Life with Three Diva's and a Dirt Magnet

Monday's Positives

2012-01-23T21:30:00.002Z

Finally getting to the Supermarket and restocking on Diet Coke - I ran out last week and I've missed it sooooo much :-)

Spending the afternoon with Mrs LMS, its hard only seeing her once a week, so any extra visits are to be cherished :-)

Spending the evening with Mr Messy and drinking Diet Coke :-)

Monday

2012-01-23T21:09:00.002Z

I had to take Drama Teen to college this morning as she'd missed the bus!! Once we'd dropped her off me and Princess Lollipop went to the Supermarket, then to a fast food place for lunch before going back to college to pick Drama Teen back up again. We sat in the car for ages waiting for her and Latest Boyfriend to appear, and then I saw them walk out of college, but when I looked again she had disappeared!! Then to my surprise Mr Messy drove past me!!! Drama Teen had been supposed to text her Dad and tell him I could pick them up and he didn't have to do it, but he hadn't received the text so he turned up anyway!

Princess Lollipop cried and complained about not having Drama Teen and Latest Boyfriend in our car for ages on the drive home. Well we didn't go home, Mrs LMS was off work so we went round to visit her. I started to feel very unwell on the way there, so when we arrived she kindly agreed to come round to our house to help me out with Princess Lollipop during the afternoon. It was lovely to have her round for a chat and she seemed to enjoy Princess Lollipop's antics :-) Drama Teen was in her bedroom studying and Mr Messy was home early too, although he has a bad cold and is feeling rough so was taking it easy on the sofa.

Mrs LMS was tired out, she isn't used to her siblings energy levels any more!! So I took her home and called to the chippie for a quick tea for us all on the way home. Little Prince arrived home from his friend C's after tea, having had a great time :-) He wasn't happy that it was nearly bedtime and used every excuse he could think of to stay up a little later, he was eventually persuaded into bed and while I was tucking him in, Princess Lollipop fell asleep on her Dad's knee downstairs! Another quiet evening for me and Mr Messy - I could get used to this :-)

Sunday's Positives

2012-01-23T21:05:00.003Z

Mr Messy looking after the Littlies so I could have a much needed nap - thank you so much Mr Messy, I really truly appreciated the opportunity :-)

The Littlies having a wonderful (and tiring for Princess Lollipop at least) time at the Indoor Play Centre :-)

Managing to book Little Prince's birthday party exactly when I wanted it to be, despite the very late notice :-)

Sunday

2012-01-22T21:31:00.002Z

The lack of sleep is getting to me, when Princess Lollipop woke me up I was so tired I was shaking :-( It didn't get better when I came downstairs, my head was banging and I just felt bleugh :-( Mr Messy was out at a shoot, so it was just me and the littlies. I knew I wasn't going to cope with much, so I made sure Little Prince had his medication first thing, before doing anything else! Princess Lollipop decided to help herself to a snack after breakfast and managed to drop and smash the bowl on the way back to the lounge! I had to get her and Little Prince to stay in the lounge while I cleaned up, there were sharp bits of bowl all over the hall and the littlies were still in bare feet! By the time I'd finished Princess Lollipop had worked herself into a state in the lounge, which winds Little Prince up and it was total chaos!!

Mr Messy arrived back not long afterwards, and was so kind that he let me go back for a while before he had to set off for his next shoot. It was bliss. An hour and a half of sleep, with no wriggling, poking and talking from my tickly haired Princess, and I know her hair is tickly because she spends a LOT of the nights under my chin, tickling me awake!! I know I sound all comlainy but the lack of sleep is really getting to me at the moment :-(

After I woke up Mr Messy had to go out on his next shoot, he took Drama Teen out to assist him. I got the littlies ready and took them out to an Indoor Play Centre, a different one to the one we usually go to, but the one where Little Prince wants his birthday party this time. The littlies had a great time, I managed to book Little Prince's party at a very convenient time, despite leaving it till the last minute :-) By the end of our time at the Play Centre Princess Lollipop was obviously very tired and kept bursting into tears, the Centre is HUGE and I couldn't find Little Prince for ages!!

Once Little Prince emerged from the play equipment I got them both ready and we set off home, via a fast food place for a Drive Thru' We arrived home before Mr Messy and Drama Teen, who had also gone out for something to eat! After everyone arrived home Princess Lollipop didn't last long before falling asleep, and it was soon Little Prince's bedtime. Me and Mr Messy watched one of his Benidorm DVDs before going to bed ourselves.

Saturday's Positives

2012-01-22T09:56:00.001Z

Having a fun day with my Littlies :-)

Getting a couple of bargains at the Car Boot Sale :-)

Having an early night, and some undisturbed sleep :-)

Saturday

2012-01-22T09:44:00.003Z

Me and the littlies had to drop Drama Teen off at work, and then we drove over to a Car Boot Sale. Unfortunately by the time we got there (an hour after opening!!) the windy weather meant that most stalls were packing up!! Quite disappointing after the distance we drove to get there!! I did manage to find a few bargains though, another toy doctor's kit for Princess Lollipop. Its the identical one that Mrs LMS and Drama Teen had when they were little!! Little Prince managed to find a few little toys for 50p each and was thrilled with his purchases :-) I also managed to find a couple of metal trays that I'm going to use to make magnetic dress up dolls for Princess Lollipop's birthday :-)

When we got home me and Little Prince played some more Lego Harry Potter on the Wii. I love the fact that the characters don't die they just fall into Lego pieces, the lack of violence is much better for Little Prince and doesn't get him as wound up, and its just plain fun :-)

I also found out that Drama Teen has been sacked from her job :-( They said she was just too slow - which is a bit unfair as this was only her third 4 hour shift!! So the Manageress's comment "You've been here 3 weeks now and should be faster" was, in my opinion, way out of order!! She has been there TWELVE hours and when you employed her you didn't say she would be cooking, you just landed that on her on the first day! I won't be going to that deli/cafe again!! I hope Drama Teen recovers ok from this as Mr Messy said she cried when she reached the shop, hopefully she'll realise that it was the manageress expecting too much rather than her not performing. Big hugs Drama Teen (((((((((())))))))

In the evening I took Princess Lollipop to bed to settle her down and blinked and it was suddenly 10.30pm!! I decided that it was too late to get up again and got properly ready for bed. Sadly that was the most sleep I got all night as Princess Lollipop had yet another wriggly, disturbed night :-(

Friday's Positives

2012-01-20T21:47:00.001Z

Princess Lollipop managing her bath with a minimum of fuss and no tears :-)

Me and Little Prince having some time to have some fun together :-)

The outstanding progress Little Prince has made in his swimming :-)

Getting both Littlies to sleep at a reasonable time :-)

Friday

2012-01-20T21:26:00.002Z

Me and Princess Lollipop had an extremely slow start to the day, after a VERY disturbed night! Neither of us was keen on the idea of waking up at all, so we had a slow gentle quiet morning :-) Well apart from when I was doing Princess Lollipop's hair in the bath, but she didn't make as much fuss as usual, probably because doing the conditioning every other day is keeping the tangles at bay.

After lunch we had to go and pick Mr LMS up from work. He'd meant to go to the gym straight from work, but due to sleeping through his alarm had overslept! He didn't seem too bothered by that fact, so he's probably still not feeling 100%. He was miffed that when he saw the Doctor he hadn't been prescribed any medication, and that the Doctor refused to give him sleeping pills and said (like we all keep telling him) that they are bad for him!!

Once we'd dropped him off at home, me and Princess Lollipop went round to visit Daddy at OUR shop. He said he'd keep Princess Lollipop with him, as Little Prince has his swimming lesson after school. I came home and had just enough time to have a quick snack before going to pick Little Prince up. We then had a lovely time playing Lego Harry Potter on the Wii before it was time to go to his swimming lesson. We don't often get time where its just the two of us, and it was lovely spending that one on one time with him :-) Moments to treasure :-)

Little Prince's swimming teacher had him practising his butterfly stroke, and he is coming on really well, his teacher was having to jog up the side of the pool to keep up with him. She is very very pleased with his progress and attitude and loves teaching him :-) I asked her about when Princess Lollipop could start lessons, and she said we could go back to group lessons, Little Prince would be in Top Group with her, and Princess Lollipop would be in the Beginners Group with 3 or 4 other little ones and the instructor in the water with them. We are going to try it out after the next half term, as Princess Lollipop will be 3 by then!! I can't believe she'll be THREE next!!! I'm not sure how/if she will cope with being in a swimming lesson, but we can try it and see how she gets on :-)

In the evening we managed to get both littlies to sleep at a reasonable time and me and Mr Messy were going to watch one of our Christmas present DVDs together - however, we couldn't get it to play on any of the devices!! Mr Messy hasn't been feeling very well this week, and needed cheering up so I told him to watch it on his laptop with his headphones, so he's doing that and all I can hear is the occasional laughter from him - glad he's enjoying it and he looks happier :-)

Drama Teen went round to Mr and Mrs LMS's house from college, and they are bringing her back at some point. She wanted Mr LMS to teach her some karate, which I didn't know was her thing, but she says it is :-) Hope they are having a good time and that Little Prince doesn't find out because he is desperately missing Mr and Mrs LMS at the moment!

Thursday's Positives

2012-01-19T21:55:00.003Z

Getting Little Prince's under bed tent finally cut out, it was my big stumbling block and now I've actually chopped up the material I know I'll get on with it :-)

Finally finding my card reader so I could get the photos off my camera, and seeing all the photos on there from Halloween, Disney, Christmas and various bits in between :-)

Little Prince managing to have a playful and pleasant evening without his medication :-)

Having a lovely evening with Mr Messy :-)

Thursday

2012-01-19T21:43:00.003Z

Princess Lollipop was at Tiny School this morning, so I had the morning to myself. I got some jobs done round the house, procrastinated a LOT and then eventually got on with what I was supposed to be doing - cutting out the pieces for Little Prince's under bed tent. I want this to be one of his birthday presents, and have left myself with VERY little time to get it finished!! I have left it till the last minute and am now under pressure to get it finished!!

Mr Messy called home around lunchtime to drop off his work laptop, that a courier was booked to pick up and return to the office today. I had to leave a note on the door when I went to pick Princess Lollipop up, and keep my fingers crossed that the courier would wait for me if he came while I was out! Luckily he did, and the package is now safely on its way.

