very hard!! Then on the very last corner before our house, I braked and nothing happened!! Thoughts of the recent accident involving a motorbike at the same spot were rushing through my mind!! Luckily I was going so slowly that I didn't hit anything and the car came to a gentle stop very quickly. It took a bit of faffing about backwards and forwards to get round the corner safely and I couldn't even see the kerb to park outside our house!! The drive took over two hours, two of THE most frightening hours of my life!! I collapsed on the sofa for ages while Mr Messy got Little Prince to sit and watch You've Been Framed on TV. Once that had finished he got Little Prince to bed and then got Drama Teen to come downstairs and look after Princess Lollipop while we emptied the grocery shopping out of the car and put away in the kitchen. We left the Christmas decorations in the car as Mr Messy is probably going to have to use my car to get to OUR shop tomorrow, if he can get there at all that is!!! I can't believe how deep the snow is and the websites already say that Drama Teen's College and Little Prince's School will be closed tomorrow. At least we are all stocked up with food and the cars are both full of fuel, for all the good that will do us!!!

Should I make him confess??

Little Prince was chatting while he and Princess Lollipop had their tea, and he told me that his teacher had cried today! He explained that some of the children had made a lovely snowman (with a top, middle and bottom and everything lol) but then other kids had kicked it all to pieces. He said the whole school got told off and the ones who did it were in BIG trouble. Then he admitted that he had kicked the snowman, but "luckily I didn't get caught, so I didn't get in trouble." He really loves his teacher and was very upset that she cried and knows that she would be very disappointed with him if she knew he had been involved, and he hates to disappoint her. So do I make him confess or let it ride??

More Snow Monday!!

Mr Messy did the morning school run, taking Little Prince to school in the snow that was frozen all over the pavements. He wouldn't let Little Prince use his scooter though!! He told me later that he had real trouble trying to keep Little Prince out of the snow and dry on the way to school and this carried on when they reached the playground. Luckily Little Prince's teacher was on playground duty and noticed and rang the bell to get all the children inside earlier than usual! She did apologise to Mr Messy saying she wouldn't be able to keep him dry over the lunchtime play time!

Mr Messy then went off to OUR shop, where he was to be assisted by a girl from the local High School on work experience. I decided I didn't want to drive to OUR shop on the icy roads and had a day at home instead. I was joined by Drama Teen, who's college was closed due to the bad weather. I got her to supervise Princess Lollipop in the bath while I got some ironing done, before I went in to condition and comb through Princess Lollipop's hair.

I got some tidying up done and a load of washing washed and dried. Then when Princess Lollipop had her nap we watched on of the Harry Potter DVDs. It finished just in time for me to go and collect Little Prince from school. When I got Drama Teen was watching the "extras" dvd, and Little Prince was really interested, however, as soon as Drama Teen got bored she turned it off! Little Prince was really upset by this :-( Drama Teen went off to her bedroom for a while, and Little Prince went to look for his Blankie that had gone missing yesterday. He couldn't find it and was getting really agitated, so I eventually got Drama Teen doenstairs and went to look myself. I found Blankie in Little Prince's dressing gown pocket, where I'd already told him to look!!

When I was in Little Prince's room I got so cross at keep standing on bits of Lego everywhere that I dragged Little Prince up to help me sort the mess out! He insisted on sorting the Minifigures into one box and the rest of the Lego pieces into his big box! It took over an hour to get a path cleared from his door to his bed - it was THAT bad!! We were both fed up with it by then so I made Little Prince put all his cuddlies and books away while I scooped the rest of the Lego into a big pile under Little Prince's cabin bed. I also sorted the pieces of his wooden fort into a box and stacked neatly. His bedroom looks like a completely different place!! Tomorrow we'll finish it off and see how long it takes him to wreck it this time!! I reckon it will be less than a week!!

When we got back downstairs Mr Messy was back from OUR shop, Drama Teen cooked the littlies tea, mainly to get a break from a very whingy Princess Lollipop I think lol. I supervised them both eating their tea, and Princess Lollipop is getting so adept at using a fork as well as a spoon. She is also very strong minded and will only eat what she wants to eat - "tawots" (carrots), "sweepcom" (sweetcorn)" and "fiss" (fish) tonight! There was a definite NO to the "bwotwee" (broccoli).

After their later tea, it was soon time for Little Prince to go to bed. Mr Messy then made himself a pizza and brought it into the lounge to eat. He was upset because Princess Lollipop (despite eating most of her own tea) wanted to share! Any food that is brought into the lounge has Princess Lollipop's name on it! I had my own tea a little later, I was supposed to eat with Drama Teen but she decided she didn't want anything! And Princess Lollipop shared mine too! She has definitely got her appetite back!!

We watched I'm a Celebrity, and I was THRILLED that the gargoyle Gillian has been evicted! She annoyed me so much, she whinged and complained and did nothing! And she refused to take any responsibility for her own actions, all her histrionics were blamed on "allergies" "phobias" and even her being pregnant!!! Although a couple of days after that she was complaining of period pains!! So glad to see the back of her!!

I'm finishing writing this and then going to my nice warm snuggly bed. There is more snow forecast for tomorrow and I'm dreading it!!! I hate hate hate being cold :-(

Snowy Sunday!!

Mr Messy and Drama Teen were up early again today, they had to do two lifestyle shoots this morning and a commercial modelling shoot this afternoon. Although Drama Teen is modelling in the final shoot rather than photographing. As the roads were still very icy they set off in my 4x4, but then came back and swapped into Mr Messy's car! I was still in bed so wasn't sure what was going on!!

Little Prince came to wake me and Princess Lollipop up and then they decided to play a throwing teddy game, with me as the "net" in the middle!! I soon gave up on staying in bed any longer and we all went downstairs for breakfast. Little Prince had been snacking since he woke up, so didn't want any breakfast, but me and Princess Lollipop tucked into some nice warm toast :-)

After breakfast Little Prince went to play in the garden again, he might as well make the most of the snow it won't be there too long (I hope!!). He came in all cold and shivery, but VERY happy :-) Soon afterwards Drama Teen rang to say they had completed the first shoot, and it had gone really well, it was the drive there that had been a nightmare! They were on their way to the second shoot, which was in OUR shop, as it was a brother/sister young adults, who wanted the photos as a surprise for their parent's for Christmas. When they had finished that shoot they came home for a short while, so that they could get some lunch and Drama Teen could collect her make up. I asked what went on with the car swapping earlier, and they'd had to change cars because my car heater wasn't working properly and wouldn't de-mist the windows.

When they'd left Little Prince decided to go back into the garden again!! He found a couple of sticks and was playing a blend of Harry Potter and Star Wars with them. Then he said he was cold so he tried to rub them together to make a fire, he wondered why I wasn't worried he would burn himself lol!! Then it started to snow pretty hard, urgh I'd hoped it would be melting soon!! Little Prince got even colder and the "fire making plan" wasn't working, so he came in to warm up, he's snuggled up on the sofa reading a book at the moment. And Princess Lollipop is sat beside him "reading" one of her books, she loves to do whatever her Beloved BrudBrud does :-)

Soon after this Princess Lollipop went to sleep for her nap, she slept on her own for a while before waking up and demanding "UP Mummy" then she fell back to sleep on my lap. I had her snoozing on my lap,and Little Prince cuddled up next to me reading his Harry Potter, a lovely, quiet, blissful time - it doesn't get any better than this :-) Princess Lollipop eventually woke up when Mr Messy's Mum rang. Unfortunately it was bad news, Mr Messy's Dad (his Mum and Dad divorced years ago) has now been diagnosed with bone cancer and hasn't got a good prognosis. We haven't seen or spoken to his Dad and Stepmum for a LONG time, since before we went to Ethiopia to adopt Princess Lollipop. This is because he called Mr Messy's brother's black girlfriend a n*gger! I will NOT subject my children and especially my precious daughter, to that sort of view and language EVER, so we haven't seen, spoken or called them since that incident. However, if the prognosis is as bad as Mr Messy's Mum says then I might have to bend that view.

Mr Messy also rang up to say that he and Drama Teen had reached the end of their busy day and were both tired and hungry. So they are going to go and find somewhere to eat before coming home.

Little Prince and Princess Lollipop are now playing a crazy game of beat each other up with balloons!! Although I have to keep reminding Little Prince how much bigger and stronger he is and that he has to be gentle and careful with his little sister!!

Rest of Saturday

Unfortunately we couldn't calm Little Prince down, despite numerous chances he could not stop misbehaving and acting crazy and was sent to bed early :-( I feel bad for him as I know he can't help getting wound up when he's excited and he finds it nearly impossible to calm back down again, but it is so wearing when he is like that and sometimes he is so hyped up the only way to get him to calm down is to get him to sleep. When Mr Messy took him in the kitchen to give him his medicine he threw the tablets on the floor and screamed and shouted, eventually he calmed down and took the pills! He then stamped and screamed his way up the stairs to bed, I hope he's ok by tomorrow as Mr Messy and Drama Teen are out all day and the roads look very very icy so I don't fancy driving anywhere! Wish me luck - I'll need it!!!

Once Little Prince was finally settled in bed we called LMS on the FaceTime thingie and chatted to her and her Boyfriend. Well we didn't do much chatting as it turned into the Princess Lollipop show lol. She did all her "tricks"for them - jumping, running, throwing herself on the floor and laughing!! And she even did some counting and said her full name (with some prompting). Boyfriend was thrilled that she instantly remembered his name and said "Hello" to him :-)

After that we had our tea and then it was about time for Mr Messy to take Drama Teen's Boyfriend home, he was NOT looking forward to the drive on the icy roads! Whichever way you leave our village you are on icy, untreated roads! He was going to take my 4x4 but as it hasn't been moved all day it was still covered in snow and iced up, so he took his own car instead. I worried the whole time they were all out! And it took well over the hour the drop off trip normally takes!

