Sunday Visitors

As is there tradition, Mr Messy, Mrs LMS and Little Prince went off for their Boy Breakfast this morning. Little Prince managed to eat the same size breakfast size as Mr Messy, and finish first!! Which is good as he has hardly eaten for the rest of the day!

While they were out I vac'd up around Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop! Princess Lollipop very helpfully kept pointing out bits I'd missed!! Thank you dear!!

At lunchtime Mr Messy's youngest brother M, his girlfriend A and his three daughters arrived to visit. The girls are aged almost 12, 9 and 8 weeks :-) The eldest K played Lego with Little Prince in his room for ages, and was incredibly patient with him. She had gone through a long "sulky teenage" period, and she's not even a teen yet, but now seems to be back to her lovely self again :-) The middle girl J, played on the Wii for a while, then she, K and Little Prince played in the garden with Princess Lollipop. They seemed to have a lot of fun playing together out there, the new garden is fantastic and I'm so pleased we got it sorted out :-)

Me and Mrs LMS vied over who was going to hold 8 week old Baby F, and I didn't always win!! She is such a gorgeous, good natured, cuddly baby :-) I'm so lucky to have 3 such gorgeous new nieces :-) Mr Messy took some gorgeous pictures of his brother and his family, and some of Princess Lollipop holding Baby F :-)

Little Prince loved having his Aunt, Uncle and cousins over to play, but didn't cope very well when they had to leave. He wouldn't come and say goodbye and has been grumpy in the garden ever since. The visitors have worn Princess Lollipop out and we are trying hard to keep her awake until a sensible bedtime!

Saturday

This morning I had to try to persuade Princess Lollipop to have a bath, to make sure all the chlorine was out of her hair and off her skin. She was NOT happy about another bath, probably because of my stupidly childish behaviour last time, I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself for losing my temper and getting so wound up about the bath-time screaming, which hopefully means I won't do it again! Anyway once I'd persuaded her to actually get in the bath, she was fine, even when I was brushing through her conditioner slathered hair. Right up until the very last bits, and then she had obviously had enough and started to get upset and wriggly, but I stayed calm and finished her hair and she didn't get too worked up.

Princess Lollipop has decided she likes wearing her "special Princess nappies" (thank you for the suggestion Whatshername's Mum) which are actually potty training pull ups (the picture disappears if you wee in them). And she has worn the same ones with no accidents ALL DAY!!! I am so proud of her :-) She has really done well and seems to have got the hang of potty training almost instantly :-) I think after the nightmare I had with Little Prince (he still has bladder problems, so it was never ever going to be easy) I deserved an easy one to potty train - but I never imagined one quite this easy!!! We'll carry on with the "special Princess nappies" for the next week and see how she manages and then I'll have to buy her Princess knickers and see how she copes with them too. Wish me luck...

And another potty breakthrough - Little Prince is finally managing to stay dry overnight :-) He is OVERJOYED with himself :-) He says he has been dry for quite a few nights, but hasn't told me, I'm not sure if he thinks it was a fluke and he'll jinx it by saying something or what?! But I am so proud of him too :-) He has HATED, utterly H-A-T-E-D having to wear pull ups to bed, and feels he is somehow doing something wrong, or is stupid because he can't manage without them. This is despite constant reassurances both from me and from our GP and from his hospital Paediatrician, that it is NOT something he is doing or not doing, it is just his body has been slower to mature than average in this regard. Little Prince can't quite believe that it is really true, so he is choosing to wear pull ups over his underpants to bed, but as he has more and more dry nights I'm sure he'll stop needing the reassurance of doing that. This is a HUGE breakthrough for him, and such an enormous boost to his confidence and self esteem :-)

I was already planning to take Little Prince and Mrs LMS to the cinema to see Cars 2 today, and due to Little Prince's night time success we decided to treat the trip as a celebration. The film was awesome, it was very much a little boy film and suited Little Prince down to the ground. Although there was enough in there to keep me and Mrs LMS amused and entertained too :-) Once the film had finished I drove us to the American/Italian style restaurant we all like, and we phoned Mr Messy to come and meet us with Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop, so we could have a family celebration meal. We had a lovely time and I hope Little Prince realises how proud and happy we all are for him :-)

Another conversation with Little Prince

I'd forgotten this recent chat we had! Little Prince is upset because he doesn't feel very Arab, he says its really hard to feel Arab as we are all white, everyone at school is white and no one he knows is Arab like him. He had a very very similar comment to make about not feeling Muslim and not being a good Muslim.

I am going to have to make a lot more effort to get him connected to his birth culture and to learn more about Islam. Ramadan is approaching and I'm going to suggest that we all try fasting over a weekend, so that Little Prince can experience a little of what being a Muslim in Ramadan would feel like. I'll find one of his children's books on Islam so that we can read together about the purpose of fasting during Ramadan too. I'll also have to chat to my friend the Designer Children's Boutique owner as her husband is a Muslim, and see if Little Prince and Mr Messy can visit the Mosque with him and their boys. Although when I've suggested this to Little Prince he has been very resistant, I think he is worried he won't know what to do and he will make mistakes. He doesn't like to stand out and as being a Muslim is quite important to him, he doesn't want to appear foolish or silly.

Recent Conversations with Little Prince

Little Prince has been fairly quiet about his Birth Family for a while, but recently he has started talking about them again. He is sad that he has two birth siblings he has never met. He is jealous that two of his birth siblings get to see Tummy Mummy and he doesn't. He doesn't want to wait another 10 years (until he is 18) to meet Tummy Mummy, he misses her and he wants to see her sooner. When I get a quiet moment next week, and can get to the phone without him eavesdropping, which is almost impossible during the Summer Holidays I think I'm going to have to try getting in touch with the Social Workers again. Last time we spoke about him having direct contact with his Birth Mum the Social Worker advised us to wait as Birth Mum was going through some upheaval in her personal life, and the Social Worker wanted to be absolutely sure that Birth Mum was committed and capable of sustaining a long term direct contact relationship with Little Prince before we initiated anything. The Social Worker wanted us to wait until early next year to review the situation, but I don't think it will do Little Prince any good to make him wait that long, unless it is absolutely necessary. Hopefully if I manage to speak to the Social Worker I will be able to convince her of how important this is to Little Prince's well being and get her to review the situation sooner.

Another conversation we had was centred around "If you had millions and millions of Pounds what would you do?" Little Prince after buying himself a Bugatti Veyron, a very very fast and expensive car he is obsessed with, and a house with the family ghost was surprisingly altruistic for an 8 year old :-) He would pay for Mr LMS's Visa to come to the UK, and buy his flight tickets. He said he would also buy them a car, but would have to talk to Mr LMS to find out what kind of car he would like. Then he said "You know that party thing that Mrs LMS wants? Where she wants to get married again? (he means the renewal of vows Mrs LMS would like to save up to do) I'd pay for that, and even get them a cake." He wants to buy Drama Teen a VW Camper Van, as he remembered her saying she wanted one when they were chatting a while ago. He wants to buy Daddy a new camera, and a private jet so he can go and photograph where ever he wants. And he'd buy himself a camera and get Daddy to teach him how to use it. He is such a generous and thoughtful little boy and I need to remember moments like this when he is driving me insane with his ADHD!!!

Talking of his ADHD, is exactly what me and Little Prince were doing the other day! He was saying how unfair it is that he has so many problems and his friends at school don't. I agreed with him and sympathised. Then later on I tried to get him to see the positives that have come from some of his issues too, while being conscious of not belittling his feelings about how unfair it is, quite a balancing act!!! He seemed to get what I was saying and liked the fact that his ADHD gives him boundless energy, and that his Autism helps him see and remember the details about things that other people often overlook. Even his Dyspraxia has made him develop his determination, in his quest to write legibly.

Yet another chat we've had is about comparing his and Princess Lollipop's adoptions and Birth Families. Little Prince said that it wouldn't be fair if he met his Birth Family and Princess Lollipop found she couldn't meet hers, so he wouldn't meet his family so it wouldn't upset her. You have got to know Little Prince to know just how much he is sacrificing to even contemplate that scenario. Meeting his Birth Family is a huge huge deal to him, and to say he would give that up to not upset his sister is... well I don't even have the words to describe how big a deal that is. Wow! I am just in awe and humbled by his love for his sister. And I'm writing this with tears rolling down my cheeks. He is a special special little boy, and I am so privileged to be one of his mothers.

Friday

I had a nice leisurely start to the day, with no early morning errands or children to deliver, bliss :-) Drama Teen was going out with her Boyfriend to the cinema, but they were meeting each other on the bus into town, so there was no need for me to be involved in transportation. I did have a lunchtime optician's appointment, so I'd arranged to drop Princess Lollipop off with Mr Messy at OUR shop and take Little Prince with me. The Littlies are way too volatile together to have them at OUR shop for any length of time!!

I've been having difficulties with my new lenses since they were fitted last week, and driving yesterday just made it worse! I've had monster headaches (and I hardly ever get headaches!), its been almost impossible to keep both of my eyes focused at the same time and changing from focusing on something close to something far away has been really difficult too. The optician fiddled around with the strengths of the lenses and the new ones I've got now are tonnes better already :-)

After the optician I took Little Prince into town to have his passport photo taken. I didn't tell him until the last possible minute that was what we were doing!! Normally its a very bad idea to spring things on him as he doesn't cope with sudden changes/surprises easily, but in this instance I think it was the right thing to do. Little Prince hates having photos taken with flash (0ne reason he prefers Daddy to take his pictures, as Mr Messy hardly ever uses flash) and struggles to look people in the eye. I coaxed him by saying he wasn't looking the photographer in the eye, he was looking into the camera, and that seemed to help. I also held Little Prince's hand, off camera, so he stayed slightly calmer. When me and Princess Lollipop had visited the shop last week for our passport photos I'd mentioned Little Prince's difficulties and the photographer had remembered because he got the shots done as quickly as he could with as little interaction with Little Prince as he could manage. Altogether it worked perfectly :-) Little Prince now has passport photographs that meet the new stringent guidelines, and I can get all the passports sent off for :-)

I was so proud of how Little Prince coped, and took him out to his favourite cafe (no NOT McDonalds!!) for lunch :-) He had a BLT, without the L or T!! And was delighted that they had Elderflower juice on offer as he's been dying to try some :-) The lady serving us was very surprised at Little Prince's order, saying they hardly ever get someone his age asking for things like that!! And the verdict on Elderflower juice - wow that's yummy Mum :-)

After our lunch we wandered round "the art" as the cafe is in the local art gallery. Little Prince loves seeing the varying exhibitions that are displayed in there and usually has some very insightful comments to make about the exhibits :-) I love that fact about him, he is so full on and so "crazy" that most people would never imagine how he appreciates beauty and art, which is also kind of sad and their loss!!