When Little Prince came home from school, he wanted to play Lego Harry Potter on the Wii with me. Last time we played the game glitched and we couldn't move any further forward with it, so we had to start all over again :-( Little Prince played well for a while, but needed frequent breaks to play with Princess Lollipop, which kept both of them happy :-) We haven't managed to get as far in the game as we were before, but we've made a great start :-)

Me and Mr Messy spent the evening watching TV together :-)

Wednesday's Positives

2012-01-19T15:12:00.001Z

Getting my ironing done, without having to do it myself :-)

Spending the morning chatting with S :-)

Managing to get Mr LMS to agree to go to the Doctor :-)

Wednesday

2012-01-19T14:54:00.002Z

My friend S came round this morning. She does my ironing for me, and I am so so grateful :-) Its well worth the cost as I hate, despise and detest ironing! Plus we get to chat while she's ironing :-)

I had to go and pick Mr LMS up from work in the afternoon and Princess Lollipop was very excited at the thought of seeing him. She completely ignored him when he got in the car though!! He hasn't been well since the weekend, so I bullied him into going to the Doctor! I took him home and waited while he picked up his GP Registration Form, then drove him round to the surgery, which is almost next door to OUR shop, so me and Princess Lollipop went there to see Mr Messy. Mr LMS soon reappeared in OUR shop, grumpy and disgruntled. He had to have a check up with the Nurse before he could be registered, so he couldn't see the Doctor until tomorrow. Well at least he's got the admin stuff over and done with and can see the Doctor tomorrow and get sorted out!!

I picked Little Prince and his friend E up from school, and brought them home. The Big Boys played together really nicely, but Princess Lollipop got very very grumpy and screamy!! She was obviously tired, but I didn't want her to go to sleep this early!! After E's Mum collected him it was time to get the littlies ready for bed. Princess Lollipop fell asleep very very quickly, but Little Prince was up and down quite a lot before he settled.

Princess Lollipop was quite restless so I laid her on the sofa, rather than have to keep running up and down stairs all evening! However around 9pm she woke up crying with a sore tummy and it took ages to get her settled. She was wide awake by that point and there was no chance of getting her back to sleep!!

Me and Mr Messy were watching the TV programme "There's One Born Every Minute" about women giving birth. Princess Lollipop was both fascinated and repulsed by what was shown! She was alarmed by the screaming the labouring women did, and thought the newborn babies were YUK. She DID NOT like the idea that she had been in a tummy and been covered in YUK!! She also DID NOT like the fact that she had not been in my tummy, she seemed really disturbed by this idea :-( Eventually she just started to sob and there was no consoling her, so I took her to bed and snuggled her to sleep. Strangely she then slept better than she has for ages!!

Tuesday's Positives

2012-01-17T23:02:00.002Z

Catching up on lots of household chores :-)

Little Prince coping with and enjoying both his sessions of Tae Kwon Do :-)

Princess Lollipop not screaming or crying when she woke up in her cot, and just calmly coming downstairs to find me (and Daddy). This is a HUGE leap forward for her and she has only managed to do this a few times, hopefully she has relaxed enough that she doesn't panic and scream/cry when she wakes up in the night :-) Well done Princess Lollipop :-)

Tuesday

2012-01-17T22:43:00.003Z

After yet another disturbed night me and Princess Lollipop completely overslept this morning!! We were up way too late to get to Tiny School, which meant I didn't get my morning to myself and still haven't got Little Prince's under bed tent started!!!

Even with Princess Lollipop's "assistance" I managed to get a lot of jobs done round the house, frustratingly slowly, but at least they are done :-) Princess Lollipop hasn't stopped eating all day, I'm hoping that it might make a difference to her sleeping tonight, I desperately NEED a good night's sleep!!

Little Prince went to Tae Kwon Do straight from school and loved it. We then rushed to the chippie to get a quick tea, before dashing back to get him to Sports Fighting Tae Kwon Do at the Village Hall. The session is run by the same TKD instructor that runs the club at school, and in this one the children wear padding and helmets and actually kick each other - the main draw for Little Prince. He was quite nervous and overwhelmed when I dropped him off, but when I picked him up his instructor said he did really well. He'd started off quite timidly, but soon got into it, according to his instructor "he's got no fear"!!! The instructor also gave Little Prince a warning that if he found out that he'd been practicing his moves on his sisters then he would be immediately banned from the club - hopefully that will deter Little Prince!!

When I got back from dropping Little Prince off at Sport Fighting, Drama Teen went out on her first proper driving lesson. Her very first lesson was at a racing track in an Aston Martin, arranged by her Dad :-) She didn't seem nervous at all before her lesson and was quite pleased with herself when she got home :-) Worryingly she did admit that she finds it hard to concentrate on what her instructor is telling her, while also driving and lost concentration a number of times!!! I hope her instructor has good insurance lol!!

Little Prince went to bed as soon as he got home from his second session of Tae Kwon Do, it was already after 8pm and he has school tomorrow morning!! Princess Lollipop fell asleep very soon afterwards, despite being desperate to stay awake and see her Daddy, who was late home as he was on a photo shoot.

I watched "Suits" a programme that has been advertised for weeks now and I've been really looking forward to :-) This episode was a bit slow, as they were introducing all the characters, however it was still fun and I enjoyed it :-) Princess Lollipop woke up just as "Suits" was ending and came downstairs, she was very tired and went back to sleep very quickly and is now laid beside me snoring loudly lol.

Monday's Positives

2012-01-17T12:44:00.002Z

Having a lovely restful day with Princess Lollipop :-)

Managing to get Princess Lollipop's bath and hair done with a minimum of fuss :-)

Having a lovely, long chat with my friend :-)

Monday Monday

2012-01-17T12:19:00.002Z

Me and Princess Lollipop took Drama Teen to college in the morning and then returned home and had a quiet day at home. I spent the day working up the courage to get Princess Lollipop in the bath and get her hair done. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected, although it did take quite a long while, with lots of avoidance techniques from Princess Lollipop. I'm going to make sure I do her hair regularly this week so it doesn't get so tangled and get it back to soft and silky condition.

Little Prince had Drama Club after school, so we didn't have to go and get him till later in the afternoon. He was in a foul and rough mood when he got home, so he had to have his evening medication, which we normally try to avoid. Princess Lollipop was fine at first then she started to demand to play on his iPod Touch and wouldn't play nicely. She had a complete and utter meltdown when it was taken off her and just wouldn't calm down. In the end Drama Teen took Little Prince upstairs to play while I got Princess Lollipop to sleep, she woke up an hour or so later in a much better mood, but of course didn't want to go to bed at a sensible time!

During the evening I got to have a long phone chat with a good friend. She is going through her second adoption and things aren't going smoothly at the moment, I hope the next meetings with the Social Workers help her to see which is the best way forward. Thinking about you...

Sunday's Positives

2012-01-16T00:54:00.002Z

Seeing our lovely friends S & C and their lovely youngest children :-)

They loved their canvas :-)

Having a much less eventful day than yesterday :-)

Little Prince and Princess Lollipop having a lovely time at S & C's house again :-)

Sunday

2012-01-15T23:34:00.003Z

We set off to visit some lovely friend's almost as soon as we got up, they live 3 hours away so we wanted to set off in good time. They had invited us to stay a few months ago when Mr Messy was quite ill with his pneumonia and needed a rest and chill out, they looked after us wonderfully and it gave Mr Messy a much needed pick me up. As a thank you Mr Messy had done a photo shoot with their two youngest daughter's and Princess Lollipop all dressed as fairies :-) And today we were delivering a canvas from that shoot as a present to them, as well as getting to visit them again. They are a lovely, lovely family and Little Prince feels so comfortable there and loves helping with the pigs and chickens, and spending time out side in their huge garden/fields looking for flints!! Which the ever helpful C encouraging him to find the biggest pieces he can!!! I wonder how on earth our suspension copes on the journey home!!

It was lovely to see our friends and spend time in their company. We shared a meal with them, Little Prince calls the meals there "feasts" as all the food is laid out on the table and everyone serves themselves. Unlike at home where he is served his meals ready on his plate. He was overwhelmed by the fact that there were quite a few other visitors at C & S's house, and wanted to run back to the car and hide. Me and S persuaded him to play with the Lego in the corner of the dining room while he got himself comfortable with all the visitors. He calmed down and was ok within about half an hour or so :-)

Later in the afternoon C took Little Prince, Princess Lollipop and their youngest daughter out to collect eggs. After a long while we thought about sending a search party out for them!! Then a sodden footed Little Prince burst into the room!! He said he had somehow got stuck in a frozen puddle, which left his trousers, socks and trainers soaked!! S offered to put his trousers in the tumble dryer, while he sat warming up near the fire wrapped in a blanket drinking a cup of tea, and I managed to persuade him to eat something too. We had to set off for home when Little Prince's trousers were dry again, we wrapped him up in Mr Messy's coat in the car so he was warm and snuggly. Princess Lollipop fell asleep within minutes of setting off and stayed asleep through a "wee stop" at a services, but woke up at the next "wee stop" and was very grumpy! We turned her DVD player back on and she quietened down, well she stopped shouting and screaming at least!!

When we got home we got Little Prince straight to bed, well we tried but he was up and down for ages!! Princess Lollipop was another matter, she had had her sleep and wasn't interested in going to bed at all!! Mr Messy took her up so that I could write these blog posts, I haven't heard from either of them since so I presume they have both fallen asleep!!

Saturday's Positive

2012-01-15T23:26:00.002Z

Today was so hard and its difficult, almost impossible to think of any positives :-( I couldn't write this on the actual day, as its taken till now to think of anything positive about the whole day :-(

And all I can come up with is the fact that I didn't blow up in temper at Little Prince and managed to deal with the situation calmly.

Saturday

2012-01-15T22:57:00.002Z

Me and Princess Lollipop overslept so we had to rush round like mad things getting ready in time to take Drama Teen to work! As we were leaving I noticed my purse wasn't in my bag and started to worry! I got Drama Teen to text Mr Messy and ask if he'd picked it up for some reason?! Mr Messy was in London for a Trade Show all day and I wondered if he might have it with him, very unlikely but better than thinking it might be lost or stolen!!

Once we'd dropped Drama Teen at work we went round and picked Mr LMS up and took him to town to spend the day with his friends. Mrs LMS was spending the day staffing OUR shop, to save me from having to spend the day in there with the two littlies running round causing chaos!! I had hoped to take the littlies for something to eat and then to an indoor play centre, but with no purse we had to return home instead.

When we got home I still hadn't heard back from Mr Messy so I tried a few more times and eventually I got to speak to him. It turns out he had no idea where my purse could be!! I was really panicking now!! The last time I had it was at Little Prince's swimming lesson on Friday, I went out to the car to see if it had fallen out in there somehow! I was just frantically searching when Little Prince appeared at the door with my purse in his hand!! He had "found" it!!! I didn't believe that for a moment, and the story slowly emerged, with more truth added at each telling!! Apparently when Dad had gone out first thing, Little Prince was playing on the PS3. The first story was that he tried to download something free and it wouldn't let him until he'd put in my card details!! He admitted later that it wasn't a "free" download at all, and that he had just wanted it! He has no impulse control and having had one success using my card, obviously just tried again!! I checked our bank and nothing was showing up yet!!