While they were out I tried to get Princess Lollipop settled down to sleep, she was having none of it!! She squirmed and wriggled and shouted "NO SWEEP" (no sleep) as loudly as she could. She was just settling down when the phone rang and she was very happy to chat to Gwamaa and DadDad (Grandma and Grandad) instead of going to sleep!! When I managed to get a word in it was lovely to talk to my Mum too :-) She was very surprised to hear that the Advent Calendars she had sent (in individual packages) the children had arrived already! Little Prince was thrilled to bits, firstly to get some post and secondly to get an Advent Calendar full of choccies :-) When we had finished chatting I tried again to get Princess Lollipop to sleep, she was almost dozing off when Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived home - so that was the end of sleep again!!

Drama Teen played with Princess Lollipop for a little while, before she went off upstairs to get her homework finished. She'll have no time tomorrow and its due in on Monday, once she'd finished she went straight to bed as she and Mr Messy have another early start tomorrow. Probably even earlier to take into account the bad weather driving conditions!! Me and Mr Messy watched "I'm a Celebrity" and we are totally on Shaun Ryder's side in his argument with Gillian McKeith!! She is SOOO annoying and pathetic!!!! Princess Lollipop finally fell asleep while we were watching, phew I was beginning to wonder if she'd be up all night!! When it had finished Mr Messy watched some Match of the Day while I updated my blog and then we all went to bed - see you in the morning :-)

More Saturday

As soon as Little Prince had warmed up, he wanted to go back outside and as the snow is melting already I let him make the most of it and sent him back outside. I grabbed my camera and took some photos of him, but dived back inside when I got hit by a snowball!! Princess Lollipop was shivering just stood next to me at the open patio door, so I took her picture with her stood inside the closed door and Little Prince on the outside (licking the window - don't ask I have no idea why!!!). While he was playing out I got Princess Lollipop down for her nap, and not long afterwards Little Prince came back inside shivering. We had some lunch and he wanted to play on the Wii, however, the games he wanted to play have gone missing!! We have two empty game boxes and at least one missing box and disc!! Its getting crazy - both Little Prince and Drama Teen's DS's are missing and now the Wii games too!!! What is going on at my house?!?!

When Princess Lollipop woke up she had her lunch. Then we got a phone call from Mad Cat Lady asking if we wanted the almost brand new sofa bed she had offered to us (her youngest son is redecorating his room, even though it was only redecorated this Summer!!). I had been meaning to ring her all week to say we'd love to have it and did she want us to come over and pick it up, so we arranged that she would come over shortly and drop it off for us. Little Prince was VERY excited, he loves to see Mad Cat Lady :-)

At first he and Mad Cat Lady's Hubby looked at some of his cars, then Princess Lollipop wanted to count them so she and MCL's Hubby did that, while Little Prince took MCL upstairs to see his new slide bed. They stayed for a while to chat, before they had to head off home and see to their TEN cats - this is why I call her MAD Cat Lady lol!! Just before they left they witnessed Princess Lollipop being less of a Princess and more of a Street Fighter!! She wanted the book Little Prince was reading and when he wouldn't give it to her she gave him a well aimed kick!! And before we could stop her she'd also elbowed him and smacked him on the head!!! She's a tough little cookie!! We are slowly working on curbing the inappropriate violence though!!!

Once they left Little Prince was as high as a kite and I had to keep telling him off for inappropriate language or for playing too roughly with Princess Lollipop. In the end I had to send him to his room to read two pages of his Harry Potter while he calmed down. He came down a lot calmer :-)

According to LMS she and her Boyfriend are in and awake at the moment and would love to chat on FaceTime when Mr Messy gets home. I don't know if Little Prince will be calm enough to cope with that though! And if he is crazy I don't know if I can cope with it!!

Snowy Saturday!!!

Little Prince's wish came true - it snowed :-) He woke up before I did and then woke me up, when he looked out of his window and shouted "YES" very loudly!! I heard him run downstairs and chatter excitedly to Mr Messy and Drama Teen. They were up early as they have a 9am photoshoot at OUR shop. I must have dozed off again, as the next thing I knew Little Prince bounced into our room, talking loudly and telling me he had left it till a good time (8.57am he said!) and now it was time to wake up. I managed to get a quick hug before he ran to his room to get dressed, shouting he was putting four layers on.

Me and Princess Lollipop got up too, and as soon as we were downstairs Little Prince insisted on getting his outdoor clothes on and going into the garden to play. He's shaken the snow off the apple tree onto himself, he's slid down his slide and cleared it of snow, he's thrown snow all over, mostly on himself and is soaking wet and VERY HAPPY :-)

Princess Lollipop declared the garden "Uh oh" and is fascinated by it. Once her darling Brud Brud went outside, she has hardly left the patio door watching him. She keeps turning round and saying "Little Prince UH OH" lol.

He has just decided he is cold and wants to come in and Princess Lollipop is very happy that he's back inside. They are now sticking stickers all over each others faces!

FABULOUS Post (as in mail lol) :-)

This morning I was in (waiting for Mr Messy's car to arrive) when the post arrived, and it happened to be Post Lady that delivered it, she was even chatty and friendly while handing over the post! And to my great joy and relief we received the new Proposed Statement of Special Educational Needs. The letter I sent has been taken into account and the new Statement now correctly lists Little Prince as having severe dyspraxia, and grants him 16 hours of support each week. I had hoped that he would be granted more support than that, but his school's Head teacher and SENCO are very pleased with the outcome.

AND we received another letter - this one from the ADHD Dept at the different hospital he was recently referred to. I can't believe its come so quickly, especially after all the messing about and delays we've experienced with the first hospital!! The letter contained various forms we have to fill in and send back within two weeks, and a form that I'm to give to school for them to fill in. The letter also said to ring the ADHD Specialist Nurse to make an appointment for her to come out on a home visit, which I did and she is coming out first thing on 14th December - just over two weeks away!! This is lightening quick compared to the last hospital! I just hope the rest of their service is just as efficient and that Little Prince will soon get the help he desperately needs.

I filled in all the forms at OUR shop while Princess Lollipop had her nap, and handed the school one into the school secretary to pass to Little Prince's class teacher. I also requested that they include a copy of Little Prince's last school report, which the ADHD Dept also asked for. I impressed on them that the form has to be filled in VERY quickly, as I have to send it all off together on Monday.

I am amazed at how efficient this referral has been. Although I impressed with the first hospital for Little Prince's Autism diagnosis, the ADHD diagnosis has dragged on for over two years now and its getting ridiculous! The original paediatrician mentioned from the very first appointment the possibility of a future diagnosis of ADHD (it can't be diagnosed under the age of 6 or 7 years can't remember which). We were almost at the point of him confirming the official diagnosis when he suddenly referred Little Prince to a different hospital department which is when the trouble started! It took them 8 months to see Little Prince for the first time in May 2010, and when contacted again by both myself and our GP to say the referral was VERY URGENT they refused to prioritise Little Prince's case. In October 2010 they said it would be at least another EIGHT MONTHS before he could be seen!!! And even then it would only be the next step in their diagnostic process, so we could be waiting goodness knows how much longer after that to get an official diagnosis!! Ridiculous!!!! Little Prince's behavioural problems are causing so much stress in our family, if we weren't a strong family we probably would have fallen apart by now. And strong as we are, we have gotten perilously close to falling apart!! Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the stress....

Rest of Friday

Princess Lollipop had half her nap lay in her sleeping bag and the other half lay on my knee. She did wake up in a lovely happy mood though :-) I think she's had a mild tummy bug (she's been off her food, sleeping badly and had a few really yukky nappies) but she seems a lot better today - she didn't stop eating this morning and had a proper length nap. She was even happy to be left with Daddy while I went to pick up Little Prince from school and take him to his (now earlier time) swimming lesson. We barely managed to get home, get his swimming bag packed and get him there on time!! He had a good lesson and seemed to be listening fairly well to his teacher throughout. He did have a mild meltdown over having to wash his hair, but I managed to talk him through it and get him to co-operate. He then got himself dried and ready and we drove over to OUR shop. As it was a lot earlier than usual there was absolutely nowhere to park!! We drove round and eventually parked at the other end of the village and walked back down to OUR shop.

We had time for a quick chat with Mr Messy before I took the littlies back to the car and we came home. The littlies spent most of the drive home arguing over whether to watch "Mick-Mick, Pat-Pat" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) or "Pooj Bod" (SpongeBob) with Princess Lollipop getting louder and louder in her shouting of "NO POOJ BOD." What a journey!!

Little Prince won the argument when we got home by throwing off his coat and shoes and running to get the TV remote first!! Although once it was on, Princess Lollipop decided she liked it too :-)

Mr Messy and Drama Teen came home soon after we did and after Drama Teen had made Princess Lollipop her "More Nint" (more drink - which she demands every time she says everytime Drama Teen comes in the room). The girls played "Fow ball" (throw ball) together, and even though minutes before Little Prince had refused to play this, he was all bent out of shape that they were playing without him!! He tried to muscle in on the game and ended up arguing with Drama Teen! She got bored with the game soon afterwards and Little Prince was finally able to play.