Talking about beauty and Little Prince's appreciation of it, I'm not sure how this conversation came about, but Little Prince was telling me that he will always love H (the little girl in his class he has adored since nursery school) even though she doesn't love him (I can't help hating her a little for hurting my boy!!). When I tried to cheer him up by telling him he might meet someone even prettier and more wonderful as he grows up, he incredulously said "There couldn't be ANYONE as pretty as H!" One day he is going to make his partner very very happy, it might be the currently unappreciative H, or it might be someone else - but growing up now is that special someone who is just waiting to be loved and adored by my romantic 8 year old :-) And just for the record whoever he/she is - there is NO WAY they are good enough for MY Little Prince!!! Yes I am probably going to be the Mother In Law from Hell mwahahaha :-)

Thursday

I had an early start today, although not as early as Mr Messy who left to go to London before I woke up. As he was away I had to drive Mrs LMS to work, taking Princess Lollipop with us, which was the only reason I'd got up so early!! Even though I am not a morning person, that was the easy bit of the day!! As soon as I returned home chaos ensued!! Nothing seemed to go well and it was a fraught, stressful morning urgh! In the end, however, I managed to get everything ready and everyone in the car and set off!! We paused at the Post Office to post the designer bridal gowns back to the designer after Mr Messy's big shoot at weekend. We also had to stop by at the bank, so I could give Drama Teen some money, as she was having her restyled today. Then I dropped Drama Teen off at OUR shop and me and the Littlies set off on a a long drive to meet up with Baby Sis and her gorgeous little baby. It took about 2 hours to get to Baby Sis's house, and the drive wasn't too bad, especially as the Littlies watched a DVD each. It was a bit confusing in the front listening to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Harry Potter in jarring stereo, but I can cope with that if it keeps the Littlies happy and amused for long drives!

Once we'd arrived at Baby Sis's house had a little break from the car, and Baby Sis's baby had eaten her lunch, we loaded the car back up with Littlies and set off again. This time we were heading for a shopping centre where we'd arranged to meet a fellow adopter we'd met up with in Ethiopia, and haven't seen since then. The family lives overseas, so it is difficult to get together, its not that we were avoiding them!! We met this adoptive family on our first trip to Ethiopia, when I travelled with Baby Sis, and we'd got on like a house on fire, probably due to our shared Northern Town roots, and both me and Baby Sis were very excited at the opportunity to see this friend again :-)

When we'd got together and were sat chatting Little Prince was talking to the other adopter's older two children, well to be honest Little Prince was doing a breathless non-stop monologue on Star Wars and the other children were listening, they probably couldn't get a word in!! The other adopter showed us pictures of her home, home town abroad and her Ethiopian children. I can't believe how much they've grown!! The other adopter said the same about Princess Lollipop, I guess two years makes a HUGE difference lol. We chatted for ages, before going for a walk round the Shopping Centre, Little Prince was still going and the other adopter's children were starting to look a little shell shocked!! After a lovely few hours together we said our goodbyes, fingers crossed its not another two years before we can get together again!!! Little Prince has mentioned the other two children a couple of times and wishes they could play/chat together more often :-)

Next we were dragged in the Disney Shop by Little Prince, not that it took much arm twisting to be honest lol. Surprisingly I ended up buying things for Little Prince (a cap and a fancy gadgety pencil case) rather than Princess Lollipop - its not often that way round in there!! We had a quick stop in the Croc Shop, but I didn't like the styles they had available in Little Prince's size, so we left without buying anything. Little Prince had been talking about the City Centre's Big Wheel, that we'd seen when we'd been chatting in the cafe, and both he and Princess Lollipop made it obvious they wanted to ride on it. Being a complete wuss about heights, I was extremely grateful when Baby Sis offered to take my Littlies on there, and let me stay on solid ground with Baby Niece :-) Thank you Baby Sis :-) Baby Niece wasn't as impressed with this arrangement and was crying, with big fat tears rolling down her cheeks by the time her Mummy returned :-( She would play with my hair, start to relax her head onto my shoulder, realise I didn't feel/smell/look like Mummy and jerk her head back up and cry, repeatedly. I'm so sorry for upsetting you Baby Niece :-( She settled almost straight back down once her Mummy reappeared, but was obviously getting fractious, as was Princess Lollipop, so we decided to call it a day and go back to the car.

Getting out of the car park was a trauma!! The exit ramp was like a helter skelter for cars!! And driving a bigger 4x4 style car, made me feel like I was going to fall off the edge the whole time, obviously I wasn't there were high concrete edges to the ramp, it just felt awful!! Baby Sis had told me how horrible the exit was when we were entering the car park, but I didn't realise just what she meant until I was driving it!!! We'll park somewhere else next time!!!

Princess Lollipop was fast asleep almost before we'd left the Town Centre, and Baby Niece was settling down too and might have fallen asleep if Little Prince hadn't decided to keep her amused!! He was so cute and sweet with her though, bless. I'm not sure that repeatedly banging his head on his own car seat because it made her laugh was a great idea though!!! We called in at a drive in place to get Little Prince something to eat, I thought Princess Lollipop would wake up to eat too but she didn't. She woke up just as we were about to drive away, and didn't seem that bothered so I decided to get her something later, or when we got home. When we were almost back at Baby Sis's house Baby Niece was getting more and more upset (she was hungry and tired) and started to cry :-( This upset both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop who had to put their hands over their ears, Princess Lollipop complaining "It too loudy!" Little Prince was upset that he couldn't cheer Baby Niece up, and was blaming himself for her being sad :-( It was quite a relief to arrive at Baby Sis's house. We only stopped long enough to all have a turn going to the loo, before setting off back home again, letting Baby Sis feed Baby Niece in peace - she was too distracted by her big cousins jumping around and making a lot of noise to feed!!

Once we were on the road again, I realised we hadn't got enough petrol to get us all the way home!! Trouble is I realised just as we sailed past the last garage!! After a few minutes of quiet panic I remembered a Supermarket Petrol Station just a little out of our way and headed there. I grabbed a drink and snack for the Littlies from the Petrol Station Shop before setting off again, hopefully they will both have eaten enough to go straight to bed once we get home. The drive was mostly plain sailing, except when Princess Lollipop dropped her almost empty crisps packet where no one could reach and then started to scream at the top of her lungs every few minutes for what felt like hours!! She can literally make an ear splitting noise - your ears ring afterwards!!! This was obviously very unpleasant while it lasted, especially for Little Prince sat next to her on the back seat!! The sooner we reach the end of these "Terrible Two Tantrums" the better!!!

When we got home I collapsed on the sofa, feeling absolutely exhausted!! I can't imagine how tired Mr Messy was after driving for twice as long as I did and he was still managing to be on his computer!! He explained that there was a big hoohaa going on at work and that to sort it out he will probably be flying out to the Indian office soon for a couple of weeks!! And depending on how that goes he might come home and then have to go to the Australian office!! Not really what my exhausted brain wanted to hear :-( Especially as the timing means he will probably be away before Little Prince goes back to school :-(

Wednesday

Mr Messy took Princess Lollipop to OUR shop with him all day, so I could just have Little Prince and an easier day to re-charge my batteries. In the morning me and Little Prince played on Lego Star Wars on the Wii. Well Little Prince played and I looked things up for him on the computer, so he could get further on in the game. Its not really cheating, as even though I could tell him what to do, or what to look for, he still had to actually manage to complete the missions/challenges. He did get a bit obsessed with it and it took a long time to persuade him to come off the game!! When I finally managed to get him to stop playing we went out to our local National Trust property for some fresh air and a play. There is a huge play park there and Little Prince loves going there and always finds a friend to play with, however, this time the children were all considerably younger than Little Prince and he had no one to play with, so he was quite sad and didn't enjoy himself as much as usual. We had a wander round the huge gardens, and it was lovely, especially in the wooded areas out of the direct sun where it was cooler!! We picked Mrs LMS up after work and came home, to find Mr Messy still wasn't back with Princess Lollipop and Drama Teen. He took them out for some tea, so that he could keep them out later, to give me as much time as he could - thank you so much Mr Messy, you are a star :-)

Mr Messy Saves the Day

After all the screaming (from me and the littlies!!) I rang Mr Messy and he shut up OUR shop and came straight home :-) After some very comforting hugs, we got Princess Lollipop ready and Mr Messy took her with him to go and pick Drama Teen up, leaving me to have some peace and quiet with Little Prince - thank you so much Mr Messy.

Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop are going to be out for a while, as they have to pick Drama Teen up from her Boyfriend's then go and pick Mrs LMS up from work. Then Mr Messy is going to take the Big Girls to the optician to sort out their new contact lenses, get the supermarket shopping done and visit the DIY Shop to get the last bits of paint needed for the Playhouse. Princess Lollipop has promised to be a good girl with no screaming, shouting, pinching, throwing or hitting!! That's quite a list she's gone through today!!!!