I was devastated that he had done this again! Despite all the warnings and punishment last time he did this (signing himself up for Club Penguin just before Christmas - a debt he had to work off, and he was grounded for a week on top of that) he did it again. I will have to start taking my bag and purse upstairs each night :-( And I am just gutted that I can't trust Little Prince at the moment.

I was upset for the rest of the day. I told Little Prince I was so upset with him that I wanted him away from me for a while, so that I could calm down. I sent him to the dining room to get all his homework finished, which included last weeks unfinished tasks. When he had finished I explained to Little Prince what our day could have been like, and asked him to think about whether or not it was worth it to take my purse, use my bank card and then hide it, rather than have a McLunch and then a play at an Indoor Play Centre for a few hours!! He was very very subdued and upset with himself, but I'm sure next time temptation presents itself he'll act impulsively and without any thought for the repercussions again :-(

Friday's Positives

2012-01-13T23:18:00.003Z

Quite a few of my "cute bits" for my Craft Room arrived in the post this morning :-)

Having Mrs LMS spend the evening with us, and seeing how happy it made the littlies (and me) :-)

Watching The Graham Norton Show in peace, as the lovely Mr Messy took Princess Lollipop to bed :-)

Friday

2012-01-13T22:41:00.002Z

Drama Teen had another A Level resit today, so she didn't need to go to college until the afternoon. She looked after Princess Lollipop while I had a relaxed shower and got ready, thank you Drama Teen :-)

Then we had to set off, first to get petrol, then drop Drama Teen off at college. Princess Lollipop was trying to persuade Drama Teen to come to the Supermarket with us and then go to College, she misses her sister when she isn't here. At the Supermarket I didn't have to get that much so I used the DIY Checkout, which Princess Lollipop obviously didn't understand. All the way home she told me off for not giving the pennies to the lady and telling me that she wanted to give pennies to the lady!! I'm not 100% sure that she is convinced I'm not a shoplifter!!

When we picked Little Prince up from school, Princess Lollipop had a HUGE long lasting tantrum in the playground!! Then we got home and Little Prince started off in a HUGE tantrum, I can't even remember what he was shouting about, but there was a LOT of shouting and slamming doors!! I had to make him take his evening medication, which doesn't happen often, but there was no way he, or I could have coped with the rest of the evening without him having his medicine!! Eventually I managed to get him to get changed into suitable clothes, I had to make him change out of shorts and t-shirt, and we set off to his swimming lesson. Mr Messy picked Princess Lollipop up and took her to OUR shop, a huge relief as I didn't want any more HUGE tantrums!!

Little Prince had a good swimming lesson, and his very understanding teacher let him do the lesson in flippers as he was embarrassed about still having nail varnish on his toes and worried that people would see it and laugh. His teacher is so good with him and so understanding of his quirks and foibles :-)

After swimming we went to OUR shop to pick Princess Lollipop up, Mr Messy had to stay there editing today's photoshoot as the client wanted images this evening. When we got home Mrs LMS rang to say she was coming round to spend some time with us, I asked her to call at the Chippie to pick up some tea for us all. The littlies were extremely excited to have her visit, as now she and Mr LMS are working they only visit at weekends and the littlies miss them so much.

Thursday's Positives

2012-01-13T22:37:00.002Z

Having a quiet day to myself :-)

Contacting the Social Worker to restart the process to initiate Direct Contact between Little Prince and his Birth Mum, something he craves and has done for years now :-)

Thursday

2012-01-13T22:15:00.002Z

I didn't get chance to blog yesterday as I had an early night, so I'm catching up now :-)

Princess Lollipop went to Tiny School and Mr Messy picked her up and took her back to OUR shop for the afternoon, so I had a day off :-) I planned to get on with sewing Little Prince's under bed tent, but I was so tired and muzzy that I couldn't concentrate and decided to leave it for another day. Instead I read a book - Bubble Wrapped Children by Helen Oakwater. Its all about how contact via the internet (usually Facebook) is affecting adopters, adoptive children/adolescents and birth families. As I already know how easy it is to find Little Prince's birth Mum on the internet, and how tech-savvy Little Prince is and how desperate he is to reconnect to his birth family, this is something very close to my heart. After reading a few chapters I got in touch with his Placing Authority to remind them that we want to seriously explore direct contact between Little Prince and his Birth Mum. When we last asked about this Birth Mum had recently split up with her long term partner and moved to a new house, and we were asked to wait 12 months to see how stable Birth Mum would be after all these upheavals. Well that was a year ago, and given the fact that Little Prince has his own computer, boundless curiosity and a very good grasp of how to use search engines etc. Before Christmas he managed to sneakily use my Bank Card and his sister's email address to sign up for a Club Penguin account!! So I don't think it will be long until it occurs to him to sign up for Facebook and search out Birth Family. I would much prefer that contact occur out in the open and within a supported environment and with Social Worker back up. I told the Social Worker I deal with, all of this, and she promised to write to Birth Mum that day to set up a meeting to discuss this with her, and then to get back to me immediately. Unfortunately the SW is moving to another part of the country in about a month, so she will only be able to start the process and won't be around to see it through. This is a huge pity as she is the one who has been supporting Birth Mum each year with Letterbox Contact and has built up a relationship with her, hopefully Birth Mum will be comfortable with another SW taking over this role, and also trust them to guide her through direct contact if it goes ahead. Once again all we can do is wait and see what happens next....

I picked Little Prince up from school and agreed that his friend Y could come over to play and have tea. Y wanted to go home and get changed first, and I had to go and pick Princess Lollipop up from OUR shop, so me and Little Prince went to pick her up and then drove round to Y's house and picked him up too. The boys played on the Wii most of the evening, they didn't eat much of their tea as they were itching to get back to their game and no amount of persuasion could get them to eat some more!! Mr Messy was out on a photoshoot during the evening so he didn't get back until later, he was quite happy that the boys hadn't eaten their pizza as it meant he could finish it off :-)

Wednesday's Positives

2012-01-11T23:23:00.002Z

Having my hair cut and feeling so much better now it isn't all in my eyes :-)

Having the lovely S as a friend, and the opportunity to have her round and chatting most of the day :-)

I am so so grateful to S for doing the ironing, I really truly hate ironing and it always piles up to ridiculous proportions - but now it is back under control and thanks to S going to stay that way :-)

Being so proud of Drama Teen for the work she has put into her resits - well done :-)

Wednesday

2012-01-11T23:17:00.002Z

This morning my friend S came round and cut my hair, so I no longer look like a shaggy sheep dog and can actually see now my fringe is out of my eyes :-) S also does my ironing, and as she hasn't been since before Christmas there was a "bit" of a build up!! It was lovely having her round and chatting and wonderful to have the ironing pile cut down in size :-) We've agreed its probably better if she comes once a week from now on, hopefully that will stop the build up!!

Mr Messy was out at a business networking meeting after OUR shop closed, so he was home late. Drama Teen went round to Latest Boyfriend's house for the evening so it was just me and the littlies here for most of the evening. They were much better behaved than they have been for a while, perhaps they are finally over the Christmas Madness and things will start to calm down again (fingers well and truly crossed lol).

Drama Teen resat one of her AS level exams today and feels it went really well, I'm proud of her determination to improve her grades and for her hard work in getting ready for this exam - I hope she gets the results she worked for :-)

Tuesday's Positives

2012-01-10T22:02:00.003Z

Sitting in my Craft Room working out my very first project (Little Prince's Under Bed Tent) I'm going to do in there :-)

Having the guts to finally go to my (well overdue! I've been avoiding it!!) medication review :-)

Having the Doctor be so so understanding and helpful and taking the time to really try to help me :-)

The prospect of this depression lifting on the new dosage of medication :-)

Having lunch with my lovely husband and youngest daughter :-)

Hearing from our eldest daughter that some blood tests she's had have come back clear, and her problem will probably be cured with simple antibiotics :-)

Tuesday Afternoon

2012-01-10T21:38:00.002Z

After picking Princess Lollipop up from Tiny School we met up with Mr Messy and Drama Teen (she'd finished College early and was having her hair cut at the Salon near to Mr Messy's shop). We dropped Drama Teen off at the Salon and then the rest of us went for lunch. Princess Lollipop was on top form and had everyone in the Restaurant in stitches!! For once she actually ate her lunch AND pinched some of mine and her Dad's!! And still had room to pinch half of my scone!! When Drama Teen had finished having her hair cut, she came and met us at the Restaurant - her hair looks lovely (as always).

After lunch we went back to OUR shop for a short while, then I brought a very tired Princess home. Little Prince was at Tae Kwon Do, so we didn't have to go and pick him up for a while, which allowed Princess Lollipop to have a quiet, restful watch of the TV, which seemed to help her tiredness :-)

Mr Messy was home when we came back from Tae Kwon do with Little Prince, and so we left Drama Teen babysitting Little Prince while we took Princess Lollipop with us to the Supermarket. We needed a big stock up so I wanted Mr Messy to come too, to help with pushing the the truck lol!! Princess Lollipop fell asleep on the way home, but woke up again when I put her in bed!! And she is showing absolutely no sign of wanting to sleep yet!!

Tuesday Morning

2012-01-10T11:52:00.002Z

Princess Lollipop was, yet again, very very restless in the night. The only thing that calmed her down and got her back to sleep was letting her stroke my face, which involved much eye and nose poking and not a lot of sleep for me!! We couldn't have a lie in either, as its Tiny School this morning. Princess Lollipop fussed and fussed over her breakfast, but eventually ate a reasonable amount. She was not happy about going to Tiny School, no tears just a lot of arguing. When we got there she stood outside the door with her arms folded saying she wasn't going in, but as soon as her teacher opened the door she was as happy as Larry and waltzed off inside!!

When I got home I sorted out the pile of parcels that had arrived this morning, a couple of books Mr Messy has been waiting anxiously for, a lacy edge paper punch I've been waiting for and a pretty new, waterproof coat for Princess Lollipop. Little Prince will be upset when he comes home as there was nothing for him, but as its nearly his birthday all parcels for him have to be hidden!!

My next job was to measure up Little Prince's cabin bed ready to make an underbed tent for him, hopefully for his birthday. I have enough plain cream, heavy cotton in my stash to make the whole thing so that has saved me a pretty penny :-) All I need to buy is some bias binding, hem weights, "stick and sew" velcro to attach it to his bed and felt for the Star Wars themed decoration. I think I will just get the basic tent sewn for his birthday (just over two weeks away!) and add the decoration afterwards, so I can take more time over it and get it right!

