Happy New Year

Wishing all my family and friends all the very best for 2011

Catch Up Again

I'm starting to come down with whatever yuk it is the littlies have got and feel pretty rough! So I'll just do a quick recap of the last few days.

Wednesday - Mr Messy went over to OUR shop to start editing the wedding photos. Me and the littlies had a quiet day at home.

Thursday - We all went over to the ancestral homeland, so that Mr Messy and Drama Teen could photoThursdaygraph Baby Sis's new baby and the very proud new parents. Me and the littlies were dropped off at my Mum and Dad's house, so that we wouldn't get in the way for the photo shoot. And we didn't want to pass on the yuk to Baby Sis's tiny baby. Little Prince had a wonderful time, he played board games with Grandma, then she started to teach him a little chess (he rapidly got bored though). And then while I got Princess Lollipop settled for her nap, Grandma and Little Prince went to play in the local park. Little Prince said afterwards that he really enjoyed having Grandma all to himself, but that he loves playing with all his cousins too :-) We didn't call Lil Sis to let her and her brood know we were there as Princess Lollipop is very, very clingy and gets upset at the slightest thing and that would upset her cousins who really want her to play with them. So I didn't get to see my newest nieces again :-( Perhaps next time... The journey to and from Mum and Dad's was pretty difficult, Princess Lollipop doesn't like car journeys at the best of times, and with her feeling under the weather it made it all worse. I spent most of both journeys twisted round with my arm through the gap between my seat and the door, so that Princess Lollipop could hold "Mummy dand" as it was the only way to stop her screaming.

Friday - Mr Messy got up early and went over to OUR shop to get some more editing done. The pictures of Baby Sis, her Fiance and Tiny Baby are fabulous, there is one of Baby Sis serenely looking down at her sleeping daughter and it is stunning - "my" baby and her baby :-) Tiny Baby has had some health problems (all resolved now) that have made it a hard introduction to parenthood for Baby Sis and Fiance, but they have coped so well and so obviously dote on their little one, it is so sweet to see :-)
Little Prince started the day by coming into our bed and announcing he'd been sick. I take this with a pinch of salt as the barest drop coming out of his mouth gets the same reaction as violently emptying the contents of his stomach. However, he has no appetite and has barely eaten or left the sofa this morning, so I think he isn't quite as recovered as he'd seemed yesterday, poor lad. Both he and Princess Lollipop have been complaining more about their ears hurting so we are going to the Doctor's this afternoon, well our appointment is actually with the Nurse Practitioner but she can dispense antibiotic medication if they need it, and its the only appointment available before the Surgery closes for the long New Year weekend! Drama Teen appeared briefly to say she was off out on the bus to see her Boyfriend, and asked if we could pick her up from his house at 6pm. I asked Little Prince to go and get dressed, it took ages to persuade him to even get off the sofa, and then when he actually did go upstairs he sobbed all the way :-( Now I know there's definitely something wrong :-( He brought his clothes downstairs and asked me to dress him (another indication something was wrong) and then sat on my knee crying for ages. Princess Lollipop tried to move him and told him "Little Prince up Mummy knee 'mowow" (tomorrow).
Mr Messy got back at about lunch time from OUR shop, and I took Princess Lollipop upstairs for both of us to try and get a nap. Little Prince cuddled up on the sofa under a blanket and dozed too. At the surgery Little Prince saw the Practice Nurse, and she confirmed a bad ear infection and prescribed antibiotics and painkillers. Princess Lollipop had to see the Doctor due to her still being 1yrs and the Doctor said she seemed ok, with very slight reddening of her ears so she wasn't prescribed anything. Although the Doctor did recommend visiting the Pharmacy and getting her some suitable painkiller and keeping her dosed up round the clock. We have to take her back on Monday or Tuesday if she is feeling worse.
Mr Messy then dropped me and the littlies off at home while he went out, first for a meeting with our Accountant and then to pick Drama Teen up. I think me and the littlies will be getting a snack (if I can get them to eat anything at all) and then we will all be going to bed. No New Years celebrations for us this year!

Tuesday

Mr Messy went downstairs with the littlies while I got ready, and by the time I got down they'd had their breakfast. He was a bit chilly as he'd had to go out and move his car and open the garden gates, to let the oil delivery man in, and he only had his dressing gown on!! Brrrr! He was a bit cross with Drama Teen for not getting out of bed and getting her own camera gear ready, meaning he had to do both his and hers! She finally got ready with only enough time to get herself a quick sandwich before they had to leave to get to the wedding they were photographing. The wedding itself was at the Church across the road from OUR shop, so it wasn't far to drive. They don't expect to be back till 9.30pm or later, so its just me and the littlies today.

We had a snacky lunch and I allowed the littlies to have quite a few more biscuits than they'd normally be allowed, after all it is still Christmas :-) Then Princess Lollipop had her nap, I'm certainly not going through all that palaver getting her to sleep again tonight!! While she slept me and Little Prince watched Polar Express, I've never seen it before and it was lovely :-) It would have been even better if it hadn't been on a channel that interrupts the films with adverts!!! Very annoying! When that finished I found the original Karate Kid on a different channel, but Little Prince didn't want to watch it, even though I assured him he would like it! So we watched a bit of Playhouse Disney for Princess Lollipop, who had woken up. Then the littlies had half an hour or so of racing up and down the lounge, until Little Prince got too silly and I had to persuade him to do something else. He's now playing on Warioware Smooth Moves on the Wii, he always chooses the active games on this so it will help use up some energy and (fingers crossed!) calm him down a little.

While Little Prince is safely occupied with the Wii, I took Princess Lollipop in the kitchen and we put on a frozen pizza for the littlies to eat. Then she helped me sort the washing, well she didn't really lol. She played with the freezer magnets while I sorted out the dry washing in the tumble dryer, and put the wet washing in there to dry.

Little Prince is now reading in bed, and Princess Lollipop is settling down and she could (fingers firmly crossed!!!) be asleep soon too!! I'll have time to get some tidying up done!! There are Christmas toys that haven't found places to live all over the place!!

Monday

Mr Messy and Drama Teen went out to buy Mr Messy a couple of smart shirts and a warm, smart jumper in the post Christmas sales. They also just happened to buy Drama Teen some new jeans and a jumper - apparently you can never have too many jeans or jumpers lol. They also visited the Hotel where the wedding they are photographing tomorrow is being held, to scout out the location.

While they were out me and the littlies had a nice, quiet time at home. Well apart from Little Prince is getting a bit stir crazy now and was acting quite silly, but its still very cold out and I don't think he's well enough to go playing outside. The Wii has been a lifesaver in the past few weeks of snow and bitterly cold weather. He had a few turns on his new Epic Mickey game, but got too easily frustrated and kept turning it off in a temper. I keep encouraging him to have a go at the more active games, to try and get rid of some excess energy! Princess Lollipop refused to have a nap and she was just about to settle down when Mr Messy and Drama Teen returned with some chocolate for everyone!

She eventually had her nap too late in the evening and so she was still wide awake at mine and Mr Messy's bedtime. We took her up and it took an hour or so of insisting that she lie down for her to fall asleep! I was exhausted! And due to her cold she didn't sleep particularly well (so neither did I). I was mega exhausted by the time morning came round!

Boxing Day

We didn't do anything special, just hung around the house playing with new toys and being together as a family. Which thinking about it is pretty special :-) I love spending time with my family :-)

Christmas Day

We always expect our Christmas Day to start early - with little children its a given really! But we didn't expect it to start at 3am!! Little Prince came to our room with a bad earache, so we snuggled him up in our bed, well he was in Princess Lollipop's cot and she was in our bed - not a lot of room to spare, but we were all warm :-) In the end it was Mr Messy who woke up next, at the more sensible time of 8.30am. We had promised to Facetime with LMS early on our Christmas morning/late on her Christmas Eve, so Mr Messy went downstairs to let her know that we wouldn't be up till later and she could go to bed if she wanted, and we'd chat when she woke up. In the end the littlies didn't stay asleep much longer, so we got Drama Teen to get up and all three children joined us in our bed to open their stockings :-)

Then we went downstairs, as we had two poorly children (Princess Lollipop is coming down with a cold too) we decided to change our usual routine and have breakfast before opening any presents. No one really ate much, but at least they had something healthy inside them before starting on the Christmas choccies! Little Prince managed to stay pretty calm and take turns opening presents, I took some photos but not many as I wanted to enjoy Christmas in real life not from behind a camera lens!

Drama Teen's big present this year was an Amazon Kindle, which she didn't seem too impressed with at first. However, once she and Mr Messy had set it up and she'd got a few books on there she was glued to it! She also got lots of clothes, mostly chosen by herself, as there is no way I'm chancing choosing clothes for a teenage girl!! That would be a recipe for disaster lol.

Little Prince got a Glow Art set (its a special sheet of "paper" and lightpen that you draw in the dark and it glows), a Phineas & Ferb Airzooka - which unfortunately terrifies Princess Lollipop, so he hasn't been able to use it much and lots of DVDs.