I'm just helping Little Prince write his Holiday Diary and then we are going to play on the Wii. Life seems better already :-)

Tuesday

This morning I had to drop Drama Teen off at her Boyfriend's house, well I didn't have to but she did want me to!! On the way home we stopped off at OUR shop to visit Mr Messy and have some lunch. Princess Lollipop insisted she wanted a "nint" (drink) and "sips" (chips) so off to the chippie we trotted. Little Prince chose to have a couple of sausages and a drink, but then had a tummy ache and was sick in the bathroom! Oh dear :-( I quickly persuaded Princess Lollipop to finish her "sips" and we all came home.

I got Princess Lollipop to take her nap, and Little Prince had a quiet time sat on the sofa playing on his Gameboy. When he got bored with that he went upstairs and played Lego in his room for ages. When Princess Lollipop woke up she tried to persuade Little Prince to play on the trampoline with her, but he didn't want to - she wasn't pleased!! She isn't used to her orders (ooops I mean requests) being turned down!! Although within a few minutes he had come downstairs to play in the garden with her :-)

Well playing nicely in the garden only lasted a few minutes! Princess Lollipop threw sand at Little Prince who retaliated - which meant they both came in screaming at the top of their lungs. Then Princess Lollipop threw sand all over the trampoline. This time I started screaming - that if they can't both play nicely I'll throw the sandpit away!!! In the midst of all this the joiner rang, and I was trying to referee the chaos, discuss the jobs I need doing and arrange a time for him to come over and have a look!!! Aaaaaargh!!!! After all this on top of little to no sleep last night (thank you Princess Lollipop) I'm ready to quit my job as Mum and run away!!!!

By Jove I think she's got it!!

On Sunday I decided it was TIME!! I would once again try to potty train Princess Lollipop!! Last time we tried the first time she wee'd on the potty she was horrified and jumped off screeching about "water water it get me"!!! And refused to have anything whatsoever to do with the potty from there on in!!! So I had put her back in nappies and just left the potties as "decor" in the lounge and dining room and forgot about potty training for a while. For the past few months Princess Lollipop has got used to the potty being around and become quite comfortable with it being there.

So with it being the Summer Hols, I decided we would have another go, with fingers firmly crossed that it might work better this time!! I was shocked at how quickly she got the idea this time, and how well she is doing already!! She has obviously had a number of accidents, but she seems to be able to "stop" and run to the potty to finish off. I'm impressed that she can do this already!! It does seem to confuse her wearing knickers, as she has wet each time she's worn them, but copes almost perfectly when she is bare. So its going to take a while to get her to realise that she isn't wearing a nappy I think!!

But we are off to a wonderful start, and I can't believe how easy it has been so far!!! Fingers crossed I haven't jinxed it by saying that!!!

Monday Monday

Today was finally the day for Mr Messy and Mrs LMS (and Drama Teen who was modelling), they went out early for their Designer Bridal Wear shoot. Little Prince was also up and about before I was, and he was overjoyed when me and Princess Lollipop finally got up, as he said he was lonely :-( Poor little lad, I felt so guilty for not waking up earlier :-( Once everyone had eaten breakfast, Little Prince carried on playing on the Wii and I caught up with my emails and Princess Lollipop played with her toys.

Mrs LMS arrived home in the late morning to collect Princess Lollipop, as she was modelling in the Big Bridal Shoot too. Between us me and Mrs LMS got Princess Lollipop ready in her designer (and very pouffy) tutu, and sorted out the accessories she would need - wellies, sunglasses and a variety of hair pretties. Little Prince was pleased that he now had Mummy to himself, and decided he wanted me to help him play Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

At weekend I had received a message to say our new roman blinds were ready and could be fitted this week :-) When I rang the shop they said the fitters were in our village and could fit the blinds today!! Fantastic :-) Our current blinds are ones I made years ago, but the cords keep snapping and Mr Messy got fed up of fixing them, so its been a loooooong time since we've had blinds we could actually open!! The fitters arrived within an hour or so, and it only took them about half an hour to fit the blinds, they look great. I'd chosen a neutral fabric with wide horizontal stripes and they look even better than I thought they would. And if we decide to change the decor in the lounge, we'll just have to change the paint colour on the walls, and the neutral (and very expensive!) blinds can stay put :-)

Little Prince was devastated when the fitters arrived, as the window is next to the TV and we had to stop playing on the Wii. He sulked about this for ages and sat on the sofa moaning about "stupid curtains"!! Even when the fitters had left he still didn't cheer up for ages!!

It was quite late in the afternoon when everyone returned from the shoot, I'd expected them a lot earlier! Mr Messy said Princess Lollipop had been a star, and a real diva!! She'd been bossing everyone around and telling them when and how she would have her photo taken!! At the end she was telling Daddy that her legs were tired and needed to sleep!! She was very tired and very grumpy!! She and Little Prince played in the garden, I sorted out the sandpit and to our complete surprise and shock Princess Lollipop didn't mind putting her feet in the sand!! With her sensory issues (she hates walking on grass!) we were very worried about how she would cope with sand - but she loved it! She didn't love sharing with her big brother though, they bickered and fell out! Princess Lollipop kept smushing Little Prince's sand castles and he ws getting more and more frustrated with her! He came up with the idea of getting her to help him pat the bucket with him so it was "their" castle and that helped for a while. But in he end Princess Lollipop's tiredness got the better of her, and we had to bring them both in for their tea. Princess Lollipop was in bed not too long after that and we haven't heard a peep out of her since!!

Wild Sunday

Today was Little Prince's day without his medication, and boy did we feel it!! He was wild, totally wild!! And of course when he's wild, Princess Lollipop follows suit!! If one of them was behaving and being quiet, the other would wind them up until they were both at screaming and fighting pitch!! Urgh!! It was a looooooooong day!!!

Mr Messy jet washed the garden toys we had sold on the internet auction site, ready for them to be collected hopefully soon. I was thrilled that we managed to raise just over £50 for the DEC East Africa Emergency Appeal. He also jet washed the sand pit, so we can fill it with the new sand and see how Princess Lollipop and her sensory issues cope with sand!!

In the evening had a quick phone call with a good friend, while we try to decide where to go for a few days away together. We've pretty much decided on a geographical location, now we just need to get the actual place we are going to stay booked! Discussed lots of possibilities, and emailed them, now we just need to see what sort of prices they come back with. Fingers crossed one of them comes up with the answer we want!!!

Saturday

As usual Mr Messy and Mrs LMS went over to OUR shop. Drama Teen looked after Little Prince while I had a bit of a lie in, thank you Drama Teen :-) When me and Princess Lollipop got up, a parcel had just been delivered for Mrs LMS. It was the dresses from the designer for the product shoot on Monday. I rang her to let her know they were here, and she was back home within minutes!! She took the parcel back to OUR shop to open, rather than risk any of her siblings getting their sticky fingers on them! Apparently work at OUR shop stopped completely when she returned with the dresses, and Mr Messy and the other staff had to look at the dresses. To get the creases out, Mr Messy hung them up in the middle of the shop, which caused quite a stir from the passers by. Mrs LMS now has a new ambition - to own her own wedding boutique :-)

While all this was going on me and Princess Lollipop went out to our nearest town to do some shopping. Drama Teen and Little Prince stayed at home watching Doctor Who, Drama Teen is determined to convert her brother into a Doctor Who Geek!!

Our first errand was to get Passport photos for both me and Princess Lollipop, I wasn't sure if Princess Lollipop would co-operate at all, but the man in the photo shop was very good and managed to get an acceptable shot of her. Obviously I hate my photograph, but you're supposed to hate your passport picture so I suppose that's ok!! Next me and Princess Lollipop called in a cafe for lunch, Princess Lollipop had been insisting for AGES that she wanted a sandwich which is what I bought her. As soon as we sat down she changed her mind and said she didn't want a sandwich and proceeded to eat my sausage roll instead!! Urgh kids!!

Next stop was the florist Mr Messy had recommended. I had brought the aluminum buckets, that I'd painted last night, and the mini artificial bay tree with me. I asked the florist to make artificial flower bouquets to fit the buckets, so that I could put them on display outside Princess Lollipop's Playhouse. Mr Messy seems to think I've gone mad, but I think it will look really cute :-) The florist is going to be back in touch in a couple of weeks when she's finished making the bouquets, and I can't wait :-) Hopefully Mr Messy will have finished the painting by then, so it will be the final finishing touch :-) We then had a mooch round some other shops and generally had a lovely girlie time :-)

When we got home Drama Teen and Little Prince had finished their Doctor Who'ing and were playing outside on the trampoline. Princess Lollipop rushed straight out to join them and started to cause chaos!! She was in a foul mood as she hadn't had her afternoon nap, and kept bursting into tears at the slightest thing! I decided an early night would do her some good, and took her up - cue more tears and drama!! She fell asleep very quickly, and me, Mrs LMS and Drama Teen went down to OUR shop to have a look at the pretty dresses :-) They are exquisite and so beautiful, I can see why Mrs LMS now wants to work in the bridal industry. We grabbed some pizza from the takeaway and then headed home.

We found Little Prince downstairs all on his own, Mr Messy had had to go upstairs and deal with Princess Lollipop when she woke up. We were all tucking into our pizzas when Mr Messy arrived back downstairs saying he couldn't get Princess Lollipop back to sleep and that she was crying for Mummy. I thought this was odd as we hadn't heard a sound over the intercom, and was very put out that I had to abandon my tea and go and persuade Princess Lollipop to settle down. If Mr Messy had waited 5 more minutes I would have had chance to finish eating and was planning on going up there and taking over anyway!! By the time I got downstairs my tea was stone cold and I was in a foul mood with everyone - they all disappeared to bed pretty quickly!!! Not a fantastic end to a lovely day!!

Friday

I rushed around this morning making sure Princess Lollipop had a bath and her hair conditioned and her skin buttered before we went out. We were meeting some fellow adopters and I wanted to make sure she looked good, as if she doesn't I feel it reflects on my abilities as a white mother to a black daughter. We left a little late, which is pretty standard for us! Mr Messy decided to let the GPS take us to our destination, even though he knew perfectly well where it was, and I was getting a bit concerned that we'd be massively late and wouldn't meet the other family!