Friday

Mr Messy had to be in OUR shop by 7.30am!! The Signwriter was arriving then to install the window graphics we've ordered onto the inside of OUR shop window. We have found that people don't look up to see the shop sign and seem confused about what we do or sell in OUR shop, so thought that having "Photography" in great big letters on the window would help!!

I had to get up and get Little Prince ready for school, and Princess Lollipop ready too. It was a shock to the system to be doing this after having so much "time off" from it! And of course we ended up on the last minute at school!! Me and Princess Lollipop had to go into school for Little Prince's IEP Review Meeting with his class teacher. We had a chat first about how they were going to implement the provisions of his Proposed Statement and about who they thought might be a good fit to help Little Prince one to one. Then Little Prince was brought in, to Princess Lollipop's delight :-) As soon as he came in she told him to "Dit dow" (sit down) which amused his teacher. He loves signing his name on the form to say he attended the meeting, and was very proud that his signature was much neater than Mummy's!!

After the meeting we had to go home and wait for the Car Repair Place to return Mr Messy's fixed car after his recent accident. The car was brought back on a trailer and looked all shiny, clean and new :-) I paid the insurance excess and its all ours again.

Me and Princess Lollipop then drove over to OUR shop to take over from Mr Messy while he went on a family lifestyle shoot. When he finished at the shoot he went straight home and emptied his hire car and returned it to the hire place. Luckily its a hire place that gives you a lift home, so he was able to collect his own car and come back to OUR shop. He says the car is great, apart from its pretty hard to start, which the insurance repair garage reckon could be a problem with the glow plugs.

Feeling Awful :-(

Last night when we went up to bed we heard Princess Lollipop crying inconsolably, I had forgotten to put the baby alarm on and she must have been crying for a while. Mr Messy took over locking the doors/turning lights off downstairs while I ran up to deal with Princess Lollipop. She was stood on our bed wailing at the top of her lungs, with a snotty nose and tears pouring down her face. She was so so upset :-( She clung to me shaking and sobbing for ages. She sobbed louder when Mr Messy tried to stroke her back, which upset him too. He muttered that he'd have "Axe Murderer" tattooed on his forehead and I snapped at him to stop being silly. Then I had to go to the bathroom to get ready for bed, with Princess Lollipop still attached to me. When we got back Mr Messy had gone downstairs, and I assumed he was cross because I'd snapped at him. Princess Lollipop had a very very disturbed night and only seemed to settle when she was hugged closely and tightly up to me. Poor little mite still has a lot of seperation issues :-( And these were exacerbated by our failure to come when she cried, I feel sooooo guilty :-(

Rest of Thursday

Well Princess Lollipop only got half an hours nap before she was woken up by three consecutive visitors to the shop! So she was still in a grumpy mood! Mr Messy had already left to nip home and change into smarter clothes ready for a photoshoot this evening (the local High School's Prom Fair). He stayed at home so that he could pick Little Prince up from school and bring him back to OUR shop with him. When they got back to OUR shop, Mr Messy had to leave the littlies with me and go round to the High School to meet the Prom Show organiser and discuss what she wanted from the shoot. However she wasn't there when she said she would be, so Mr Messy was soon back at OUR shop. Once he was back I was able to take the littlies home, well I decided to detour via the Supermarket so that I could pick up a Christmas Tree for OUR shop, and the littlies insisted on going out to eat while we were there.

It was snowing on the drive there, although none of the snow stuck, so it didn't affect the roads. But you know that tunnel effect you get when driving through snow with your lights on? Little Prince noticed and shouted "Lightspeed to Endor" from the back seat, and he was right it did look a little like the Star War's lightspeed effect :-)

I managed to find the tree I wanted, a 6ft pre lit tree with silver decorations included at a bargain price. Looking at the decorations I'm going to have to supplement them, especially the included tree topper, which is just a large silver ribbon bow, but apart from that its a great item for a great price :-) I also found Princess Lollipop a couple of cute hats and gloves sets, one was bright red with Minnie Mouse on it - she LOVES that one :-) And as usual when I go for "just a few bits" I end up spending loads more than I anticipate!! And that happens even more so when I have the littlies with me - both doing the "I want, I want" game all round the shop!!

After eating we drove home and the littlies had a little play before I got them to tidy up and got Little Prince to bed. Princess Lollipop will probably be close behind him as she is still very tired! What a treat that would be - an evening of peace and quiet :-)

As usual the best laid plans don't go to plan!! One of the cats (Fid-a-Bow aka Figaro) had been locked in Drama Teens bedroom all day and had pooed in there! YUK and YUK!!! I had to go and clean that up before I could relax! Finally I did get to put my feet up though :-) Bliss :-)

When Mr Messy and Drama Teen got back they weren't too happy! Mr Messy said the models didn't follow direction and didn't look at him when they reached the end of the catwalk! And to top it all off, Drama Teen's camera has developed a fault, so she couldn't take any photos!

The three of us watched celebrities being tortured in the Jungle to cheery ourselves up :-) But Drama Teen's Boyfriend rang up so she disappeared to talk to him for ages. After we finished watching that we watched some episodes of Modern Family, very very funny programme :-) We all love it :-)

Thursday

I stayed up last night waiting for the tumble dryer to finish, as it had both pairs of Little Prince's school trousers in (he had 4 pairs but two are missing!!). However, I got caught up watching TV and ended up staying up very late! Its probably a good job as at about 1am Little Prince came barrelling down the stairs in a panic! He was obviously still partly asleep, but in a total panic. Apparently he'd put some teddies in his bed and one of them made a noise without him touching it!! It had scared him to death and he needed a lot of cuddles (I'm not complaining lol) to make him feel better. Eventually I got him calmed down and tucked up in his bed and off to sleep again. I decided that it was probably a good idea to get off to bed myself by then too!!

Mr Messy was once again my morning hero, getting up and getting Little Prince up, ready and off to school. Little Prince was complaining of being cold all the way to school, he refused to wear his hat as he didn't like that one, has lost his gloves and I wouldn't trust him with a scarf!! I'm going to have to nip to the kids wear shop near to OUR shop and buy him some hat and gloves!

Me and Princess Lollipop drove over to OUR shop once we were ready and once again it was bitterly cold. OUR shop is warmer than it used to be now we are using the storage heaters, but we all still tend to dress in warm layers for work!!

Princess Lollipop kept complaining of an "Ow Tummy" (tummy ache) most of the morning and going off the nappies we've been changing lately we think she has a tummy bug. She has also been in a grumpy mood, demanding MIck-Mick Pat-Pat on her DVD player, even though it was already playing!! After her last meltdown I decided it was time for a nap and she is now soundly asleep, hopefully she'll feel better when she wakes up.

Little Prince is Processing a LOT

In the car earlier today, Little Prince turned the conversation to his Birth Mum as he has a lot recently. He is really grieving her loss and genuinely misses her. He told me all of this and then said "You're not really my family, I mean you are sort of, but not really" I wasn't hurt by this, as I know what he means. I just wish I could take his pain away or bear it myself, and I feel so helpless knowing that all I can do is listen and hold him as he goes through this. He did later in the evening decide that LMS, Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop are really his sisters though.

He also begged and begged to see his Birth Mum again. So I am going to get in touch with the Letterbox Co-ordinator, who meets Birth Mum each year to help her reply to our letters. She is probably in the best position to say whether or not Birth Mum is now able to put Little Prince's needs first and that face to face contact is conducted in Little Princes best interests. Me and Mr Messy discussed this, and we will have to think carefully after we have spoken to the Letter Box Co-ordinator, as if we allow a meeting to go ahead we are probably going to have to keep up with direct contact. Little Prince has been asking regularly and sincerely for a number of years now, and I think that given his background and the reasons he was taken into care it is something that could be beneficial for him. Although we also have to take into account his impulsivity and lack of self control, will he be able to resist telling Birth Mum his full name and where he lives, goes to school etc? Its very hard to be contemplating this, but if we are going to go ahead it would probably be best to start before he either hits puberty or around the time he moves to High School, as those times will be so much more disrupting to him than the average child.

Rest of Wednesday

I did leave Princess Lollipop with her Daddy while I went to get Little Prince from school, but she woke up just as I was leaving, and wasn't happy to wake up and see Mummy with her coat on walking out the door!! When I picked Little Prince up, I found he'd forgotten his coat this morning and he was almost in tears he was that cold. We rushed home to get him a coat (to warm him up) and his blankie (to cheer him up) before driving over to OUR shop to pick Princess Lollipop.

I managed to park right outside, which meant I didn't need to get Little Prince out of the car at all, and Mr Messy brought Princess Lollipop and her buggy out to the car. He stayed at OUR shop to meet Drama Teen when she arrived from college, as she had a Doctor's appointment for a check up. Me and the littlies came home and it was lovely to get in our warm house, the shop's heating isn't that efficient so its pretty chilly and outside its been bitterly cold today.