Princess Lollipop got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playset and a Disney Princess Aquadraw, both of which she loves. Her favourite present seems to be her talking teapot and teacups - she is constantly making everyone a "cuppa teee" and she demands you drink it!!

Mr Messy got a fancy Batman-like belt designed for professional photographers to hold all their gear on a shoot, it will save him having to carry round his big bag of kit, although that will be in the car "just in case." And I got a lovely new handbag, a warm snuggly scarf and some of my favourite choccies too :-)

The rest of the day was spent playing with all the new presents - Little Prince seemed just as interested in Princess Lollipop's toys as he was his own, and they played together pretty nicely. Although I wish all his games didn't involve battles and killing!!

Mr Messy made us a very tasty Christmas meal of roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and veggies. Drama Teen didn't want any of that and made her own meal, but she supervised Princess Lollipop at the table while the rest of us ate. Little Prince whinged a bit about what he was given, but then ate most of it. Princess Lollipop ate hardly anything, but she has been off her food for a few days anyway. We didn't bother with a Christmas cake or Christmas pudding as only I like those, but I had got a box of small Christmas cake slices - the littlies both tried them and didn't like them. All the more for me then :-)

Its Christmas Eve so its Panto Time

Oh no it isn't!! Oh yes it is!!!

Every year our Social Services Dept arranges for adoptive and foster families to go to a private showing of the Panto, free of charge :-) Its always on the morning of Christmas Eve and we've been going every year since Little Prince was placed with us and it gets us in the Christmas mood :-) Unfortunately this year Mr Messy had to be at OUR shop waiting for clients to collect their Christmas orders, so me and Drama Teen took the littlies. This was Princess Lollipop's first year watching the Panto, and we had no idea how she would react or if she would cope with it!!

The show started with the Villain and Princess Lollipop HATED it, she started to cry and squirm about on my knee :-( At one point I thought I would have to take her out of the theatre, but once the more jolly characters came on stage she was much happier. She even started clapping and shouting the character's catchphrases :-) But she didn't warm up to the Villain at all, and started to cry every time he came on stage!

After the Panto we went out for lunch and then drove back home to our village and delivered the last of the Christmas cards, before coming home. Mr Messy arrived a little while after we got home and he took Princess Lollipop upstairs for a nap. This gave us the opportunity to get the Christmas Tree and decorations up (finally!). I sent Little Prince up to ask Drama Teen to come down and help us. She came down and announced she was eating one of her pasta meals (in her room which she knows she isn't supposed to do!!) and watching a dvd. I asked her to come back down when she'd finished and thought she wouldn't be too long. After about half an hour I sent Little Prince up to see what was going on. Instead of just asking his big sister if she was ready to come down yet, he told her to come down and switched off her TV!! So Drama Teen came stomping down the stairs in a foul mood! She said her dvd was really interesting and she couldn't see the point in putting up the Tree or decorations as its already Christmas Eve. I said we WERE going to put the Tree and decorations up, and she started to pull her face. After about ten more minutes of her looking so miserable, I asked her to smile and at least pretend she was enjoying this! She pulled a horrible grimace and I lost it! I shouted and yelled and said if she didn't want to be part of the family and do things with us, she should go back to her room. I lost it so badly mainly due to this being the last straw, Drama Teen has been refusing to join in more and more family outings/occasions recently, but still expects us to run around ferrying her back and forth to see her boyfriend and is always asking us to buy her clothes, usually expensive ones! I'm fed up of her taking all the time and not wanting to give anything back. To my great shame, I shouted that if she wasn't prepared to be part of the family I could ring Social Services and ask them to find her a foster family. I regretted my words immediately and wished I could call them back, but that's not possible :-(

So me and Little Prince put up the Tree and decorated it on our own. We put the TV on a music channel that was playing Christmas songs to help us get in the mood. Little Prince was an excellent help and stayed as calm as he could in the circumstances :-) Mr Messy came down just as we were putting the decorations on the tree and asked where Drama Teen was, I explained what had happened and he asked Little Prince to go and get her to come downstairs. Mr Messy managed to persuade Drama Teen to join in the family decorating ritual, and she took over LMS's job of putting the crib together. When we had finished decorating the Tree and Drama Teen had helped me put the lights on, Mr Messy made his contribution to the show - he put the Fairy on top of the tree!! We have had this little Fairy since we first had a Christmas Tree together, and even though she is much too small for our current size Tree we still use her :-)

We managed to finish all the decorations and get the boxes put away before Princess Lollipop woke up from her nap. I had a frantic run round to find my camera so that I could take her picture when she first saw the Tree, but once I found it Drama Teen carried Princess Lollipop in to see what we had been up to. Princess Lollipop was stunned and a little scared of the Tree at first! She wouldn't even walk past it to get to Mummy! But after ten minutes or so she calmed down and was fascinated by it :-) The next challenge is to keep her fiddly fingers off it lol.

My next panic was realising we had forgotten to buy a carrot for Rudolph! This would never do, Little Prince would be devastated!! So me and him got in the car and drove to the shop in the next village and got the so important carrot, and we went a bit mad with "snacks" too!! Well its only Christmas once a year :-)

The littlies had their tea once me and Little Prince got back, and after a bit of TV I got Little Prince to bed. Christmas Eve is the one day of the year there is NO trouble getting him to go up lol. Although he was too excited to go straight to sleep and we heard him banging around in his room for ages after he was supposed to be fast asleep!! Drama Teen came down and spent some time here with us, before deciding she was off to bed too. Now we only have to persuade Princess Lollipop to go to sleep and we can prepare for tomorrow morning :-) She is getting very sleepy so hopefully it won't be too much longer!! I really hope so anyway as I have a bit of wrapping to finish off!!

Thursday

Me, Little Prince and Princess Lollipop drove over to see my Mum and Dad and drop off some family presents over there. I had tried to persuade Drama Teen to come with us and help me look after the littlies while I was driving, but she wanted to stay at home and see her Boyfriend and exchange their Xmas presents. I was very disappointed as our in car dvd players aren't working and Princess Lollipop HATES long car journeys at the moment :-( The journey there wasn't too bad as she fell asleep pretty quickly :-)

When we arrived at Mum and Dad's house, my Lil Sis's four eldest were already there and just about to start baking with Grandma, once she had finished chatting to her sister (in Australia) on the phone. The four cousins were surprised and very excited to see us, we hadn't told them we might visit as they would have been disappointed if the weather had prevented us coming. Trouble is they (and Little Prince) all went crazy and loud because they weren't expecting to see each other. The chaos and noise upset and scared Princess Lollipop, so me and her shut ourselves in the kitchen to make lunch, leaving my Mum to supervise the other five!! lol there's method in my madness :-)

Once I'd made lunch I took Princess Lollipop in the front room, where it was calm and quiet. Lil Sis's Eldest was in there doing some homework, as a teenager he was "too old" to bake with Grandma lol. Princess Lollipop settled down and came out of her shell very quickly once she had a bit of peace and quiet. Little Prince and the cousins came in one by one at various intervals, and Princess Lollipop coped very well with that arrangement. I have no idea how on earth Mum coped baking with them all, she has the patience of a saint :-) Especially as both Little Prince and one of Lil Sis's boys have very similar issues and wind each other up to fever pitch on occasional!! Mum I really wish I had your patience, and I wish I had it NOW!!!

We couldn't stay too long as it had been snowing on and off at home and I wanted to be able to travel home in daylight! So I started to get the littlies ready to leave. Mum had other ideas, and took them all for a walk in the snow, including Princess Lollipop all snuggled up in her snowsuit! When they got back I loaded the littlies into the car and sadly we had to say goodbye and get on our way.

The journey home was a complete nightmare! Princess Lollipop cried and screamed and shouted "Up Mummy" until I was nearly crying too! I had to stop at the next Service Station mainly to get out of the car!! We ate while we were there, and I hoped that having had a run round and a full tummy might have helped Princess Lollipop cope with the rest of the journey. For five minutes I was pleased that my plan had worked, and then she started again - louder and longer and getting herself even more upset. Me and Little Prince were both almost in tears with her, nothing we did seemed to calm her down :-( In the end Little Prince was a hero and managed to persuade her to hold his hand and she stopped sobbing constantly, and just cried on and off for the rest of the journey. It was a long, long journey!!! And I was sooooo glad when it was finally over, and I could flop on the sofa and relax :-)

Pretty Productive Day :-)

I had a "pull your socks up" talk with myself and decided that I've got to stop despairing over the fact that I'm nowhere near ready for Christmas and do something to get ready!! So this morning me and Princess Lollipop got up at the same time as Mr Messy and Little Prince, the boys got ready together while I got Princess Lollipop breakfasted and ready. When Mr Messy returned from dropping Little Prince at school he swapped the car seat into his car (we definitely need to get a second seat for his car!) and took Princess Lollipop to OUR shop with him. I then got on with wrapping presents, well first I went on a Treasure Hunt - where HAD I hidden all the pressies lol. When I had finally found them all, I started to blitz the wrapping. I got a phone call from Drama Teen (College closed early for the Christmas hols and Mr Messy had gone to pick her up) at about 11.30am to warn me that they were almost home and to hide all evidence! Luckily I was wrapping in Princess Lollipop's old room, so all I had to do was keep the door shut. Mr Messy put the car seat back in my car, mutter about what a nuisance Drama Teen was the whole time lol, and then he headed off back to OUR shop. He was due another huge delivery of Christmas orders from our framers, and various clients due in to pick up their orders so he had to rush back. Before he left he pointed out that I had two very flat tyres and told me to make sure I went to the nearest garage to pump them back up before I went anywhere!