In the end we arrived slightly early and made our way to the designated meeting point and sat down to wait. Little Prince was wondering how we would recognise the other family if we hadn't met them before, so we explained that it would be a white Mummy and Daddy and a black toddler, so we think we would probably notice them! After a while he got bored and decided to visit the gift shop, he came out asking if he could have a frisbee to play with, so Mr Messy went and bought him one and they played frisbee for a while on the lawns.

The other family arrived and recognised Mr Messy immediately, probably because he was holding Princess Lollipop's hand! They didn't notice me and Little Prince sat at the table, until we started waving madly lol. We chatted and wandered round the grounds of the park and chatted some more. Little Prince and Princess Lollipop tried to catch the grey squirrels that were running all over the grounds, although Princess Lollipop insisted they were "piggles" and was very miffed that they wouldn't sit still and be caught!!

It was lovely to meet up with the other adoptive family and chat about our experiences in Addis and with the UK process. We compared impressions of Addis, bemoaned the beaucratic UK process and exchanged hair and skin care tips. Princess Lollipop and the other family's child ignored each other as only toddlers can, which seemed to surprise the other parents, but was exactly what I expected lol.

We realised it was time to leave when Princess Lollipop started to get more and more screamy and tantrumy! Before we went our seperate ways the Mum of the other family tried to get a picture of the two littlies together. Princess Lollipop wasn't in the mood and wouldn't co-operate, she decided she wanted the book the other family's child was holding and kept trying to grab it and crying when she couldn't, instead of smiling nicely for the picture!! Although one of the photos did show Princess Lollipop seeming to look adoringly at the other family's child - she wasn't she was coveting the book the child was holding!! But it does make a very sweet looking photo :-)

On the way home Mr Messy dropped me off at the supermarket as I had an appointment with the optician to pick up my contact lenses. I was early so I had a wander round the clothes department. I found a dress that I liked, but when I tried it on it was waaay too short! I'm going to look for a similar style and colour dress for Baby Sis's Baby's Baptism, although longer obviously!!

Once my lenses were fitted I had to wait half an hour before going back to be rechecked, so I bought a magazine and sat in the coffee shop for the duration. Once my lenses had been rechecked I was free to go, and come back in a week for another check up. Yeah I have lenses again :-) I just hope the sun shines soon so I can wear sunglasses again :-) I then had to mooch round the shops again for a while, waiting for Mrs LMS to finish work and come and pick me up.

When we got home Little Prince was playing in the garden on his trampoline and after she'd had a big hug from Mummy, Princess Lollipop went out to join him. They had a great time. Princess Lollipop has got a lot more confident on the trampoline already and will allow Little Prince to bounce with her, at first she wouldn't allow him on the trampoline when she was on, and then she'd allow him on but would insist he kept very very still (extremely hard for him!).

After we'd got the littlies settled in bed, Drama Teen got us to watch her latest favourite film - Scott Pilgrim with her. It was a very very strange film and I'm still not sure what was going on!! It seemed to be a cross between a strange romcom and a video game!! To give her credit Drama Teen did warn us it was weird!!!

Thursday

This morning it was easy to get Little Prince ready for school as they were having a pyjama day for the last day. Well I did insist that he got changed into clean ironed pyjamas (and anyone who knows me, knows I HATE ironing so I don't normally iron pyjamas) rather than wear the ones he wore to sleep in, which was what he wanted to do!! He took his monster feet slippers with him to school, and was quite miffed that I wouldn't let him wear them to go to school and insisted on trainers instead!! He also took boxes of chocolates for his Teaching Assistant and the Substitute Teacher who has taken over from his regular teacher, who is off after an operation.

Mr Messy came home after dropping Mrs LMS off at work, so that he could unplumb the old, broken dishwasher, so that the delivery men could take it away when they delivered our new one. He couldn't find his adjustable spanners so had to go to the shop to buy a new one, Princess Lollipop wailed when he and Drama Teen left, she wanted to go :-( When they got back Mr Messy sorted the old dishwasher out and then decided to take Drama Teen out with him to buy a new laptop for Mrs LMS. Hers is falling apart, literally its held together with duct tape in places, and she has needed an upgrade for a few years now. As Mr Messy can legitimately claim the laptop as a work expense (Mrs LMS is OUR shop's Gallery Manager) he decided to treat her. They were out for ages, and when they got back they explained they'd done some shopping too while they were out - Drama Teen has her Daddy wrapped round her little finger and always manages to wheedle shopping out of him lol.

While they were out Garden Man and his Labourer were working away, finishing fitting the new gates on the cottage at the bottom of the garden. And today they FINALLY finished YEAH :-) The garden looks so much better, and is so much safer for Little Prince and Princess Lollipop to play out in this Summer :-) It has taken three weeks rather than the 2 days initially quoted, but I did keep adding jobs on and the garden looks fantastic :-) The surplus large garden toys are for sale on the internet and should be out of the way by early next week, although I do have to jetwash them first. Garden Man is going to come back soon, to load his small trailer with some rubble/bricks left around the newly fenced in oil tank.

When I picked Little Prince up from school I was going to take him straight to the next village to get some hand made chocolates for his class teacher. When I saw all the other children coming out of school in their pyjamas I remembered "Pyjama Day" urgh! I'd have to take Little Prince home to get him changed and then go out, but he bounced out of school in his PE kit with his pyjamas in his bag. We drove straight over to the other village and sorted out the box of chocolates, and a thank you card for his teacher. Then we drove back over to our village and dropped the chocolates off with his teacher, along with a hug from Little Prince and lots of thank yous from both of us. She is a star of a teacher, and really devotes herself to all the children in her care, and has helped Little Prince so much. I can't say enough good words about her, she is a gem and we are very grateful for all her help, care and love for Little Prince.

We then had to drive over to Little Prince's friend D's house, as the boys had arranged that D would come to our house to play. After picking D up we finally returned home and the boys ran out into the garden to play, they LOVED it :-) Mr Messy, Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop went out to pick Mrs LMS up from work and take her to OUR shop to talk to the author she's been working for about some more edits he needs doing. I hardly saw the boys all evening, they barely came in from the garden and had a whale of a time :-) The garden "makeover" might have taken longer and cost a lot more than we anticipated but it is worth every moment and every penny :-) It will be a Godsend over the Summer holidays, providing the English weather co-operates!!!

When Princess Lollipop came back she ran to the open patio door, looked out and jumped up and down cheering "Garden YEAH" :-) Once she had her shoes back on she ran outside to play with Little Prince and D, they patiently tried to include her in their games and played very nicely together.

Mr Messy went straight to the kitchen to install the new dishwasher that was delivered earlier. Connecting it up to the water pipes and electrical sockets was simple. Getting it into position under the worktop was another matter. The kitchen is tiled with slate tiles and the feet of the dishwasher kept getting caught in the mortar spaces and Mr Messy just couldn't move it. He ended up losing his temper and getting pretty foul, so we all left him to it and kept out of the way! Eventually after many different attempts at getting it in place, Mr Messy took the feet off altogether and jammed it under the worktop. He isn't sure how stable the dishwasher will be, but its in place now and Mr Messy has calmed down, so I'm sure it will be fine :-)

Once the littlies were in bed I had a lovely long chat with a good friend :-) We bounced ideas around of where we could meet up for a short break over the Summer holidays. We looked at loads of different places, and just couldn't decide! Well we did decide it WON'T be Butlins or Pontins or somewhere like that lol!! We left it that we will try and come up with some ideas and then chat again, I'm really looking forward to getting together as we live a long way apart and don't get to see each other (or each others children) in person very often. I'm sure we'll manage to work something out!!

Wednesday

I had to get Little Prince to school, Drama Teen to OUR shop and Mrs LMS to work this morning! Luckily Mrs LMS had arranged to get to work half an hour later, and work half an hour later in the evening so I could manage to get them all dropped off. Little Prince was first, followed by Drama Teen, then a diversion to fill the car up before dropping Mrs LMS off. Princess Lollipop was less and less impressed as more and more of her siblings left her, and then she had a complete melt down when I refused to take her to "Hot" (aka McDonalds)!! She was a bit happier when we got home and she could play with her toys, but kept asking to go and get her Brud Brud from school throughout the day.

It was busy busy busy again when it came time to pick Little Prince up from school. I picked him up and then we had to drive over and pick Drama Teen up from OUR shop. I did have a small detour to help the local childminder, she had about 5-6 under fives and one of them was bringing home a hobby horse and its home made cardboard stable!! As the childminder only lives a few doors up from us, I offered to transport the horse and stable home for her so she could manage her gaggle of littlies. I'd obviously forgotten I was supposed to be heading straight to pick Drama Teen up lol, but it only took me a few minutes and helped T the childminder a LOT!

I finally parked near OUR shop, and tried ringing Drama Teen to let her know we were there. She didn't answer the shop phone or her own phone, and I was getting pretty impatient with her, when my phone started to ring. Drama Teen then told me I'd have to wait as she hadn't finished polishing the desk - she's had ALL DAY and she chooses to do it now?!?! She eventually emerged and dimbled along to the car, she can be such a dawdler sometimes!!! We only had about 20 mins at home before I had to go out again, taking Princess Lollipop with me and leaving Little Prince with Drama Teen. I left them with a list of jobs to do before I got back, and kept my fingers crossed they remembered to do them!!

Before picking Mrs LMS up, me and Princess Lollipop had to call at the DIY shop to pick up the rest of the order that hadn't been ready for collection yesterday. I'd left plenty of time to do this as it was such a faff yesterday, however, today we just walked in picked up the order and left - very quick and efficient this time. However, that did mean we had to sit in the car outside Mrs LMS's office for ages, at least Princess Lollipop could sit and watch her "In the Night Garden" DVD which kept her amused while we waited.

