Friday

I had another day of a leisurely morning :-) Mr Messy went down to the shop early and Drama Teen went slightly later on the bus to spend the day there with him. I had planned to take the littlies out to a local park, but Little Prince had woken up at 4.30am when he said the cats knocked something over and he wasn't really in the mood. So he had another day playing on his Wii, he was noticeably more irritable with the game and turned the Wii off in a bad mood quite a few times.

Mr Messy rang up a few times and is apparently having a good day in OUR shop - one framing order and two serious enquiries about photoshoots. Another customer wanted to know if she could buy a gift token for a photoshoot, and Mr Messy had me researching cards to put the "voucher" in. I found some lovely Fair Trade cards and Mr Messy chose which design he wanted and ordered them. Its much easier now our business bank account is fully functional - it has its own debit card, which is way easier than using our own money and then having to claim it back as expenses!

Princess Lollipop had her usual nap, while Little Prince played on Mario Kart. The noise and bouncing around on the sofa didn't disturb her at at all!! Which is great as its very very difficult (think impossible!) to keep Little Prince quiet while she naps! When she woke up Little Prince let her look at his Lego book with him, although he did get irritated that she kept trying to turn the pages herself! Not long after that Little Prince fell asleep himself, he must be exhausted to do that!! I'm letting Princess Lollipop watch the end of this Handy Manny episode then I'm going to take her for a quick bath and hair condition, to give Little Prince some peace and quiet.

Thursday so Far

This morning I ignored my alarm, well I turned it off first and then snuggled back down and fell back to sleep. I finally got up when Princess Lollipop woke up and asked for her "bweta" well she didn't so much ask, as jump up and down in her cot shouting "BWETA BWETA BWETA" so it was pretty obvious what she wanted lol. Little Prince walked in and said he'd heard his sister shouting, but he'd been letting me have a lie in - little sweetie :-) Drama Teen was almost ready, and had already planned to get the bus to OUR shop for her shift today (so that me and the littlies wouldn't have to rush around) - another sweetie :-) However, I needed to call at the cash machine so I had to go to the village OUR shop is in anyway, so she helped me get the littlies breakfast and then dressed, before we went out. Thank you Drama Teen it was a great help.

Once we'd returned home Little Prince really appreciated being able to stay in his own environment and play on the Wii and with his Lego. He was getting a little stressed over the fact that our hairdresser was coming after lunch and he was having his hair trimmed, so his playing did get a little crazy and rowdy at times. He was quite calm when Hairdresser arrived, and didn't do his usual "run screaming and hide!!" he just chatted calmly with Hairdresser and then sat down on a chair in the kitchen and apart from asking for warm water in the spray bottle, made no fuss about having his hair cut. I'm not sure that I like the cut, we are allowing Little Prince to have his hair slightly longer at the moment, but it usually has a bit more style to it - its just long, floppy and curls outwards at the bottom and looks a bit silly! I might have to get Mr Messy to take Little Prince to the barber's shop this weekend and get it sorted out!! Princess Lollipop wasn't quite so calm during our haircuts, she sat watching in her high chair and shouted through most of it - even though she didn't have her hair touched!! I had my hair trimmed and can now see out of my fringe, which had got way too long and was giving me a headache!

I was supposed to pick Drama Teen up at 3pm, but she rang up at 2.45pm to ask if she could go round to her friend's house after work instead, and I come and pick her up at 5pm instead. This suited me perfectly as Princess Lollipop hadn't had her nap due to the hairdresser's visit, and was very tired and grumpy. She was much better for having the chance to get a nap :-) After I'd picked Drama Teen up, I made them all a quick tea, as we had to get to Drama Teen's singing lesson. Princess Lollipop wolfed everything down and still wanted more!! Little Prince wasn't quite so hungry and left a lot of his.

We got to Drama Teen's singing lesson on time for once, and even remembered to take her present LMS had sent her from America (she's been LMS's friend for years). This will be Drama Teen's last lesson with her as the teacher is going to work on a cruise ship (as a fitness instructor) soon. Drama Teen is disappointed as she has really enjoyed her lessons, but the teacher is going to give her the number of a different teacher she could go to. Princess Lollipop made a HUGE fuss about Drama Teen getting out of the car, and carried on shouting and crying for ages, despite the fact that we had set up the DVD player for her to watch. Then we had to make a dash to get Little Prince to the toilet (I don't like interrupting the lesson half way through - as it would get VERY difficult to get Little Prince calmly out of the house again!).

By the time we got home Mr Messy was already here, Drama Teen got Little Prince into bed and I got Princess Lollipop ready for bed. As she'd had a later nap she wasn't ready for bed yet and it took ages to persuade her to go to sleep! As usual Mr Messy had tonnes of work to do and spent most of the eveni ng in his upstairs office, while I caught up on the episodes of Quantum Leap I had saved.

It Exists!!!

Little Prince has started to think about what he wants for Christmas!! And one thing he has repeated and repeated is an "Anti Gravity Laser"!! I've been ignoring this thinking its one of his fantasy things from his "Base" (part of his imaginary universe that is loosely based on Star Wars, and where he is the guardian of earth). I mean it sounds like it could be doesn't it?? I didn't think I could walk into a shop and ask if they had any anti gravity lasers on the shelves without looking like a fool!! So I gently started to tell him that he could only ask for real things, not things from his imagination. He got very indignant and insisted this thing was real!! I was still sceptical - an anti gravity laser for goodness sakes!!

Then he showed me the TV advert for it!! Its some sort of remote control car thing that follows a beam of light and climbs walls! Now why didn't I think of that?!? So its now noted on his Christmas ideas list, and I have to apologise every time the d*mn advert comes on!!!

The Rest of Wednesday

I decided enough was enough and started to tidy up and pack up everything, and take the littlies home. At one point Little Prince decided he would stay with Daddy and play on the internet on OUR shop's computer. Within minutes he had changed his mind and wanted to come with Mummy, despite encouragement from both me and Mr Messy he was adamant that he wouldn't stay. The next twenty minutes or so descended into total chaos, as Drama Teen and Little Prince each tried to "help" get ready to go, because of all the chaos around her Princess Lollipop started to get fractious and shout "CAR CAR" as loudly as she could. In the end I lost it and yelled at everyone!! I did apologise in the car on the way home though, hopefully they will all forgive me. Drama Teen decided she was bored and she came home with us too, leaving Mr Messy to finish off what he was working on and lock up the shop before coming home himself.

On the way home Little Prince asked Drama Teen if she would play her new Wii game, Let's Dance, with him. She agreed but warned him that she had played it before and is quite good and he wasn't to get wound up and upset if she got more points than he did. He seemed to understand and we reassured him that it was going to be ok and that it would be fun. Almost as soon as they started playing he had his first meltdown! He couldn't do it! He was rubbish! He hated this game!! Then he threw the remote and slammed out of the room and upstairs. He returned a few minutes later and was persuaded to try again (BIG mistake!!) he lasted slightly longer before an even bigger meltdown. This time he started yelling at me, saying it was all my fault and I shouldn't have let him play and on and on like that for a while! I'm obviously not having a very patient day today, because I lost my temper again and ended up yelling that I wouldn't let him try anything new again!! All the yelling and tension upset Princess Lollipop who climbed onto my knee for comforting, followed by Little Prince who needed help to calm down. So when Mr Messy turned up a few minutes later, he commented on how calm it was - which made me and Drama Teen splutter with indignation lol!!

Once again Mr Messy had to spend the majority of the evening in his upstairs office dealing with the images from today's photo shoot. Neither of us were in the mood to cook so I went to collect a Chinese Takeaway, although Mr Messy had a Thai dish - which he said was the best he had ever tasted :-) Princess Lolllipop shared most of my rice but wouldn't try my sweet and sour chicken, that's despite devouring all of her own tea, followed by a sandwich!! Hopefully she'll be full enough to sleep all the way through the night - I can dream right?!

As it is half term and we don't have to be in OUR shop tomorrow (its Drama Teen's turn to man OUR shop on her own) I let Little Prince have an extra half an hour reading time - he was THRILLED :-) I love the fact that he is enjoying reading in bed so much, and remember doing the same thing as a child :-) We've even bought him a head torch for Christmas so he can snuggle under the covers and read :-) Apart from Harry Potter he mostly likes to read fact books - Vikings, ancient Egyptians, dinosaurs and science are his current subjects of choice :-) And after reading them he'll come out with random facts from the books, sometimes they even have something to do with the conversation we are having too lol.

I'm looking forward to having a day at home with the littlies tomorrow. As we have to drop Drama Teen off at OUR shop we won't be able to have a pyjama day, but a day slobbing around in jeans and a t-shirt is very appealing :-) And Little Prince will have the opportunity to chill out and relax in his own environment, which after two days cooped up in OUR shop he really needs!! I'd like to take the littlies out somewhere for the day, but the hairdresser is coming in the middle of the day, and I have to drop off and pick up Drama Teen so I probably won't have time. I've got the whole of Friday to take them somewhere so I'll wait till then and take them somewhere Little Prince can run off some steam and get rid of some pent up energy.

Wednesday

I didn't sleep well last night, and for once it wasn't due to Princess Lollipop! My hip was aching and woke me up, and then I couldn't get back to sleep as I was wedged into a really uncomfortable position between Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop. So when Mr Messy took Princess Lollipop downstairs I dozed back off again! Which meant I was running really late to get me and the littlies ready for our day in OUR shop!! Argh!!! For once Princess Lollipop didn't mess about with her breakfast and ate nicely, which was great for catching up a bit of time. Not enough time though, and we opened OUR shop half an hour later than normal!

