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!!!