I realised as I was busy working out quantities of materials to buy that I was late for my Doctor's appointment and had to rush to get there. Luckily she was running late so nobody minded that I was late :-) I had gone in for a medication review for my anti-depressants and was pretty worried that I would be taken off them!! The Doctor was lovely and spent ages talking through how I felt, how I was managing etc. She has decided to put me on a stronger dose of the anti-depressants, as I am still feeling a bit down and have little to no energy most of the time. She has also recommended I talk to the Practice's Counsellor and see if Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help lift my moods. Then she checked my blood pressure (fine) and weight (very not fine!) and said I really should think about losing weight. She said to see if the new dosage of medication helps me feel better and then see if I can slowly start to make changes in my diet and lifestyle to help me lose weight. She acknowledged that now is probably not a good time to try and start to lose weight, but to wait until I was feeling more positive, I really appreciated her understanding and compassion. She also mentioned that when I'm feeling ready for it that the Practice and prescribe sessions at the Local Council Gym at a slightly discounted rate - I will bear that in mind for when Princess Lollipop starts at nursery.

Monday's Positives

2012-01-09T22:33:00.002Z

Getting rid of the ugly, broken office chair out of Mr Messy's ex-office :-)

Getting a new pretty chair for my Craft Room :-)

Monday Monday

2012-01-09T21:27:00.003Z

Princess Lollipop excelled herself with nighttime antics last night! She woke up around 2am (total guesstimate as I can't actually see the alarm clock without my glasses lol) shouting, loudly and repeatedly "I want a bucket"!!! She fell back asleep for a while and then woke up and shouted "I want..I need" and then fell asleep again!! The third wake up she shouted for me a few times and fell asleep as soon as she was holding my arm. I tossed and turned for ages after all this and was tired out this morning and neither of us woke up till about 10.30am! We then had a quiet morning while I got on with some jobs around the place, then after lunch we drove to pick up some chairs I'd won on E*bay. I had my fingers crossed that I would fit them all in the car, along with me and Princess Lollipop in her carseat.

Before we set off to get the chairs, we took the old broken office chair out of my Craft Room and threw it away at the tip. The GPS got us to the right road, but then abandoned us with no idea where the actual house was!! So I had to drive up and down peering down driveways trying to see the house numbers! After driving up and down the road a few times, I finally found the right house! The five chairs (four for OUR shop) and one for my new craft room all fitted in the car, so we drove straight round to OUR shop to drop the chairs there. Princess Lollipop decided to stay there with her Daddy, so I returned home and had just enough time to get my new chair up to my Craft Room before having to go and collect Little Prince from school.

Little Prince was "odd" when I picked him up from school. He seemed spaced out and answered questions about what he'd done at school, just with very quiet "hmms." He stayed like this for about an hour at home too. I'm really not sure what is going on and will have to check with school and make sure they are giving him the correct dose of medication!!

Princess Lollipop was very tired and grumpy when she and Mr Messy returned home from OUR shop. She was very possessive and screamed, shouted and hit Little Prince if he tried to sit next to me! She refused point blank to eat her tea! And wailed and shouted at anything and everything! It was quite a relief when she finally fell asleep!! Little Prince was very pleased that, for once, he got to go to sleep later than his baby sister :-)

Sunday's Positives

2012-01-09T00:16:00.002Z

Having Mr and Mrs LMS visit :-) It was lovely to see them and see how happy the littlies were to have them here :-)

Getting the giant TV out of the dining room and being able to walk all the way round the table again :-) Thank your Mr Messy and Mr LMS :-)

Making a HUGE start on clearing out my Craft Room :-)

Starting to put my things in MY Craft Room :-)

Enjoying a relaxing evening watching Sherlock Holmes and then a programme about British Musicals (I'm a HUGE fan of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice) :-)

Sorting out Sunday

2012-01-09T00:02:00.003Z

Drama Teen helped me bath Princess Lollipop - she played Phineas and Ferb songs on her iPhone while I brushed Princess Lollipop's hair and provided chocolate as a prize for finishing too. Then not long afterwards she was picked up by Latest Boyfriend's Mum and spent the rest of the day at his house.

Much to Little Prince and Princess Lollipop's excitement Mr and Mrs LMS spent the afternoon with us :-) Mr LMS helped Mr Messy take the old broken (HUGE!) TV to the tip, while me and Mrs LMS chatted and looked after the littlies - who spent the whole time whinging that they wanted Mr LMS back! Then they looked after the littlies while me and Mr Messy spent a couple of hours clearing his Ex-Office (my future Craft Room)! We got rid of bags full of rubbish. Filled boxes full of stuff Mr Messy needs to sort through when he has more time. And generally emptied most of Mr Messy's stuff out of the room :-) There is still more to do, but Mr Messy needed his inhalers and a sit down after all the sorting, so the rest will have to wait a while longer. I have started to gather up my craft supplies from around the house and put them on the cubby shelving in MY Craft Room - I freely admit its claiming behaviour lol. But thinking about it I haven't had a room all of my very own since my Little Sis was born when I was almost 5!! Which was quite a long time ago lol. And its so much fun planning how to decorate it to suit just me, not anyone else :-) Mrs LMS did ask me if I was going to do any actually crafting, or if I was just going to make it a pretty room lol.

Little Prince and Princess Lollipop weren't too happy that Mr and Mrs LMS went home in the early evening, and didn't stay for tea, they didn't make too much fuss though. After Little Prince was in bed Mr Messy made a batch of bread in the breadmaker, and it smelt wonderful :-) He said it tasted lovely too, I'm going to try some for my breakfast :-) Princess Lollipop, despite not having a nap during the day, was up and bouncing all evening! It was quite difficult to concentrate on Sherlock Holmes with her antics, but I think I actually understood this weeks episode :-) We were watching a programme about British Musical Theatre when Drama Teen returned home, and was immediately attacked by sword and axe wielding Princess Lollipop!! Foam sword and axe I must add lol. She finally went to sleep a few minutes later :-)

Saturday's Positive

2012-01-08T12:49:00.001Z

Spending a relaxing evening with Mr Messy watching a film on TV :-)

Saturday - a looooooong day!

2012-01-08T12:41:00.002Z

Mr Messy took Drama Teen out with him when he went to OUR shop this morning, and that was before me or Princess Lollipop had even woken up. She hasn't been sleeping very well and we are both tired most mornings.

The day consisted mostly of Little Prince and Princess Lollipop arguing and falling out. Lots of screaming and fighting from both of them. It was a horribly long day :-( It seemed to escalate even further when Mr Messy got home! We managed to get them in bed on time and I could finally relax :-)

We spent the evening watching a Transformers film on TV. It was quite amusing in parts, but I didn't have much of an idea of what was going on because I couldn't tell which Transformers were which, so didn't know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys!!

Friday's Positives

2012-01-07T02:24:00.003Z

Wandering round the Craft Shop and then the Fabric Shop planning how my Craft Room will look, and planning future projects too :-) I really enjoyed myself :-)

Watching the very cheesy, but fun film "Big Trouble in Little China" :-)

Friday

2012-01-07T01:18:00.002Z

Me and Princess Lollipop went out to a Craft Shop today and visited a few other shops too :-) I was very disappointed with the lack of choice in scrapbooking papers available and in the end didn't buy any. I did find a pack of six glass spice jars for less than £5 as I forgot to take my measuring tape I just have to hope they fit on the shelves I've already got! I couldn't find a plain, chrome kitchen roll holder either, so ended up buying that on Ebay when we got home again. I did find a magnetic noticeboard for my new Craft Room and I'm all excited and can't wait to get it in place :-)

Princess Lollipop decided she wanted to go to MacDonalds and I said no, so she stomped off shouting "Well I go Disney and YegoYand (Legoland) then" she didn't she had to get back in the car and come home lol. Another Disney Maniac in the family - my brain washing job is complete :-)

We had a pretty quiet evening, with chippie tea and early bedtimes for the littlies :-) Drama Teen spent the evening at Latest Boyfriend's house and came home quite late in the evening. She is quite nervous about starting her first job tomorrow, so she went almost straight to bed so that she can get up early enough to have a shower before going to work :-) She's got a Saturday job working at a Deli in the next village, the same one where OUR shop is - so Mr Messy will be able to ferry her to and from work :-)

Thursday's Positives

2012-01-05T23:48:00.003Z

Enjoying a "day off" from littlies. I love all my children very, very much but sometimes, every so often I need some me time and I really appreciate Mr Messy understanding and supporting this for me :-)

Taking the Christmas decorations down and getting them all put away ready for next time. The lounge feels so much bigger and airier now and I like it :-)

Having Drama Teen willingly help out with jobs - she looked after Princess Lollipop to give me a chance to finish the vacuuming (and give Mr Messy a chance to wind down after work). She started emptying the dishwasher with no prompting. And she helped me get all the heavy boxes of Christmas decorations back on the high shelf of the upstairs cupboard with no complaining. Thank you so much Drama Teen :-)

And I started to claim my Craft Room - I moved all Mr Messy's stuff off one of the wall cubbies and put MY stuff their instead :-) Fingers crossed Mr Messy doesn't feel ill and isn't too busy to get the rest of his stuff cleared this weekend - then it will be mine all mine mwahahaha :-)

Day Off Day :-)

2012-01-05T23:26:00.002Z

I took Princess Lollipop to Tiny School this morning and then had the whole day to myself, thanks to Mr Messy picking Princess Lollipop up and taking her back to OUR shop with him. I had a really productive day - I took all the Christmas decorations down, got them all back in their boxes and even sorted out the ones we don't bother putting up any more and bagged them for the Charity Shop. Then I sorted out Princess Lollipop's toy tubs, got rid of loads of MacDonald's Plastic Cr*p, a job I can only do when the children aren't here!! The cuddlies that have migrated downstairs from her cot are now back in their original place and a few got assigned to the Charity Shop bag too!! So long as only a few things disappear at once, they don't seem to notice!! I also rearranged some of the toys in the lounge and moved the dressing up rail to a much more sensible position, Princess Lollipop doesn't agree and keeps demanding to know "WHY my dwess ups dere now?" She'll get used to it soon, she adjusts to changes a lot better than Little Prince does. I also gathered up all Mr Messy's "stuff" from around the room and its now in a huge pile on the fireguard!! Normally I'd dump it all in his office, so its out of my way, but as I want him to clear out his office to make my it my Craft Room I can't!!

I've decided the next job is to clear one of Little Prince's downstairs bookshelves and put them on the spaces in his bedroom bookshelves, to create room to move Princess Lollipop's books onto the shelf, instead of exploding out of the now too small tub. I'll probably do that tomorrow if Princess Lollipop has a nap, if she doesn't then I'll have to postpone it till next time she's at Tiny School. I can't do it at weekend because Little Prince will insist on helping and then insist that nothing can move as he likes it where it is, I've mentioned my plan and hopefully presenting it as a fait accomplis will forestall any arguments about moving the books! Wish me luck with that one lol.