Little Prince has tried really really hard all day today to behave himself in OUR shop, and he has done very well. I'm so proud of how he's behaved and how hard he's trying :-) Well done special boy :-) We've had a few visitors in already, the "Picture Maker" (according to Little Prince) aka the lady from the framing company we use, who was picking up a picture we'd got in for framing. I also gave her the dimensions of another pre-mounted picture we need to price up for framing. Little Prince managed to stay fairly calm during her visit, perhaps because he knew who she was. We had a man and his daughter come in to talk about having a snapshot from the grandfather's recent 70th birthday party, enlarged and framed, he is going to bring a digital copy of the image on a memory stick in to show Mr Messy and see if its good enough quality to enlarge. Then we had a man come in who wanted Mr Messy to have a look at a professional camera he was selling and tell him how many "shutter actuations" it had! He's going to ring back this afternoon.

I was just getting Princess Lollipop to sleep when Mr Messy rang to say he had finished this morning's shoot and was on his way back to OUR shop with Drama Teen. Princess Lollipop was fast asleep when they arrived here, and slept through a lady and her youngish daughter coming in to talk about having a family shoot done. She saw the "bump" picture we have hanging on the wall and said that would be a fabulous idea as she is 5 months pregnant, she has taken our details and is going to get back to us. Just as she was leaving a lady from a local magazine came in to see if we wanted to buy any advertising, she will email the details of their pricing etc to us by the end of the week.

While all this was going on Drama Teen had taken Little Prince out to the local coffee shop for a drink and cake, and then round to the small local park. They came back part way through our meeting with the local Business Link people. We chatted about how to market the business while keeping spending to a minimum and she gave us various ideas of where we could advertise. She is going to get a colleague to look at our website and see if there are any "search engine optimisation" changes that we could make to get more traffic flowing through and hopefully translating that into people spending money with us!!

Once they had collected some more money, Drama Teen and Little Prince went back out to the bakery for a sandwich each and to the newsagents to get Princess Lollipop some chocolate. Now they are back Little Prince is getting a little out of hand and I'll probably take the littlies home soon!!

Tuesday Evening

When we, with much relief, left OUR shop I took the littlies out for tea, so that Drama Teen's friends would have time to leave, and she could tidy up the house before we got home. The fast food place that Little Prince requested appeared closed, but when I asked one of the workmen milling around, he said the Drive Through part was open. This forestalled a major meltdown from Little Prince who had been desperate to go there all day! We placed our order and parked in the car park to eat it, Princess Lollipop managed surprisingly well balancing her meal box between her legs and ate most of it up. Despite my worries we managed to finish our meal with no meltdowns, very little throwing of food (by Princess Lollipop!!) and no major spillages :-) On the drive home however, Princess Lollipop did manage to drop her meal box onto the floor, but miraculously it landed the right way up and didn't spill anything :-)

When we arrived home some of the guests were just being collected by parents, and one was getting ready to drive home on her 'ped (moped). They were all milling around in our narrow hallway, and Princess Lollipop got quite stressed that she couldn't get in, and could see Drama Teen but couldn't get to her! Little Prince on the other hand had just barged his way through and was chatting to Drama Teen's friends in the lounge. I had warned Drama Teen that I didn't want to deal with a bunch of rowdy teens, as I'd had a very difficult day and wanted to relax, so she and the friends that were left went and chatted in her room. I sat down on the sofa for a very very welcome feet up and relax :-)

Mr Messy arrived home late again due to bad traffic, and he was in no mood to take the remainder of Drama Teen's friends home, so I got that job. There were three friends to drop off, luckily we drove through the village where one lived and dropped him off at a corner near to his house, and the other two we dropped off at the town centre bus station. I was so in the mood for chocolate on the way home, but way too tired to find an open shop to buy some! So we just went straight home.

I can't believe how tiring a day in the shop with Little Prince and Princess Lollipop was! Well that and an hour's drive getting Drama Teen's friends home!! So I didn't get up to anything else except my daily fix of Criminal Minds with Mr Messy, before crawling into bed for a much needed sleep.

Tuesday Afternoon

Everything quietened down again, when Princess Lollipop had her nap and Little Prince played on the internet on my computer. Its just a pity I hadn't brought myself a book to read lol. I made do with magazines and old newspapers I found on Mr Messy's desk instead. Little Prince and I had our lunch while Princess Lollipop slept, and as he'd been trying so hard to be good I let him have some chocolates from the client choccie tray. I think Drama Teen and friends got a little carried away with the choccies as there are very few left, same with the biscuits!!

Princess Lollipop had barely woken up when our Accountant and his partner arrived. He just wanted to ask if Mr Messy would have his laptop ready for Thursday as he is going away then. His partner loved OUR shop and Mr Messy's photographs, and wanted to know if Mr Messy could make her look 21 again :-) Little Prince coped fairly well with the visit as he knows Accountant and partner, but half way through he took himself off to the back storeroom, the only problem was that he didn't shut the door and Princess Lollipop followed him! I had to run after her and haul her back into the main shop!! Little Prince was quite loud and unsettled after the visit, and took ages to calm down again. Eventually he lay himself down on Princess Lollipop's sleeping bag and had a rest. The trouble is that left him feeling bright and breezy and full of energy!! Not the greatest thing to be when cooped up in the shop and expected to be quiet and calm!! The littlies are again smashing cars up and down the room and into each other, furniture and walls. I am tired of telling Little Prince to stay in the office end of the shop, of telling him to stop chasing his sister, of telling him to stop taking toys off her the moment she takes her hand off them for a second!! Princess Lollipop, who normally plays nicely and calmly has been screaming and running around like a crazy thing too! Its been a long long day and I have to do it all again tomorrow!!! Oh joy!!!!!

Tuesday

Today it was my turn to be in OUR shop, and take both littlies with me! I have been dreading taking Little Prince and worrying how he would cope with being cooped up, and with customers calling in! I made sure he had plenty of toys to play with and got him to sort out some books to read and dvds to watch too. Unfortunately he can't remember where he has put his Gameboy so he can't bring that! No one has any idea where it could be, even Little Prince spent ages searching for it with his torch! Hopefully we have enough other things to keep him quietly amused during the day!!

I had to do Princess Lollipop's hair today, and she SCREAMED through the whole thing :-( I really wish their was an easier way to take care of her hair :-( When we had eventually finished and she was all dried and dressed, and a little calmer I got Drama Teen to give her, her breakfast, she ate some of her own and some of Drama Teen's too lol. Then I got Drama Teen to go upstairs with Little Prince and help him find some trendy but warm clothes to wear to OUR shop today. They ended up rowing as Drama Teen just told Little Prince what to wear, instead of giving him a couple of choices, so I had to intervene and get Little Prince to agree to wear something!! During all of this I had to get myself ready too, its not easy in all the chaos!!

We set off (late!) and part way there decided that there probably wasn't enough time for Drama Teen to get to the Hairdresser (for advice on a new colour she wants on her hair - bright blue!!) and still get to the bus stop in time to catch the bus home. So I turned round and dropped her back at home, and she is going to ring the Hairdresser and explain. She is also going to get the place vacuumed before her guests arrive for her "gathering"!! I'm probably taking my life (well my house at least!!) in my hands letting her have so many friends round while I'm at work!! She has been told that she has to tidy up any mess before I get home with the littlies, and that if there are any damages she has to pay for the repairs!!! Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly and safely!!

The first hour in the shop while Little Prince got used to being here was a nightmare! He was throwing toys, not sharing with Princess Lollipop and brumming his cars across the floor so that they crashed into the walls and furniture. When our first customer came in he kept interrupting while we were talking, before eventually using his "escape plan" (going quietly into the back storeroom till the customer has gone). Once she had gone I told Little Prince how proud I was of how he coped, and what a good boy he had been going to the storeroom when he found it too overwhelming. Hopefully now he has got his first customer experience under his belt he'll cope better and better each time. Little Prince asked to watch Star Wars on his DVD player, and he is now sitting beautifully calmly watching the film :-) Of course Princess Lollipop now wants to watch her DVD player too, so I've had to sort hers out too, she sat still for a while and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but soon jumped down and wanted to play instead. And now Little Prince is bored with Star Wars and is moaning that he is hungry too - the peace and quiet was nice while it lasted lol.

Monday

This was the first day of Little Prince's half term, and so me and Drama Teen had to work out a rota for being in the shop. She took the first "shift" and I dropped her off soon after 9am to start her working day. I popped into the shop while she sat in the car with the littlies, and sorted out the dehumidifier and had a quick look round to make sure everything was tidy. I left Drama Teen with instructions on what to tidy up, and to ring me if she got stuck. She seemed pretty confident that she would be ok, and I'm really proud of the mature way she is behaving about this. She isn't getting paid extra for working the extra hours in school holidays, but she is being very understanding about having to build up the business first, and not complaining at all.

Apparently Drama Teen had a very quiet day, with no customers at all. She did arrange for two of her friends to come and keep her company during the day, and they visited the nearby chocolate shop for their lunch! When I picked her up, I dropped one of her friends off as he lives a long way from the shop and it would have taken him ages to walk back home.

Me and the littlies also had a quiet day, watching tv, playing games and Little Prince and Princess Lollipop had a great time playing "tid" (tig) round the living room. Princess Lollipop chases after Little Prince shouting "tid BrudBrud" and then "popes" (pokes) him with her index finger, and then the game starts again, all with LOTS of mad giggling, laughing and falling over. She is teaching Little Prince to play a little more gently and calmly and that can only be a good thing.

Mr Messy was late home from work as the traffic was bad, and he was exhausted when he got home. Unfortunately he couldn't sit down and relax as he had photography work to deal with, emails to reply to, editing to do etc. We didn't even get time to sit down and have our tea, we both just had to get a sandwich when we had a minute!

Sunday

Sadly no lie in today :-( Mr Messy and Drama Teen had to be up and out fairly early for a family photoshoot, and the littlies wanted to eat their breakfast, darn it!! Mr Messy and Drama Teen had already left by the time we finished breakfast. We lazed around in our pyjamas again for a while, when Princess Lollipop had her nap I went for a shower and to get dressed. By the time I got back downstairs, Mr Messy and Drama Teen had returned and woken Princess Lollipop!! Me and the children got ready to go to the supermarket while Mr Messy had to back to OUR shop to meet a prospective bride and groom and discuss photographing their wedding. After that he had to visit the posh fashion boutique and the locations they had chosen for the photographs he is doing for them next week.