I got Drama Teen to look after Princess Lollipop, while I went back upstairs to finish wrapping the presents. And I did it, I did it :-) I got everything, absolutely everything wrapped and hidden away - and all evidence of what I'd been up to safely put away :-) By now it was past the time we should have left to drop Drama Teen off at her friend's house for a Christmas party. As the friend only lives a couple of villages up the river, I decided to take a chance on my tyres and go straight there. It had been snowing on and off all morning, but nothing significant seemed to have stuck on the ground, so I set off down the river road. As we left the village it became obvious that the road was EXTREMELY slippery and at one bend in the road we had a spectacular skid, zigzagging all over the road before we made it round the corner! It really scared both me and Drama Teen, especially as I had already been driving at only 30mph and had barely touched my brakes!! After that I drove even slower and we skidded a couple more times but not nearly as dramatically, thankfully!

Once I had safely dropped Drama Teen off, me and Princess Lollipop drove straight to the supermarket garage to get air in the tyres. There was someone using the air line, so I had to wait, and the way the garage is configured meant that I had to wait off to one side - so it wasn't immediately obvious that I was queuing for the air line. When the first person had finished I'd just put my car in gear to move, when some cheeky blighter nipped from the pumps to the air line!! Bleeping hell!! So once again I sat there and waited, with Princess Lollipop getting more and more agitated and crying louder and louder - she wanted "UP Mummy" and she wanted it now!! Then some cheeky *bleep* nipped right round me and pulled up right behind the person still using the air line!! I wasn't taking it lying down this time, and I pulled right up the bumper of the queue jumper - there's no easier way to annoy an English person than to push in front of them while they politely queue!!! We'll get so disgruntled we'll even MUTTER at you!! The person who had queue jumped must have noticed my reaction, or got bored waiting for the doddery old bloke to finish checking every single one of his tyres, and he just drove off. YES!! I was NEXT :-) So I finally got to pump up my tyres - which were VERY VERY low on air according to the air line meter gauge!!!

Princess Lollipop was a little better now I was actually driving again, but as soon as she saw the McDonalds she started shouting and crying for "hot hot hot" (her name for Macs). We had no time as we had to get straight onto the motorway and make our way back to our village to pick Little Prince up from school, she cried for quite a lot of the journey :-( We were a little bit early when we got back in the village, which meant I had time to nip home and pick up the Christmas cards I needed to give out at school. Princess Lollipop as usual wasn't impressed at having to walk in the snow, despite her boots and snowsuit keeping her warm, and she minced and complained the whole way lol. She was even less impressed that Little Prince wasn't coming home with us as he was going to play at his friend J's house! So I stopped at the village shop to get her some Chocolate Buttons on the way home as a treat - chocolate always cheers me up :-) We had a nice quiet snuggly hour or so to ourselves when we got home, which Princess Lollipop seemed to really need as she hardly left my lap the whole time. I also managed a quick call to Lil Sis, to let her know that I am hoping (depending on the weather) to get over to see our Mum and Dad tomorrow to drop off Christmas presents at her house (including the ones for Lil Sis's children). We also had a chat about our boys, as Lil Sis's son who is a bit older than Little Prince is also undergoing various tests to see if he has similar problems to Little Prince - its funny (coincidence funny, not funny haha) that we are both going through such similar issues at the same time, as our boys aren't blood related. But I do find it helps to have someone who totally understands to chat to about it all - so thank you Lil Sis :-)

I was a little late collecting Little Prince from J's house, but the boys seem to have settled down somewhat now that me and J's Mum are limiting the number of times they play (once a week at alternating houses) and keeping the time fairly short. We (the mums) aren't so frazzled and tearing our hair out at the end of the visits now lol. Then we called round to Post Lady's house so that I could drop off a picture of her daughters with her. Mr Messy had used the photograph for a promotion he was running last year, before we fell out, and when the promotion had finished we didn't know what to do with it! Its too good a picture to just throw away, but he didn't want to use it in any other promotions as the family could have complained or objected. So we've just stored the picture at our house ever since the promotion finished. Now that my friendship with Post Lady has resumed, although a lot more distant than we were before, it made sense to give them the picture. I got a message from Post Lady later saying how much she loved the photograph and how much she appreciated us giving it to her.

We then had to drive back to the motorway to go and pick Drama Teen back up again. We got to the major junction near OUR shop, and were delayed by a serious accident right in the middle of the junction. There only seemed to be one car, but the front end was completely concertina-ed. There were two Ambulance men working on someone in the back of the car, which worries me as it could be a child :-( Someone is probably going to have a pretty bad Christmas :-( The Police eventually allowed me to turn at the junction, and we carried on our way. The traffic was very heavily built up, so I decided we would visit the supermarket and pick up some more bits and pieces before coming home, to give everything a chance to clear up. Once we picked Drama Teen up, I got her to ring Mr Messy and let him know that's what we'd be doing - she was already worried about where I was as I was 20 minutes late! And after our skidding about earlier she was worried I might have crashed!!

Mr Messy asked us to call in at the DIY Shop to see if they had any of the cheap heaters they'd been advertising on their website, to use to warm up OUR shop. He's been freezing in there all week!! Unfortunately they were sold out, but they gave me their number so that I can ring and check if they've had another delivery and reserve one before going to pick it up. I'd left the three children in the car, as Princess Lollipop was fast asleep - she'd woken up moments after I'd left and had been sobbing for Mummy ever since :-( Even adopting her so young and having with us for over 18 months now, and me barely having any time away from her, hasn't negated the fact that she seems so insecure about whether or not I'll come back :-( I'll just have to keep on with the attachment parenting and hope that one day she does feel more secure.

We managed to get everything we needed/wanted from the Supermarket - even our normal weekly 6 loaves of bread - yes SIX loaves of bread per WEEK!! I laughingly assured the checkout girl that I wasn't panic buying - this is normal for us!! It was quite late by the time we left the supermarket, so we went over to Macs to get the littlies a drive through. As I was ordering Princess Lollipop was behind me bellowing "Titchin hot hot" (chicken hot hot otherwise known as nuggets!) I'm not sure what the server made of that lol.

It was a good two hours or more after we had first driven past the accident near OUR shop, when we drove back through the same junction. And they were only just moving the concertina-ed car! It must have been pretty bad for them to be only just moving it :-( I hope whoever was involved is ok and just has a smashed up car to deal with..

When we got home Little Prince decided he wanted to watch an underwater archaeology programme with Daddy. However, he was way too excited and hyped up to even look at the TV, so eventually I persuaded him that it would be a lot more fun to go and read in bed for a while instead. This lowered Mr Messy's blood pressure as he was trying to watch the programme, which was all about recovering a crashed WWII Lancaster from the sea. Once Little Prince was tucked up in bed I put our tea on, sorted out some more washing and cleared up the kitchen. Princess Lollipop snuggled up on her Daddy's knee, until I came back and she demanded to get down and go to Mummy - I know this upsets Mr Messy but I don't know how to change it :-( At the moment Princess Lollipop seems to be getting more clingy to me rather than less :-(

After we'd eaten our tea I got the very tired Princess Lollipop settled down for bed, and then helped Drama Teen empty the shopping out of the car. We got it all put away, but trying to fit anything else in the freezer was a nightmare!! We had to play freezer tetris, to try and fit everything in - but we finally managed it :-) Then Drama Teen made a batch of buns, as part of her Christmas present to her Boyfriend. She is going to ice the buns with one letter each of "Merry Christmas" :-) While we were getting the shopping from the car and putting it away Little Prince came downstairs multiple times, and ended up getting shouted at before actually staying in his room and settling down! This seems to be his new norm, rather than wake up at a ridiculously early hour he stays up later and later each night!