After I'd had some lunch and a rest, as my back was killing me, I got all the usual ornaments that had been displaced by Christmas decor put back. And then did a really thorough vac and dust all round the room, I thought I might as well as I had to move the sofas back to their usual positions anyway so it made sense to move them a bit further and vacuum under them too. I was still vacuuming when Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop arrived home from OUR shop, which didn't impress either of them!! Princess Lollipop doesn't like the vacuum cleaner and insists on having someone to sit with if I'm vacuuming and she's in the room.

I eventually finished just before Little Prince returned from Y's house. Little Prince began to run in circles round the lounge, excitedly exclaiming "I've got so much room" over and over again. After about 10 minutes of this we managed to persuade him to play on his iPod Touch (his favourite Christmas present) for a while before it was time to get ready for bed. As usual he took ages and ages to get ready for bed, he gets so distracted!! After the first time I shouted to him to hurry up, I had time to help Drama Teen empty the dishwasher, do all the hand washing up and clean the worktops, and he still wasn't downstairs!! He came down pretty quickly after the second "call" probably because he could hear that I was losing patience with him over how long he was taking!! Once he'd had all his medicine I took him upstairs and encouraged him to sort out the pile of clothes on the floor and take all the washing to the laundry baskets, and then tucked him in. Not long before Christmas he finally agreed to try reading other books than Harry Potter (an obsession that has lasted over a year!!) and I left him reading one of my old Famous Fives quietly to himself :-)

Back downstairs I finally got mine and Mr Messy's tea in the oven while he chatted to his Mum on the phone. Drama Teen joined us for tea, although she ate one of her pastas, rather than have the same as us, it was lovely to have her eating with us rather than her eating in her room. After tea she helped me get all the boxes of Christmas decorations put away in the upstairs cupboard, my back was feeling considerably worse, so I wouldn't have managed without her - thank you so much Drama Teen.

Wednesday's Positives

2012-01-05T10:19:00.002Z

Little Prince managing to cope very well with the disappointment of not going to his friend's house, and not having a major blow up over it. I'm really proud of how he coped :-)

Mr Messy taking over with Princess Lollipop when she had pushed me to the limit all day :-)

Having a lovely relaxing, no responsibility for the littlies, time off, early night :-)

Thinking of this resolution in the first place - I'm really enjoying going to bed on a positive note :-) And I did think of these Positives last night, even if I didn't post them till this morning lol.

Wednesday's Goings On

2012-01-05T09:49:00.002Z

I thought me and Princess Lollipop were going to have a quiet day in, but I got a text from Drama Teen begging me to come and get her and Latest Boyfriend from college and drop them off at his house. As it was very cold, and they would have had to walk for an hour to get the bus I took pity on them and said I'd collect them, besides she bribed me with the promise of a bar of chocolate - so how could I not?!?! About ten minutes before we were due to go out Princess Lollipop decided she wanted some cereal, and as she has hardly been eating for the past few days (she doesn't seem ill at all, just not interested in eating!) I wanted to take advantage of her willingness and get something down her!! She insisted I fed her rather than do it herself, and as that normally works out quicker I didn't argue. Then my Mum rang up for a chat, so I was balancing the phone on my shoulder trying to get Princess Lollipop to keep eating, she was much too busy demanding to know who was on the phone and when would it be her turn!! It was a pretty quick chat!!

Once Princess Lollipop had finally finished her cereal, and with minutes to go before we needed to leave, I realised that Mr Messy had probably forgotten to take Little Prince's medicine to school when he dropped him off this morning. Giving him the benefit of the doubt I rang him to check, and he hadn't realised he needed to take any, then he started to ask about the packages that arrived in the post this morning. Asking what they were, where they were from - I got more and more impatient with all the questions, I didn't know the answers and I now had NO TIME left to get to college, and had an extra errand to run too!!

I dropped the medication off at school, with Little Prince's new Classroom Assistant, who insisted on having a chat, as I politely tried to get away as quickly as possible!! Then Little Prince appeared wanting to know what I was doing at school, so I had to explain to him too. It seemed to take ages to get out of school again!! Finally back in the car I had to race to College, breaking the speed limit most of the way there, luckily the drive is mostly on country roads that rarely see a Police Car! I made it and was only 5 minutes later than I said I'd be - wow!!

Princess Lollipop was NOT happy when we got to Latest Boyfriend's house and Drama Teen got out of the car, she kept demanding more kisses and hugs and then wrapped her arms around Drama Teen's neck and refused to let go!! Drama Teen has spent a LOT of the Christmas holidays with Latest Boyfriend at his house, and I think Princess Lollipop has missed her. When we did get back home Princess Lollipop was in a foul mood and would ask for something and as soon as I got it/did it she would change her mind - this carried on ALL afternoon!! She did cheer up slightly when it was time to go and collect Little Prince from school.

Unfortunately it was then his turn to be in a foul mood, as non of his friends could come round to play. I said he could ring up one friend and ask if he could come round, and this lightened his mood considerably. He came off the phone saying Y's Mum had just popped out but that he and Y had arranged for Little Prince to go to Y's house to play, they had sensibly said they would get Y's Mum to ring up and confirm these arrangements when she got back from her errand. When she did ring it was to say that Little Prince couldn't come round that evening (Y's Dad was about to go working abroad for a couple of months and they were having a family evening) but that he could come round tomorrow evening. Little Prince took this news very well, I had expected a huge tantrum, I told him how proud I was of how he was coping with the change of plan. Well done Little Prince.

Instead of going to Y's house Little Prince and Princess Lollipop played on his computer, until Princess Lollipop got bored and came to watch Cbeebies instead. Then Little Prince started to watch videos on YouTube and ended up watching silly ones that have scary faces jump out at you. He has been insisting on watching these all over Christmas and scares himself silly with it. So we had a chat about why there is "Children's Internet" and "Grown up Internet" and agreed that he would stay off YouTube and go back to playing on Club Penguin instead. He played on there for about half an hour and came to tell me it was much nicer and he felt a lot better, fingers crossed he remembers this lol.

When Mr Messy came home he was working on something complicated on his computer and needed the littlies to be calm and quiet, which of course meant they were loud and crazy!! It was giving me a banging headache trying to keep them under control, and it was my turn to be in a foul mood!! Mr Messy suggested I had an early night, and he would look after Princess Lollipop for the evening and bring her up when he came to bed. It was just what I needed, time to relax reading a book then fall asleep without fighting an unwilling toddler to sleep too. I hardly read any of my book before falling into a deep sleep, bliss :-) I just wish the wind hadn't been so loud and gusty in the night, it woke me up and was obviously disturbing Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop as they were both very very restless, and trying to get back to sleep in the middle of them wasn't easy!!

Today's Positive

2012-01-03T23:17:00.003Z

Princess Lollipop restarted at Tiny School after the two week Christmas Holiday, and went happily in filled with excitement, and no tears at all :-) And after months of medication to counteract a fear of poo-ing will now poo on the toilet, with no tears at all :-) I know, I know not a great thing to be blogging about, but after all the pain and fear she has been going through it is a HUGE achievement for her :-) As she says each and every time "I a bwave bwave giwl" and she really is - well done Princess Lollipop :-)

Today's happenings

2012-01-03T22:58:00.002Z

Not a lot really lol. Mr Messy re-opened OUR shop after the Christmas Holidays, his assistance didn't turn up, we don't know why yet!! Princess Lollipop went happily back to Tiny School, demanded a kiss and hug at the door and then ran off to play :-) Drama Teen started back at College, but only had one lesson the whole day, so Mr Messy picked her up and took her back to OUR shop for a few hours. While she was there she paid her Christmas money into her bank account, posted her Provisional Driving License application and dropped off a CV for a potential part time job!! She was feeling so productive when she got home she went and tidied some more of her room - well done Drama Teen :-)

As everyone else was out me and Little Prince had a lovely morning together :-) We tidied away all his Christmas presents and the Lego he'd spread all over his bedroom floor (he wasn't too pleased with that one lol). Then we built one of the Lego sets he got for Christmas, my job was to find which pieces he needed and he put them all together. Then we played the new Wii Lego Harry Potter game, we make a good team - Little Prince does all the complicated maneuvers and I collect all the coins shouting "Get the coins!! Get the coins!!" good fun :-)

Mr Messy and Drama Teen came home mid afternoon as it was so quiet at OUR shop. Mr Messy then spent most of the afternoon fighting with the new TV and DVD/surround sound system, I'm not really sure what he was doing or whether or not it worked!! I do wonder why we can't just have "sound" why it has to be soooo complicated lol (and don't tell him but I can't really tell the difference anyway!!). And I'm really, really wondering why he is doing all this when the s*dding thing doesn't even play DVDs and will have to be returned soon!?!?! It must be one of those "man things" lol.

Today's Positive

2012-01-02T23:38:00.002Z

Today me and Mr Messy cleared out all the Christmas junk (wrapping paper, cardboard packaging etc) and took it to the tip and the house is bigger and airier again :-)

Drama Teen spent the day at home and spent quite a lot of time downstairs with us, and it was lovely having her around :-)

Little Prince's uniform is all ironed and ready for him to re-start school on Wednesday (thank you so much Drama Teen) :-)

I've got three loads of washing done and almost caught up on the washing I was ignoring over Christmas/New Year :-)

Christmas Pressies :-)

2012-01-02T23:02:00.002Z

What did you get for Christmas?

I got some lovely snuggly warm slippers, do I sound like my grandma or what?!?!

I got a gorgeous hand woven scarf that Mr Messy bought me when he and Drama Teen visited our Exchange Student and her family in Berlin :-) Its made of cashmere and merino wool and is SO warm, I LOVE it :-)

Yes there is a slight theme here lol, I like being warm :-)

I also got some great books, dvds, perfume and spent quality time with my lovely family - the best present of all :-)

Well that and my very own room!! No me and Mr Messy aren't arguing lol, he's given me his old office to turn into a Craft Room :-) WOW my very own craft room :-) I've gone planning crazy and have all sorts of inspiration on Pinterest, just waiting for Mr Messy to clear out his stuff (I'd call it junk but I'm being extra nice to him at the moment lol). I'm so excited :-) I just can't wait to get started and then to get crafting :-) I'll have time to get things done while Little Prince is at school and Princess Lollipop is at Tiny School (and real nursery after Easter eek!!) and I won't have to panic about clearing it all up from the dining room table before they get home either - giving me loads of extra time and less stress :-)

I plan to scrapbook, I loved making Mr and Mrs Messy's Wedding Album, it was so much fun and I'd like to do more. I can also get myself organised and finish the Lifestory book I've started for Little Prince, which I'm doing digitally and then I can get one done for Princess Lollipop too. I want to get back into sewing, I've got tonnes and tonnes of American Girl doll clothes patterns that I never got chance to use before Drama Teen grew out of them. I'd also love to try quilling, its always intrigued me and I've never had chance before. Pinterest has got me interested in trying out decoupage with Mod Podge too, and I'll be giving that a go as soon as my Mod Podge order arrives :-) When Little Prince heard me talking about my new Craft Room he asked if I was going to make him his 100 Good Wishes Quilt - so that (and Princess Lollipop's one) can join my ever growing list of projects :-) I'll finally the room to get all the things I've planned for Princess Lollipop's Pink House made.