I had to drive Drama Teen to her favourite fashion shop, to exchange a jumper she'd bought that didn't fit for a furry hat she wanted! I stayed in the car with the littlies, and she was ages, she admitted she bought other things while she was in the shop! We then drove round to the supermarket and go the week's shopping, plus the food/fizzy drinks Drama Teen needs for her "party" on Tuesday. She has invited a group of her friends (a LARGE group) round to the house during the day, while me and the littlies are at OUR shop to play on the Wii and hang out. She's been warned that any breakages need to be paid for, and she has to tidy up before I get home!! Fingers crossed she can manage that!!

When we got back from the shops, Drama Teen and Little Prince put the shopping away while I looked after Princess Lollipop, although I did have to help arrange things in the freezer so that the lid would shut!! We all then had a late lunch and Drama Teen disappeared to her bedroom.

A little while later Mr Messy rang to say he'd finished his meeting with the posh fashion boutique owners, and it had gone wonderfully. If he does a good job of this week's shoot, then he is going to become their official photographer. That will include taking the photos for their bi-monthly magazine (and having a 1/2 page advert in there as part of his payment), taking the staff photographs, taking the Christmas Card photograph and photographing their annual charity fashion show. The shop is situated in a very affluent area and this relationship will hopefully bring in a LOT of high spending customers :-) The boutique owner was very keen to take some of Mr Messy's trifold advertising leaflets to use to promote Mr Messy's work to his customers too. It sounds fabulous :-)

The wedding consultation went very well too. The couple were very keen to have Mr Messy photograph their wedding, and the prospective bride LOVED the idea of having him photograph both of their ceremonies (the UK one and the one abroad) and having all the pictures in one album. They left Mr Messy saying they would think about it and get back to him, although he got the impression that they would definitely book him. Better check his passport is still current :-)

When he finally got back home he was absolutely kn*ckered and fell asleep on the sofa, much to Princess Lollipop's disgust who first buried him under tus-ons (cushions) and then took them away again and poped (poked) him till he woke up!

We had a very ordinary, family evening before putting the littlies to bed and having our tea. Drama Teen said she wasn't hungry and didn't want any tea, I wasn't too worried as she did have a largish lunch. I'm just going to keep an eye on her and make sure she isn't "forgetting" to eat again, and yes Drama Teen I know you read this!! So you are warned :-) I'm watching you :-)

Saturday

Princess Lollipop had the worst night she's had in a long time, she wriggled, shouted, cried and lashed out so many times in the night, by the time Mr Messy's alarm went off I felt like I hadn't slept at all :-( Luckily it really is my day off today, so I stayed in bed and tried to persuade Princess Lollipop to have a bit more sleep. No chance! She wanted her "Bweta" (breakfast) and "Nint" (drink) so I gave up and we came downstairs. Only to find we had only the tiniest drop of milk left!! Major catastrophy!! The only thing Princess Lollipop will eat for her "bweta" is Oatibix with milk and honey!! The only thing I had in the fridge I could try on her Oatibix was smoothie!! She wasn't impressed, but Little Prince was and he ate it up :-) She did share my toast, well she ate most of it rather than share it lol.

Mr Messy and Drama Teen had already left to go to OUR shop, to tidy up ready for an appointment with a client Mr Messy had. The client is a posh clothing boutique owner who wanted to talk to Mr Messy about him shooting the Autumn/Winter images for their website, adverts and in house magazine. Mr Messy negotiated that he will shoot the pictures for a fee, but will do the editing in exchange for a half page advert in the boutique's own magazine, that they issue bi-monthly to all their high spending customers :-) This will be fantastic exposure for the business and fingers crossed will bring in a LOT more clients - we are both very very pleased with the outcome of the meeting :-) In the afternoon Mr Messy had a meeting with a prospective bride and groom, who loved his work and have confirmed their booking :-) And he also got a big framing order in too. So a GREAT day for OUR shop :-) If we can keep generating this sort of business we'll be generating a profit soon :-)

Me and the littlies had a lazy, pyjama morning watching TV and playing on the Wii. Then when it got to time for Princess Lollipop's nap, I went up to our room with her and had a sleep too. Little Prince was a complete and utter star and didn't fuss that I needed to do this. He even managed to give directions to OUR shop to the wedding couple, who turned up here by mistake - they told Mr Messy about it when they arrived at OUR shop, we are both proud of Little Prince's calm and composure. Although I'm not sure what the couple thought of him answering the door still in his pyjamas, which had a huge rip in them where one of the cats had scratched him when he picked it up!! They still booked Mr Messy so he must have made a good impression - Mr Messy and Little Prince :-)

When me and Princess Lollipop woke up from our nap, I insisted everyone got dressed, much to Little Prince's disgust. He tried to persuade me that putting his dressing gown over his pyjamas was enough, but I didn't agree and he eventually did get dressed. Then we all had a late snacky lunch, luckily we hadn't run out of things to eat for lunch too!!

When Mr Messy arrived home he brought Drama Teen and her Boyfriend, who had caught the bus over to the shop in the afternoon. Princess Lollipop wanted him to come and play Lego with her, but he preferred to go and watch films with Drama Teen for some reason lol. We didn't really see either of them again until it was time for Boyfriend to be taken home. Little Prince went to bed nicely with no fuss, but Princess Lollipop was a total nightmare! Mr Messy was the one dealing with her so that I could get out of the house and drive Boyfriend home, and she was not happy about that! It took him well over an hour to get her to sleep, and she had only just gone to bed when me and Drama Teen returned!! We'd called at a fast food drive through on the way home for something to eat, and then called in the shop to get Mr Messy a frozen pizza. He was starving so was very glad we'd thought of him :-)

While his pizza was cooking he rang up LMS in America, using some sort of internet talk facility and he, then I spent ages chatting to her on it. It was fabulous to actually hear her voice, although it also made me miss her so much more it was definitely worth it to chat to her properly though. We chatted until I'd almost flattened the battery on Mr Messy's phone, saying goodbye was hard too :-( I know she is where she wants to be, and that she is an adult making her own choices and living her own life - but she is (and always will be) my baby girl and I miss her more than she could ever know. Its like a part of my heart is missing :-( I know its my job as a parent to raise our children to become competent adults capable of living their own lives, but its so so hard to let go. I'm trying hard to do it though, and to not cling so tightly to any of them, that they feel smothered scramble to get away. It does make me appreciate and treasure the moments I do have all four of the children here with me so much more, so that's a good thing.

Friday

Princess Lollipop had a majorly disturbed night and I was not ready for the alarm to go off! Little Prince came to join us for a hug, and then Mr Messy went to get ready for his day in OUR shop. When he was ready he came and go the littlies and took them downstairs to watch TV while I got ready, so for once I had the wonderful luxury of getting ready on my own! Bliss :-) When I got downstairs Mr Messy had already left to go to OUR shop and Drama Teen was just about to leave to get the bus to college. I went to get the littlies to take them to the dining room for their breakfast and found that Princess Lollipop had decided to dress herself! I had left her clothes on her changing box ready for morning and she had found them! She was wearing her babygrow with her denim skirt on top (inside out) and was desperately trying to get her tights on her head lol. What a pudding :-)

Once the littlies were dressed (properly!) Little Prince wanted to read some of his reading book to me. He announced that he was the first Year 3 to go onto Free Reading, that's where he can go to the school library and chose whichever book he wants, rather than having to finish the school reading scheme. I already knew this as his teacher had told us at Parent's Evening, but I pretended it was new news and told him how proud I was of him (no pretending needed for that). He had chosen a science book about the body, and is loving reading it. Rather than start from the last page he read he insisted on starting the book again "Because its SO good Mummy" :-)

After dropping Little Prince at school, me and Princess Lollipop drove over to OUR shop. Even though its supposed to be my day off, I'm having to work as Mr Messy has a photoshoot this afternoon. Its not such a big deal really as we get to spend the morning with Mr Messy and I quite enjoy being in the shop :-)

During the morning Mr Messy went back home to get changed ready for his photoshoot and when he got back he had a long chat with his Marketing Consultant before calling a local fashion boutique that has asked him to do some photography. The boutique is a very up-scale shop and they want him to photograph their Autumn/Winter range for use on their website and in their customer magazine and other advertising. This is a fantastic opportunity for the business and a great artistic challenge for Mr Messy, he is really looking forward to it. The owner of the boutique is calling into OUR shop tomorrow morning so that they can discuss exactly what the brief entails and Mr Messy can walk them round town to show them various outdoor locations he thinks would work.

Despite being bog-eyed Princess Lollipop did not want to go for her nap, and it took ages to get her to sleep. Then Mr Messy being on the phone disturbed her, and I had to persuade her to go back to sleep again. She is now sleeping peacefully which is great as she really needs the rest after last night! I just wish I could join her!! Mr Messy has popped out to chat to our friend the owner of the children's designer boutique, and has promised to bring me a surprise back, fingers crossed its chocolatey :-)

Thursday Evening

I was on the last minute to pick Little Prince up, and we were just walking towards the gate, when he met us at the fence to give me his book folder before running off to the play equipment. Princess Lollipop wasn't happy with this as she likes to hold his hand on the way back to the car, so I managed to persuade him to come back and hold her hand and we went back to the car. One of the parcels that arrived earlier was from LMS in America, she had said that she was sending something for Little Prince so I left it on his car seat for him to find. He excitedly ripped into it and then almost threw it across the car as he wasn't happy that his "bit" was the smallest!! I told him he was extremely ungrateful, LMS isn't working (she can't on a tourist visa in America) but she is still choosing to spend what little money she has on him. He thought about it for a bit, and then apologised and said he was very sorry and LMS was very nice for sending him a present. He then said he was upset because one of the girls in his class was annoying him (although he can't remember what she was doing to annoy him!!) all day.