Once he was finally settled and I was sure he wasn't coming downstairs again, I got to facetime chat with LMS :-) I love love love this application on Mr Messy's phone, and its so special to be able to see my biggest (well oldest at least lol) baby while chatting to her :-) I really cherish our chats and never want to hang up, I usually flatten the battery on Mr Messy's phone we talk for that long lol. It is beginning to really hit me that she won't be home for Christmas - the first time EVER she won't be with us for Christmas. I've been pushing this fact, quite successfully, to the back of my mind and its only now as Christmas is almost upon us that it is actually sinking in. I'm trying to be brave and hold onto the fact that LMS is where she wants to be and with who she wants to be with, but it still hurts so much that she isn't here. I miss her so much :-( I know you read this blog LMS and I'm not saying this to get at you, or to try and make you feel bad - I'm just recording my feelings. I hope that you have a fantastic Christmas with your American Boyfriend and that you start to make traditions that will follow you through your future together and memories that you will always cherish. And although you will be sorely missed here, we will still have a fantastic joy (and toy lol) filled Christmas, and we will be able to share a little on facetime too :-)

Random Ramblings

Little Prince has been getting more and more upset about missing his birth family, more specifically his Birth Mum. This has been building up for a couple of years now, and he is now of an age where the enormity of his loss is sinking in :-( He keeps telling me he wants "his family" for Christmas, and no he doesn't mean us the family he lives with. His background is such that we wouldn't object to having direct contact with birth family, so I've been in touch with his Placing Authority to ask them to look into it. There are many, many things to consider before moving forward - would it be in Little Prince's best interests? Would he be able to cope with all the emotions this would bring up for him? Given his ASD and probable ADHD how will this affect his behaviour? Can we support him through this? And also how would Birth Mum cope? Would she even want to have contact with Little Prince and us? What would she get out of the contact? Would she be able to sustain the contact? Would she be able to act in Little Prince's best interests at any contact meetings? And there are probably many many more issues that we need to explore before we decide to go ahead or not. For my own part, I have always known that although Little Prince is utterly my much beloved son, he is not only mine - he is Birth Mum's too - he is ours, we will always share him. I can't and would never want to change that, it is a fact of adoptive parenting that I am completely at peace with. Perhaps because I was already a mother for 15 years before we adopted Little Prince, so I was secure in my position as a Mum and know that is what I am to Little Prince whether I gave birth to him or not. I have only ever had qualms about sharing Little Prince once when he was very little, he used to add the suffix "ily" (like at the end of famILY) to everyone's name in the family - so I was Mum-ily (Daddy was Dad-ily etc). One day when we were looking at photographs of his birth family, he pointed to Birth Mum and said Tummy Mum-ily, and there I had an instant pang of "NO that's MY name" which I had to keep inside and ignore, after all it was my issue and not Little Prince's - if he wanted to call his Birth Mum Tummy Mum-ily then it was his right and prerogative. I had to look at why I was possessive about that name, and work to get over it, and I am. I don't feel threatened or possessive about Little Prince wanting to see his Birth Mum, given the way he has always talked and acted, I have always known that he would want contact, so it is something that I have been considering for years now. I think that if all the issues can be worked out, that next Summer holidays could be a good time to have a contact meeting. Little Prince won't have school straight after an intensely emotional meeting, and will have time to work through his feelings, and possibly act them out too and hopefully settle down before he has to return to school. It is also away from the emotional stresses he feels about Christmas and his birthday (January). And given the fact that he WILL at some point want to initiate contact, I think now before puberty wreaks its hormonal havoc, would be a good time for him too. His Placing Authority will be getting back in touch in the New Year, and we will be having meetings to discuss all of this and the implications, many of which we probably haven't even considered yet. And until all that is ironed out we aren't mentioning anything to Little Prince, he so wants, craves and needs this contact that I don't want to raise his hopes and then have them dashed.

And now for some light relief!! The cats have a new toy and its making my stomach churn!! Its a dead and now frozen solid mouse on the patio!! I have been trying to work up the courage to go out and dispose of it, but I heave every time I think about it :-( URGH!!!

Tuesday

As usual Mr Messy took Little Prince to school and then went to OUR shop. I stayed at home and had a lie in with Princess Lollipop and then we had a quiet morning. Well the bathing wasn't quiet as Princess Lollipop objected loudly, but the rest of the morning was pretty quiet. I decided that I had to pull my socks up and get on with Christmas!! So this afternoon when Mr Messy brought Drama Teen home from college (she finished early) I got her to look after Princess Lollipop while I got on with writing my cards (finally!!). Her Boyfriend arrived not long afterwards so the pair of them babysat in the lounge while I frantically wrote cards in the dining room. Drama Teen and Boyfriend walked up to school to pick up Little Prince from school, so that I didn't have to spend ages defrosting my car (its stayed frozen solid all day!) and so that Princess Lollipop could stay inside and warm :-) When they all got back they looked after the littlies for me while I finished writing/addressing all the cards. Little Prince sat with me and chatted after he'd got fed up with what Drama Teen and Boyfriend had on TV. He told me all about his school Christmas party today, he'd had a great time :-)

When I'd finished writing all the cards, me and Little Prince put all the cards we received on display on the bookshelves in the hallway. Its the only Christmas decorations we've got up so far, but its a start!! Mr Messy had arrived home, so Drama Teen and Boyfriend had scampered upstairs to watch a film they wanted to see, leaving Princess Lollipop with her Daddy. I got on with making the littlies tea while supervising Little Prince doing his jobs - emptying the dishwasher and crushing the cans and putting them in the recycle bin. He whinges about doing it, and needs supervising, but it is still a great help :-) By the time they had finished eating it was too late for me to put mine and Mr Messy's tea on, as he had to drive Boyfriend home, which takes an hour! We are both getting increasingly fed up with the fact that Boyfriend's family refuse to do any of the ferrying him back and forth, and as the village is very poorly served by public transport, that it is ALWAYS us doing the driving!

I got Little Prince and Princess Lollipop settled in bed while everyone else was out, and I snuggled under a couple of blankets on the sofa and watched an episode of Ghost Whisperer. When they got home Drama Teen prepared herself one of her microwave pasta meals that she is addicted to, while I cooked for me and Mr Messy. It was about 10pm by the time we finally got to eat!!

Monday

Mr Messy took Little Prince up to school and sorted out with his teacher what he was supposed to be bringing to the Class Christmas Party. He had brought home a list that his group had compiled, but it wasn't very clear what on earth he was supposed to bring - Little Prince thought he had to bring everything on the list, when in fact he was supposed to only bring one or two items and the others in the group were bringing the rest! On the way back from school Mr Messy collected some parcels from the Post Office, thankfully the backlog of post we have been waiting for has started to arrive :-) The best thing of all was that all the things I'd ordered for Lil Sis's kids Christmas/birthday presents finally arrived :-) Yeah, I was getting so worried that I'd let them down.

Princess Lollipop has still got a tummy bug, or that's what we assume is causing the absolutely foul smelling wind! She was pretty clingy and wanted to be sat on or next to me the whole day. Which meant I didn't get a whole lot done!!

We did have a surprise visit from Baby Bro's partner, who dropped off the kids Christmas pressies and then stayed for a cup of tea and chat. She admitted she was procrastinating over getting back in the car and having to drive on the slippery roads. It was lovely to see her and to catch up a little before she had to go and visit her own family.

Princess Lollipop had a very late nap, and I had to wake her up after about half an hour to go and collect Little Prince from school. She was NOT happy about that!! Then when we got out of the car to walk up to the playground she was even more unhappy as the dreaded snow was back! She insisted on clinging onto my hand and walking very slowly the whole way :-) She didn't even leave my side to run over to Little Prince when she saw him come out of his classroom - she does NOT like moving in the snow!

When we got back home Little Prince did his usual job of opening Princess Lollipop's chocolate Advent Calendar (or choc choc mowow/chocolate tomorrow as she insists its called). He hadn't opened his own this morning, so he did that too and was extremely disappointed to find there was no chocolate! He has had a couple of days where he's found two chocs in one window, so I had warned him that there would be a day where he wouldn't have a chocolate! But he lives in the moment and two choccies in the mouth are worth it, until you get a no choccie day!! To cheer him up I told him that Daddy was going to take him round to see Mad Cat Lady when he got home from OUR shop. Little Prince was super excited about that, as Mad Cat Lady's business has been booming this last year and she's been so busy he hasn't been able to spend time at her house for ages. I managed to persuade him to let Mr Messy have a sit down, warm up and cup of tea before he started pestering to go to Mad Cat Lady's house!! Then Mr Messy told us he'd found Father Christmas's email address and we spent some time composing an apology message to send, we got an almost instant reply which Little Prince found very comforting and is back to looking forward to Christmas morning again :-)

While the "boys" were out I got Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop's tea, thinking that me and Mr Messy could eat when we went out later to the supermarket. However, by the time they got back it was obvious that Princess Lollipop had a very uncomfortable tummy, she kept lying down cyring "Ow tumpum" (ow tum tum). We decided that Mr Messy and Drama Teen would go to the supermarket and I'd stay here with Princess Lollipop. Drama Teen helped to get Little Prince settled in bed and then they set off. I got Princess Lollipop settled down for the night, and took her upstairs to her cot. Just after I put her down the phone rang three times one after the other! This, of course, woke her up and Little Prince got to her before I did, which upset her even more as she just wanted Mummy. I tried to comfort her back to sleep, whilst talking to Baby Sis on the phone. Baby Sis's baby had been back in hospital today with a swollen tummy, and I'd been so worried. Thankfully Baby Sis was ringing to say that they'd been sent home again. Baby had had an x-ray that showed "something" but the consultant wasn't sure what it was, so she was going to contact some colleagues to discuss the x-ray results and wants to see Baby again next week sometime. Baby Sis was reassured that it wasn't too much to worry about, or they would have kept Baby in and not allowed them to go home. And also the consultant reassured the worried parents that Baby was feeding, gaining weight and was sleeping well and alert when she was awake, so they are to try not to worry.