Once Mrs LMS had finished work we set up the GPS and drove off to pick up a vintage sewing machine and table that we'd seen advertised and Mrs LMS had arranged to buy as a prop for OUR shop/the studio. The sewing machine had been the lady's Grandmother's and had been used by four generations of her family, Mrs LMS (and I) felt guilty that it was now going to be used as a prop, so Mrs LMS has decided to try and learn to sew on it :-) As I learnt to sew on a very similar vintage machine belonging to my Mum, I should be able to manage to teach her. Plus the machine is so old it is very simple, it only does straight stitching and has no wires or anything complicated :-)

We called at OUR shop and dropped off our newly purchased, very old sewing machine on the way home. Mrs LMS took some pictures and sent them to my Mum to show her what we'd been buying lol.

Mr Messy arrived home not too long after we did, and I'd allowed both the littlies to stay up to see him. They were overjoyed to have him home :-)

Rain Stopped Play

Growing up with a cricket mad Dad, that is a familiar phrase lol. But it wasn't cricket that was rained off today it was finishing off the garden :-( It has thrown it down all afternoon and Garden Man had to stop just before finishing the last set of gates, as he couldn't use the power tools in the atrocious weather. He did manage to get a lot of tidying up around the garden done though, and he fixed two bits of the guttering downspouts before the downpour :-) The leak in the guttering on the front corner of the house was just too high for him to get up to to look at. But as he was sizing the job up, the handyman working on the cottage next door had a word with him. Apparently the handyman is sorting out the cottage's guttering tomorrow, and has offered to look at ours for us too :-) I can't believe how many problems we've had with this new guttering, and that's not even counting the downspout that Little Prince hacked down with an axe!! The builder we used to fit the guttering is one that has always done a really great job for us, and has always been very reasonably priced. However, the guttering cost a fortune and hasn't worked properly since day one!! We've tried numerous times to get him to come back and fix it, but despite promising to come he has never turned up! We won't be bothering using him again!!

Me and Princess Lollipop had to go out and run quite a few errands after lunch. Well Princess Lollipop's lunch consisted of her own lunch and a mini pork pie she pinched off Garden Man's Labourer, he said he didn't mind as he has a 2 year old daughter himself!! Our first errand was to go to the main Recycling Centre, where I could drop off some Calor Gas Bottles to be recycled. I must have driven past the Recycling Centre about three times, but eventually we found it and dropped the bottles off and weren't even charged :-) Next stop was the Hospital Pharmacy to pick up Little Prince's repeat prescription. For the first time ever they actually followed their own protocol and asked for and checked my ID!!! Princess Lollipop insisted on getting a drink from the WRVS shop on the way out, but I had to carry it to the car as she said it was too heavy!! Last job was to go to a DIY Shop and pick up the hinges/bolts and things I'd ordered online last night, well Mr Messy had ordered them as I find their website very very confusing!! Despite saying online that the whole order would be ready after 12noon, only half of it was there, which means I'll have to go back again tomorrow!! Great!!

We then drove home and got caught in a torrential thunder storm, just as I was parking outside the Bank!! I sat there for ages waiting for it to let up, but it didn't!! In the end I got utterly drenched getting cash out :-( When we got home we found Garden Man and his Labourer sheltering in his car from the weather, and I don't blame them. The weather didn't clear up at all, so they cleared up their tools, raked over the lawn (its best to do it when wet!) and had to call it a day. Its frustrating as they are so close to finishing urgh!! At least I'll be able to pick the rest of the hinges etc up tomorrow, and when they come back on Thursday it should just be a case of hanging the gates and finishing the last bitty little jobs. Keep your fingers crossed that the job will be finished by weekend!! And also that the weather brightens up so the littlies can play out in it!!!

At school time I had to wake Princess Lollipop up from her slumbers to come with me to collect Little Prince. I forgot to say earlier, that Drama Teen was in OUR shop and Mr Messy had driven to a meeting in his London office, so I had no one to stay at home with her. Predictably she wasn't very happy to be woken up, then she was even less happy when at school Little Prince arranged to go to play at J's house!! She cried most of the way to pick Drama Teen up, and kept shouting she didn't want Drama Teen she wanted her Brud Brud. After picking Drama Teen up we made a quick stop at the shop to get a pizza for the littlies tea. I have to pick Mrs LMS up from the gym later, and take the littlies with me (so that Drama Teen can get on with some ironing) and when we get back it will be their bedtime. So I needed something quick to give them for tea in between picking Little Prince up from J's house and going back out to pick Mrs LMS up!!!

Mr Messy rang up to say he was at his hotel after his meeting at the London office, so at least I know he has arrived safely :-) Tomorrow he has meetings until mid afternoon, so it will probably be after tea by the time he gets home. Fingers crossed he doesn't get delayed and the littlies get to see him before bedtime, as neither of them are very happy that Daddy is away tonight.

Monday

Drama Teen got up with me this morning, so she looked after Princess Lollipop while I took Little Prince to school. I was expecting Garden Man first thing so I came straight home. However, Garden Man didn't turn up until 10.30am, he'd had some problems with his garage door that he'd had to fix before he could come over here. He'd brought a labourer with him, as he was working on making the gates to close up the cottage at the bottom of the garden, and they were extremely heavy and it wouldn't be safe to try and fit them on his own.

Garden Man had already built one gate at home, and together he and his labourer made three more gates. They pruned the rest of the ivy and finished off tidying up the apple tree, which had to have a much more radical prune than before, so that the new gates will open! They also got rid of the old fence posts we don't need any more. And best of all Garden Man jigsawed the trim for the Playhouse roof, it is now scalloped like I wanted it :-)

Just before lunchtime I went to the local Wood Yard with Garden Man, and he loaded up his trailer with the rest of the wood he would need to finish constructing the gates. I was just along to pay, although I think that might have been easier than loading over 30 heavy planks of wood into the trailer lol!!

When I got back I persuaded Princess Lollipop to have a nap, to hopefully avoid yesterday's bedtime disaster!! She slept pretty considering Garden Man was using all sorts of power tools loudly in the garden. She woke up slightly and insisted on coming up on my knee, but then she slept for another hour, so hopefully after having a good nap she'll go to sleep nicely tonight!! Princess Lollipop finally woke up just in time for me to go out and pick Little Prince up, I left her with Drama Teen so that I could nip to the next village and pop in the shop and to the bank.

When we got back Princess Lollipop didn't cry and run to me for a huge hug like she usually does when I've been out and come back. She was quite chilled about the fact that I'd been out without her and just carried only playing nicely :-) When we were in the town, we bumped into Mr Messy who had decided to come home early :-) Little Prince was quite miffed that Mr Messy drove a lot faster than we did and beat us home lol!!

Once Mr Messy had had a drink and a bit of a relax, he went and painted some more of the Playhouse. Princess Lollipop was very happy to see that her house was now PINK :-) Lots of "Fank oo Daddy fix my 'ouse PINT" :-) Mr Messy then reminded me that I had to set off to pick Mrs LMS up from her trip to the gym after work. I took both littlies with me so that Mr Messy could get on with some work on his computer in peace. Once we had picked Mrs LMS up we called in at a DIY shop to pick up a kitchen price list for Mr Messy. He needs cupboards in the new studio, and fitted modern style kitchen cupboards seems like the best solution. However, finding the style he wants at the price he wants to pay is proving more difficult!!

You would think that picking up a price list would be simple?? NOOOO!! There was a note on the kitchen display units, saying ask a member of staff for a price list. The man at Customer Services called for someone else, and neither of them could find a price list. They spent ages looking and weren't getting anywhere, Little Prince who had insisted on coming in the shop with me was getting more and more hyped up and acting sillier and sillier!! When the staff came back to me and asked if I wanted to ring the kitchen saleswoman (they didn't sound too keen on the idea) I insisted they did! I pointed out that I'd made a special trip to pick this price list up and YES I did expect them to ring someone who knew where the price list was!! While on the phone, the saleswoman told the staff to only give me the price list for the kitchen I was interested in! It seemed a very restrictive and silly policy to me, and I'm not sure what all that was about, but whatever I was past caring and just wanted to get hold of the d*mn piece of paper and get out of there!!! FINALLY I was given the price list and I could get my crazy boy out of there!! What a palaver!!!

Me and Mrs LMS then took the littlies out for tea, as it had taken us so long to get hold of the price list, we were never going to get home in time to get the littlies tea before bed! Princess Lollipop insisted she didn't want to sit in a high chair, but then wriggled and messed about the whole time we were there!! She wasn't badly behaved, she was just a wriggly two year old, but I don't think she's quite ready to be out of the highchair yet!!

When we got home both littlies got ready for bed, well Princess Lollipop had a lot more help than Little Prince lol. And they both went straight up to bed, although Princess Lollipop didn't actually go to sleep until about an hour later!! Its still earlier than she has been going to sleep and if we keep up with this she will eventually be going to bed and sleep at a sensible time! That's the plan anyway!!!

It was nice to have an adult evening :-) Although I love the littlies dearly it is nice to have a bit of grown up time too :-)

The Rest of Sunday

As she hadn't had a nap Princess Lollipop was absolutely tired out and she was in bed by about 6.30pm!! A huge improvement already!! However, she woke up at 8pm (she obviously thought she'd had a nap and it was wakey up time!!) and refused to go to sleep for the next two and a half hours!! However, I'm just as stubborn as she is and refused to take her downstairs and every protest she came up with I just replied "Its night night time." By 10.30pm I was so cross legged and desperate for the loo I had to ask her to stay in her cot and make a run for it! I met Mrs LMS in the hallway and moaned to her about the last few hours, and about how hungry and thirsty I was and then disappeared back into our room to try and persuade Princess Lollipop to get to sleep.