Luckily his mood improved when we got home and he and Princess Lollipop had a pile of sandwiches between them. He was, for him, quite calm and played rowdily but nicely with Princess Lollipop for ages. He rolled the pouffe around the floor and pretended to either fall off or crash into Princess Lollipop, but he was very careful not to be too rough. She was in gales of laughter, he can make her laugh like no one else can :-) I'll have to point this out to him, as he is getting quite upset that her stock answer to anything he asks her eg. "Do you want a kiss/hug?" or "Do you want to sit on my knee?" or "Do you want to play?" is always NO shouted very emphatically!! But if he feels that she does something with him that she doesn't with anyone else, it might make him feel better, fingers crossed.

Then one of Drama Teen's friends JP arrived, and Little Prince flipped!! He went from playing rowdily but nicely to acting like a crazed lunatic!! This carried on until I'd had enough and sent him to get ready for bed! When he came back down me and Princess Lollipop were watching "Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs" (Hawee and a Dynamos) which is a fairly calm programme, so I let Little Prince watch cuddled up with us until Mr Messy came home and took him to bed. Mr Messy came down laughing - he'd noticed Little Prince's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows "hidden" under his covers, and as soon as Mr Messy closed the bedroom door after putting Little Prince to bed, he heard "click" as Little Prince turned his reading light on lol. Both me and Mr Messy remember reading in bed (sometimes under the covers with a torch lol) when we were children, so we don't really object. And besides Little Prince is getting older and could probably have a later bedtime, but me and Mr Messy need the peace and quiet - so this way suits everyone :-)

As Mr Messy is watching football (urgh!!) I'm on the internet blogging and now Drama Teen has come down chatting to her about her English AS level coursework. And she is keeping us amused by mangling trying to read what it says on the t-shirt LMS sent Mr Messy for his birthday - sometimes I really wonder HOW she is managing to do A level English!!!

More Thursday

Princess Lollipop has cheered up a LOT now she's agreed to eat her sandwich. She wouldn't hold the sandwich herself (something she used to do a lot, but seemed to have grown out of) but would eat it if I held it and broke, bite sized pieces off for her. Well however it went down, at least its cheered her up :-)

She's been playing on the rocking horse with her dollies for ages now. She loved it when I put her dollies on with her, tucked inside the reins so they didn't fall off. At first she pushed them back and forth and then she wanted to get on with them. She gets me to put her on and then sits there and shouts "DO WAY" (Go away) with force, conviction and pointing where she wants you to go, then she giggles madly when I jump back and pretend to be scared lol. We might have to start saving up for riding lessons, as she seems to be developing a good seat :-)

One of our friends who does etchings onto wood, called in to chat to Mr Messy as they are thinking they might be able to work together and promote each other's work. He said he would call back tomorrow when Mr Messy is here to talk to him. A customer from last week (who wanted a snapshot of her deceased mother enlarged to poster size) called back in to see if we'd been able to do anything. I explained that without the negative or a digital image, Mr Messy would have to rephotograph the photo, and to do that he would have to stick it to card to make sure it was completely flat before he started. I checked this would be alright as it is obviously a very precious photograph to her, and she said it was fine. So there's another job for Mr Messy to get on with.

She's Growing Up

Already!! My BABY!! Princess Lollipop, at not yet two, is already aware when she has dirtied her nappy. She comes to me and tells me "Poo poo, bot-bot" and wants to be changed immediately :-) It won't be too much longer before she'll be ready for potty training at this rate!! And that should be fun whilst at OUR shop!!! NOT!!!

And I know it sounds like I'm whinging about it, but I'm not really. I'm so proud of my little precious princess, and even though changing nappies is a pain, it will be sad to see my last and final baby grow out of them. Although it will also be a huge new adventure to have a growing up girl too :-)

Thursday

We are all getting into a good morning routine, and today was not really much different from usual. Little Prince got a phone call from his friend J asking him to take his Match Attax book and swapping cards to school to play with. Its funny listening to them on the phone :-)

After we'd dropped Little Prince off at school, me and Princess Lollipop popped round to the Post Office to pick up the latest parcels that the Postman had left there for collection. The Post Mistress said there were LOTS, as we were parked right outside I was able to put Princess Lollipop back in her seat and go back to carry all the parcels. I think I'm getting a bit carried away on Ebay at the moment!! I got a couple more Christmas presents, a couple more Christmas "marketing" outfits for Princess Lollipop and some clothes that Drama Teen had won. I was hoping the replacement car DVD player would have arrived too, but no such luck. Its Drama Teen's singing lesson tonight, and its too far to drop her off and return home, so I have to stay outside in the dark, cooped up in the car with the two littlies!! NOT fun!! Later that morning I got a text from Drama Teen saying that her teacher was too busy and had cancelled tonight's lesson, which suits me down to the ground :-)

The DVD player works as two independant dvd players, or as a more usual twin screen one. It will be perfect for the littlies as they rarely want to watch the same thing! And next week, during half term, when I have to bring Princess Lollipop AND Little Prince to the shop with me, they will hopefully help keep him calm and entertained! He gets so excited and wound up when he is in the shop that I am desperately trying to think of things to amuse him, whilst also keeping him calm and fairly quiet!! Princess Lollipop is used to being here now and will be no problem, its just my mad boy that I'm worried about!!

We've only had a couple of customers call in today, a Grandma who wanted to come in with her Grandchildren to get them photographed. I explained that OUR shop isn't a studio (which confuses most people!) and that Mr Messy comes out to the client and photographs them at their home, garden or other place they feel would suit their needs eg local park, churchyard etc. She seemed impressed with that arrangement and said she would ring us up when she'd sorted out when she could get all four children together. The other customer we couldn't help, unfortunately. She wanted some photographs mounting, so that they would look better in an album, but the mounts we supply photos in are just too thick and wouldn't work, and we don't supply any other mounts. I suggested she try a craft shop as she could find something in the scrapbooking section that would better meet her needs. She also wanted to ask if we developed photographs, which we don't do, so I apologised for not being very helpful and we said our goodbyes.

I've also been speaking to the sign writers we used to provide our above the window shop sign, to revise their designs for the window graphics we are going to order next. I liked some aspects of their first design, but wanted to see if they could revise other parts, they are going to redo the design and send proofs over when they've done them. Then I got a call from the small local paper, they are running a Halloween feature and wondered if we wanted to purchase an advert in the feature pages. I've taken the details and me and Mr Messy will discuss it tonight and then decide what to do.

Princess Lollipop was much more relaxed and not so clingy this morning, she played with the shop keys for ages - jamming them in the door lock and then giggling like a mad thing! Then she would try to pull them out, she fell right over onto her bottom at one point and she laughed almost as much as I did. She has been feeding her nee naw horsie more apbits (see saw horsie apples), playing with her jigsaw and reading her books. She had a short nap, interrupted by a customer coming in just as she was disturbing slightly (normally I can get her to go back to sleep). So she didn't get enough sleep and will now play happily for a few minutes then turn into a grumpy whinge-bag and then after a cuddle go off and play again. Its going to be a looong time till her bedtime!!

Wednesday

We had an uneventful morning getting ready for school. Well apart from when I washed and conditioned Princess Lollipop's hair, she didn't cry as much this morning, but its still hard for her :-( I wish I knew a better way of keeping her hair in good condition, but I am using shampoo/conditioner formulated for black hair, and am following the advice of the local black hairdresser and any tip or hint I can get from anyone/anywhere! I bought a Tangle Teezer recently that other parents of Ethiopian daughters have been raving about and it made her cry more than the regular combing through that I do :-( And my black friends just say use LOTS of conditioner - which I do! I wish I knew the secret :-(

Little Prince took his tooth back into school as they are going to try and dissolve it in Coca Cola as an experiment. He is much too literal to even entertain the idea of the Tooth Fairy, and experimenting on his tooth interests him a lot more than getting some money from Mum and Dad! However, I've just been looking this experiment up on the internet and apparently its an urban myth! I seem to remember trying to clean (or dissolve!) coins in all sorts of different solutions with either LMS or Drama Teen years ago - can't remember what the results were though lol.

The visitors at OUR shop today included a woman asking if we could make a pretty ropey photo on an old work security pass into a proper photograph!! I told her to bring it in and see Mr Messy, but also warned her that it wasn't always possible - he's a photographer (a VERY good one) not a miracle worker!! I also had a lady come in and ask how much it would cost to frame a very long thin picture, I don't have the pricing information on framing, so again she has to come in and see Mr Messy! Then the Grandma, Mother and Baby from last Friday's shoot came in and asked to see the photographs!! They said that Mr Messy had told them they would be able to see them either online or at OUR shop today!! I was totally thrown as Mr Messy hadn't mentioned any of this to me, and of course I had no access to the photographs from my laptop! I spluttered some excuses, apologised profusely, took their mobile number and said I'd get in touch with Mr Messy and find out what was happening and get back to them. Mr Messy said he didn't say that - he said the photos would be ready this week, but no specific day and time!! However, he said to let them know that he would upload the photos to a secure online gallery tonight and email them the details. I rang them straight back, apologised again and gave them this message and took a note of their email address. Hopefully they will be alright about this, fingers crossed! And even though its their mistake, the customer is always right and we can't point that out!!

I closed OUR shop early today, and took Princess Lollipop to her last session of Stay and Play at Little Prince's school. Due to budget cuts the school can no longer spare the two staff required to run the sessions, and so they are having to close it :-( Princess Lollipop LOVES going to her school, and it is such a lovely nurturing group that its a huge shame its closing. Princess Lollipop was a lot more vocal during the session than she normally is when surrounded by non family, and everyone was surprised at how well her talking has come on! It hasn't really taken such a jump, its just she usually refuses to speak lol. The children all got a small cake after their snack, but Princess Lollipop preferred to eat the raisins, or Janes as she insists on calling them!! Jane is a friend of ours who owns a local children's boutique, and gives Princess Lollipop a small snack box of raisins every time she goes in!! So now raisins are Janes!!