Princess Lollipop was having none of going back to sleep, so I reluctantly brought her back downstairs. I was just settling her again when my Mum rang. Its always lovely to talk to Mum, but my family's timing tonight has been a bit off lol. Thanks for the support and encouragement about Little Prince's recent behaviour Mum, it really helped :-)

Not long after I'd finished talking to my Mum, Drama Teen rang up to say they were just leaving the supermarket and would be home soon! Its ringing world here tonight lol!!! I still hadn't got Princess Lollipop settled by the time they got home and there was no chance after that - she wanted to see her Daddy and Sister, so I gave up and let her have a play for a while. Whenever I'd say "night night time" to her she'd grin and reply "Na night soon" lol, cheeky monster :-) We watched Noel's Christmas Presents programme we'd taped this weekend, and marvelled at all the heartwarming stories of the present recipients, they are some of the most truly deserving people and its fantastic seeing them receive their surprises :-)

I finally got Princess Lollipop to sleep and Mr Messy took her to her cot, again! He said she was a bit disturbed and he had to settle her back down again while he was upstairs. We are probably in for a rough night, especially if this tummy bug is bothering her more. Once she was settled in her cot, I finally got to eat my white Maltesers, yum. I didn't get to drink the bottle of coke I'd left in the car though as when I got it out it was frozen solid!! Told you it was cold!! Mr Messy didn't stay up too much longer before he too went off to bed. I stayed up (to ridiculous o'clock!!) to get this blog back up to date and now I'm off to bed myself. At least it might be warm up there, the lounge is now freezing as the heating is off for the night!!! Brrrr!!

Sunday

We had a very quiet Sunday, well me and the littlies did anyway! Mr Messy and Drama Teen went out early to deliver some images to a client. She was so excited that she couldn't unwrap them and Mr Messy had to do it for her lol. She LOVED the photographs and is already talking about the next shoot she wants to book :-) That's the kind of client we like to have :-)

Mr Messy then had to drop Drama Teen off at the cinema to meet her Boyfriend so they could finally get to see the latest Harry Potter film together! Afterwards she was going to spend the rest of the day Christmas shopping with Boyfriend, before going back to his grandparent's house, where Mr Messy was picking her up from in the evening.

We were supposed to be finally getting around to putting the Christmas decorations up that evening, but no one was feeling up to it so we put it off again. We'll have to do it soon or there will be no point!!!

Saturday

Mr Messy and Drama Teen had a photoshoot on Saturday morning, so me and the littlies had to go over to OUR shop to take over there while they were out. OUR shop had degenerated into quite a mess with Mr Messy in sole charge!! And as well as all the clutter and mess, there were loads of completed orders awaiting collection/delivery to clients! This meant that it wasn't as safe for Princess Lollipop to play as it usually was, and she got very frustrated at me having to stop her grabbing things she shouldn't have! Little Prince also found it very difficult, as he gets all worked up about having to behave himself while in OUR shop! Little Prince tried really hard to behave and mostly managed!! Although it was still a pretty stressful few hours until Mr Messy and Drama Teen returned!

When they had returned and I'd laid down the law about keeping OUR shop tidy, and given them both a list of jobs to complete, I took the littlies back to the car. To reward them for trying so hard to behave, I took them out for lunch. Then we visited the next door Garden Centre, which I told them was to look at all the pretty Christmas decorations. Little Prince soon sussed me out when he noticed we were following signs saying "Santa's Grotto" and he got more and more excited. The queue was quite long and I was pretty worried about how Little Prince would cope with all the hanging around, but he managed really well. He did go and look at some of the nearby shop displays, and I had to make him stop messing with the books waiting to be bought! He noticed that at the entrance to the Grotto there was a fake snow machine that "snowed" every ten minutes or so, not expecting him to remember I asked him not to go in the snow until after we'd seen Father Christmas so that he wouldn't be covered in it on the photograph! I was extremely proud of him as he listened and remembered the whole time we were waiting, and didn't go anywhere near it :-)

When it was finally our turn we went in through the door, I was following the litties, and I expected Princess Lollipop to stop dead in the doorway as soon as she saw who was there and start saying "UP Mummy" she totally surprised me and when she walked in and excitedly shouted "DANTA" and then went and climbed on his knee!! She didn't speak except to repeat "Danta" over and over, but she sat there quite happily and we managed to get a gorgeous photograph of both of the littlies (both smiling) with Father Christmas :-) They were both given their gifts and we went back outside, I took Princess Lollipop over to one side while she delicately opened her present and looked after Little Prince's which he'd already ripped open, while he went to "get snowed." There was a hold up with the photo printing so we went for a walk round the Garden Centre while we waited and Little Prince excitedly chatted about his visit with Father Christmas. He also admitted that he was very worried he was only going to get coal for Christmas as he'd been so naughty lately :-( I told him that I'd help him write to Father Christmas and apologise and promise to try not to do things like that again, and that we'd just have to hope that would be enough to get him back on the "nice list." He was pretty cheered up by that idea :-)

We returned to the Grotto to collect our photo and I was thrilled by it, both littlies were smiling and looking gorgeous :-) Which was a minor Christmas Miracle in itself - Little Prince HATES having photos with flash (it hurts his eyes) and Princess Lollipop won't go near strangers (apart from Danta obviously!!) and I was thrilled to bits. I'm going to get Mr Messy to scan the photograph so that I can email copies to aunties, uncles and grandparents :-)

In the evening me and Little Prince dropped Drama Teen off at the bus station to meet her Boyfriend and a group of his friends, so that they could attend a birthday party together. On the way home me and Little Prince tried to order a Chinese Takeaway, but they didn't take card payments and I had no cash on me, so we had to drive to a different Takeaway to get our tea. It was worth it though as it was very yummy :-) Mr Messy picked Drama Teen up later that evening, even though he was suffering with a very bad headache, poor man :-(

More Blogging

I've not blogged for a little while as I've been so upset over Little Prince's latest antics. The snow melted and we could see the utter devastation he has wreaked in the garden. While I thought he was playing nicely in the snow, instead he has been raiding his Dad's tool shed and destroying everything in his path. He has taken tools out and scattered them all over the garden, which as they've been out in the snow all this time, means they are ruined. He has got tins of paint and smashed them open with a hammer and there is paint spilt all over the york stone patio, his climbing frame and slide. The scariest one of all is he got his Dad's gas powered blow torch and smashed the gas cannister! And to top it all he smashed every window he could reach in the cottage at the bottom of the garden and scattered glass all over the garden too. He has previously been caught messing in the tool shed, and was severely told off and he promised he would never do it again. I am so upset that he HAS done it again and can't believe all the wanton destruction he has caused. He has also found the Christmas tins of chocolates on top of the kitchen cabinets and been climbing up there and stuffing his face! And when he had his friend J round to play they jumped on his bed so hard that they broke one of the slats! All this so soon after the ADHD Nurse told us that he would only be prescribed medication on school days, makes me wonder how on earth we are going to cope as he gets older. He is getting more sneaky with his mischief, whereas before what you saw is what you got, everything was out in the open. I don't like this new development and I'm not sure how much more supervision I can give him, I already treat him like a big toddler and he has to stay close to me, but still he manages to create this chaos around himself :-(

I need to find a way to channel his energy into constructive rather than destructive directions, but constantly dealing with all of this has left me so worn out and depressed that I can't see any way to move forward positively at the moment. I love my little man with all my heart, but he is getting harder and harder to parent and I don't know where I can pull more resources from, I'm already giving everything I have. Hopefully we will get some respite after Christmas, has birthday and Letterbox Contact, so in a few months things will calm down again, and it won't look so bleak.

Tuesday Appointment Day

The Nurse from the ADHD Dept was due to come for a home visit this morning. We received a phone call from her at about 8am, but no one managed to get to the phone in time! She wanted to check what the whether was like over where we live, before she set off! I walked round with the phone for the next 3/4s of an hour to make sure I didn't miss another call from her! When she rang again, she said she was a bit nervous about coming out to us as she had got stuck in the snow and had to be dug out twice on Friday!! I assured her that if she stuck to the motorway and main A road she would be fine to visit. Luckily I persuaded her not to cancel the visit and she arrived about an hour later.

I gave her all the forms that we'd been sent by the ADHD Dept, I hadn't been able to post them to her sooner as school had been closed and I'd only had the form from them last Friday. She understood and wasn't bothered. I've just got to get a copy of Little Prince's last school report and send that in, I can only find the year before last's report!!