When Drama Teen and Mr Messy came home, they told me that the check up had shown that Drama Teen is 10kgs underweight! I know she's very very slim, but it was a bit shocking to learn that she is so underweight! Although the Doctor didn't mention it, Drama Teen just noticed what it said on the screen, so hopefully its nothing to worry about. Drama Teen made hers and the littlies tea, and then they all ate together while I rang Lil Sis to find out if my new niece has a name yet, and to see how they are all getting on, of course! Well that was the plan!! Drama Teen did make the tea, but she wasn't happy about supervising the eating part. She went to do it, but with a grumpy face, and soon came back saying Princess Lollipop wouldn't eat. Mr Messy said she probably wouldn't eat for him, and so I had to go and supervise while trying to talk to Lil Sis, so we didn't get much chatting done! I did find out my new niece's name though :-)

Wednesday

Mr Messy was again on Little Prince duty this morning, although they drove to school as Mr Messy had to get to OUR shop in time to meet his framing supplier by 9am. She was waiting for him when he arrived and tomorrow we get our fantastic new acrylic products - they are going to look stunning on display in OUR shop :-)

Me and Princess Lollipop got up a little later and after she'd eaten her breakfast we went for her dreaded bath. She did cry more today than she has since we got the new shampoo and conditioners, but I think its because I left it too long since I last conditioned and combed through her hair, so I did feel incredibly guilty :-(

Once we were both ready we drove over to OUR shop. I made a few phone calls for Mr Messy and manned the shop while he popped out to see a couple of the other shop owners on the High Street. One of them he is doing a fashion shoot for very soon, and he wanted to check some details and also to see if they know anyone suitable to model in another campaign he'll be shooting next month. And the other was his friend in the designer baby boutique that he works closely with and they promote each other's businesses.

Princess Lollipop went down for her nap pretty late in the afternoon, and it doesn't look like she'll wake up in time to go and get Little Prince! I'll probably leave her here with her Daddy and then pick her up after I've retrieved Little Prince.

Musical Tuesday Evening

Me and Princess Lollipop left Mr Messy in OUR shop, while we went to collect Little Prince from school. Princess Lollipop was heartbroken when her favourite boys Little Prince and his friend J, went to J's house and she was stuck with just Mummy. She kept shouting for them and looking for them out of the lounge window. She was very happy when we went to collect Little Prince from J's house, although she would have preferred to collect both boys!! J's Mum said they had behaved very well together, which is quite unusual as they usually do something mischievous or end up fighting!

Mr Messy and Drama Teen were home at about the same time as us. Drama Teen then ran around like crazy getting ready to go back to college to perform in a musical evening. I took her there and watched the performance, I had hoped she would be in the first half of the show, but she was just after the interval. In the first part one performer stood out in particular, it was a violin solo and it was just magical. Very talented young man.

I rang Mr Messy during the interval and unfortunately woke Princess Lollipop up in the process, sorry Mr Messy. Apart from that he was coping magnificently, he'd fed both of them their tea and got Little Prince in bed and was just trying to settle Princess Lollipop.

Drama Teen's choir performed second after the interval, and she had a solo spot in the performance. They were singing a medley of songs from Les Miserable. She had been so nervous before the performance, but you couldn't tell when she began to sing - she sang so beautifully. I had a grin from ear to ear and wanted to turn round to the rest of the audience and shout "That's MY daughter." I was so proud of her - WELL DONE DRAMA TEEN :-) You were fantastic.

We were very naughty after the performance, in the disturbance of the whole choir leaving the stage - we left the auditorium!! We sneaked off so that we could call at the Supermarket before going home. We whizzed round as quickly as we could getting everything we needed and a few extras like iced top mince pies - my absolute favourite Christmas treat :-)

When we got home I put all the shopping away, as Drama Teen wanted to have a shower and Mr Messy was nowhere to be found! Once I'd put it all away, I went upstairs to find Mr Messy - he was trying to settle Princess Lollipop and having no luck at all! I took over and she was asleep in about 15 mins!! I got down just in time to catch Mr messy and Drama Teen watching I'm a Celebrity without me!! Luckily I hadn't missed seeing the latest trial, in which Gillian McKeith was as pathetic as ever! Apparently she has now claimed that she is pregnant to get out of doing the next trial (she is FIFTY ONE for goodness sakes!!!).

After Drama Teen had gone to bed me and Mr Messy watched Criminal Minds before sloping off to bed ourselves. Goodnight :-)

Tuesday

As Little Prince seemed totally fine this morning Mr Messy took him to school. We've not heard anything from them, so we presume he's doing ok :-) He was also very proud of himself that his bandage had stayed on all night!! Its been hanging off every other morning!! I think its got more to do with the amount of tape Mr Messy used than Little Prince not messing with it!!

Princess Lollipop was still feeling sleepy and snuggly when Mr Messy got up, so I stayed in bed cuddling her for a while until she started asking for her "Bweta" (breakfast). She didn't eat too much of it before she pushed it away and said "Aww dom" (All gone). Then we got ready and drove over to OUR shop, Princess Lollipop was very excited to go and find Daddy and the "Dop" (shop).

The morning was pretty quiet, apart from Princess Lollipop running round re-discovering all her toys. Then when she went for her nap we had loads of visitors, luckily none of them disturbed her. The first visitor was our framing supplier delivering some customer orders, then we had the vicar from the church across the road saying it would be fine if Mr Messy wanted to use the church and grounds for photographing. Mr Messy had been talking to his wife earlier, before me and Princess Lollipop arrived, and expressed an interest in using the church for photoshoots so the vicar had come over to say it would fine. Then we had a Mum who had just been to the Well Baby Clinic to have her son weighed, and there had been a photographer there (a well known mass market school photography company). She said it was bedlam, the photographer wasn't set up on time, despite him not taking much time over each shoot everyone was waiting for ages, and in the end she had just walked out. She said she would go back and hand out Mr Messy's details to the other Mums :-)

Mr Messy has been editing the photos from the fashion shoot he did at weekend, and he's shown me some of them and they look great. He and Drama Teen have managed to capture some fabulous shots. I know I'm biased, but they really are great photographs.

Monday

As Princess Lollipop had a dreadful night, she and I stayed at home so that I could go for a nap when she did! So Mr Messy got Little Prince ready for school and went over to OUR shop. Me and Princess Lollipop had a very lazy, snuggly day. When it was time for her nap she didn't want to go to sleep, despite being obviously bog eyed! After about half an hour she settled down and I fell asleep too, only to be woken by the phone. It was Little Prince's school calling to say he'd been sick and could we pick him up. As Princess Lollipop was finally sleeping soundly and I rang Mr Messy and he drove over to pick Little Prince up. The school secretary admitted that Little Prince didn't seem ill at all. Mr Messy brought him home and he joined me in bed for some Mummy snuggles for a while before going downstairs to watch TV.

When Princess Lollipop woke up we went downstairs to see Little Prince and he was fine. He was quite grumpy and easily frustrated, but didn't seem ill at all. In fact by the end of the evening he was almost bouncing off the walls, so whatever it was that made him sick has gone!! He'll be in school tomorrow!!

Drama Teen went straight round to OUR shop from college and came home with Mr Messy. They were late home as they went over to a local boutique to discuss the promotional shoot they want Mr Messy to do for them. I was almost tearing my hair out by the time they got home!! It was a huge relief when Little Prince was tucked up in bed, and I hate feeling like that :-(

Once he was safely tucked up I rang my friend to find out what she had been hinting about on a different site! She is going through the adoption process again and she'd had an update from her social worker. Hopefully this means she will hear something soon, I've got everything crossed for you Whatsername's Mum :-)

Once again Princess Lollipop wasn't happy about going to sleep and fought the idea for ages! When she finally nodded off me and Mr Messy blitzed through the remaining episodes of Criminal Minds we had saved. It was pretty easy to get through them as we'd seen the majority of them before, so we'd watch the first few minutes and then delete it and go to the next one. At least there's a bit more space on the Sky+ box now!

When we went up to bed, Mr Messy offered to sleep next to Princess Lollipop, which meant that I could have a less disturbed night. YEAH :-) I did hear Princess Lollipop call out quite a few times in the night, and apparently she was very wriggly too - Mr Messy was shattered!! But I felt so rested, ahhhh bliss :-)

Random Stuff

When I took the littlies out for their tea they were given balloons at the restaurant, Princess Lollipop when asked "What do you say?" immediately said "Tan Too" to the lady handing balloons out and Little Prince didn't even have to be prompted he automatically said thank you :-) The lady commented on what lovely manners they had - that's the kind of compliment I love receiving about my children :-)

And I think I've got a potential new career to pursue!! Baby styling!!! I have received so many compliments on how well dressed Princess Lollipop always is!! The reception and dispensing staff at the main Doctor's surgery have said that and my friend (one of the pharmacy dispensers) told me that another staff member had specifically told her to tell me how impressed she is at how well dressed Princess Lollipop always is!! Another day a Mum stopped me in the playground to ask where I get Princess Lollipop's clothes, as she is always in such cute outfits!! I do have the advantage of the most gorgeous model to dress though, so I think most of it is down to my beautiful daughter and not to me. But on the other hand I do love dressing her in different styles, although I know this is a time limited phase!! It won't be too much longer before she wants to choose her own clothes and then I'll probably be taking her to OUR shop dressed in shorts, fairy wings and wellies - just like her big sisters used to do lol.

Rest of Quiet Sunday

Well we did go out for tea, and it was a nice break for all of us! When we got back Little Prince got ready for bed while I got Princess Lollipop in her jammies. When he got back downstairs Princess Lollipop was already settling down, so I decided to have a chat with Little Prince. Me and Mr Messy had been talking about his hand injury and there is no way it could have happened the way Little Prince said it had! He'd it said happened when he was in his room and touched something sharp on a rug, which had happened ages ago when he caught himself on a pin stuck in a rug. However, this time the cut was too wide and deep to have happened like that. When I questioned Little Prince more closely he admitted that in fact, he had decided to make his wand (stick of wood from the garden!) more interesting by trying to carve it with a large, serrated kitchen knife! He said he was cutting when the knife slipped and gashed his hand! I was shaking when he told me that, MY GOD, he could have lost a finger or sliced an artery!! He knew he shouldn't have touched the kitchen knives and knew he would be in trouble for messing so he made up this story, but there was no impulse control to stop him doing it in the first place! He could really hurt himself, I mean REALLY hurt himself and I don't know how to protect him from himself :-( I am not religious in any way whatsoever, but I am praying we hear from the latest referral to hospital soon. P.L.E.A.S.E....