And all this will give me a focus and interest that is MINE. And although I'll be primarily making things for the house or the family, it is MY interest - not Janet the wife, not Janet the Mum, it will be just Me - Janet :-) I suffer from depression (I take medication for it, I'm not just saying it) and if left to my own devices without a "plan" I vegetate in front of my computer and do NOTHING, literally nothing. Then I look round at the house and how untidy I've allowed it to become and that depresses me more. The fact that the washing pile is exploding out of the washing baskets depresses me more. The fact I haven't planned what to eat for dinner that night and we end up eating the same old thing depresses me more. The fact that life didn't used to be like this and I used to be more active depresses me more. So this new focus and interest will hopefully help to alleviate that, help to keep me occupied and even exercise my fading brain cells a little :-) And give me chance to re-find that creative, happy person I used to be :-) Which will be good for me and for the whole family :-)

Christmas lessons learnt

2012-01-02T22:54:00.002Z

This Christmas I learnt that Father Christmas doesn't mind if I don't exhaust myself trying to get the whole house cleaned and tidied before his arrival!! I didn't do the usual mad dash round the house, and Father Christmas still thought I was a good girl and left me my presents :-) And I enjoyed Christmas MUCH more as I wasn't stressed and exhausted before it even happened :-) I need to take this to heart, and remember that I don't have to be perfect - good enough is good enough :-) I often feel that I have failed because things aren't perfect, I have to remind myself that things don't have to be perfect - just good enough :-)

Christmas clearout

2012-01-02T22:18:00.002Z

Today Mr Messy and Little Prince went to the DIY Shop to buy a saw so that they could make a bird box. Apparently the sales were on, and they bought quite a bit more than "just a saw"!! Drama Teen was supposed to go with them, but didn't get up in time, she wanted to buy some baking supplies from the Supermarket to make brownies.

Later that day after I'd wrangled Princess Lollipop in the bath, with assistance from Drama Teen, we managed, eventually, to get her hair conditioned and combed through. We ran out of the Curly Q conditioner that I had been using on her hair, and have been using different conditioners that we bought on our holiday in Florida. I'm not impressed with them. The first one I ditched after two tries, Princess Lollipop's hair felt "crunchy" and not soft and healthy like it usually does. The second one is working better, but doesn't condition Princess Lollipop's hair as much as Curly Q did. I'm only using this conditioner until the new lot of Curly Q arrives, and then hopefully Princess Lollipop's hair will go back to being glossy and healthy again. And as a great added bonus after a week or so her hair becomes MUCH easier to comb through, so the battles with Princess Lollipop over getting her in the bath might lessen. I certainly hope so, especially for Princess Lollipop's sake, its awful having to force her into having her hair conditioned and making her scared of having a bath :-(

While we were bathing Princess Lollipop Mr Messy took Little Prince to his friend J's house for a few hours, so that he could meet J's new Border Collie. I can't quite believe that J's family have got such an active dog as J is pretty similar to Little Prince and you'd think they had enough on their plates lol. Once we'd all finished and we were all ready. Me and Mr Messy left Drama Teen babysitting Princess Lollipop, they were watching Phineas and Ferb together :-) We stuffed my car full of all the Christmas rubbish and cardboard needing recycling, which was a large amount as it consisted of the packaging from the new TV we bought to replace our broken one. And 50" plasmas (don't ask Mr Messy is in charge of household tech lol!!) don't come in small boxes!! We managed to get rid of all the cr*p that had been cluttering up the house and it feels much nicer (and bigger) again :-) And at weekend we'll borrow Mr LMS and he and Mr Messy can get the huge old TV to the tip too, and I'll have my whole dining room back :-)

Once we got all the littlies to bed, well Drama Teen is in her room (hopefully) revising for her re-sits (and not on Facebook!) me and Mr Messy are watching one of the BluRays we got for Christmas. We can't watch DVDs as the new surround system won't play them. Mr Messy is hopping mad and will be returning the system tomorrow!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T22:46:00.002Z

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack :-)

I've been pestered by a number of people (you KNOW who you are!!!) to start blogging again, so I'm trying :-) I can't promise how often this will happen but I will try to post more regularly :-)

Anyway I'm not going to try and catch up on the last few months!! Mr Messy has been ill with pneumonia (and has also developed pretty severe asthma), which the doctor says is unlikely to improve much until Spring and the weather gets warmer. He has been struggling and hasn't been able to be as supportive as he normally is, and its been hard work. However, we are getting through and looking forward to Spring :-)

We had a quiet Christmas. Just us and all five kids (I'm counting Mr LMS now too). So it wasn't quiet really, it was noisy chaos and it was LOVELY :-) It was SO QUIET in the evening when Mr and Mrs LMS had gone home, Drama Teen was in her room and the littlies were in bed!!

Todays happenings consisted of visiting family in the Ancestral Homeland. It was lovely to see my parents, Baby Sis and her baby daughter and briefly Lil Sis and her family. We were going to visit Mr Messy's Mum but she was on her way out, so we'll visit again soon to catch up with her too.

And to round off this New Year post I'd better let you know what my New Year's Resolution is - I'm going to try and think positively and count my blessings. I'm going to keep a note of something positive for each day of the year - and today's positive was seeing my Mum and Dad and my two lovely sisters and all their lovely children :-)

Thursday

2011-09-01T14:37:00.003+01:00

This morning was horrendous, which was VERY puzzling as Little Prince had been given his medication. I was nearly in tears most of the morning, especially when Mr Messy and Drama Teen went out to OUR shop and were out for well over an hour. I couldn't believe Little Prince's wildness, how could he be like this when his medicine had been working so well?!?!

I took Little Prince upstairs with me for a chat, and to separate him from Princess Lollipop (they were winding each other up so much!). During our chat, Little Prince admitted he had spat out his medicine this morning, which to be honest was a huge relief. I explained that it could be dangerous for Little Prince to do that, as I would then tell his Paediatrician that the medicine wasn't working and he would prescribe stronger tablets, which could be dangerous as Little Prince wouldn't actually need them!! He seemed to take all this in, and was very upset that he'd been so silly! At least I know that his medicine DOES still work and can stop panicking!!

As Little Prince hadn't fully calmed down I took Princess Lollipop to Tiny School on my own. As we pulled up she started to say she "needed Mummy" and she was still saying this as I left her! The staff do a very brisk (but caring) handover and I left Princess Lollipop, listening to her saying she "needed Mummy" and getting higher and higher. It seemed a long two hours before I could pick her up!! I think this "easing in" is as much for me as it is for Princess Lollipop!! When I did pick her up she did a very short sob in my arms, and then jumped down and said she didn't want to come home yet! She then marched off back into the house with her arms firmly crossed, saying she just had to finish something lol. I managed to persuade her to come home, and she was much happier chatting away about what she'd done, and very excited that she will be having lunch at Tiny School tomorrow :-)

We then had to wait for Drama Teen's Doctor's appointment to finish, she has been suffering from very similar symptoms to Mr Messy and is getting worried that she has pneumonia too. Luckily the doctor said she "just" has a viral infection and should drink lots of water to help her recover, I'm so relieved that I haven't got two seriously ill ones.

Princess Lollipop demanded that Little Prince go outside and play on the trampoline with her, so they are both out there playing nicely (for now!). I have been left in charge of Peach (Little Prince's favourite doll) and have had to give her, her milk, sandwich and get her to sleep for her nap! Little Prince treats Peach as an extra family member and is now getting quite stroppy that Princess Lollipop is being loud in the lounge and might wake Peach up!!

Wednesday

2011-09-01T14:21:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was Princess Lollipop's first day at "Tiny School" (her name for the nursery/childminding service I have chosen). Tiny School comes very highly recommended by lots of people, and when we visited it seemed lovely and nurturing and a perfect place to get Princess Lollipop used to being apart from me. Me and Little Prince dropped her off, she cried a little but not as much as I expected her to, and then me and Little Prince went out for a quiet lunch together. We ended going to two separate cafes, one for lunch and one for cakes! Little Prince ate loads, his new medicine seems to work much better at allowing him to eat, whilst also calming him down. Princess Lollipop only stayed for an hour on her first day without me, and when we picked her up she grabbed hold of me and sobbed, she had huge tears pouring down her cheeks and clung so tightly round my neck. The staff assured me that she had been fine during her hour, and that we should carry on easing her into staying there. We decided to have her stay for two hours next time and build her up to the full four hours she will be staying there. We've decided to have her stay there two mornings a week, so I will have some time to myself and try to regain some semblance of order round the house, and see if I can find my sanity under all the chaos lol.

After we got home from Tiny School, Princess Lollipop wasn't very keen to talk about it, and just turned away when we mentioned it. However, by the time Mrs LMS got home, she was proudly telling her that she'd been to Tiny School :-) And at bedtime she told me that she was told off for climbing on a chair, and that she played with cars and Lego and tomorrow she wants to do colouring and drawing.

Paid for our Hols :-)

2011-08-30T17:36:00.002+01:00

It has taken over two years of hard saving, and even then we got so very close to having to cancel when Mr Messy didn't have a new contract! But today we did it :-) We paid the balance on our Disney Holiday - balance owing £0.00 YEAH :-)

Look out Mickey we are coming to see you soon :-)

Poorly Mr Messy

2011-08-30T16:36:00.001+01:00

Mr Messy went to the Doctor's while I was in Legoland - it must have been serious for him to go without my nagging him for days, although the Big Girls did say they nagged him instead lol. The Doctor wanted to send Mr Messy straight to hospital (diagnosing either pneumonia or bronchitis), but he refused to go, and was given antibiotics and instructions to return to the surgery if he didn't feel better after the weekend. The antibiotics helped a little, but Mr Messy was still struggling this morning and made an appointment to see our regular Doctor. The Doctor confirmed that it definitely was pneumonia and said Mr Messy should take at least 4 weeks off work. That's pretty difficult when you are self employed and the sole provider for a big family, and Mr Messy won't be able to take time off :-( We will all do our best to take as much of the work and stress off him as we can, but there isn't that much that we can do :-( I'm very worried about Mr Messy as he has been pushing himself so hard for a long time, he has a full time IT Consultancy job and his Photography Business to run and he has just got the latest assignment in his OU Degree Course! He is trying to do too much and burning himself out in the process :-(

Everything is Changing!!