Mrs LMS must have gone downstairs and reported my hysterical whinging to Mr Messy as he appeared within minutes, and took over the Princess wrangling to give me chance to get myself some supper and a drink. Thank you so much both of you :-)

When I went in the kitchen I was very disappointed to see that Drama Teen still hadn't finished the washing up I had asked her to do this morning. However, as I was sat in the lounge enjoying my snack and drink I heard her come down from her room and get on with it :-) With no reminders or nagging :-) I'm proud of you Drama Teen, thank you so much :-)

What we did on Sunday

Mr Messy took Mrs LMS and Little Prince out for their weekly Boy Breakfast this morning, although Little Prince didn't eat as much as he usually does, as he said he had a bad tummy ache. He recovered pretty quickly and has been eating like a horse for the rest of the day. After they had finished their breakfast, they dropped Mrs LMS off at OUR shop, as she had to do some more editing of the charity book she has been working on for its author. She thought she had finished but the author has come up with lots of major changes and so she spent this morning sorting the changes out again.

Mr Messy came home to give Mrs LMS some peace and quiet while she edited and went to pick her up when she rang up later. Princess Lollipop was grumpy again today, and Little Prince was even more hyped up than he was yesterday so it was absolute chaos with them both!! To start my campaign to get Princess Lollipop back into a sensible bedtime and bedtime routine, I decided to not let her have a nap today - which didn't help the chaotic situation! Oh well, it has to get better tomorrow, fingers firmly crossed!!

Mr Messy and Mrs LMS went shopping for some nice tissue paper to wrap up the Wedding Album that Mr Messy had to deliver later today. I found we were running out of a few bits and bobs so sent them to the supermarket too. When they came back I enlisted Mrs LMS's help to get Princess Lollipop bathed and deal with her hair, with the morale support it didn't take too long and there weren't too many tears. When she got out of the bath, Princess Lollipop demanded that her Daddy came and gave her a hug, and he just had time for that before he had to dash out again to deliver the Wedding Album.

Little Prince wasn't happy that I wouldn't let him play on his trampoline, or on the PlayStation because he was silly on it this morning. So he was quite grumpy in the afternoon. We had to keep reminding him to use his deep breaths to try and calm down, and when that didn't work he had to go and have some quiet time in his room.

Later in the afternoon I photographed some surplus large garden toys and listed them on Ebay. Ebay has a system where you can donate the money you make to a charity of your choice, and as the charity was the East Africa Drought appeal, I decided to donate any profits to this charity. Its heart wrenching watching the news coverage of this disaster, especially as that is the part of the world that our precious Princess Lollipop comes from. Hopefully I can make a small difference to help.

Sunday Crazies

Little Prince has been on a complete Hyper Crazy day today! He has driven everyone crazy with his behaviour, I have to be grateful for small mercies we haven't had any trips to A&E!!

This morning when allowed back out on the trampoline, between rain showers, he kept forgetting to close the safety net door! Then he came running in shouting "Mummy the trampoline just broke" OMG!!! What has happened now?!?! I looked out and one of the poles was bent in half, after quite a bit of prodding, Little Prince admitted he had been hanging onto the pole while bouncing. He was told he WAS NOT to do that again, and wasn't allowed to go on the trampoline for the rest of the day, it rained anyway so he wouldn't have been able to go back on it even if he hadn't been silly!!

Then in the afternoon he started to complain that his nose hurt and it felt like something was in it!! Alarm bells started to go off in my head and I told him to blow his nose - luckily the piece of plastic he'd pushed up there came out first try!! Urgh, when will he grow out of this behaviour?!?!

In the evening I found the upstairs bathroom toilet stuffed full of tissues and a lot of shaving foam everywhere!! Apparently Little Prince had seen a bug and was trying to kill it!!! He has left his Dad some shaving foam to use in the morning, thank goodness. But what was going through his head to do this?!?!

We haven't found any other evidence of his craziness today - but who knows what we'll unearth in the next few days!!!!

UPDATE: We found another one!! Little Prince found the spray paints I've bought to paint the Playhouse accessories and was trying to work out what they were!! We now have a lovely green splodge on the pine dresser in the dining room!!!

Saturday

Mr Messy and Mrs LMS had left to go to OUR shop before I'd even got up!! When me and Princess Lollipop finally emerged from our slumbers, Garden Man was in the garden measuring for the gates he has to build and Little Prince had raided all the cupboards finding things to eat! I got him to start clearing up all the packets and wrappers up, while I made mine and Princess Lollipop's breakfast. After breakfast and my morning surfing, I got Drama Teen to look after the littlies while I got my shower and got ready. Once we were all ready I took Princess Lollipop down to OUR shop and dropped her off with Mr Messy and Mrs LMS, then me and Little Prince wen toff shopping.

Our first stop was the only fabric shop left locally!! Last week I'd received the fabric I'd ordered online to make curtains etc for the Playhouse. Unfortunately the fabrics don't contrast with each other like I'd hoped, and they clash horribly. So armed with my actual fabric in my hand, I visited the shop where I could see the fabric and check properly if it contrasted or not. There wasn't much choice, as most of the shop was given over to heavy curtain fabric which the shop was offering to make up into curtains for a fee. But with Little Prince's help I managed to find one that will make pretty curtains etc for the Playhouse.

We then visited a large home decor/furnishings type shop to get some cushion pads and some upholstery foam to make a seat cushion for the wicker sofa that will be going in the Playhouse. Little Prince behaved abysmally in the first shop, but tried so hard in the second shop. We had discussed on the drive to the shops how Little Prince might help himself to stay calm, as he wants to try and stay off his medication at weekends. Obviously I had to keep reminding him about these techniques, and hopefully he will eventually be able to use them to keep himself calmer, although it will probably take a long long time.

We picked Princess Lollipop up from OUR shop on our way home, she was tired but had refused to have a nap, so she was a grumpy girl. Mix a grumpy girl with a hyper boy and you get CHAOS!! In the end I had to seperate them by sending Little Prince to read in his room, and try to get Princess Lollipop to sleep. She had almost dropped off when Little Prince came barrelling back down the stairs, shouting "Can I come down now Mum?" I couldn't get him to sit quietly while I got Princess Lollipop back to sleep, so I had to take her upstairs for her nap and let Little Prince play downstairs. I must have fallen asleep too, as next thing I knew it was 7pm and Princess Lollipop was waking up!! She went downstairs and Little Prince came upstairs for his turn for a hug! He wriggled and squiggled for the next hour and then suddenly dropped off, the process exhausted me!! Then Mr Messy appeared with Princess Lollipop was demanding her cot, which she had obviously worked out would get her back to Mummy!! She obviously didn't want to go to sleep though, and within minutes I was bringing her back down the stairs again.

She then stayed awake until well after 10pm, before falling asleep. I've decided that this Summer Holidays my goals are to get Princess Lollipop back into a sensible bedtime/naptime routine and to get her out of nappies!! I'm adamant about the first one, but pretty relaxed about the second - if it happens wonderful, if not then we'll try again another time.

The Rest of Friday

Me and Drama Teen, with assistance from Princess Lollipop managed to get the trampoline together ourselves. We built the frame. We, well I, attached the trampoline bed with the springs! It was one of the hardest things I've ever done!! I tried to keep attaching the springs evenly around the trampoline, but managed to get more on one side than the other. I had to put my foot up on the trampoline frame, and put all my (not inconsiderable) weight into pulling the spring into place! It was quite a workout!! I almost gave up, but with encouragement from Drama Teen, I eventually got it all done. I wanted to get the safety net up too, but Drama Teen had reached the end of her patience and we had to stop and take her to her boyfriend's house.

When I picked Little Prince up from school, he went straight outside and wanted to play. He was told he could play if someone was out there supervising and if he was sensible and only did gentle bouncing! Me and Mr Messy were sat outside watching him and he was mostly managing to be sensible. He had Princess Lollipop pretending to blow him over, which she loved and was giggling madly. They played this for a while, and then Little Prince carried on bouncing. The problem was he was more hyped up now, and me and Mr Messy were absolutely horrified to watch him bounce towards the edge and keep going, right off the edge!! For the split second it took Little Prince to shout ouch, I was thinking the worst. It was horrific! Mr Messy was so scared he lost his temper and told Little Prince he was banned from the trampoline. I had to leave not long after this to take Little Prince to his swimming lesson, I was hoping his teacher was up for the challenge as Little Prince was extremely hyped up!!

The swimming teacher commented on the fact that we were a few minutes late, and when I explained that it was because of the new trampoline, she was dumb struck that we'd bought a trampoline lol. And that was without me mentioning that we had let him on it without a safety net!! Despite the hyped up start to his lesson, Little Prince did very well and worked hard. His teacher is impressed at how fast he can move through the water using just his "crawl legs" she says he is incredibly strong, which we knew!! Apparently most swimmers get their speed when swimming front crawl using their arms, and their legs aren't as involved - not with our little powerhouse :-)

As soon as swimming had finished we had to rush to pick Mrs LMS up from work, as both the lesson and her work finish at the same time, we were late! Luckily it was sunny and Mrs LMS was able to sit on the grass near the work carpark and read her book while waiting for us. She was very very tired but still functioning, just about lol.

When we got home Mrs LMS looked after the littlies, while me and Mr Messy put up the safety net. It didn't go very smoothly!! We spent ages trying to follow the slightly confusing instructions, about putting the foam covered poles into pockets in the safety net. The two part poles kept coming apart as we tried to push them into the slightly too tight pockets!! It was frustratingly hard work and took us a lot longer than we thought, but we did eventually manage it :-) Mr Messy then let Little Prince get out of bed and bounce in his pyjamas for a while :-) And peace between my boys was restored :-)

Friday

As expected Mrs LMS was not in the best of moods this morning, but apparently the film was worth it :-) I'm just glad its people at work who will be snarled at not me!! Hopefully when she comes home she will feel ok, and then have a very early night lol.