I must have been feeling upset and unsettled, as I did something I rarely do!! Ironing!! Those who know me know that I HATE and DETEST ironing soooo much!! So to find me ironing is extremely unusual, but the mindless activity let me calm down somewhat. And following that by the escapist fantasy world of Quantum Leap at least stopped me shaking, but I'm still worried about my gorgeous boy. He told me earlier this week that "I think I do have that ADHD thing Mummy. Something gets in my brain and messes with my calms and then I go crazy." He was so upset with himself tonight when I tucked him in bed, he was telling me he didn't think he would get anything for Christmas, just coal, as he was so bad. I tried and tried to help him understand that he isn't bad, that he just needs to do more thinking BEFORE he does things! I don't want my precious little boy to go to sleep thinking he's bad, I don't want him to ever think he's bad. Yes he does silly things, and recently increasingly dangerous, impulsive things, but he is NOT bad. He so badly needs the help that an official diagnosis of ADHD would bring, we are probably looking at medication but if that is what it takes to help him reach his potential and keep him safe then we will try it. I will do absolutely anything to keep my lovely little man safe.

Quiet Sunday

Mr Messy got up this morning intending to go to the supermarket (the only shop open!) to buy a washing up bowl for OUR shop. We have a small sink unit, but it has no plug, so washing up has been very difficult and we forget every time we go to the supermarket to do actual shopping. Anyway when me and Princess Lollipop came down a little later, he was still here sat relaxing on the sofa! He admitted he'd forgotten lol. He gave Princess Lollipop her breakfast and then finally went off to the supermarket!

When he got back he got his cameras ready and he and Drama Teen went to OUR shop to do a photoshoot with a toddler girl. Me and the littlies stayed at home, I was hoping to get some jobs done around the house, but Princess Lollipop is coming down with a cold and wouldn't let me move! So we had lots of snuggly time on the sofa, interspersed by grumpy toddler tantrums and screeching at her BrudBrud!! I had hoped that having a nap would cheer Princess Grumpy up, but no such luck!! She was just as grumpy when she woke up, she even screeched at the TV for not showing the right programme!! When Mr Messy and Drama Teen returned she screeched at them too!! Spread the love!!

Little Prince has been fairly wild today too all the screeching and crying from Princess Lollipop upsets him so he screeches at her that she's hurting his ears, so she gets even more upset and on it goes!! They have had some moments of playing nicely together, but mostly they've been wild and screechy!! My head is pounding!!

Mr Messy and Drama Teen didn't stay too long, before they had to go back out to set up for this evenings photoshoot at a Prom Fashion Show. Princess Lollipop was grumpy when they came home and even more grumpy when they left!! I'm feeling the strain of being cooped up with two crazies and we are going out for tea!! If only to get them strapped in car seats and sat still for half an hour while we drive!! And if I time it well it will be time to get them ready for bed by the time we get home again, and then I can have a little bit of peace and quiet, which I really really need right now!!

Rest of Saturday

Before putting Little Prince to bed Mr Messy had a look at the cut on his finger and decided it needed to have some Savlon on it, and covered over night. To make sure Little Prince didn't remove the plaster (he took the one off I put on this morning) Mr Messy put on a plaster, followed by a tubular bandage, followed by a crepe bandage fastened with medical tape. Maybe that will help it stay on till the morning!! We can only hope...

After we'd got Little Prince to bed I rang a good friend and had a lovely long chat :-) We haven't spoken for ages and it was lovely to catch up :-) I'll have to try not to leave it too long before we chat again!!

While me and my friend chatted Mr Messy and Drama Teen took Boyfriend home, and we were still chatting when they returned!! Princess Lollipop stayed with me and climbed around on my knee and even had a little chat with my friend herself. Although the conversation on Princess Lollipop's side consisted of her usual "Mick-Mick, Pat-Pat" (her favourite TV programmes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins) which were on at the time, so I don't know why she needed to ask for them, or perhaps she just needed my friend to know about it lol. This is her standard conversation with everyone lol. Apart from with Drama Teen and the standard speech there is "More dint" repeated until they walk to the kitchen to fill up her cup (even if the cup was already full!!).

It didn't take too long to get Princess Lollipop to sleep and into bed and once she was fast asleep me and Mr Messy watched tonight's episode of I'm a Celebrity that I'd taped. It was funny to watch Gillian McKeith squirm and scream, why on earth did she sign up for this if she is so afraid of everything and refuses to do anything?! Apart from the age old God - money!! The others that stand out for me are Stacey and Shaun. Shaun is funny and Stacey isn't as daft as her annoying voice makes her sound.

Once that had finished me and Mr Messy stayed up late watching some more of the Criminal Minds episodes we had taped. We should have gone to bed to catch up on sleep, but we enjoy a good murder before bed lol.

Saturday

Today is my day off from going to OUR shop, I get to stay at home with the littlies while Mr Messy and Drama Teen man the shop. And today our new assistant C starts work too! She is the big sister of one of Little Prince's friends and we are friends with her parents. Her Dad approached Mr Messy a few weeks ago to ask if we had any vacancies for a Saturday girl, he wants her to start learning the value of earning her own money and to give her a taste of working life. Mr Messy said he wasn't sure if we had enough work to keep both her and Drama Teen occupied and the business can't afford to employ someone else right now. C's Dad was really keen to have her work in OUR shop and offered to pay her himself (via us, so she won't know!!) so Mr Messy agreed to give her a try. He's planning to have the girls tidy, dust and polish the furniture, vac the floor and do some washing up. When he called this morning he'd just sent them to the Florist to pick up this weeks fresh arrangement. When they got back he was going to leave Drama Teen in the shop and take C to see our friend who owns the Designer Baby Boutique as she wants a headshot for a magazine article she is being featured in.

Back to my morning! When I got up Little Prince had one of his fingers wrapped in a blood spotted tissue!! He had quite a big cut, which he said he got from a rug in his room?!? I made sure the cut was all clean and covered it in a plaster, which knowing Little Prince won't stay there very long! And I'm going to remove the rug from his room, just in case!! He's just had a screaming, banging tantrum all because I asked him to get dressed, but he is up in his room and hopefully he will be dressed when he comes back down! I'm not sure what the problem with getting dressed was either!! He's not behaved like this for a few days and I'd hoped he was calming down some, but it seems the "wild and crazies" could be back!!

Princess Lollipop didn't seem sleepy so she had a later nap. But before she did have her sleep, Drama Teen's Boyfriend arrived! Which was a bit of a surprise as Drama Teen was still at OUR shop!! They had an argument over text messages each blaming the other for the mix up, but ending up with Drama Teen agreeing to get an early bus so Boyfriend wouldn't be here with us on his own for too much longer. Little Prince mugged Boyfriend into helping him make (and eat!) popcorn, he was still hungry when they'd eaten the first batch, so off the boys went to make another batch. As I predicted would happen, only a handful got eaten before Little Prince was full!!

Drama Teen arrived home just after Princess Lollipop had woken up, and she was delighted to see her sister back home. Drama Teen played with her for a little while before going upstairs with Boyfriend to watch a film. They are only allowed to be in her bedroom with the door fully open and Little Prince goes to "visit" all the time lol. Little Prince started to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but got distracted by various things and lost interest part way through.

Rest of Friday

Well Little Prince was in bed on time, and Princess Lollipop was minutes behind him. Little Prince was up and down a few times with all sorts of different aches and pains, until he finally settled down! Princess Lollipop seemed soundly asleep but woke up twice while we were watching Children In Need, she settled back down straight away so I didn't miss too much.

While I was watching I've also been on the internet searching for Christmas decorations for OUR shop. I found a picture of some 3D hanging star decorations, and after an appeal to my friends I found they are called "barn stars." I'm going to have a go at making some in Christmassy coloured card, although I'm also looking for somewhere to buy them "just in case" lol. And I've found an easy to make (but looks great) paper snowflake decoration too :-) Now all I need is a couple of hours without my little assistants and I can give them a try!!

Apart from that its been a pretty quiet evening watching Children in Need together. Well apart from when I threw a huge strop at Drama Teen for not doing her washing up from when she made a cake a couple of weeks ago! I've told her I'm perfectly happy for her to cook and bake, but she has to clean up after herself, not too harsh is it?! Well I've been looking at the dirty mixing bowl and cake tin for almost two weeks now and its ANNOYING!!! Drama Teen was told they had to be washed up before bed, or I was going to be VERY CROSS!!! And finally she got the job done :-) Thank you Drama Teen :-)

Friday

I was determined that me and Princess Lollipop would get up at a reasonable time and get over to OUR shop today. Well reasonable time was a bit later than I thought, but earlier than any other day this week lol. When we left the house to get in the car, Princess Lollipop declared the weather "Uh oh" - it was misty and Princess Lollipop didn't know what had happened!!