2011-08-30T15:58:00.002+01:00

I've just come back from visiting a very well recommended child-minder's near to OUR shop. I am getting desperate to get some time to myself, to catch up on housework and to do something I enjoy (crafts) that I've decided to see if Princess Lollipop will settle there and give me that much needed break. Princess Lollipop LOVED the setting, its like a nursery in a home, but with much fewer children, and played really happily while I chatted to the Owner. She is booked in for an hour long trial tomorrow afternoon, although when we left and I said she could go back tomorrow without Mummy she wasn't very keen on the idea!! We'll see how she goes tomorrow... If she settles then we'll try her for a full 4 hours and then I've got to decide how many mornings I want her to attend!! Five is tempting, but that's just the "end of Summer Holiday stress" talking, and I'll probably enroll her for just 2 or 3 mornings per week.

That's not the only change! Mr LMS has had his fingerprints taken over in the US, and sent off his Visa Application with the extra payment to expedite the decision. This means that once the file reaches a case worker's desk they will have a decision in 15 working days or less!! Mrs LMS is getting more and more stressed by this, and can't seem to let herself believe it will be a positive decision :-( I am sure it will be, as they deserve to be together after all this time apart, and they have followed the application procedure to the letter.

In preperation for Mr LMS's arrival Mrs LMS had been looking for a flat for them both to move into. Its been frustrating for her, as she doesn't really know when he will get here (it depends on the Visa Application) and she wasn't sure where to look. If she lives in a village near us, then it is a much nicer area, but they would need a car, an added expense they are trying to avoid. If they move into the town where her job is, they would get "more flat for their money" but the area isn't as nice. My best friend Mad Cat Lady, has two properties that she rents out and on the off chance one might be available Mrs LMS asked me to talk to her. One of her properties was available, but it is a big house and the rent is well over what Mrs LMS can afford (she has to work her budget out on just her earnings as they don't know how long it will take Mr LMS to get a job). Oh well back to the drawing board. But not for long :-) Mad Cat Lady got back in touch, to say that she could drop the price to what Mrs LMS can afford, and rent it directly to her instead of paying Estate Agency fees. It also solves a problem Mad Cat Lady is having with recent tenants, well its a problem with the neighbour who is so mean and nasty that people move out again as soon as they can!! Mr LMS is well over 6ft tall and very protective of Mrs LMS, so I don't think the nasty neighbour will take him on and try causing any trouble!!

Another change is our cars!! A friend of Mrs LMS was selling his sporty car, as he is a personal trainer and can't fit all his gym equipment in the boot!! Knowing that Mr LMS would love a car like that, and liking the price, Mrs LMS arranged to buy it!! She sensibly asked the friend how much he had to pay in insurance for it, and he told her £700 which was high, but not ridiculously so and so she went ahead and bought the car. Once she had all the details and started to get insurance quotes she found a HUGE problem. Due to her and Mr LMS being under 25 she couldn't find insurance for less than £1500, and that was without even putting Mr LMS on the policy!!! She spent hours on the internet and on phone calls trying to sort it out, but it turned out £1500 was about the cheapest insurance she could find, and many insurance brokers refused to even consider insuring her or Mr LMS!! So Mr LMS has decided to give her his car and let her take over running that until they find a car they like and then sell it/trade it in and he will have the sporty car! Is this his mid-life crisis car lol??

Baby Sis's Baby's Baptism

2011-08-30T15:38:00.002+01:00

Well isn't that a tongue-twister of a title lol. Mr Messy and Mrs LMS had left yesterday for a business meeting near to where the Baptism was going to be, so there was no point them coming home and they stayed over there. Mr Messy in a Hotel and Mrs LMS at my Baby Sis's house, so that she could help Baby Sis out getting the room ready for the after Baptism Party. Apparently Baby Sis turned into a Baptism-zilla and had everyone jumping out of her way to get things done!! I wonder what she will be like when it gets closer to her wedding date lol - I'm glad we live so far away!!!

Drama Teen had arrived back from the celebration meal last night feeling very unwell and had gone straight to bed, poor thing. And when I woke her up she didn't feel much better, so unfortunately she wasn't going to make it to the Baptism. She did manage to look after the Littlies for me while I got our outfits ironed and helped me get both the Littlies ready - thank you Drama Teen :-) Once we were all dressed up in our smart clothes we loaded the car up and set off. As Little Prince had had his medicine he was pretty calm in the car, he played on his gameboy and Princess Lollipop watched various DVDs. The Gameboy and DVD Players are a godsend for long journeys, and I don't think I'd manage to take the Littlies very far at all without them!!

We got caught in a traffic jam entering the motorway that delayed us for ages, and then we got stuck behind a line of very slow traffic once we'd left the motorway - so we were late! Luckily it was a fairly modern church and they'd left the doors open, and we could sneak in and see most of the ceremony. I got quite emotional seeing my Baby Sis stood up at the front, all grown up with her own Baby! Goodness knows how many tissues it will take me to get through her wedding!!!

After the Service, I asked Mrs LMS to come in my car to the Baptsim Party - so that she could look after the Littlies while I dashed in a shop to get some wrapping paper for the present!!! I'd forgotten the day before!! Little Prince decided to go with Daddy to the Party, so it was boys in one car and girls in another lol. I whizzed round the Supermarket and managed to grab suitable wrapping paper, wrapped the present when I got back to the car and then we drove to the Party. Baby Sis had arranged to have a Bouncy Castle at the Party Venue, as there were so many children attending. And we hardly saw either of the Littlies the whole time we were there!! One of Baby Sis's friends had made her lots of beautiful cupcakes, some even had Baby's picture on them, with an icing flower placed in her hair - gorgeous but I couldn't bring myself to eat one!! The ones decorated with pink icing and flowers were delicious though :-)

It was lovely to see all our family and to finally (after NINE years!!) meet Baby Sis's (almost) Mother in Law - she seemed like a lovely lady and doted on Baby Sis's Baby :-) The other shock was we met Mr Messy's long lost God-daughter!! Her Dad had been Mr Messy's Best Man (Mr Messy had been his Best Man too) and they had been friends for years and years. However, he and his wife went through an acrimonious divorce at the same time we moved house and we lost touch. Through the magic of social networking we found out just before the Baptism that God-Daughter was a friend of Baby Sis and Mr Baby Sis!! It was fantastic to see her and catch up on years of happenings in her family and ours!! We'll be making a trip over to see them when Mr Messy can fit it in his busy schedule!!

Little Prince was supposed to be going home with Mr Messy but changed his mind at the last minute and refused point blank (and had a huge meltdown) to go in the car with Daddy, saying he had to be with Mummy. I'm beginning to feel so suffocated again!! At least its only a week till school restarts!! I wish I could be like most of my friends, and dread the end of the holidays and being apart from the children - but I can't wait :-( Little Prince is so hard to deal with and the long Summer holidays make it all so intense and difficult that I just need some time for myself :-(

Anyway enough moaning - all the very very best wishes for a long and happy life to one of my precious little nieces. Happy Baptism Baby Sis's Baby xxxxx

More Catching Up!!

2011-08-30T10:33:00.003+01:00

LAST WEEK - MONDAY

I spent the morning running round like a lunatic, getting packed and ready to pick up my friend S and her son Y, to drive down to Legoland YEAH :-) I had left everything to the last minute, so we were running late, as usual! Just as we were about to get in the car I got a phone call from S, to say that Y had insisted on waiting in the garden for the last half an hour, and when was I going to arrive, as she was cold?? So we piled into the car and picked them up, then I realised I had forgotten my camera, so we went straight back home again to pick it up!! We finally set off an hour later than I had hoped!! Little Prince and Y played on their Gameboys together, they teamed up somehow on Lego Star Wars and played happily for hours. Princess Lollipop watched her DVDs, I had hoped she would have a nap, but she was too excited to sleep and stayed awake the whole journey! We had to stop a few times for "my weewee's coming" but not too often thankfully. Princess Lollipop also decided that she would use her "suitcase potty" which she had adamantly refused to use up till then!! It did make stopping for "weewees" a lot easier :-) On one of our stops at a garage, we did find the most yummy sweeties - Wine Pastilles (like Fruit Pastilles but softer and sugarier yum yum) I think me and S are addicted!!

The journey was hot and sunny, it was sweltering in the car, especially as the children complained when we opened the windows, that it was too loud!! We were all relieved to get to the hotel, unfortunately as we were getting the suitcases out of the boot, Little Prince and Y ran off! Little Prince had been cooped up in the car for far too long, and his medication had run out so he was HYPED to the max! He ran over to the hotel's decorative pond and bridge, and refused to come back. By the time I'd convinced him to come back Princess Lollipop had run off dangerously close to the pond and I had to try and get both of them away from the pond and into reception! Little Prince "doggied" (he jumps around on all fours acting like a puppy dog) around reception making a lot of weird noises as we tried to check in, I ignored him as I'm used to it, but I think S was embarrassed.

We went up to our room, with Little Prince trying his best to run away the whole time, and left our suitcases there while we went out to eat. On our previous stays at this hotel we have driven to a shopping centre where there is a Frankie and Benny's Restaurant, which all the children enjoy eating at - and its so noisy there anyway they don't disturb the other diners! Little Prince wasn't much calmer during our meal, and spent a good measure of the time under the table! We did manage to get all three children and ourselves fed before returning to the hotel for a good nights sleep. Unfortunately I didn't get a good night's sleep as Princess Lollipop (who was sharing my bed) was very very wriggly, and it took hours to get Little Prince settled down to sleep. I had realised too late that we had run out of his Melatonin (medication which helps him sleep) and his prescription wouldn't be ready until we returned home!

TUESDAY - LEGOLAND DAY

After yesterday's gloriously hot weather, we couldn't believe it when we woke up to rain! S had forgotten to pack raincoats for her and Y, although looking at the size of her suitcase she had packed everything else!! Something we were going to be thankful for later in the day!! We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel, Little Prince wolfed down his English Breakfast but Princess Lollipop fussed and didn't eat very much. She had a few spoonfuls of her breakfast and refused to eat any more, but screamed the place down when the waitress tried to remove her bowl!!! They soon learnt not to try and touch it lol.