There was no point going home after the Stay and Play session finished, so we played in the car for 15 mins till Little Prince finished school. Against my better judgement I allowed Little Prince's friend J to come home to play! The boys bickered, fought and argued from the moment they sat down in the car till the moment J's Dad arrived to pick him up!! I was tearing my hair out by then!! And it wasn't helped by a phone call from Mr Messy saying the motorway was blocked and it could be 9 or 10pm before he got home!! Argh!!!! Drama Teen was a star and made mine, hers and the littlies tea - thank you Drama Teen I really appreciate it :-) After tea she went and did some editing for her Dad, who really appreciated it too :-)

Little Prince was very tired and he was in bed before 7.30pm, closely followed by Princess Lollipop!! As I thought I'd be "home alone" I decided to watch some of the Quantum Leap episodes I'd got saved on Sky+. Then I got a surprise phone call from Mr Messy saying the Sat Nav had managed to find him a route home that didn't delay him too much. He also wanted to know if I wanted some chips from the chippie! I knew that if I said I'd already eaten that Mr Messy wouldn't bother getting himself anything either, so I just said I'd love some!! I made enough of a show of eating them that he doesn't know lol.

Mr Messy was up and down to his office editing and uploading the photographs all the rest of the evening, so I carried on watching Quantum Leap :-) Mr Messy even sat and chuckled through some of it too :-) Its cheesy but fun :-)

Drama Teen asked me to order her a hat from fashion shop's online shop. I tried but the website wouldn't accept my card, the bank has recently moved to a different type of card and some websites haven't caught up yet. She asked me to take her to the nearest actual shop, I told her fine, but I wanted her to ring first and check they have the hat in stock first. She sulked and said I should know she hates ringing people up (which is true) but we had already agreed that she was going to have to start trying to do it! So I've left her to choose between - ringing and finding out and then driving over OR not ringing and not going!! I'm sure her fashion sense will outweigh her phone reluctance :-) I know she can do it :-)

Tuesday Evening

Not a lot has happened this evening. Just mundane stuff really. Eating tea. Getting littlies to bed. Drama Teen doing her homework. Me and Mr Messy relaxing in front of the goggle box. Since me and Princess Lollipop started working at OUR shop, she has shorter daytime naps and needs to go to bed earlier in the evening. It is nice to get our calm, chill out evenings back, really really nice :-)

I've been having a lovely time emailing back and forth with LMS, while Mr Messy watches a boring car programme. The only interruptions have been Princess Lollipop waking up once, and the constant criticisms from Mr Messy about how they are doing it wrong!! Fairly standard evening really :-)

Oh I almost forgot!! Some more Christmas preparations arrived today :-) They got delivered to my friend over the road, while the one parcel I was worrying about didn't come till I was back at home - typical!!! Anyway, don't tell Little Prince but his Clone Trooper Voice Changing Helmet arrived :-) It smells a bit smoky, but I'm going to take it to OUR shop (to hide it!! He finds EVERYTHING!!!) and it can live in a box on the top shelf and air off till December!! And Princess Lollipop's Talking Handy Manny with tools also arrived, which didn't smell smoky, but will also be hidden in OUR shop just in case Little Prince goes prowling around!!

And some of my Christmas marketing purchases arrived too :-) A Christmas outfit for Princess Lollipop to wear in OUR shop in December :-) I've bought a few different ones and she will look gorgeous in them all, strong colours suit her so well :-) And people seeing her toddling around OUR shop always notice her, and she gets lots of smiles and waves - they'll remember OUR shop :-)

Tuesday

It was a pretty uneventful morning getting Little Prince to school and getting to the shop. I did check with my friend across the road if she would be in to receive a parcel a courier is delivering today, and she is so I left a sign (with arrows!!) on the door and hopefully the parcel will be delivered ok :-) Its a Christmas present for Princess Lollipop, a wooden play kitchen - she loves "lets pretend" already and being wooden it will be strong enough to withstand Little Prince's "help" too!! I can't believe I'm already getting things for Christmas, its unheard of for me to be getting organised already!!! But I've actually got one or two bits for the littlies!!
We had a quiet morning in OUR shop, our only visitor was Post Lady's husband. His Dad is the caretaker of the Vicarage across the road and they had come down to check out a problem the Vicar had reported. He waved to me from across the road, but I had no idea who it was till he came in lol. He complimented me on how great the shop looks and we chatted for a few minutes before he had to go and help his Dad. Princess Lollipop went for her nap pretty soon after his visit and no one came in until she woke up about an hour later. We had a Dad and his lovely (and very trendily dressed) little girl came in, Princess Lollipop just hid from her!! The Dad wanted to ask what sort of costs were involved in a photoshoot with Mr Messy and how much a large framed print (like those on display in OUR shop) would cost. The girls eyed each other up from behind their respective parents, while me and the Dad chatted lol. A Grandma came in a little later to enquire about booking a shoot for her three grandchildren, only she doesn't get much notice that they are coming round so wondered if we would be able to fit them in. I told her that Mr Messy was available on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays and if she has them on one of those days to give us a ring and we will see if we can fit them in. Or next visitor was another Grandma, who just wanted to know "What are you selling love?" lol. The great big sign saying "Photography" above the window doesn't seem to be giving many people a clue!!! She loved the photography samples we've got hanging in OUR shop, and said she would think about having her grandchildren photographed. She said her daughter was getting married soon, and apologised that the daughter had already booked a photographer! Ah well - at least she'll know we are here for the next one who gets married :-)
Princess Lollipop is currently amusing herself by sharing her apple with her "Nee Naw Horsee" (See Saw horsie) :-)

Monday evening

I picked Little Prince up from school, and started to prepare him for the fact it was Parent's Evening at his school tonight, and that he would have to stay with Drama Teen AND behave!! He was more bothered by the fact that I wouldn't take him to the school book fair, but I've had to pay out for a school trip, school photos and various other things for school so something had to give!! When he'd finally got the idea that he really wasn't going to the book fair, he started to tell me that him staying with Drama Teen was NOT going to go well!! He insisted that he wouldn't be able to behave, so I told him he would have to go to his room and read Harry Potter (he has finished the first one and is now reading the last one - he says it takes him so long to read them he would never get to the end if he didn't do it this way!). When Drama Teen came home from college she offered to make hers and the littlies tea. Which was a great help, as I could carry on looking after Little Prince and reiterating what he was and wasn't allowed to do when I went out. Just before their tea was ready Mr Messy arrived home, he had left work early so that he could attend Little Prince's Parent's Evening with me. He has always tried to be as involved in the children's education as his working hours will permit, and luckily school are very co-operative and schedule appointments for as late as they can in the evening.

Mr Messy went for a super quick shower while I supervised Princess Lollipop eating her tea. She is eating a lot more independently now, but needs supervision to stop her flicking everything (especially peas!!) all over the place!! It did occur to me while I was watching her eating, that she was learning so much faster than Little Prince, and she will have overtaken him in ability very soon :-(

By the time the children had finished their tea and Mr Messy was ready from his shower it was time for me and him to go to school. We only waited five minutes or so before seeing his teacher. And we were THRILLED at how well he is doing :-) In recent standardised tests he scored a 2a for Maths and a 3a for reading, knowing how he can lose interest and concentration his teacher was worried when he returned from the hall after his reading test well before the other children and saying he had finished! However, when she looked at his test he had done extremely well, she got him to try the extension to the test and although he said it was hard he tried his best and got a fantastic score :-) However, in his spelling test he scored lower than he should, we and his teacher think because he probably got bored and lost concentration. She says he should have got a lot higher score as his spelling is generally spot on. His writing is improving slowly too, most things he writes are now fairly legible, but it still takes him a long, long time to complete written work.

When we got back home Little Prince came running down the stairs, we both gave him a huge hug and told him how well he was doing and how proud we were of him :-) He is learning though - he asked if that means he can have a treat!! I took Little Prince to bed and then put on mine and Mr Messy's tea, Drama Teen went for a shower and then went upstairs to get on with her homework. Me and Mr Messy watched a new episode of "Toddlers and Tiaras" about kiddie beauty pageants in America, there are some scary Stage Mums out there!!! And after the poor little girls have had their wigs put on and styled, their tans sprayed, their make up caked on and their flipper (false perfect looking teeth they put over their own teeth) they look more like identical Barbie dolls than individual little girls, and some of them are so beautiful before they are "Barbie-d" :-( And there is a whole industry based around these pageants - coaches, dress retailers, flipper makers etc!! Weird!! But weirdly entertaining to watch!! Drama Teen came down and watched the last few minutes of the programme with us, and Mr Messy was telling her she would be banned from entering if she tried!! Because none of the other girls would stand a chance :-) And he's right :-)

Monday

I was super organised this morning!! I got me and the littlies ready and up to school in plenty of time, not my usual last minute scramble!! I loaded and set off the dishwasher. I got a wash on and even remembered to set the timer so it will finish just before I get home, I don't like leaving wet washing in the machine for too long. I packed aup the Halloween decorations and office supplies I'd bought for OUR shop and put them in the car. Didn't I do well?!? Well yes - up to a point!! I'd got Princess Lollipop into her buggy, got all the decorations and office supplies loaded on the buggy and was almost at OUR shop door, when I realised I'd forgotten OUR shop keys!!! ARGH!!!! So we went back to the car, put all the decorations, the office supplies, the buggy and Princess Lollipop BACK in the car and drove back home to get the keys!!

At home we had yet another card from the postman to say he couldn't deliver a parcel, I had seen him round the corner so once I'd collected the keys I chased off after him. He told me that when I'd collected my parcel at weekend, the post office staff had forgotten to give me all the other little parcels that were there for me!! So I went to collect them, its a good job I drove round and parked right outside as there were LOADS!! Even Princess Lollipop had to carry some!!