We enjoyed our day with Mr Messy, although Princess Lollipop decided she was NOT having a nap! I tried, Mr Messy tried, we tried letting her play for a little while longer and tried again - nothing worked!! She is going to be a very very grumpy girl this afternoon/evening :-(

I left Princess Lollipop with her Daddy while I went to pick Little Prince up from school and take him to his swimming lesson. She wasn't too happy at being left behind, but didn't cry either, so hopefully they will both be ok! Little Prince said he had a great day at school, although he couldn't remember anything he'd done! At home he couldn't find his swimming trunks so I had to go and empty the swimming drawer to find them for him, once we were ready we sat cuddling and chatting on the sofa. Little Prince said it was nice to have the house all to ourselves, I wonder if he meant it was nice to have his Mummy to himself? All too soon snuggle time was over and it was time to set off for swimming. Little Prince's lesson went really well, he did a lot of diving for the brick at the deep end of the pool and started to learn diving too. His teacher was very pleased with how well he is doing :-) Next week they are going to start working on some badges too, which Little Prince is thrilled about as he loves getting badges/certificates :-)

When the lesson was over we drove over to OUR shop to collect Princess Lollipop, Mr Messy said she had been VERY grumpy and is obviously VERY tired too! We had to wait for her to come back from a walk with Drama Teen and then I got the littlies back in the car and we came home. Princess Lollipop hasn't cheered up very much, she threw a tantrum at Little Prince for touching her Gameboy (his old one). She doesn't really want to play anything she just wants to flop on the sofa and whinge! I'll have to get them both their tea and get Princess Lollipop safely tucked up in her cot very soon!

Thursday

Last night was pretty rough, Princess Lollipop wriggled, called out, sat up, lay down all night! She insisted that I lie so that she could hold my hand, and I got so uncomfortable not being able to turn over. In the end I had to get up and walk round for a bit to try and loosen up all the stiffness, and then I couldn't get back to sleep properly. So when Mr Messy came in to say it was time to get up and Princess Lollipop was fast asleep, I ignored him and stayed dozing myself. When I finally did get up I felt so stiff and achy and I've had a tension headache all day :-( After Princess Lollipop and I'd both had our breakfast's I took her for her bath and hair conditioning. Unfortunately I was umm "otherwise occupied" in the bathroom when she started shouting from her bath "Uh oh! Poo poo bot-bot" once I was able to get to her, she was right!! I had to get her out of the bath, drain it, clean it and start again!! Eventually I got her bathed and her hair conditioned and combed through, but it took a lot longer than I'd planned!! When we had just about finished getting dressed when Mr Messy rang and said it was probably a little late to come over to OUR shop as Princess Lollipop would be wanting her nap pretty soon. To be honest I was relieved he'd said that as I was still feeling under the weather and having a break at home would be lovely :-)

It turned out to be lucky that we did stay at home, as not long after the Cooker Repair Man rang to say the part to fix our cooker had arrived and would it be ok to come round after lunch. Of course!! I'm fed up with take aways or pizza!! When he arrived it didn't take him very long at all to fit the new cooker element and we now have a completely working cooker again YEAH :-) Princess Lollipop fell asleep for her nap once he'd gone, and slept soundly for an hour or so.

She woke up just in time to go and get Little Prince from school, but as soon as I picked her up I noticed she was soaked through!! I had to rush around getting her cleaned up and dressed in clean dry clothes before we had to whizz over to school. Luckily we weren't late and had time to park and get in the playground before Little Prince's class came out.

Mr Messy arrived home from OUR shop not long after we did, as he had to get ready to go to a marketing event tonight. Little Prince said his toy cuddly viper was hungry so I made viper, Little Prince and Princess Lollipop an early tea. I supervised them eating as Mr Messy had to leave to go to his marketing event. Drama Teen came in and went upstairs to get on with her homework (and play on games and chat on the internet no doubt!).

My tension headache is still very uncomfortable and its not going to be helped by the crazy games Little Prince wants to play!! Either running up and down the lounge playing chase/tig with Princess Lollipop or using a stick as a wand/weapon and jumping around casting spells and blowing things up. It seems to be a mixture of Harry Potter and Star Wars - just wish it was quieter and calmer!!!

Wednesday

Another lovely slow start to the day, Mr Messy sorted Little Prince out and went over to OUR shop leaving me to get Princess Lollipop ready and go down to OUR shop later. Little Prince's school were celebrating Eid ul Adha and the children were allowed to go to school in "party clothes" Little Prince chose to wear his new jeans, trainers and his hoodie with the flag of his birth father's country on. He was very excited that school were celebrating an Islamic festival as he is identifying more and more with his Muslim heritage.

Princess Lollipop was excited to be going to OUR shop to see her Daddy, but it looked warmer than it was and we got in the car without coats! We were frozen after just the short walk from where we park to OUR shop!! And we didn't really warm up all day!! Mr Messy was working on catching up on his editing and got loads of work done, although he did seem to have ants in his pants too and kept going out for walks! Sometimes with Princess Lollipop and sometimes on his own. Princess Lollipop loves going off for walks, but she came back feeling like a block of ice it was so chilly outside!

We went to the nearby chip shop for some lunch rather than get cold sandwiches to eat, we needed to warm up somehow! Princess Lollipop enjoyed sharing our chips, or "hot hots" as she calls them. After lunch I decided to try and get her back in her more usual routine, so that she goes to bed at a reasonable time tonight. She wasn't so keen on this idea and it took ages to settle her down. She did have a good nap of about an hour, before the phone rang and disturbed her. She was obviously not ready to wake up so I managed to settle her down for another half an hour or so, and she woke up a lot happier the second time.

We left Mr Messy in OUR shop while me and Princess Lollipop went to collect Little Prince from school. Little Prince's teacher came over to talk to me, she told me that they had had a special Eid assembly and that Little Prince answered all the questions and then showed everyone his doll that says Islamic phrases. He had been given a sticker for being the "Star of the Day" I am very proud of him. Little Prince told me that they had eaten Muslim sweets and that he liked them, because he is a Muslim :-) Somehow Little Prince persuaded me to let his friend J come over to play, I had initially said no as we needed to sort out Little Prince's bedroom, but the boys pulled such pathetically sad faces I gave in!

For once Little Prince and J played fairly well together, they were banned from going up to Little Prince's tip of a bedroom though! I did find, after J had gone home, that the snack they had got themselves included pizza decorated with chocolate and ice cream sprinkles! They also played on the Wii, which pleased Princess Lollipop no end, as she tried to join in! They were just starting to bicker and fall out when J's Dad arrived to collect him. The boys chose then to start a play fight, which Princess Lollipop just sat beside and ignored as if it was the most normal thing ever lol.

Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived soon after J had gone home, timed deliberately I think lol. Princess Lollipop dragged Drama Teen off to the kitchen for "more dint" (more drink) as soon as she sees Drama Teen she starts saying "more dint, more dint." Princess Lollipop was tired and grumpy and threw some spectacular tantrums, I think she'll be having an early night!

Tuesday

Another slow lazy start to the day as Mr Messy got Little Prince to school and then drove over and opened up OUR shop. Princess Lollipop and I got ready at a leisurely pace and went up to OUR shop when we were ready. Its lovely to spend our days with Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop is loving having her Daddy around more :-) Although they do make a lot of noise and mess about in the shop!!

OUR shop was pretty quiet all day, we only had a few visitors. One of which was Mad Cat Lady with some different trunks for display in our shop. They are more muted colours and look a little more sophisticated than the bright red tartan ones that we had before. We use them as side tables at either side of the sofa.

I also spent a large part of the day looking online for "shop sized" Christmas decorations. I wanted to find some very large Christmas baubles, so that I can hang about five of them at different heights in OUR shop window. I'm also trying to find a suitable artificial Christmas tree, I want something that looks luxurious but also contemporary and goes with the decor of the rest of OUR shop. I found a supplier of giant Christmas baubles, but I want to go and actually see the Christmas trees before choosing one. Once I've bought that I need to get decorations for that too!! Mad Cat Lady is also going to lend us some vintage ice skates, sledges and skis to use to evoke the spirit of Winter in OUR shop too. As the interior decorating is my department I'm looking forward to having a change over :-)

Mr Messy left OUR shop at lunchtime to go to a photoshoot for a charity single. He did realise that he'd forgotten his mobile phone, and when he checked he wasn't needed till later in the afternoon, so he came back to OUR shop for a while before leaving again.

After shutting up OUR shop I drove over to collect Little Prince from school. As usual he wanted a friend to come over and so we brought Y home with us too. The boys played very well together and seemed to be being very sensible (notice I said "seemed"!!). They asked if they could take the huge Lego box upstairs to play in Little Prince's bedroom, I said this was ok so long as they tidied up after themselves. That was the bit they didn't manage so well!!! When their pizza had been put in the oven I told them to tidy up and looking at the state of the room when I took Little Prince to bed, I don't think they did any tidying at all!!

Mr Messy came back after Y had been collected by his Mum, he had really enjoyed the shoot. I got Little Prince in bed with very little fuss, but Princess Lollipop was once again a different story! She had fallen asleep next to me on the sofa in the late afternoon and so she wasn't tired until late in the evening! When we finally got her to sleep we had chance to have our tea, as we only have the small grill oven working still we ate pizza. But it was ready while I was still getting Princess Lollipop settled in bed, and so mine was cold by the time I got to it :-(

After me and Mr Messy had eaten our tea we relaxed together watching our annual obsession of I'm a Celebrity on tv, followed by trying to catch up on the episodes of Criminal Minds we have taped.

Monday

Today we started off a new routine, Mr Messy got Little Prince ready and walked up to school with him and I got Princess Lollipop ready. And what a wonderful day for her to have a bit of a lie in :-) And I also had time to let her eat her breakfast using the spoon herself, rather than feeding her. She takes a looooong time to do this, so when I have to get both littlies ready in time to get Little Prince to school its not usually possible. Hopefully having Mr Messy here in the mornings, will mean she can practice her self feeding skills and speed up, so that on the days he isn't here she can still feed herself.