Mr Messy took Mrs LMS to work this morning and then came round to school to meet me and Princess Lollipop there, to see Little Prince receive a Head Teacher's Award in the assembly. In case he was held up in traffic and didn't make it I hadn't told Princess Lollipop he was coming, so she was surprised and delighted when he suddenly appeared :-) Little Prince got his Award for working very hard on a group project about Morocco, we were very proud of him :-) Well done Little Prince :-)

Princess Lollipop caused her usual chaos at the assembly, by distracting all the children, shouting to her brother and making everyone laugh! Today she could see into the Nursery Outside Play Area, and she was demanding to go and play in there, as well as commenting (loudly!) on the decorations in the hall!! Then when Little Prince got up to be presented with his Award, she was shouting and waving to him and telling everyone "Dat MY Brud Brud" :-) The Assembly took a lot longer to finish than I'd anticipated, and Mr Messy decided to leave straight away to go to his Work Experience Student's School.

When me and Princess Lollipop got home Drama Teen and her friends were up and about and looking for breakfast. One friend was picked up by her Mum a few minutes later, so we only have Drama Teen and one friend here now. The remaining friend is catching the bus home in about an hour, so when she's gone I'm going to see if I can persuade Drama Teen to help me build the trampoline! I'm not sure how that will go, or if we will be able to manage it, but we can at least give it a go and see how far we get. And Mr Messy is calling in on his way back and before he goes to open up OUR shop, so maybe if we're stuck he'll help us finish the last bits :-) It sounds like a plan :-)

Thursday Evening

With Little Prince and Princess Lollipop in bed, me and Mr Messy had a quiet grown up evening, neither of us can remember when we last had an evening like this lol. Mr Messy got some more of the undercoat on the soon to be Pink House. Although he also got quite a bit all over himself too, apparently the paint is very gloopy and just goes everywhere! I'm glad its Mr Messy doing the painting rather than me :-) I wonder if Princess Lollipop will notice the changes in the morning!?!?

Mr Messy is going to have to take a break from painting to get the trampoline built this weekend I think, or else Little Prince will probably get so frustrated that he could try to break the Playhouse or the things in it! He has been so excited about getting his trampoline in place, and I don't think his patience will last much longer now the trampoline space is ready! I have no idea how difficult it is going to be to build the trampoline, hopefully there will be good, clear instructions and me and Mr Messy can get it built tomorrow morning. Mr Messy is taking the morning off from OUR shop, so that he can attend his work experience student's presentation morning. He doesn't have to leave until about 10.30am, so fingers crossed we'll have enough time to construct the trampoline as a surprise for Little Prince when he comes home from school. Wish us good luck in that lol.

Tues/Wed/Thurs

I've spent most of this week stuck at the house, while the Garden Man gets on with more of the garden. He has now weed cleared, dug out, levelled, membraned and mulched the area for the trampoline. All the boxing in is done, which creates two large, rustic looking benches around two sides of the trampoline area, so I have somewhere to sit when I'm supervising the bouncing :-) All the area needs now is the trampoline :-) Mr Messy also wants a fence paint spray gun, so that he can paint the benches and the small fence around the oil tank, why on earth he needs a "gadget" when a paint brush would do the job just as well I don't know!! Men!!! He'd better not splatter paint everywhere!! Especially not on the Playhouse!!!

The Garden Man has another job to go to tomorrow, and then he is building the gates we need to block access to the cottage at the bottom of the garden at home on Saturday. So apart from picking up his trailer in the morning I probably won't be seeing him again until Monday. He is a nice young man and is doing a great job on the garden, but I am looking forward to the privacy of him not being here, or the chance to go out shopping tomorrow. I have bought two different fabrics to make curtains and accessories for the Playhouse, but what looked like contrasting fabrics on the computer screen have turned out to be clashing!! So I want the chance to visit a couple of fabric shops to get an actually contrasting fabric, so I can get the curtains etc made :-) Although thinking about it we do have to buy and fit the curtain poles before I can start!! And we can't do that until Mr Messy has finished the painting!! Urgh, I'm actually looking forward to getting to MY bit of sorting out the Playhouse, but I can't until the other jobs are finished!

On Thursday the second hand play kitchen arrived in a HUGE and extremely heavy box! I couldn't even move it, and just left it in the hall where the delivery man had put it!! Princess Lollipop had an indignant phone call with her Daddy, demanding he came home from OUR shop immediately to "Sort out my Titchen" :-) She was not too happy that he had work to do and couldn't come home till OUR shop closed!! As soon as he stepped foot through the door, she was pestering him to get the "Box wib a titchen" and it wasn't long before the box had been emptied all over the lounge floor!! Once it was finally constructed, which didn't take too long, Princess Lollipop couldn't stop saying "Fank oo Daddy fix my titchen" :-) She LOVES it :-) I love it too, I just wish it would actually fit where I wanted it to in the Playhouse!! The measurements of the Playhouse I'd been working to are the exterior dimensions, and the interior is about 4" smaller than I was thinking it was, because of the framework holding the walls together!! I've already had to ditch the idea of a little table in there, the trouble is I'd already bought the table!! And it looks like the only things that will fit are the kitchen, a kiddie sofa and the cupboard styled as a grandfather clock!! I'm sure she will have fun with just those bits though, and the bigger houses I looked at just wouldn't have fitted in the space we have.

Tonight some of Drama Teen's friends have come round for tea, as later this evening Mrs LMS is going with them to see Harry Potter 7, parts one and two. They are all VERY excited!! The first film starts at about 9.30pm and the second one ends at about 2.30am!!! I can't imagine how Mrs LMS is going to cope with going to work tomorrow!! She says she has already warned her team to keep providing caffeine and not to talk to her, and definitely don't disagree with her tomorrow lol. Ever since she was a tiny baby she has needed a LOT of sleep, and this is going to be very very hard for her, and those of us around her!!!

Monday Morning

I can't believe that no matter what time I go to bed I am always soooo tired when its time to wake up!! No matter how long I sleep its never enough!! Urgh!! By the time me and moody Princess Lollipop got downstairs Little Prince had already had his breakfast, and I set him off tidying his things from where he'd scattered them around the lounge, while I made his packed lunch and sorted mine and Princess Lollipop's breakfast.

Princess Lollipop wasn't happy when her Daddy and Mrs LMS went out to work and she couldn't go with them. She cheered up at the thought of playing running round the playground when we took Little Prince to school though :-) It took three or four attempts to get him to sort his school swimming bag out as he was in full crazy mode this morning! He also admitted that he had let Mr Messy give him one of his old "crazy medicines" (the lower strength one he has been taken off because it doesn't work!!) because he likes being crazy and wants to eat lots!! I hope his teachers can cope with him today!!

At school I met with T's Dad who asked if it was ok to come and pick the compost bin that we'd offered them up this morning. As he had walked to school I gave him a lift to our house, Princess Lollipop wasn't too sure what was going on, but loved the fact that we went straight outside into the garden when we got home :-) She headed straight for her Playhouse and examined the new paint carefully, asking "Pint next time?" :-)

I was expecting the Garden Man to come round so I had to drag Princess Lollipop (protesting loudly!) from her beloved Playhouse back into the house, so we would here him knocking. However, by the time it got near to lunchtime and he still hadn't appeared, I decided I must have got my days mixed up and he'd come another day! Me and Princess Lollipop collected a parcel from the Post Office, and it was the weed membrane I'd ordered, so I rang Garden Man to let him know it had arrived - he didn't answer his phone, which is very unusual. I hope he and his pregnant partner are ok! About an hour later he arrived full of apologies, his partner had been taken to hospital early this morning and he'd not had chance to let me know he wouldn't be able to come. Thankfully she is alright now and wasn't kept in hospital, the Doctors just need to keep a close eye on her until baby arrives.

While he had been at hospital Garden Man had worked out the price for the decking boards he needs for the boxing in job he needs to do in the trampoline space, and the price was HIGH! He said he will get in touch with somewhere he knows that does reclaimed decking boards and work out a price using them, and let me know if that's more reasonable. He needs to get the boxing in done before he can lay the weed membrane, so that is his priority now. He'll let me know what the price is and when he can get over to pick up the boards, so that I know when he'll be back.

Crazy Sunday

Mr Messy and Little Prince went out for Boy Breakfast before any of the rest of us were even up! They didn't take Mrs LMS with them this time, as she didn't want to get out of bed, even the lure of bacon didn't make her want to get up!! The plan for the rest of the day was for Mr Messy and Mrs LMS to take Little Prince out for the day, they were thinking of taking him to the local Art Gallery, as he loves to look at the art and have a snack in the cafe there too. However, Mr Messy found that there was a Wedding Fayre in another town, and changed the plans so that he and Mrs LMS took Princess Lollipop there instead.

As I was planning a girlie day out with Princess Lollipop, I wasn't sure what to do with Little Prince instead! In the end we visited a Toy Shop first and bought his friend Y's birthday present, and Little Prince managed to stay calm and fairly well behaved even though I told him it wasn't his turn and I wasn't buying him anything today. He decided he was dying of hunger though, so we made a quick stop at a Fast Food Restaurant, and afterwards we planned to go out to the National Trust like place. However, while we were eating it got cloudy and colder and we hadn't brought coats with us, so I had to think of something else quick!! We had a wander around the Garden Centre, but as it is closing down soon it didn't have much stock left and was a bit of a disappointment. They do have a hand car wash in their car park, so we took the car there, Little Prince loved watching the men clean the car. Then we visited a huge shop with garden things, toys, soft furnishing etc. Little Prince helped me chose some planters to put outside Princess Lollipop's Playhouse. I was disappointed that I couldn't find a pretty pink shelf to put up in the Playhouse, but Little Prince told me to follow him and he'd find me one! I was a bit skeptical, especially as he seemed to be marching off all round the shop! However, I should have trusted him and his phenomenal memory as he lead us on a very roundabout route to the peg rails and chose a pretty pink one with decorative hearts on it for his sister :-) I then found some bare metal planters, with an embossed heart of vines on the front, so I bought various sizes and will paint them to match the rest of the Playhouse once it is ready for the "decorative bits."