We finally got back to OUR shop and opened up, we were only five minutes late too!! Princess Lollipop stayed in her buggy while I unwrapped all the parcels, she wasn't impressed at all - she wanted "UP out." We now have the blank business cards that fit our new label printer. Now we will be able to put prices on all the shop samples we have on display, which I think will be a lot better - I will instantly know what prices to tell customers and no one will be upset that they didn't know what everything cost before they ordered. I've just got to wait for Mr Messy to figure out how to work the label printer and we are away :-)

Our pretty "Open/Closed" sign arrived too, but in all the rush this morning I forgot to pick up the window sucker hook to hang it on OUR shop door!! The pack of pine cones I'd ordered to add to the Autumn decor in OUR shop arrived too, I'll put those out when Princess Lollipop has her nap. She is now fast asleep and I can't find anywhere to put the pine cones that doesn't look too cluttered and messy. So I'll save them and probably put them on my door wreath - I'm pulling apart our Christmas wreath from home and redecorating it in an Autumn theme and hanging it on OUR shop door. Well I'll hang it up if its any good!!!

Its been a very quiet morning in OUR shop, no visitors so far. And its quite chilly in here today too, we might have to splash out on putting the heater on!! Well now we have had two visitors, the first was the receptionist at the Doctor's Surgery where we had our injections for travelling to Ethiopia - she remembers us, Little Prince made a BIG impression!!! Then we had a lady come in to check if we could do a family photo shoot for her Mother's 70th birthday. She wanted studio shots with a white background, but I managed to persuade her that Mr Messy's lifestyle on location type of shoot would work and she took a leaflet, and is going to check when she can get her far flung family together for a shoot early next year. And probably our last visitor for today was a young Dad and his little boy (Mum and the dog stayed outside) who wanted to know how much it would be to put a picture onto a canvas. And I was wrong another lady came in to ask how much it would be to put a picture from a mobile phone onto a canvas! I said it might not be able to go too big as phone pictures aren't that good quality, but she took away a price list and said she'd talk to her Gran and get back to us. The picture is of her Mum's horse that she lost recently.

Sunday

Mr Messy was wonderful last night :-) He slept on the side of the bed next to Princess Lollipop's cot, he went to bed earlier than I did and even remembered to swap our pillows over (we have completely different firmness of pillows and I can't sleep on his at all!!). I could still hear Princess Lollipop call out, but I wasn't getting kicked or poked by her all night, that was Mr Messy's privilege!! I got up with the littlies when Princess Lollipop woke up, and Mr Messy had a lie in. Little Prince had been up for hours, he'd watched a film and the Time Team Viking special we had taped, and when I got down he was watching kids cartoons.

He insisted he didn't want breakfast, but I insisted he would have some!! After breakfast we played until Mr Messy came down, when I left him with the littlies and got on with some jobs. Then me and Little Prince finished off tidying the kitchen, Mr Messy had emptied the dishwasher while he made his toast. So at least the kitchen looks slightly more presentable!!

After an hour or so more playing it became obvious that Princess Lollipop was ready for her nap. Little Prince was in a very bouncy mood, so I took Princess Lollipop upstairs and laid down with her for her nap (so I got a sort of lie in too, yeah). A couple of hours later Princess Lollipop was starting to come round, when Mr Messy came up to get ready to take Drama Teen to see her Boyfriend. Little Prince wasn't far behind him, and while I got Princess Lollipop in the bath and dealt with her hair, I persuaded him to get dressed. As soon as I'd finished Princess Lollipop's hair, Little Prince got UNdressed and joined her in the bath. She had got VERY upset about having her hair done, and was not impressed with her bath being invaded and no amount of persuading would calm her down. So I got her out and got her dressed, while Little Prince got dressed again! They ran around my bedroom while I got dressed, but eventually we were all downstairs and dressed, and it was only mid-afternoon lol.

Not long after Mr Messy arrived home, we got a call from my Mum :-) It was lovely chatting to her, especially in peace and quiet - I hid in our bedroom lol. I've told her I'm blogging again and she said she'd come and read it, so HI MUM :-) It must be a day for talking to Mums as later Mr Messy's Mum rang too. She had some not so good news, Mr Messy's Uncle is seriously ill in hospital with inoperable cancer :-( We will have to try to get over there to visit him, and soon.

I had meant to get over to OUR shop and take all the cardboard and rubbish to the recycling centre, but didn't have time in the end. The cardboard and rubbish isn't in the way in the back store room, so I'll leave it till next weekend instead.

The rest of the day was spent pottering round the house and not doing much. A nice restful day before I'm back in OUR shop again tomorrow. I took Princess Lollipop in the car with me while I drove over to pick up Drama Teen from her Boyfriend's house. Little Prince stayed here to do his homework with Daddy and get to bed on time, ready for school tomorrow. Princess Lollipop fell asleep on the way there, and didn't wake up till I stopped at the village shop to get some choccie treats for the grown ups!! Mr Messy got Princess Lollipop ready for bed, while I nipped upstairs to say goodnight to Little Prince. I found him sat cross legged in front of his wardrobes, meditating in the dark, which is apparently a lot of fun!! I managed to persuade him to get in bed. And ten minutes later went and told him to stop singing, loudly - him not me!! I paid for my latest purchases on Ebay, and when Drama Teen saw what I was doing she got me to buy her a t-shirt and jumper and paid me out of her wages straight away :-) She is now doing her homework, she has to finish it as it is due in tomorrow! Fingers crossed she will also have time to do the urgent pile of ironing I need doing before tomorrow!!

Rest of Saturday

When Princess Lollipop woke up, I decided we should go out. We went to an office supplies shop, to get a long ruler (for measuring photographs for framing) and a proper office sellotape dispenser. The office supplies shop is in a small outdoor shopping centre, so we then went on to look at a few other shops. I bought some wooden Halloween decorations for OUR shop, they are a lot nicer than the plastic tat that you normally find for Halloween decorations and will suit the ambience of the shop. And the florist is putting next weeks floral display in a pumpkin, so OUR shop will look Halloween-y without looking cheap and nasty. We then visited Little Prince's least favourite shop in the world (Next!!) I didn't really see anything I liked for either of the littlies, so we went on to a shoe shop where we got Princess Lollipop measured and bought her a gorgeous pair of trendy black fringed boots, and some sparkly black party shoes. She tried on a pair of patterned patent black shoes, but they looked way too "school shoe" so I didn't buy those. The sparkly ones look very dressy and cute on her :-) As it is getting colder and she is wearing tights (including brightly coloured ones) more often she needed black shoes instead of just her white summer ones.

Little Prince had totally had enough by that time and was already acting up in the shoe shop, so I decided to call it a day. We went to get yet another fast food meal, we've had over a months worth of fast food in one week!! I'm going to have to stop being lazy and get back into the habit of cooking! And quickly!!!

By the time we got back home, Mr Messy and Drama Teen were home from OUR shop too. They had tidied and cleaned before leaving, including waxing the wooden furniture, vacuuming and mopping the floor and getting all the washing up done :-) Well done you two :-) Hopefully Mr Messy has also tidied his desk!! He has got to learn he can't have it looking a tip, its on full view in OUR shop and needs to look tidy and professional!!!

I didn't see much of Drama Teen as she was getting ready to go to a new college friend's birthday party. Mr Messy dropped her off, and I got Little Prince to get ready for bed, Princess Lollipop wouldn't go to sleep, probably due to her longer nap earlier! I watched another programme I'd got on the Sky+ box, we are down to about 10% storage left, so we have to get them watched!! When Mr Messy got back we finally got Princess lollipop settled down to sleep and started to watch some more episodes of Criminal Minds. Hopefully we'll get to the end of the episodes I've already seen, but Mr Messy hasn't soon and then I can start enjoying watching them a bit more again!!

Mr Messy was a bit late setting off to pick Drama Teen up as we wanted to finish watching the episode we were in the middle of first! Mr Messy had set off about twenty minutes earlier when Drama Teen rang to see where he was! She went straight to bed when she got home, after making her Daddy a lovely cup of tea :-) Rather than being sensible and going to bed ourselves, we watched the rest of our saved episodes of Criminal Minds, we are now totally caught up! And we've freed up quite a lot of space on the Sky+ box too :-)

I was playing on Ebay while I was re-watching the Criminal Minds episodes and have found some gorgeous toddler Christmas dresses by Bonnie Jean. I am going to see if I can win some for Princess Lollipop to wear in OUR shop during December - she will look STUNNING :-)

Saturday

Princess Lollipop had a mega wriggly and disturbed night and I was exhausted when Mr Messy got up to go to OUR shop this morning. I persuaded Drama Teen to get up and give Princess Lollipop her breakfast and to come and get me in half an hour. That undisturbed half an hour was delicious, but way too short!! Little Prince came to wake me up and had to come back 15 mins later to wake me up again!!

When I finally surfaced I had a shower while Drama Teen carried on looking after the littlies. Then once I was dressed and ready, I took over so she could go and get ready. I dropped Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop off with Mr Messy at OUR shop, while me and Little Prince went to the supermarket opticians to have his eyes retested. He had an eye test with the school nurse recently and they had been concerned about his ability to read the smallest letters on the chart. The optician took her time and really helped him keep concentrating and he passed the test with flying colours. His eyes are clear and healthy, his depth of vision is excellent and overall he has great eyes and vision :-) While we were there we picked up the bits and bobs we had run out of, and also raided the stationary aisle for things for OUR shop. I got two sets of staplers, hole punches, rulers etc in two different colours - so WHEN Mr Messy loses his, he can get his own replacements!!

Then we called over at a different shop, to see if we could get some small plates to match OUR shop's mugs. We couldn't find exact matches, but found acceptable ones and bought those. We then fought our way through the traffic going to the football ground and drove back to OUR shop. Little Prince immediately became super hyper in the shop and wound everyone up!! We have told him he cannot go to OUR shop again if he can't behave better, and he is going to try to his best to behave next time. I sorted out all the purchases, gave Mr Messy and Drama Teen a list of jobs they had to do before coming home and then gathered up the littlies and took them home. Princess Lollipop had been VERY upset in OUR shop, crying and crying for Mummy and was obviously VERY tired, so I put her down for a nap as soon as we got home. She is still sleeping, so I've managed to get the tumble dryer sorted, the shopping put away and put some more washing on. I only need to supervise Little Prince emptying the dishwasher and squashing his cans and I've got most of my jobs done!! However, Princess Lollipop had just started to disturb so we will probably have to wait till later to get finished.