I then took her up for her bath and hair conditioning, and she didn't cry at all. This new conditioner is definitely suiting her hair at the moment :-) It so nice to be able to comb through her hair without her screaming and getting all upset! When she was all shea buttered and dressed we got in the car and drove to OUR shop. Mr Messy had been planning to make a trip to the DIY shop to get some light bulbs for Little Prince's bedroom and the supplies he needs to fix the flooring in OUR shop. The flooring near the door isn't fixed in properly and bounces when people come in the shop, so Mr Messy is going to fix it this week.

We got two bookings for photoshoots today, unfortunately they both want the same time on the same day! So I have to ring one of them and see if we can move it back half an hour or so. Our framer also called in to drop off some framing we had done for customers, and we had a couple more enquiries about framing too. Princess Lollipop had a HUGE tantrum when Mr Messy came back from the Bakery with his lunchtime sandwich and hadn't brought her a cake! So I had to take her for a walk up there to get one to calm her down!

Princess Lollipop was still fast asleep when it was time for me to go and pick Little Prince up, so I left her with Mr Messy and drove up to get him on my own. I arrived at school early so I had a few quiet moments to read my book, heavenly :-) Little Prince was upset that his friend D was busy so he couldn't play at D's house, and we were busy so D couldn't come to our house either. But in comparison to other times this has happened he was fairly calm about it, a very welcome change :-) When we got home me and Drama Teen got some of the dead bulbs out of Little Prince's light fitting and it turned out they were the same ones that are used in the kitchen light fitting, so we don't need to buy any of those. I could only remove two of the bulbs, so I replaced those and Mr Messy will have to help with the others. Then I got Drama Teen to get one of her bedroom light fitting bulbs out as she had a couple of dead ones too. They aren't like any we have "in stock" so we took it with us to give to Mr Messy to take the DIY shop.

Little Prince was not very happy at going to OUR shop, and complained most of the way there. He was fairly wild when we got there too, and got told off which made him kick out at the coffee table, which got him told off even more!! Princess Lollipop was in a foul mood and this was made worse by Little Prince's wild behaviour. It was bedlam when a customer called in!! Luckily she was a Mum herself and understood!! Just after Mr Messy left another customer called in to talk about having a photograph making into a canvas for her Mum for Christmas. She is going to bring the photograph in so Mr Messy can check the quality and see what can be done with it.

Mr Messy left early with Drama Teen to take her to meet her Boyfriend at an American/Italian style restaurant. He dropped her off there and then went on to the DIY shop. He called later to say he'd managed to get everything he needed to fix OUR shop's floor and a couple of multipacks of bulbs to change over the ones in Drama Teen's bedroom. He was then going to call in a different restaurant to Drama Teen and her Boyfriend to get something to eat while waiting for them to finish.

At 5pm I had had enough of the littlies screeching at each other, and Princess Lollipop messing about on Mr Messy's computer and we shut up shop and walked down to the chippie. As our oven at home is still broken I thought it would be a lot easier than trying to cook! We took the chips etc home to eat although Princess Lollipop refused to eat her cod bites and ate my chips instead! I asked Little Prince to empty the dishwasher, but he saw something outside in the dark and refused to finish it as he said he was too scared. I managed to persuade him to finish the job eventually, and I'm proud of how brave he was :-)

Sunday

Mr Messy was up and out early as usual this morning. He was off to OUR shop to give LMS a FaceTime tour of the place, and with the time difference he had to be there early and she had to stay up late. Apparently she enjoyed her "tour" and loves how it all looks, so it was worth it :-) He had three lifestyle shoots of children to do today, but due to Winter sniffles, two children were too ill to come and cancelled. This did however, give him a lot of quiet, relaxed time to get his backlog of editing done :-)

I stayed at home with the children, I got Drama Teen to give the littlies their breakfast while I got a much appreciated shower :-) Then we all had to pile into the car and take Drama Teen to the cinema to go and see a film with her Boyfriend. There wasn't enough time for me and the littlies to get home, so first we went to the nearby supermarket and were finally successful in buying my newest, still nameless niece a present :-) Two lovely outfits :-) I also managed to find Little Prince a new pair of trainers to take to school for PE, I didn't want to spend a fortune as he'll only wreck them and they had to be velcro fastening, which is getting more and more difficult to find in his size! Then we drove over to a nearby Outlet Centre where the littlies could run around in the playground and get rid of some of that excess energy. It was a bit chilly and wet, but they both had lots of fun, till their meany Mum decided it was time to go!! Little Prince was complaining of being starving hungry so I got them both a meal at the next door drive through cafe, we didn't have time for anything else as we were due to pick up Drama Teen and her Boyfriend very soon.

When we got over to the cinema Drama Teen and her Boyfriend were already outside waiting for us. When Drama Teen saw the littlies eating their food, she decided she was hungry too!! So we had to make another stop at a different drive through cafe!! Boyfriend had said he would sit in the back between Little Prince and Princess Lollipop - when he was trying to juggle his food, their food and being deafened by Little Prince playing on his meal's toy - a screachy kazoo!!

When we got home, I had to rush round getting Little Prince ready to go to his friend J's birthday party, wrap the present and write the card! Then I had to leave a crying Princess Lollipop with Drama Teen and Boyfriend to deal with, while I took Little Prince to the party. It was a bowling party, and as last time we took him bowling he had a complete meltdown at losing, I had to be on hand to stay with him. J's Mum had been worried about how to help Little Prince cope, and had been planning to group the children so that he would be in a very small group and not have to wait too long for his next turn. I was very touched by her thoughtfulness, its lovely when people recognise Little Prince has difficulties and don't just automatically decide he is too difficult to deal with, and that seriously think of ways to help him :-) Thank you J's Mum, I truly appreciate it.

There were a different number of children than J's Mum had thought would turn up, so it took a bit of sorting to decide who was going on which lane! In the end J's big sister and her two friends were on one lane, the four boys at the party were in another and the four girls at the party on another. The boys were supervised by J's Dad, and played really well together and when the staff turned on the disco lights and the glow in the dark pins!! J looked round in wonder and exclaimed " THIS is for MY birthday. For ME" the whole world revolves around you when you are 7 :-) The boys completed their first game and thought it was all over, they weren't that impressed to be playing a second game and started to mess about. Little Prince wanted to use the really heavy adult balls and threw a strop when I wouldn't let him. J got in trouble for messing about and stormed off. When he came back he and Little Prince started a game of tig, which rapidly devolved into a pushing and shoving match!! Then J's Mum came back from the loo laughing, she'd just marched into a cubicle and when she came out to wash her hands noticed the urinals!! She ran out of the GENTS to the ladies to wash her hands lol. Not long after the staff came over to say it was time to go and eat, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over who was sitting where, but it all got sorted eventually and they ate their meal. Then the boys went running round until the got corralled by J's Dad to play in the arcade part for a while. Once Little Prince and J had finished their race, J manned the throttle and Little Prince was steering, and they co-operated very well, especially as it was the end of an exciting party!

When we arrived home downstairs was empty! Mr Messy's car was outside so I guessed he had taken Princess Lollipop to bed and fallen asleep himself, and I was right. Drama Teen and her Boyfriend were watching TV programmes on her laptop in her room. Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop came down about half an hour later, and Princess Lollipop glued herself to my side and hardly left it for the rest of the day! Although it was Daddy she wanted to feed her her tea, which made him feel better as he gets upset by the way she rejects him if I'm here.

Drama Teen and her Boyfriend made their tea, and then they kindly made the littlies tea too. And with Mr Messy feeding Princess Lollipop and supervising Little Prince it meant that I could have a break from the constant mothering I've had to do lately. It felt so good :-) Then it was time to get Little Prince in bed and for Mr Messy to take Drama Teen's Boyfriend home. As we hadn't had time to eat ourselves he got something on the way home and I got myself a sandwich after I'd got Princess Lollipop in bed. Then I watched Ty Pennington's Homes for the Brave, a programme where Ty makes over injured servicemen and women's homes. The channel was showing quite a few episodes of this series as a tribute for Remembrance Sunday.

When Mr Messy got home we watched the end of our annual obsession programme - I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Good honest celebrity humiliation, and the best bit - Ant and Dec :-) Although I think they should change the name from "celebrity" to something else - we had to look up who they all were we didn't recognise a single one!!

Saturday

Mr Messy had to go and change his hire car early this morning so I had to get up and get the littlies ready so I could drop Drama Teen off at OUR shop. I couldn't put off dealing with Princess Lollipop's hair so I had to bath her and condition it despite her protests. She hardly cried at all when I did her hair, this new shampoo and conditioner is really suiting her hair. Its suiting me too, not having to try and comb through her hair with her screaming her head off and trying to crawl her way up me and out of the bath.

I had almost got her ready when Mr Messy rang to say he was all finished at the car hire place and would be back in time to pick Drama Teen up and they'd go down to OUR shop together. So me and the littlies stayed home again. I'm glad we did as I got a phone call from Little Sis to ask why I didn't reply to the text her husband sent yesterday. Well as usual I either hadn't noticed I'd got a text or my phone is dead in my handbag! Apparently they'd texted to say my newest niece had been born!! OH WOWOWOWOW :-) Both Mum and baby are doing well, and all the big siblings are loving the new arrival :-) Congratulations to you all :-)

Well what is an Auntie supposed to do when she finds out she has a new niece?? Go shopping of course :-) So as soon as Little Prince had finished watching his Horrible Histories programme and Princess Lollipop had had her nap, we went out shopping :-) I saw the perfect outfit in the first shop, but they didn't have all the bits in newborn size!! So we tried three other shops, where none of the clothes lived up to the "almost outfit"!! So I took the littlies for something to eat instead, and then we drove over to OUR shop. Once again Little Prince got over excited and we had to leave pretty quickly. Mr Messy and Drama Teen shut OUR shop soon after (it was almost 5pm!) and drove over to the nearby town to buy a new 22" monitor for Mr Messy's photo editing computer. He is moving his editing computer to OUR shop, so that he can get on with his editing during the day instead of in the evenings, maybe we'll have more family time now (fingers crossed).