Little Prince was fairly belligerent on the way home, complaining about not going to the National Trust place, but as it was spitting by then I wasn't turning round and setting off there!! When we got home everyone else was already back, and Princess Lollipop was fast asleep, although not for long. Little Prince got sillier and sillier and louder and louder in a pretty obvious attempt to wake her up!! She didn't wake up in the best of moods, she never does if she wakes before she's ready! And the day went downhill from there :-( Little Prince got more and more out of control, winding everyone up, Princess Lollipop's mood didn't improve much and under provacation from her Brud Brud seemed to get even worse! Me and Mr Messy took Little Prince out in the garden to put the last bits of rubbish in the skip before its collected tomorrow. Little Prince wasn't much help as he was too chaotic to actually keep on task at any job we asked him to do! He was asked to pick up loose stones/bricks from the trampoline area, and ended up trying to dig lots of holes!! Then he was asked to put some tiles we have stored in the cottage, in disintegrating cardboard boxes, into plastic storage boxes. He got part way through and got bored, so I took over! Then all I could hear from the garden, was Mr Messy telling Little Prince off for various silly antics! As soon as I'd finished moving the tiles, I took Little Prince inside, and hoped he'd start to behave - fat chance!!

It was a long, chaotic, noisy afternoon. I think we all heaved a huge sigh of relief when it was time for the littlies to go to bed! At one point I lost my temper with Little Prince and got in a petty argument with Mrs LMS about it and we ended up not speaking for the rest of the evening - not a great way to improve the atmosphere! Mr Messy was so engrossed in his TV programme that he didn't even notice! Hopefully tomorrow will be an improvement...

The White House!!

Here is the partially undercoated Playhouse :-) Without its small owner this time :-)

Mad Saturday

I should have known what kind of day it was going to be, when I had to run over to the Post Office (and little shop) half way through making my toast to get some more margarine! After I'd finally had my breakfast the Garden Man arrived and set to work finishing the last bit of digging out and levelling of the trampoline space. I had to take Drama Teen to her Boyfriend's Dad's house by 11am, but as usual we were late. I had to stop in the next village at the cash machine to get soem cash for the Garden Man, so he could go and buy the supplies so he could fence round the oil tank, to disguise it and make the garden look a little more attractive.

Then we had to stop at an Off License to buy some Smirnoff Ice for Drama Teen to take to a music festival she is attending tonight. She is not a drinker, and I'm hoping I can trust her to take it easy and be sensible! She is sleeping over at her Boyfriend's house (in the spare room) tonight, so we won't see the "morning after" affects!!

After we returned home I had to go out and get some bolts for the fence met posts, an almost hour long round trip! On the way back I called at OUR shop and dropped Princess Lollipop off with her Daddy and big sis, to seperate her and Little Prince who were having a very disagreeable day!! When we got back I rang my friend S who had agreed to come over and cut Little Prince's hair, she was quite surprised as she was on the way to her son Y's birthday party, that Little Prince was supposed to be attending!!! Urgh - another thing I'd forgotten!! We jumped in the car and drove back to the same town we'd been in earlier and I dropped Little Prince off and persuaded S to bring him back for me, I sped back home to carry on supervising the Garden Man. I then had half an hour of blissful peace and quiet :-)

When Mr Messy, Mrs LMS and Princess Lollipop arrived home the peace was shattered, but I felt refreshed enough to cope again :-) A while later S dropped Little Prince off, and let me know that she can come to Legoland with me and the littlies in the Summer Hols :-) Unfortunately Princess Lollipop was too tired and grumpy to cope with playing nicely with Little Prince and it soon descended into loud chaos. The only way to calm everything down was to get Princess Lollipop in bed for an early night! After which life in the lounge became a LOT quieter and calmer :-)

Mr Messy spent an hour or so undercoating the Playhouse, I wonder what Princess Lollipop will think of it tomorrow!?!?

Friday

I had arranged for Drama Teen to be around so that she could be in waiting for a very important delivery, while I went to Little Prince's IEP Meeting. The delivery hadn't arrived before I left for the Meeting, probably because I was on pins waiting for it!!

At the IEP Meeting Little Prince's teacher told me how proud she was of his progress in writing :-) He has now got a level 2B for writing, whereas previously his writing was graded P, ie Pre-grade-able. That is a HUGE improvement and is partially due to Little Prince's medication, but a LOT is down to his hard work and determination, and I and his teacher are so so proud of him. We also discussed Little Prince's worry that his medication wasn't helping him as much at the moment, and his teacher agreed that he is much more distractable at the moment, especially in the afternoons. We had noticed this at home too, and will mention it to his Paediatrician when we see him in the Summer Holidays. Even Little Prince's speech is affected, he forgets what he is saying before he is half way through his sentence!! Little Prince's teacher and one to one assistant are going to keep a close eye on him for the last remaining weeks of term to try and help keep him focused.

When I got back from the meeting I was greeted by a very sad Princess Lollipop, who was soon fast asleep! While she was asleep THE delivery arrived :-) It was her new playhouse, I hoped that the delivery men would be able to get it built before she woke up, but no such luck. She woke up and immediately grabbed her wellies and stood on the patio "overseeing" the construction!! She kept asking the men "MY house ready SOON?" and pretty quickly it was :-) She then spent the whole evening in there :-) She dragged Drama Teen inside the house and then kept her prisoner there as long as she could!! She kept telling Drama Teen "Stay dere, my get my toys! Wait no move!" lol Then when Mrs LMS came home from OUR shop, she turned her attention to her. They had quite a patter going :-) Mrs LMS had to knock on the door and Princess Lollipop would answer with a groan "What is it now?" and open the door then "OH it Mrs LMS. Nice a see you. Come in, sit down. Abba cuppa tea. Abba strawberry." It was very sweet :-) But quite repetitive lol And even though the Playhouse is currently brown, Princess Lollipop constantly refers to it as "MY pint house" (pint = pink with a "t" on the end!).

Thursday

This morning at School Little Prince was in a local four school sport tournament, Quad Sports. Unfortunately Princess Lollipop was in a foul mood so I didn't risk taking her to watch her Brud Brud run. Little Prince later told me that he came 7th in the bean bag race, and he was very upset about this, claiming he had been told his bean bag didn't land in the hoop when he thought it did. He came 2nd in the flat race, and he was the anchor man in the relay race and is team won :-) Little Prince's school came 2nd overall, so it sounds like a great morning for Little Prince and his school :-)

In the afternoon I got Drama Teen to look after Princess Lollipop while I went to Little Prince's school to attend his IEP Meeting. Everyone at school was very surprised to see me, as the meeting wasn't until the next day!! At least I was early for once lol.

Wednesday

Princess Lollipop had a better night last night, but I was still shattered when I woke up, Princess Lollipop wasn't much better and we both took a long while to come round! We eventually surfaced and got on with the day. We had to drop Little Prince off at school, and then stopped to wave him off as his class set off on a trip to Eden Camp. Little Prince was really looking forward to this trip, it sounds like a fantastic museum for him :-)

Princess Lollipop was thrilled when Little Prince came back out of school, but then looked so stunned when he gave her a hug and then got on to the bus. She howled :-( She wanted her Brud Brud AND she wanted to go on a "wheel bus" :-( She took ages to calm down again, as each time she looked up to see Little Prince waving to her from the bus, she started crying that she wanted him and the bus again :-( Not a great start to the day for her :-( Little Prince is used to her outbursts, so it didn't phase him at all and he looked so excited and pleased to be off on the trip :-)

Me and my sad Princess Lollipop came home for a snack and a drink and a cheer up. Then we headed off to the supermarket optician to get my eyes tested and to sort out some new contact lenses. My last pair were examined by Little Prince one morning and ended up down the sink!! Princess Lollipop behaved herself strapped in her buggy while I had my eye test, although she did take her shoes off and complain loudly when the lights were turned off!

When we'd finished she insisted we went and bought some fruit to eat on the way home, and I was surprised that she ate two full bananas before we reached home! Recently she's been nibbling half the banana and then saying its yukky and refusing to eat any more!

When we got home, she was telling me "My tireds coming" so I took her upstairs for a nap, and laid down with her. We must have both been extremely tired as we didn't wake up until much later in the afternoon!! Although I still feel really tired, so I'll have an early night tonight and see if I can shake this lethargy!

When we went to collect Little Prince the class had already returned early and were playing on the school field waiting for their parents. Little Prince excitedly told me all about the trip and the bullets (inert ones!!) he'd bought from the gift shop! At home he insisted on ringing his friend J, to invite him round for a play, but no one answered J's phone. Little Prince was about to get all sad and moody, when J's Mum's car pulled up outside!! She'd had a meeting at work and was calling in to see if Little Prince wanted to come round and play for an hour or so. Little Prince had his trainers on and was raring to go before we'd even finished chatting!!

Princess Lollipop had another howling fit about not wanting Little Prince to go out without her :-( But she and I had lots of hugs and watched a little bit of Cbeebies and she soon cheered up again, but she was thrilled when it was time to go and pick Little Prince up. Shew as a bit confused as we drove to J's house, as they have recently moved to a new house. As their house has a huge field as their back garden, with a trampoline in it, she soon decided she liked the new house :-) She demanded a turn on the trampoline, but as soon as she was on it she sat down and wouldn't move. She would only jump if she was holding my hands and was still quite nervous about it.

When we got home, Little Prince played in the large box that our new pressure washer arrived in. He was throwing himself in it and doing somersaults inside the box!! Which eventually gave up the fight and fell apart, he then stood it up as a kind of wall and told Princess Lollipop it was their den :-) She then changed her mind and decided to do some colouring. I thought it was hilariious when she got hold of a pencil, rubbed it up and down her lips and told me "My lady my mouth" lol :-)

Mr Messy and the big girls weren't due back until late, as Mr Messy had a late studio shoot and then was going to pick Mrs LMS up after her trip to the gym she's joined. So Little Prince had to go to bed without seeing his Daddy or big sisters, he wasn't happy! And neither was Princess Lollipop when the ice cream van parked right outside our window and I wouldn't get her an ice cream!