The Nurse started to ask questions to fill in another form, starting with the basics - full name, date of birth etc. She started to ask about pregnancy and birth, which didn't get very far as Little Prince is adopted and we don't know his birth family's medical history or about his birth Mother's pregnancy with him or his birth. She then asked me what were the main issues with we had with Little Prince's behaviour. After we'd been through all the different issues we have, she said we would be seen by the Consultant Paediatrician in the New Year, and to allow 2-3 hours for the appointment. She also made me aware that the only "treatment" offered by the ADHD Dept is medication and discussed the pros and cons of that and what the checks would be on how it is or isn't helping Little Prince. She also said that they only usually prescribe medication to be taken during the school week, and not at weekends or in school holidays. This will obviously help Little Prince at school, which he definitely needs, but I'm not sure how much difference it will make to our family life :-(

We discussed Little Prince's diagnosis of ASD, she wasn't convinced that the route to diagnosis taken by the previous Hospital was the correct one. She is going to recommend that he also be referred to the local CAHMS Autism Unit for a reassessment of this diagnosis. She feels that if his Autism is either so mild or non existent, that it is doing him a disservice having that on his medical record, as it could have serious repercussions on his adult life, he would be barred from some career paths because of the Autism diagnosis. After fighting so hard to accept this diagnosis applied to MY boy, I am now in two minds about its withdrawal!! He does seem to display a fair few Autistic like behaviours, and this diagnosis has got him a lot of support in school, which he desperately needs! So will it be in his best interests to take that diagnosis away?

Minutes after the ADHD Nurse had left, Mr Messy arrived home with Princess Lollipop. He dropped her back off with me and went back to OUR shop to get some work done. I got her settled down for a short nap, before I had to get us both ready to go and pick Little Prince up to go to our joint Podiatry appointments. We went straight in at the Podiatry Clinic, and she saw both of us within about 15 minutes. I explained that I have been having a lot of pain in the recent cold weather, and she said that the only solution to that would be steroid injections, so I'll have to think carefully about if and when to go ahead with that. I decided I could put up with the pain at the moment! She checked Little Prince by getting him to stand on tiptoes on one foot and then the other, which showed he was healed and getting stronger. As he is hypermobile she wants to keep an eye on him until he stops growing, so she is going to review us both again in 6 months.

Both littlies demanded something to eat when we left the Podiatry Clinic, so as usual we went over to the fast food restaurant! We go there WAY to much!!! Part way there Little Prince changed his mind and said he wanted to go back to school and have a friend over to play instead! He was in such a bad mood that we got a drive through instead of risking him playing up if I took him inside the restaurant itself! He carried on being in a BAD mood the whole time we were all eating, and then moaned the whole way home too. I hate days like this!! But I got myself so stressed and worried over this morning's ADHD Nurse appointment that I couldn't have coped with him having his friend J over to play!!

At home the littlies played chase and run up and down the lounge, and had a great time. Although Princess Lollipop has learnt how to win, she runs half way along the lounge (with Little Prince ahead of her) and then turns back and gets back to the beginning first. Then she giggles madly and looks so pleased with herself :-)

Mr Messy has just rung up to say that Drama Teen will be getting off her college bus at OUR shop instead of at home. The bus has been incredibly delayed and at only 10 minutes before she is normally at home they have only just left the college town!! This is the same town I got stuck in yesterday, so perhaps its caused by the volume of Christmas shoppers!!

Monday Catch Up

I woke up still cross with Mr Messy so decided to stay at home and not go to OUR shop. Then I discovered today was the day for the planned power cut, in the village while the Electricity Company do some major repairs. So we had no lights, no heating, no TV, no phone and no internet. There was no way I was sitting shivering at home all day, so me and Princess Lollipop went out to get some more Christmas shopping done. We had set off pretty late in the morning, so the car parks were chock a block! After a few drives round I finally snagged a space!! I didn't really have anything specific I was shopping for, I just wanted to see what I could find for stocking fillers. I did want to buy yet another car charger for my phone, for some reason they keep falling apart in the cigarette lighter bit of my car!! My phone was completely flat and I don't like driving around in the middle of nowhere (where we live!) with no way of being able to ring anyone if something happens! I managed to find quite a lot of good stuff for the kids, and presents for Little Prince and Princess Lollipop from Grandma and Grandad. Normally they will buy the children something, but with the weather being like it has been I'm sorting it out this year.

I left town with over an hour left to get to school to pick Little Prince up, and even that wasn't long enough!! The traffic leaving town was dreadful and it took over half an hour to get out, and then I seemed to get stuck behind every slow driver EVER for the rest of the journey!! I was five minutes late picking Little Prince up, and he was so upset :-( The new phone charger didn't work so I couldn't ring Mr Messy to get him, or school to let them know I'd be a few minutes late, so I felt dreadful :-( Little Prince was in a bad mood for most of the evening because of the worry this had caused him :-( We got home and found the power still wasn't back on and wasn't due back on until 5pm, it was already going dark and the thought of sitting shivering in the cold and dark with Little Prince was NOT appealing, so we drove over to OUR shop instead. Little Prince was stressed about me being late, and stressed because we'd changed our routine and not gone home, and stressed because he didn't have a friend come over to play! So taking him to OUR shop wasn't the best solution, but it was the only one I could come up with!! As soon as we got there Drama Teen started to tell Little Prince off for every little thing he did, not helping his mood! I tried to get him to sit quietly and play on the internet, but my computer had lost its connection and Mr Messy was busy editing so didn't have chance to look at it for ages. It was quite a fraught visit to OUR shop and as soon as it got to about 4.45pm I took the littlies off home again. Luckily the power was back on and the house was starting to warm up again. Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived home pretty soon after we did and brought chippie tea for us all, we'd arranged that just in case the power wasn't back on and we couldn't cook!

Another Catch Up Post

Saturday
Mr Messy and Drama Teen were busy at the shop all day, so we didn't see them much at all. In the morning me and the littlies went out to buy a present for Little Prince's friend H's birthday party that afternoon. I foolishly took the back road to the local town, thinking that the snow was clearing and that it would be safe! It was a total nightmare to drive and we slipped and slid our way to town at 20mph the whole way!! We didn't have long to buy the present, and I'd brought paper, sellotape etc to wrap it in the car. Once that was sorted I got the littlies a drive through fast food meal, and we took the longer (but safer) way back home again. I dropped Little Prince off at his friend's house, and they said they would be dropping the children back home after bowling and a meal at around 4pm. I was planning to be at home for the rest of the day, so that was no problem. He ended up being dropped off at nearer 5pm and had had a great time and really enjoyed himself. He had won one of the games of bowling, and this made his day :-) Instead of a party bag the children were given a small selection box (a great idea) and without me saying anything he shared with Princess Lollipop, what a sweetie :-)
When Mr Messy and Drama Teen came home from OUR shop they brought Drama Teen's Boyfriend with them too. He'd got the bus over so that he could spend some time with Drama Teen, they have been missing each other as the weather has meant they haven't been able to see each other much for a while. When it was time to drop Boyfriend off (at the cinema rather than home, which was great as that is much nearer) I took them so that Mr Messy could have a relax after his hectic day in OUR shop. We went down the motorway and had no problems with the roads at all. I made a detour on the way home to try yet a different supermarket to see if they had the item I wanted (a t-shirt for my nephew's birthday) finally we found it YEAH :-) We also found quite a few other bits and bobs for Christmas too :-) Some of which I was actually looking for!! I drove us back towards the motorway, but ended up auto-piloting to my usual route home, and it was ages before I realised my mistake! The roads were mostly clear until we got nearer to home, and the last stretch of back road into the village was horrendous. I didn't even drive at 10mph and was still slipping all over the place! Drama Teen was a complete hero and kept talking to me the whole time, which really helped, although I now have no idea what she had been saying lol. We passed a car upended in the ditch, which Drama Teen had seen but hoped I wouldn't notice - I did and it terrified me! I was so relieved to reach our house and be able to sit down and relax. Horrible horrible journey :-(