By the time Mr Messy and Drama Teen got home I was completely stir crazy and needed a break desperately. Not that I got one Drama Teen made herself something to eat and disappeared up to her room, and Mr Messy didn't respond when Princess Lollipop started shouting for something to eat. So I threw a big tantrum and took her to the dining room to feed her, while feeling all sorry for myself.

Friday

Today is Mr Messy's last day at his ordinary job, as his contract is working for the government and they are making sweeping cutbacks, his contract has been ended early. He has been discussing with his boss the possibility of returning part time (3 days per week) after Christmas, as the department now has a serious shortage of expertise and that would suit is great, as it would allow Mr Messy to grow his photography business, without getting so stressed by trying to do two full time jobs, and between both the businesses we will have enough money to pay all our bills :-) Win win situation, fingers crossed it works out :-)

Me and Princess Lollipop dropped Little Prince off at school and then went over to OUR shop. Once again we had a pretty quiet day, the weather definitely plays a huge part in how many customers we have. We were both surprised when Mr Messy walked in!! There weren't many people in his office so he finished early. Me and Princess Lollipop had to leave soon after to go and collect Little Prince from school. School had been to the local church to have a Remembrance Service, but due to being in the shop I hadn't been able to attend that. When we got to school the children that hadn't gone home with their families straight from the service, were all in the playground playing football with the teachers. When Little Prince saw us park the car, he ran to get his coat and came straight over.

We had to rush home and get him ready for his swimming lesson before driving off to the lesson. Mr Messy met us at the swimming pool car park to collect Princess Lollipop and take her to OUR shop while I watched Little Prince have his lesson. He was in a very energetic mood and I just laughed when his teacher said she'd try and tire him out! She did have him swimming up and down the pool to dive at each end, and at one point he decided to "corkscrew" to the other end - its probably a stroke only Little Prince could invent or carry off!! After his lesson we called round at OUR shop to see Mr Messy and Drama Teen, Little Prince got a bit over excited so we didn't stay too long!

When we were finally all at home Mr Messy set up a "facetime" chat with LMS, it was lovely to see her and hear her voice. Although I didn't get too much time to hear her as Little Prince went really crazy with excitement and everything got load and chaotic! LMS said it felt like she was really here!! We were supposed to try again later, but Mr Messy went to bed with Princess Lollipop and I don't have an iPhone (because I don't want one!).

I stayed up late watching tv on my own, I just needed some "alone time" I'm beginning to feel like I'm being suffocated by everyone again. I have Princess Lollipop rolling over and wanting hugging all night, and then she is so clingy and wanting "Up Mummy" all day too. Then when Little Prince comes home from school he wants Mummy too, we end up all three of us squashed up on the sofa together and until I diet there's not really enough room!!

Thursday

I'm going to have to start getting earlier nights, as it was so hard to get out of bed again! Princess Lollipop's hair was very "poofy" this morning, but Little Prince begged me not to bath her and comb and condition her hair, as it makes him cry when she's so sad in the bath. He's such a sweetie :-) And with the new shampoo and conditioner I've been using it has been getting easier for her and the rest of us! I was running late so I agreed we would condition and comb her hair tomorrow instead.

I managed to get quite a few jobs done this morning, but as usual when I try that we were on the last minute getting to school! That meant that I didn't get chance to talk to Little Prince's teacher. Little Prince was chatting to me last night and told me they had a talk in class about The Children's Society, which is a charity that supports underprivileged children and those in care. This prompted Little Prince to tell the class his whole life story (the reasons why he was removed from his birth family, what happened next etc)!! He doesn't yet understand the differences between private and secret!! And that once his information is "out there" it can't be unsaid, or taken back. I rang school and asked if his teacher could ring me back when she got chance. I got to speak to her later in the morning, and explained my concerns that Little Prince doesn't entirely get the concept of privacy, and that he has "over shared." She explained that he had spoken of his own accord and it was completely in context with what they were discussing, and that he had been very calm and composed when speaking. That's all well and good but I would have preferred it if she could have redirected him before he told everyone his whole life story! She did say she spoke to the class and told them it was private information and not to be talked about with everyone, and if they had any questions to talk to her or Little Prince. I'm not 100% happy with her response, but there's not much I can do after the fact and I don't want to make a big fuss and have Little Prince thinking there's something shameful about his story. Its a hard thing to balance - answering Little Prince's questions about his background as honestly and fully as he needs, but trying to explain that some things are just his information and shouldn't be shared. He hasn't "got" that bit yet!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, probably due to the foul weather putting people off coming out and visiting our shop! I picked Little Prince up from school and told him he couldn't have his friend D round to play as we were going to the supermarket (I had told him that morning, so that he didn't arrange any friends to come and play!) he was a bit upset, but not too bad. We went straight round to the supermarket, chose a present for his friend J's birthday party on Sunday. The party is at a local Bowling Alley, I hope he can cope with not winning every game and doesn't have a huge meltdown during the party!! And we also picked up all the other things we needed, before visiting the nearby fastfood restaurant for tea. After wrangling two littlies all round the supermarket I didn't fancy getting home and starting cooking. Little Prince must be the only kid around that complains about going to this place!! He was happier once we were there and he had his meal though. There was another family across from us, one parent and one child had dwarfism, Little Prince noticed and was a lot more polite and subtle about noticing than I thought he would be! Although I did have to remind him that pointing was rude!

When we'd finished eating I rang Drama Teen to let her know we were on our way, and we drove home. Princess Lollipop almost fell asleep on the journey, but luckily she didn't as she then wouldn't have gone to bed till very late! Drama Teen, her friend JP and Little Prince put all the shopping away for me, while I got Princess Lollipop ready for bed. Little Prince was tired so he decided to go to bed early too, and read some more of his Harry Potter book. I'm beginning to wonder if he realises that he can read it in other places than just bed!!

Mr Messy had called round to a work colleague's house after work, to discuss their shared family history. The wife started working at the same offices that Mr Messy works at, and has the same name as me, so they started chatting and found out that her husband and Mr Messy were cousins :-) We have a fairly unusual surname, so people with the same name are generally related somehow!! Anyway Mr Messy wasn't due home till late in the evening, and once the littlies were in bed I had the downstairs to myself, as Drama Teen and JP were going to watch Mulan, but then changed their minds and watched 10 Things I Hate About You instead. Bearing in mind that JP is male lol, he did say he was getting used to being bossed about by girls at my house - Princess Lollipop orders him around too!!

It was quite late when Mr Messy returned home, so we had a quick chat before going straight to bed.

VERY proud :-)

of both the littlies :-)

Little Prince brought home a certificate on Monday and made a big production of getting everyone into the lounge to show us all together. He has met his target of writing so others can read it (a HUGE achievement as usually even he can't read what he's written!). The certificate had a picture of an arrow hitting a bullseye and said "Little Prince has reached his target of writing legibly." We are all SO SO PROUD of him :-) Mr Messy took a mobile phone picture of Little Prince, his gappy tooth smile and his certificate and sent it over to LMS in America.

Princess Lollipop is coming on in leaps and bounds at the moment. She is stringing three and four words together to either tell us what she wants or how she is feeling. She comes over to us for a kiss and cuddle when she has an owie. And she is starting to match and sort, she was sat in her book corner for ages then brought me two "book read its" and they were both "Finding Nemo" books with very similar pictures on the front covers :-) The other day I was checking something on Mr Messy's photography website and Princess Lollipop noticed and pointed and said "Dop dop" (shop shop) - that's a precursor to reading "pattern/logo" recognition :-)

What clever and wonderful littlies I have :-)

Wednesday

We had an ordinary mundane start to the day dropping Little Prince off at school before me and Princess Lollipop drove over to OUR shop. The weather has picked up a little, well its not raining at least, but its still very cold in OUR shop! We don't think there is anything we can do to safely heat the place with Princess Lollipop running round, so we'll just have to invest in more woolly pullies!!

We've had a few enquires already today. A phone call from someone wanting to know if we could copy a large framed photograph (its too big for her scanner), so that she could include it in a book she is making about the history of her family's farm. I told her that Mr Messy would be able to photograph the photograph and what he charges for that service, she checked our opening times and said she would pop down before weekend. We had someone come into OUR shop and ask if we could frame a signed football shirt to match one they already had. I couldn't find a price on our standard list, so I took her details and will get back to her. The other enquiry was a Mum who wanted her two boys (7 and 10) professionally photographed, as all they'd had for years was their school photos. She didn't seem to understand the concept of "lifestyle" photography and was asking if Mr Messy adds backgrounds in to the photographs afterwards!! I think I managed to explain what it is we do though, and she wanted to book there and then! Unfortunately Princess Lollipop had completely messed up my computer by mashing the keyboard, so I've taken her details and Mr Messy will ring her tonight to sort it all out.

Princess Lollipop has not been a her usual happy self in OUR shop today. She has been clingy and whiny and says she wants something to eat and then throws a tantrum and screams if you offer it to her!! Hopefully its just because she's tired (she was very restless last night), she's gone for an early nap is is soundly asleep now, fingers crossed she wakes up in a better mood!!