Random Thoughts

On the way home from work one day this week, me and Princess Lollipop got in the car and as I started the engine the Disney CD started playing - "Heigh ho, heigh ho, its home from work we go." No kidding - that's the exact point it started at - it amused me all evening lol.

Princess Lollipop's sleep is getting better!! Finally!! After 16 months home!! She still wakes just as frequently in the night, but she is a LOT calmer about it. She either reaches out to hold onto me, or she says "Mummy" in quite a calm voice. Before it would be screamed out in what seemed like panic or terror, but she was awake and could be comforted, so not an actual night terror. Whatever reassurance she needs, she must now be getting it and I have hopes of her being in her own room again before she starts university!!

Even with short hours and only 4 days a week, being a working Mum is HARD! I am so tired in the evenings and am only just starting to get into the swing of keeping up with the washing etc!! However, it is also fun and interesting and I'm really enjoying it :-) I realised that I've forgotten to take my anti depressants most days this week, and haven't felt like I'm sinking back into the black pit - so that's a great improvement. I'm also managing not to pig out on all the customer choccies we have on display, I limit myself to two or three a day and I'm mostly sticking to it!! It is only my first week, so I'm hoping this keeps up!!

Friday Evening

Me and Mr Messy worked on OUR shop's retail price list as we got the prices for some more products from our supplier last night. I had to fiddle around with it for ages to fit it on two sheets of letterhead, but I finally managed it :-) I printed out a copy to take to Little Prince's swimming lesson later, to give to the Mum who was enquiring about having a shoot of her family, including her four boys.

Me and Princess Lollipop left in time to go and get Little Prince from school. We picked him up and went home to get ready for his swimming lesson. He managed to pack his own bag with minimal prompting and we set off. Mr Messy met us in the swimming pool car park and took Princess Lollipop round to OUR shop, while I stayed at the pool with Little Prince. According to his teacher he had a great lesson, he dived for a brick at intervals all the way from the shallow end to the deep end. He didn't think he could do the dive at the deep end, but after some reassurance from his teacher he gave it a go, and was so pleased with himself when he managed it - I'm so proud of him :-) After swimming we went round to OUR shop and amazingly found a free carparking space right outside!! A minor miracle lol!! We went in to chat with Mr Messy and Drama Teen (who had gone there straight from college) who were busily feeding Princess Lollipop with chocolate!! Argh!! Its taken me all week to persuade her that she can't have the chocolate and stick to healthy snacks!! Little Prince was over excited to be in OUR shop and his behaviour deteriorated rapidly, so I sent Drama Teen down to the Chippie to buy mine and the littlies tea and got us home. Drama Teen stayed to keep her Dad company while he closed up OUR shop, and came home with him a little while later.

When me and the littlies got home we ate our tea and then had a relax in front of the TV, watching Playhouse Disney which Princess Lollipop loves and which is quite calming for Little Prince. No violent imagery or fighting or anything to get him wound up just before bed!! When Mr Messy got home he took Little Prince to bed, he was very tired from his late night last night and went up with no fuss. Princess Lollipop was obviously tired and went up not long afterwards, she seems to be getting into a routine that includes an early night :-)

Me and Mr Messy spent a lazy evening catching up with our recorded episodes of Criminal Minds. Although I've seen these episodes before, its still nice to drool over Derek Morgan in an evening :-)

Friday

Mr Messy went down to the shop early today as he had to set up his big computer monitor ready for a 9am meeting with a local lifestyle consultant, who he is going to market his new Boudoir Photography service with. Little Prince was tired and grumpy and took quite a bit of persuading to eat a sensible breakfast, which he promptly followed by an apple in an attempt to get his extremely wobbly tooth to come out. He was very kind and shared his apple with Princess Lollipop, he didn't have much choice as she was screeching "APBIT APBIT" (apple apple) till he let her take a bite!

Once I had dropped him off at school, me and Princess Lollipop went down to the shop, where she was very excited to see Daddy :-) She is going to be quite upset on Monday when he isn't there!! Mr Messy's lifestyle consultant was a little late for the appointment, and he was a bit panicky that he wouldn't be able to make it to his early morning photoshoot. Then our accountant turned up to ask if he could check his email on our computers, as his phone line is out at home and he hasn't been able to log on for quite a while! I played with Princess Lollipop and her Lego while Mr Messy and lifestyle consultant went through the marketing ideas and looked at photos from a recent shoot. Mr Messy had to leave to get to his photoshoot just after he'd finished the meeting with the lifestyle consultant, and our accountant stayed for another half an hour or so. Princess Lollipop must have finally decided he wasn't a stranger any more (she has met him regularly!) and even sat on his knee for a little while.

I took a phone call from friend of a prospective wedding couple asking if her friend could ring us this evening to talk about his upcoming wedding. I gave her our home number as we are only in OUR shop until 5pm and she said he would definitely be in touch. And sure enough later in the afternoon he rang up and had a long chat with Mr Messy. His finacee is Moroccan and they are having a ceremony here and another one in Morocco soon afterwards. They are on a set budget and he wanted to know if Mr Messy could do anything with his budget constraints. He and Mr Messy talked for quite some time on the phone, and have arranged to meet up in a week or so to go through the details of what he wants and what Mr Messy can do. Mr Messy is prepared to work with them and travel at cost price to Morocco as the images should be fabulous, so I'm sure they will come to some sort of arrangement. I wonder if he'll need an assistant :-)

Just as he was finishing that phone conversation a lady arrived to discuss framing and images from a recent shoot Mr Messy did with her, her husband and their two little boys. They spent ages discussing different options and as Princess Lollipop was fast asleep and I felt like a spare part, I wandered down to the florist to check that she has put our flower order on for a weekly collection. She did know we wanted flowers every week, but wasn't sure which day we wanted to collect them. So I've sorted that out, and even arranged a "Halloween" style floral display in a pumpkin for the week after next. I asked her to keep the displays in keeping with the season, and pretty modern looking but left the rest of the design details to her.

Mr Messy and his client had just about finished when I returned, and Princess Lollipop was just waking up, as soon as she saw me she wanted "UP mummy." So we had a cuddle and play with her jigsaw while Mr Messy finished off his meeting.

Thursday Evening

Mr Messy arrived back at OUR shop not long before Princess Lollipop woke up, she was really pleased "Daddy BACK" :-) I finished at my normal 3pm so that I could go and collect Little Prince from school, and Mr Messy went off to his Dentist appointment. He had decided to go back to OUR shop afterwards and stay there till 5pm so that he had some peace and quiet to get some work done.

Little Prince was as high as a kite when I picked him up from school, he was counting down the minutes until the School Disco that evening! He asked me what time it was constantly and was very worried about being late!! He got Princess Lollipop all hyped up too and I couldn't get them to settle back down, so I just gave them a snacky tea. Mr Messy took Drama Teen to her singing lesson and I helped Little Prince get ready for his Disco, he and Drama Teen chose his trendy outfit and he couldn't wait to set off. By the time we set off for the 6.45pm start I was truly ready for a break from the constant pestering about was it time to go yet!! I dropped Little Prince off and had a word with the teachers on duty, one of which was his own class teacher. He has only been to one other School Disco and sobbed the whole time he was there and refused to get off my knee, but also refused to go home!! So I asked her to keep a very close eye on him and to ring me if there were any problems, including the fact that Little Prince was bouncing off the walls with excitement and could get overly silly!! She assured me that she and the other staff members would keep a close watch over him and told me not to worry!! Ha!! Worry is my middle name!!!

Drama Teen and Mr Messy rang not long after I got back home, to say they were both starving and had decided to go out for tea on their way home. Princess Lollipop was very tired and was in bed by 7.30pm - unheard of!!! So I had a couple of hours to myself. I had a very relaxing time eating biscuits (chocolate would have been better!!) & drinking coke, and caught up with some of the programmes I have saved on the Sky+ box. When Mr Messy and Drama Teen got home they both had a lot of work to do so went off upstairs to do their homework and editing - guess who did which lol. So I was able to carry on watching my saved programmes.

I was just about to get ready to go and collect Little Prince when I got a phone call from school!! "Hello Mrs X, I've got Little Prince here after the Disco" "What?? I thought it didn't finish for another 10 minutes?!?!" "No sorry it finished 20 minutes ago!" "OMG!! I am so sorry!! I'll be there in a minute!!" I threw myself into the car and broke one or two land speed records driving up to school and was there at the gates moments later. I was panicking that Little Prince would be in a complete state, as his worst nightmare is being forgotten or left behind :-( However, he was stood chatting with his class teacher and seemed quite chirpy!! I apologised profusely and gave Little Prince a huge hug. His teacher said not to worry and then went on to tell me about Little Prince's bartering for a drink!! He had run out (more likely lost!!) of money but wanted a packet of crisps, so he asked if he could swap a cup for a bag of crisps - they let him for sheer audacity :-) He had a couple of glow bands with him, but we noticed that he also had "glow band juice" on his shirt, and the bands were very chewed so I had to take them off him, I was surprised at how little fuss he made over that!

It was over an hour past his bedtime by the time we got home so he went straight upstairs with Daddy and went to bed. Mr Messy spent the evening coming down for a quick chat and then rushing back up to his office to get more work done. During one of his "visits" downstairs Little Prince appeared too, he said he couldn't get to sleep, but had obviously been asleep for a while. He was also very upset that he had a headache, so I gave him some Calpol and got him back in bed. Drama Teen came down an hour or so later and asked if Little Prince was due any more Calpol as he was complaining of a headache, we said no he couldn't have any yet, so she just took him the drink she'd promised him. We didn't hear from him again in the night, but the next morning Mr Messy had to actually wake him up, which is absolutely unheard of!!!