Sunday
I had been obsessively checking the weather forecasts and decided that today would be my chance to go and see my sisters new babies :-) FINALLY :-) We got up and were ready well in time, but then I couldn't get the in car DVDs to work - the one journey I really need them ARGH!! Then we got well into our journey and I realised I'd forgotten my niece and nephew's birthday presents and the presents for the new babies, so we had to turn back and pick them up!! I took the motorway the whole way there and there was no problem with snow or ice at all. The problem happened when I missed the junction (I don't normally travel via the motorway) and it took me ages to find a way to get where we were going (whilst also trying not to let the littlies know that we were lost!). We eventually arrived at Little Sis's house, and I was exhausted!! Little Prince played on his Gameboy with his cousins, but Princess Lollipop was glued to my knee for the majority of the visit. I think she was overwhelmed by being in a new(ish) place (we don't get to visit as often as I'd like to), by her cousins wanting to play with her and talk to her and by Mummy holding the new baby!! I ended up holding my new niece, a Tigger toy and Princess Lollipop all on my knee - not easy balancing all of them lol. My new niece is gorgeous and sooo small and was wearing a lovely little Minnie Mouse outfit - which Princess Lollipop was very impressed by, much more than she was impressed by her new cousin lol. Little Prince held baby and was extremely gentle with her - I was impressed by this :-) Well done Little Prince :-)
After that we visited my parent's and Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were very excited at seeing Grandma and Grandad :-) We had lunch there and the littlies had a play, before a friend of Grandma's arrived to deliver a Christmas present to her. We all chatted for a while longer before it was time for us to leave and go and visit my other sister and her new baby!!
Baby Sis's baby arrived 5 weeks early, and has been ill with jaundice and they were only allowed home very recently, so I warned Little Prince that he would have to be very good and try to stay very calm for this visit. He mostly managed! I had thought Little Sis's new baby was small, but Baby Sis's baby is itsy bitsy!! She really is a teeny tiny little dot! Baby Sis is a LOT younger than I am, and she's always felt like one of "my girls" in a lot of ways, LMS agrees and says she feels Auntie Baby Sis is more like a sister to her than an auntie. So it was very moving (and nearly made me cry) seeing my baby with her baby, and she looks so natural at it already even though baby is only 10 days old. Baby Sis's Fiance is (and was always going to be lol) an overprotective and very proud new Daddy, but he was gracious enough to allow both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop to hold his precious new daughter, thank you D, I really appreciated that. It was so funny seeing his soft and gooey side, he normally puts on a very macho front, but we all know he's a pushover really :-) I even got a turn at holding baby, after Daddy had had his turn, he wanted to hold her as her eyes were open :-) We ended up staying longer than I intended and it was already dark when we left! I took the littlies out for something to eat, and that seemed to settle them both down and they slept most of the way home - a much easier journey!! This morning's journey was a constant refrain of "UP Mummy" or "Fix it Mick-Mick" (fix the DVD players) and crying from Princess Lollipop :-( Once again I was exhausted when I got home, I'm not used to driving that far now that Drama Teen doesn't have regular Orthodontic appointments over there any more!!
The trouble is, Mr Messy was very tired too, he's been sleeping on Princess Lollipop's side of our bed and has had 4 nights of disturbed sleep. So we ended up having a huge row and he slept downstairs for part of the night!

Catch Up Time

Well Little Prince being back at school didn't last long, we got a call on Tuesday morning to say that school would be closing at lunchtime and could we collect him from school! No idea why as the majority of the teachers and pupils live locally so can make it into school, the reason given was "Health and Safety"!! So once again Little Prince was at home causing chaos!! We've now found out that he's knocked down some of the new guttering we had replaced not long ago, by throwing things at the icicles up there!! Not only did he knock it down but he's jumped on it and completely trashed it too. And he's knocked out and smashed the low lying drain pipes for the washing machine and shower too!! We've been in touch with the builder who is hoping to get over to us to see what he can do!! All this happened in a corner of the garden that I can't see from the huge patio windows in the lounge, so I didn't know what he'd been up to!! And I suppose most small boys have either tried it or wanted to try it - but he's wee'd in the snow in the garden too!! Twice!! The first time because he wanted to see what would happen (and he is now convinced there is acid in wee as it melted the snow!!) and the second time because he needed the toilet very quick and didn't want to run in the house in his wet wellies and coat and get everywhere wet!! Well that was his excuse and he's sticking to it!!

On Wednesday me and Mr Messy went out in the evening to the supermarket - I HAD to get out of the house, and to be quite honest away from the children!! Although we did have to take Princess Lollipop with us, Drama Teen looked after Little Prince for us. It was lovely to get out and about, but absolutely perishingly cold!!

On Thursday I dragged the children to a different supermarket to see if they had the things I needed! Unfortunately they didn't, but I still managed to spend a fortune!! I've now managed to buy my Christmas cards, I just have to get on with writing them and get them in the post!! I was so organised and doing so well before the snow arrived - I had planned for Mr Messy to take Princess Lollipop to OUR shop for a few mornings so I could get the wrapping up and card writing done and then everything would be more or less sorted!! Well now its so cold at OUR shop, we only have one inefficient storage heater for the whole place that it wouldn't be fair to send Princess Lollipop and besides Little Prince has been here most of the last two weeks too, and he doesn't cope with being in OUR shop at all well!! So as per usual, I'm on the very last second with all my Xmas preps!! Urgh!!!

On Friday, Little Prince's school finally re-opened!! I don't know why they bothered for just the one day lol. But at least it gave me a little bit of peace from the manic-ness that he is consumed by at the moment. The dreaded December attack of madness (that doesn't really calm down until well after his birthday in January) has been even harder this year as he's been at home so much!! I got a few bits and bobs done round the house, but not too much as Princess Lollipop must be missing having everyone around and was very clingy all day!

Thank goodness it looks like the snow is starting to thaw a little bit :-) I can actually see through the sheet of ice to the pavement now!! Although it seems slipperier than ever!!! When we went to collect Little Prince from school this afternoon, Princess Lollipop was objecting (loudly!) at having to walk on the snow "No like it no" (No like it snow) every time she was anywhere near it - even though the pavement outside school was completely cleared and gritted!!

Mr Messy dropped Drama Teen and a few friends off at college this morning as the village buses are still not running. And one of the friend's Mums dropped the girls off this afternoon, she didn't want to drive over to our village so dropped Drama Teen at OUR shop. Once she had arrived she and Mr Messy went to the DIY shop to get some supplies he needed to hang some acrylic samples in OUR shop. He's already hung one, but isn't happy with how safe it is and wanted to get some different hooks to hang it on - it does look pretty spectacular though :-) They ate while they were out, so I put a pizza on for me and the littlies. I didn't get any of it!! Both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop at half a pizza each!! Neither of them are tubby in any way, but they can't half pack away the calories!! I had to settle for a snack later lol.

Monday

Little Prince's school has finally re-opened!! The school had one of the local farmers clear the staff car park so the teachers had somewhere to park. The playground is still thick with snow so all the children were being directed to enter through the car park when Mr Messy dropped Little Prince off this morning.

Drama Teen's college has also re-opened but none of the local buses are running so she still can't get there! So she has gone down to OUR shop with Mr Messy. The local High School hasn't opened up again yet (probably because of the lack of buses) so the girl who was on work experience last week, has also gone to OUR shop to help out. She is either extremely keen, or her parents want a bit of peace lol. They are all sorting out some extra editing from one of the recent photo shoots, the clients saw the photos and loved them but requested some extra editing before ordering.

Me and Princess Lollipop are once again at home :-( Although it is slightly more peaceful and not as fraught with Little Prince being at school!! Mr Messy is calling in at our friend's Designer Children's Boutique at lunchtime to order Princess Lollipop a snowsuit, so once she has that we will be a little more mobile again. Well that always supposes that the buggy will move on all the sheet ice outside!!! I don't think the cleared part of the pavement is wide enough for a buggy, so I'll be slipping and sliding up the roads!!

Sick of Snow!!!

I've got cabin fever!! I'm sick to death of being stuck in the house!! S.I.CK. GO AWAY SNOW!!!!!!!!!

Frozen Friday - more being stuck in the house. School is still closed. More Little Prince playing in the garden, but not as often or for as long! Even he's getting bored with the snow!! Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to OUR shop to get more editing done.

Shivery Saturday - see above!!

Stone cold Sunday - see above!! Mr Messy dropped Drama Teen off in Boyfriend's town, she was pining for him! And needed to get her Christmas shopping done!! Mr Messy needed to get more editing done, he's almost caught up now. When it was time for Mr Messy to pick Drama Teen up, we all went out - wow fresh air!! We travelled down the motorway as the side roads we usually use were full of frozen snow and it was like driving on glass! When we picked her up we went out for tea at McDonalds - even that tastes good when its not in the house lol. The drive home took ages, so it was Little Prince's bedtime when we got there, he wasn't happy about that, or about the prospect of going to school tomorrow! Even though he's been missing his friends! He was up and down and up and down and it was really late before he actually went to sleep! Drama Teen spent the evening in her room doing her homework/chatting on the internet. I went to bed early with Princess Lollipop as I've been feeling under the weather for a few days now.

Thick Snow Thursday!

Me and Mr Messy were woken by a phone call at 7am this morning! It was my Baby Sis letting us know that she'd had the baby 5 weeks early and that she and newest baby niece are doing well. She has to stay in hospital for a couple of days to make sure both she and baby are healthy before they go home. Baby Sis seemed a little shell shocked that everything had happened so quickly - she only finished work earlier this week!! I can't believe that I have another new niece and that the weather is so awful that I can't get to see either of them :-( I have seen photos and both of the new little ones are gorgeous - but I want to get over there and give them a hug and I can't :-( I can't even get out to shop for this newest arrival!!! Argh!!!

Mr Messy had to go to OUR shop today, as his photo editing computer is there not at home any more. As he was getting ready to go it started to snow pretty heavily and I was getting really worried! I made him take his wallet with him so that he could stay over in one of the local Hotels or B&Bs. All this worried Little Prince so much, that when Mr Messy rang to say he'd reached OUR shop safely, Little Prince came running to me with the phone saying "Its Daddy, I think he's stuck." Mr Messy was laughing and said all he'd managed to say was "Little Prince its Daddy can I talk to Mummy?" After talking to Mr Messy and finding out he wasn't stuck, I reassured Little Prince that Daddy was ok and he felt a lot better.

Drama Teen's College had emailed all the students their work and it had to be completed before their next day in College. The message that College was to be closed on Friday too, wasn't sent out till well after the homework message, so Drama Teen had been working away at it, just in case she had to be there tomorrow. This did mean that, even though she had been volunteered by Mr Messy to take Little Prince sledging, she refused to go saying she had to finish her college work. Little Prince was obviously very upset and disappointed about this :-( And as Princess Lollipop refuses to go outside into the "Uh oh snow" and besides she hasn't got a snow suit or warm enough coat/boots to take her out for long enough for Little Prince to go sledging.

Little Prince did console himself by going to play in the garden numerous times! He gets so cold, so quickly that it takes longer to get him in his wellies, coat, gloves and hat, and then back out of them all again, than he actually spends outside!! Oh well, he is loving it :-)

When Princess Lollipop went down for her nap, I got Drama Teen to come down and supervise Little Prince, who I'd allowed to play on my laptop. I took the opportunity to get some jobs done, and have a quick shower. By the time I'd got everything done, Mr Messy was back from OUR shop. He'd left earlier than he'd anticipated as the snow started to come down pretty thickly and he didn't want to be stuck over there. He said he was playing chicken with the weather, but he gave in first lol.

Anyway now he was back to look after Princess Lollipop I got all togged up for the cold and took Little Prince to the other end of our village, behind the village church where there is the only hill around - Castle Hill! The walk there was slow and cold! The pavements had a small cleared path along them, the sides of which were about a foot tall either side! It would have been easier to walk on the road, but with our hats on it wasn't easy to hear cars coming up behind us, and I was worried about being able to get Little Prince out of the way in time! So we trudged our way along the paths, well I trudged and Little Prince hop, skipped, slid and ran lol. We had to walk through the village church yard and it looked so beautiful with its thick blanket of snow. By then we could hear people already on the hill, so Little Prince was going even faster, I could hardly keep up with him!

When we got there, I stood at the bottom with another Mum I know from school, and we watched the madness ensue!! Little Prince found it very difficult to hold his sledge still at the top of the hill and get on it at the same time, and they parted company pretty often!! The first time he managed to stay on the whole way down the hill, he bounced a couple of feet in the air at the bottom where there was a sort of ramp of snow! He landed with a bone crunching thud, stayed still for a few moments then got up triumphantly shouting "I'M ALIVE" and immediately ran back up the hill to try again!! The other Mum kept wincing at how fast Little Prince would throw himself down the slope and how hard he crashed at the bottom, but he'd just bounce back to his feet, declare it "WICKED" and go and do it again!! Soon his friend J and his Dad arrived, and Little Prince got even crazier!! J had a circular disc sledge and it looked a lot easier to manage than Little Prince's ordinary shaped one, so we are going to try and get hold of one for Little Prince too. Although it did seem to travel faster than the regular sledge too, so maybe its not a great idea!! It began to snow again, pretty hard, and also to go dark, so the other Mum and her older son went home, leaving behind her husband and younger son still playing. The Dad eventually persuaded the lad to go down on his own, and he crashed straight into a bush, but tried again and made it all the way down that time.

Once me and J's Dad were stood like two snow covered icicles and could barely feel our feet, we co-ordinated our departure! Telling the boys they had two more turns and that was it! They protested and complained but eventually did as they were told and we set off home. J and his Dad went round the Church Yard, and we went through it, which caused another argument as the boys both wanted to go the same way!! When we got to the Church Lyche Gate Little Prince asked if I would pull him on his sledge, it was suprisingly easier than I thought it would be, perhaps because there is a slight slope downwards at that point?! But even on the flat road surface it was still fairly easy and good exercise for me :-) I agreed to pull him all the way to the village shop and if he walked from there I would buy him a chocolate bar or some crisps. He was easily bribed :-) The shopkeeper was telling me he would have milk and bread delivered in the morning, and that he was getting 100 loaves per day and they were flying off the shelves!!! People are panic buying - although out in the sticks like this it is worrying that we'll get cut off!!

Our walk home took us past the Village Park next, and Little Prince decided to walk inside the park at the other side of the barely visible fence rails!! It was so deep that he was really struggling and kept falling over, so he climbed over the fence and walked on the road with me for a while. When we passed the Village Bus Depot, there was a HUGE pile of snow that had been dug off the Depot's drive and he insisted on climbing to the top to shout that he was King of the World :-)

As we got nearer to our house there was a patch of untouched snow, and Little Prince threw himself in it to make a Snow Angel :-) Which he promptly jumped up and down on to destroy!! Then we saw an amazing sight!! A snow plough on our village High Street!!! Its the first time a plough has come to the village since the snow started!! The local farmers have been doing their best to keep the roads clear with no help from gritters or snow ploughs!!

When we got home I got Drama Teen to run Little Prince a bath, as it was the quickest and easiest way to warm him up! He stayed in for quite a while before coming downstairs again all warm and toasty once more :-) Mr Messy took Princess Lollipop to bed and didn't come back down, I presume he must have fallen asleep. I stayed up to wait for the tumble dryer to finish its cycle so that I could bring the vent pipe in and shut the utility room window. After Little Prince had gone to bed me and Drama Teen watched some episodes of Lie to Me that we had saved and not had time to watch yet. After she went to bed I stayed and watched some more tv and write this blog and have just realised its stupid O'clock and I should get to bed!!!

Worse Snow Wednesday!!!

We knew last night that both Drama Teen's College and Little Prince's School were closed today, but didn't tell Little Prince as we'd never have got him in bed and settled down!! Mr Messy got up with the littlies and gave them their breakfast while I had a blissful, childfree few hours sleep :-) Heavenly :-) Eventually I did have to get up, so that Mr Messy could go out around the village photographing in the snow. He was like a man possessed running round getting himself ready lol, he was so excited :-) Little Prince had already been out to play in the garden before I got up and was raring to go again by the time I got downstairs! He's running out of dry trousers lol, I can't keep up with getting them all dry before he's out getting soaked again!! But as I've said all week, snow like this is so rare here that he's got to make the most of it, and you're only young once :-) He is loving it so much :-)

The road outside our house was impassable this morning!! But after the local farmers had gone up and down it in their tractors a few times it was just about drivable. Mr Messy decided that if he was able to get out of the village he had to go and deliver some images to a client in the same village as OUR shop. I decided to go with him for an adventure in the snow :-) Drama Teen said she would look after the littlies for us while we nipped out. The back of my car was still filled with the Christmas decorations I bought yesterday, so we would deliver those too. The road to the next village was single track only, which was ok as we only met a couple of cars during the drive. The shop Mr Messy had prepared the images for was shut as were most of the other businesses in the village! We drove down to OUR shop and parked in the snow drift outside!! I changed the cushion covers to the new red ones, and put out the bright red sheepskin rug and put the sparkly red throw on the sofa. And put the window decorations out. I had thought I'd bought a lot, but once it was actually in OUR shop, it didn't make much impact!! I need to go and buy some more and get the new Christmas Tree up and decorated, hopefully then it will look better!

Me and Mr Messy decided to call in our friend's cake/coffee shop before setting off home. There wasn't much choice of cakes, as the chocolatier hadn't been able to get to the shop, but the ones that were there were as lovely as always :-) We sat chatting to LMS's Landlord and Landlady from earlier in the year when she lived in her little flat with her Boyfriend. Landlady again said she really hoped that LMS would finish her University course, and YES I am writing this deliberately because I know you read it LMS :-) Every little (bit of pressure lol) helps!! Then we were chatting to a family with their two boys (3yrs and 9 months), they were very cute blonde haired blue eyes boys :-) They had walked here as their part of the village was completely snowed in! Then Mr Messy noticed how run off her feet the one member of staff was (she was the only one who had managed to make it to work!!) and marched off to do the washing up :-) He's a thoughtful sweetie :-) Another customer collected all the dirty cutlery and crockery from round the shop, and I went into the kitchen to dry up. It took quite a while to get through it all, and while we were working the snow started coming down pretty hard. We washed/dried as fast as we could to get it all finished so that we could get home. V at the shop was very grateful and after looking at how bad the weather was getting had decided to close early and get off home. I don't blame her it was looking quite bleak outside!!!

The drive back to our village was pretty hairy!! The snow was coming down thickly, and the wind was blowing the drifts across the road too. Drama Teen rang up to ask where we were, she was relieved that we were on our way home :-) We had to cut the call short as Little Prince was back out in the garden and she'd just seen him wielding a pick axe!!! He actually sets out to do all the stuff that other mischievous boys only dream of!!! I was relieved to see him still all in one piece when we got home :-) We were barely in the house before Drama Teen had disappeared off to her bedroom!! Princess Lollipop wouldn't go for her nap for Drama Teen, so she has been in a foul screamy mood all afternoon!! She stands on her changing box (her stage?!) faces the room and screams and elongated and ear piercing "BAAAAAAAAD" we have no idea where she has got this from as its not something we say to her or anyone else!! But you know when she's REALLY cross when she starts this!!