Thursday

Mr Messy has a Dentist appointment this afternoon so he is working from home both today and tomorrow. He had an early morning conference call to take, so wasn't able to take Little Prince to school as he went up to OUR shop early to get set up and ready for his call. So I took Little Prince and then called in at the Post Office to collect some parcels that I had got a card through the door for the other day. It turned out to be Mr Messy's new Kindle case that he had been waiting for and a new Winter coat from Ebay for Princess Lollipop. I then waited for the post to arrive, it came at about 10am and yet another card was put through the door!!! I was a bit miffed as I had waited in specially to get the parcel I was expecting, so I got me and Princess Lollipop ready for work and drove off round the village to find the Postman and see if he had my parcel on his bike! He didn't!! It was too large for him to deliver and he'd left it at the Post Office, so we trailed BACK to the Post Office again to collect this parcel!! The Post Mistress must think I'm losing it!!!

Once we had all our deliveries safely in our hands we set off for OUR shop. I managed to park right outside for long enough to drop off the large parcel, Princess Lollipop and our lunches. I then went to park my car, I can't stay outside the shop as there is a 1 hour parking restriction on the High Street. Once I got back to OUR shop, I found Mr Messy had already set up the printer we bought last night and was exploring today's delivery! It was a label printer, that we are going to use to make card price tags, to stick on the wall below each photograph so that clients can see instantly how much everything is. We don't want to be like some photographers who hide their prices until its time to order your prints/enlargements and then the clients find they can't afford them. We want to be upfront, open and honest with our pricing as we feel it better serves our clients and our prices are reasonable for the superb quality of photographs/mounting/framing we offer. Unfortunately the separately ordered cards for the label printer didn't arrive, so we still can't display our prices!

During the morning the lady who had called in the other day, who wants Mr Messy to perform some "surgery" on photographs of her late husband (taking other people out and just leaving herself and her husband) called in to chat to him about it. When he had sorted out with her exactly what she wanted to do with them, he took Princess Lollipop to the nearby Bakery to get a sandwich and some cakes for lunch :-) I could hear Princess Lollipop shouting "Bye bye Mummy. Bye Bye Nee Naw" all the way down the street lol. And I knew when they were coming back as I could hear her shouting "Mummy Mummy" on the way back lol.

Mr Messy had to nip back home to brush his teeth as he had forgotten to bring his toothbrush with him, and you have to brush your teeth before seeing the Dentist! Just as he left another lady from the other day returned, this lady has a picture of her late mother she wants enlarging to "poster size" I'm not sure what we will be able to do with it as she didn't bring the negative or digital file, just a regular snapshot! I've taken her contact details and I'll get Mr Messy to ring her and chat about what he can/can't do and what sort of price he will charge, when he returns.

Princess Lollipop had gone down for her nap just before Mr Messy left, and she is still snoozing away, so I've got the time and opportunity to update my blog :-) She has started wriggling a little so I probably haven't got much time left before she is up and at 'em again :-)

Wednesday

I had my first test of seeing if I could bath and comb through Princess Lollipop's hair, and still get ready for work and get Little Prince to school on time. I couldn't leave Princess Lollipop's hair till tomorrow as it was already starting to tangle too much, I only comb it in the bath when its soaked in conditioner and it needs doing every other day or with two days in between at the very most. The only trouble is that bathing her that often ruins her skin, and we are going through so much Shea Butter at the moment to compensate!! Anyway I managed to get Princess Lollipop's hair done in enough time to still get everyone ready, and we were still on time for school :-) It proves it can be done :-) Little Prince was panicking when I ran the bath, and went stomping out of the bathroom saying he knew he was going to be late for school and it would all be my fault! So I'm glad we managed to get there on time :-)

Me and Princess Lollipop had the most visitors to OUR shop that we've had so far! Someone asking if we could frame a cross-stitch picture, someone asking if we could make a really large picture from an ordinary sized photograph (of her late mother so she'd really like it if we can manage it), one of our shop neighbours (who is the Gran of one of Drama Teen's Primary School friends) and a couple of enquiries about booking photo shoots. And the lady from the Primary School Mr Messy did a charity photoshoot with last week, finally came and collected her disk of photographs - I was beginning to panic that we'd missed her!! Princess Lollipop still managed to squeeze in time for a nap and lots of playing :-) She was quite disturbed last night which meant she was tired today, so most of the morning she wanted to be "Up Mummy" but after her nap she was much happier and toddled off to play. That gave me chance to research luxury presentation boxes for Mr Messy's new Boudoir Photography photo sessions. I couldn't find what we wanted "off the peg" so have sent off for three bespoke quotations. I also thought to ask Mad Cat Lady if they could make something suitable, as part of their business is making reproduction steamer trunks. I'd much rather give her company the business than someone we don't know.

When I got to school to pick Little Prince up, the nursery teacher came to talk to me and unfortunately it was to tell me that they are stopping running the "Stay and Play" sessions for the pre-school children due to budget constraints. I haven't been able to make it very much recently as the session moved to the afternoons and Princess Lollipop is napping during the time the session runs. But it is a great resource for families with little ones to get together and for the littlies to socialise, and it will be really missed. We are going to try and make next weeks last session to say goodbye, Princess Lollipop will be quite upset as she loves going to her "school" :-(

I had just put the children in the car when T's Mum asked if Little Prince would like to go round to play. He was out of the car so fast lol. Princess Lollipop then sat there shouting for her brother at the top of her voice, while me and T's Mum had a quick chat. All the way home she kept asking where he was and even shouted him when we came in the front door. She adores her big brother - even though she upsets him by refusing to have a kiss or hug from him!

Drama Teen arrives home from college at about 5pm, so I thought I could ask her to go and collect her brother from T's house down the street. She had forgotten to take her packed lunch this morning, so she was starving hungry and said she would look after Princess Lollipop while I nipped out to collect Little Prince. Just as I was stepping out of the door Mr Messy rang up, he asked to speak to me and said he couldn't wait for me to get back from T's house, and he'd talk to me later. I was left wondering what he wanted for the next couple of hours until he arrived home - and all it turned out to be was he was letting me know he was leaving work!!

Little Prince was also starving hungry when he arrived home so I put a quick pizza on for him and Princess Lollipop for their tea. Little Prince fussed and messed with his, despite him claiming starvation!!! Princess Lollipop just tucked her way in and finished before he did!! After some playing and TV time it was time for Little Prince to get ready for bed, just as Mr Messy arrived home. Mr Messy took him to bed and then came down and said we had to go to the supermarket and get a printer for the shop!! I had a few bits and bobs I could do with getting so I got my list, got the by now very fussy Princess Lollipop ready and we set off, leaving Drama Teen in charge!! Princess Lollipop fell asleep on the drive to the supermarket, but woke up when we got there and tried to transfer her to her laid down buggy!! When we had finished Princess Lollipop insisted we went to MacDonalds!! She finally got her own way, when we had repeatedly said "No" by sadly saying "Bye bye hot hot tea." Daddy couldn't have his baby girl sad, so we went over there lol. He is so twisted round all his children's little fingers :-)

After our impromptu meal we drove round to OUR shop to drop off the printer, paper and spare ink cartridges we had bought. Princess Lollipop who had been quite happy while we were driving burst into tears, she wanted to go into her shop and play with her "Nee Naw Horsie" (see saw horse AKA rocking horse!). We got everything dropped off as quickly as we could and went back home, where she promptly fell fast sleep :-)

Drama Teen reported no problems with Little Prince, thank goodness!! And went off to make her pasta meal - she LOVES this particular brand of pre-prepared pasta with chicken and bacon, in a cheesy sauce. She and Her Boyfriend tried to make there own once, but didn't get it quite right, the sauce was like water!! So now she sticks to the pre-prepared one!!

I spent an hour researching prices for the ideas I've got for Christmas presents for the littlies, I found what I thought was a bargain on Ebay was seriously over-priced for one present and cancelled my snipe bid!! I'm glad I looked at real shop prices before buying it from Ebay!! I've now got a good idea of what we can give the littlies for Christmas and am trying to get some bargains from Ebay where possible. If I spread the cost out starting now, it shouldn't be such a shock come December!!

Tuesday Evening

Just as we were getting ready to leave OUR shop, a lady called in to collect her framing that had arrived back yesterday. She was smitten with Princess Lollipop and spent quite a while cooing over her, I don't blame her :-) Then she commented that her photograph was larger than she had thought it would be, and she would put it up when her family visited and take it down when they'd gone home as she didn't have enough room to have it up all the time!! She seemed happy with the photo framing apart from that, so that's good!

When we arrived at school Little Prince immediately asked if I could wait and talk to J's Dad and see if J could come to our house. He went to play on the play equipment while we waited to see J's Dad, who agreed that J could come and play. As the weather is sunny and not wet (and how many days like that are we going to get now its Autumn!!) I took the boys and Princess Lollipop to the village park. The boys ran off to play and were soon engrossed in a game of football with some other boys, while I supervised Princess Lollipop on the slide. She had a great time. The boys seemed to be playing alright until I caught them hitting their friend C!! I made them both apologise and play somewhere else for a while. Princess Lollipop noticed C had a football and ran over to him shouting "ball ball" he was a little sweetie and let her play with his ball for ages. He even pretended to let her score goals past him :-) She won most tackles by running towards him shouting "Want it ball." After a while some other boys C's age arrived to play and Princess Lollipop got very upset that they were playing properly and she couldn't keep up, which caused a lot of tears! J and Little Prince joined back in the game, but I had to tell Little Prince off when he pushed a 3 year old boy to get the ball! I once again made him apologise and told him this behaviour was totally unacceptable. I allowed them one last chance to play nicely, which didn't last long before they were wrestling with each other! So I took them back to the car and we went home.

As usual Little Prince and J were crazy!! They had a couple of Mr Messy's Grand Opening buns and then went to play in Little Prince's room! By the time J's Dad arrived to collect him the room looked like a bombsite! They'd been having a teddy fight which involved them throwing all the cuddlies at each other!! Little Prince is refusing to tidy up saying J should do it as he threw most, and I'm trying (unsuccessfully so far) to persuade him to do some of it!!

Drama Teen has returned from college and gone straight for a shower. Hopefully she will be finished in time to look after the littlies so I can cook their tea, which gets referred to as "evening edibles" so that Princess Lollipop doesn't get too impatient!!