The children were all excited when we got in the car to drive over to Legoland, it is only a 10 minute drive from the hotel. The traffic was clear until we got to the drive into the Legoland carpark, where we had to queue for a little while, I chose to pay for the "preferred parking" which is slightly more expensive but much closer to the entrance - something you really appreciate when leaving the park after a long day!! As it was still raining once we had got in, S bought herself and Y a bright yellow Legoland poncho. Y made a huge fuss and didn't want to wear it, but S made him as he was already getting fairly wet! He got used to it pretty quickly and stopped complaining :-) We hopped on to the Hill Train to take us to the bottom of the steep hill, Legoland would be much nicer if it wasn't built on the side of a hill!! Of course the boys then decided they wanted to go all the way back to the top to go on the Viking Ride!! Urgh!! I got a day long workout pushing Princess Lollipop in her buggy up and down that hill!! The park wasn't very crowded due to the weather, and because of the "Exit Pass" hand stamp Little Prince gets we managed to ride every ride the children wanted to go on, without much queuing to wind Little Prince up. We also discovered that Princess Lollipop is a total thrill seeker!! The faster the ride the more she loved it!!! S discovered I wasn't joking when I told her that almost every single ride in Legoland gets you wet!!! She never took her poncho off!!

It was getting near to the end of the day when the boys ran off in front saying (I thought!!) they were going to "Look at the water!!" When we finally caught up with them they weren't looking at water - they were IN water!! Despite the rainy weather, they were playing in the "Kids Wash" a water play area which shoots water up from the ground and sprays them from above with fountains!! Both boys were in there fully clothed and DRENCHED!!! After I got over the shock and encouraged by S to see they were having loads of fun, I stopped being cross and left them alone :-) They had a whale of a time, and played there for well over an hour :-) We tried putting them in the electronic drier when they'd finished playing but you could still wring them out!! So we went to the nearest shop and bought towels, and dry t-shirts (S had spare trousers and shorts in her bag) and got them changed. The young assistant in the shop was wonderful, he let us sort out the boys and get them in dry clothes before paying for the items. And he found paper and pencils to keep Princess Lollipop amused while we dealt with the boys. The boys trainers were obviously drenched too, Little Prince agreed to put plastic bags on his feet and then put his trainers on, but Y refused point blank to do the same. So his Mum carried him on her back all the way back to the front of the park - she is only tiny and Y is nearly as big as she is, I really don't know how she managed!!! Near the entrance there was a cafe, so we called in to get the children something to eat before returning to the hotel, we were all so tired we didn't fancy going to the hotel getting the boys sorted and then going out again! Little Prince was at the end of his patience and his medication had long worn off, so he was very shouty and angry while we ate. And when we finally left the park and were walking to the car he was overcome with wracking sobs, saying he wished Tummy Mummy could be here with us and that he missed her so much. He was totally overwhelmed by his feelings and we couldn't calm him down at all :-( I breaks my heart to see him so so sad and not be able to do anything to help him :-(

It wasn't any easier to get Little Prince to sleep, even after being at Legoland from opening till closing time! Nothing tires out my boy - he's my energiser bunny he just keeps going!!

WEDNESDAY - DRIVING HOME

We all slept in on Wednesday morning and were in no hurry to get ready, we were still too tired from the day before!! By the WILD while we tried to check out, he kept trying to go into the closed lounge next to reception, and screamed and kicked when I brought him out. It was extremely difficult to get the check out process finished while also trying to wrangle WILD Little Prince, and Princess Lollipop who copies everything her beloved big brother does :-( We eventually managed to get sorted out, and the receptionist gave us directions to a Beefeater Pub that served breakfast - off we went. Little Prince had a HUGE tantrum at the Beefeater, as I'd not heard him and ordered him the wrong drink!!! After a lot of persuasion he did eat his food and drink the wrong drink!

It was a huge relief to have all the children strapped in the car and set the SatNav for home :-) The journey wasn't as calm as the journey down to Legoland, Little Prince and Y kept arguing over what game to play and Princess Lollipop got caught up with all the negativity and joined in!! We stopped for some late lunch, at a Service Station with Mcdonalds thinking that would suit the children. Ha!! Little Prince got in a total strop because we didn't sit in Costa Coffee on the comfy armchairs, he sat under the table refusing to speak or eat, despite being "starving" moments earlier! I bought him something anyway, hoping to entice him to eat and eventually after a lot of fuss and kicking he did eat something, while staying sat under the table. I had been pushed to the edge by then, and burst into tears, S was lovely giving me a hug and then finding some Wine Pastilles in the shop as a gift :-) She was so sweet, I think I might still be there drowning in a flood of tears if it weren't for S - thank you so much. There wasn't that much driving left before we were home, it was so nice to be home in my own house, with my own bed to look forward to :-)

THE REST OF THE WEEK

We didn't get up to much on Thurs and Fri as I was recovering from all that driving (its soooo tiring!!) and the stress of trying to deal with an overly hyped up Little Prince. On Saturday I realised I had done too much "nothing" and that I'd better go shopping for Baby Sis's daughter's Baptism present!! I got Drama Teen and her Boyfriend to look after Princess Lollipop at OUR shop and just took Little Prince with me. Its easier with just one of the littlies, and I couldn't have taken Princess Lollipop as I'd forgotten to clean her buggy after she had a weewee accident at Legoland! Me and Little Prince rushed round the shops to find a nice present, we also picked up the filled buckets for outside Princess Lollipop's playhouse. I'm not overly impressed with the flowers used to fill the buckets, as I'd asked for pastel, pretty and girlie colours - and instead I've got big showy bright coloured flowers!! We managed time to get a lovely lunch at the Town Art Gallery, although Little Prince was upset we didn't have time to look round the gallery itself as we had to hurry back to pick up Princess Lollipop.

When we got back to the shop I dropped Drama Teen and her Boyfriend off at his Mum's house as they were all going out for a meal to celebrate Boyfriend's great GCSE results. It must be getting to be a serious relationship if Drama Teen is now being included in family events!!

The last week

2011-08-19T11:30:00.002+01:00

I was feeling quite down over the weekend following the "Hardest Day" and we didn't get up to much. Mr Messy went on a photographers get together on Saturday, and seemed to enjoy himself :-) Drama Teen went to the shop with Mrs LMS in my car, so me and the littlies had a day at home. It was a quieter day as I insisted that Little Prince have his medication. We were invited to a friend's housewarming party, but didn't make it as Little Prince was still quiet hyper. I think he needs a few days on his medication for it to have full effect on his behaviour!

On Sunday Mr Messy took Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop to a big town on the train, which Princess Lollipop loved, to shop for some knee high Converse boots for Drama Teen. I was shocked when they didn't come home with new Converse boots for Princess Lollipop too!! Me, Mrs LMS and Little Prince went to a local outlet centre, where there is a playground for Little Prince to play. Mrs LMS watched Little Prince play in the playground while I went to the lingerie shop to get measured and treat myself to some new pretty bras :-) It took ages, but Mrs LMS seemed to cope fine with Little Prince. We then took Little Prince to the Clarks Outlet Shop to have his school shoes checked, they were new not too long before the Summer Holidays and luckily they still fit. We were early enough in the Hols that it wasn't crazy busy too, phew!! We then went for a cake and drink before coming back home. It was a very nice day :-)

I don't think much happened on Monday, and if it did it must not have been very exciting as I can't remember at all anyway lol.

On Tuesday me and Princess Lollipop had early morning appointments at the Dentist for a check up. I have to have a filling, but Princess Lollipop's teeth are perfect. My appointment isn't until October, as they couldn't fit me in any earlier, and I did request it to be after the holidays have finished, so that Mr Messy would only have to look after Princess Lollipop.

Wednesday and Thursday were also quiet at home days. The littlies played in the garden. Sometimes they even played nicely!!! The neighbours 3 year old boy, climbs on our wall and wants to play, it can't be safe as its well over 6ft high on their side!!! And then the trouble starts!! He and Little Prince play throwing balls over the wall to each other, and Princess Lollipop either gets knocked over by an over excited Little Prince or gets hit by the ball when its thrown into our garden! Its a LOT more peaceful when A isn't there, and Little Prince and Princess Lollipop play a lot better together without him!!

Today, Friday, another quiet morning at home. And I'm just about to take Little Prince to OUR shop so that he and Mr Messy can for lunch together.

The Hardest Day of the Hols so far :-(

2011-08-12T20:09:00.003+01:00

Today started out alright, I accompanied Mrs LMS to the Post Office to post all her lovingly collected documents to Mr LMS in the USA, so that he can finally apply for a Visa to come over to the UK and they can start their married life together. She was so nervous that she couldn't even fill in a very simple form!! The form asked her to write who the parcel was TO - she wrote her own name!! Then she realised her mistake and put her details in the correct place, but managed to forget her address, well you can't blame her she's only lived her since she was 9 years old!! I got another form from the Post Mistress and filled it in on Mrs LMS's behalf - she was in no state to be writing her own name and address lol. It cost a HUGE amount to send the fastest and safest way possible, about double what Mrs LMS thought it was going to be!! Between us we had enough cash to pay this HUGE amount and the precious parcel was handed over to the care of Parcel Force!! Mrs LMS admitted she didn't know if she felt better or worse that it was now out of her hands!! Fingers crossed that it reaches Mr LMS safely and that the Visa Application goes through quickly and smoothly.

Then we picked up Drama Teen and the littlies and dropped Mrs LMS off at work. Before going to see Little Prince's ADHD Specialist at the hospital near Mrs LMS's office. It all started going downhill when I parked at the wrong end of the hospital and we had to walk all the way round the connecting corridors, hurrying to get to the appointment in time. I had to carry Princess Lollipop up the stairs, and she wanted to walk up herself!! She SCREAMED all the way up the stairs and most of the rest of the way to the ADHD Dept!! Little Prince was obviously worrying about his appointment and was running ahead shouting and making strange loud noises and generally acting very stressed. When we finally got to the Dept both littlies were upset, and getting out of control!!

Little Prince and Princess Lollipop started arguing and fighting over the table football, which culminated in Little Prince trying to ram one of the sticks into Princess Lollipop and getting into trouble. Little Prince was called in to be weighed and measured and have his blood pressure checked. He has grown slightly, his blood pressure is fine, but he has lost a small amount of weight (10 oz!!!). We were given a mood chart to fill in, but then the Specialist called him straight in for the consultation. Little Prince (who hadn't had any medication) started playing up even more, he refused to put his shoes back on after being weighed, and threw them across the consultation room. He then sat down to fill in his mood chart and ticked "very grumpy" for everything. Then he noticed it asked about his moods during the school day and started shouting he had done it all wrong. He went to the other side of the room and started hitting himself and saying he was stupid and wanted to die!! Eventually between talking to the Specialist and trying to calm Little Prince down, I managed to get him to come and try to fill in the mood chart again. He only managed half of it before having another massive meltdown!! At least the Specialist saw him as he really is!!!

Because of Little Prince's weight loss the Specialist said he would have to take him off his medication for three months!!! WHAT?!?! NO WAY!!!! I just looked at him open mouthed and refused to accept that!! There is absolutely no way on earth I can go back to trying to manage an unmedicated Little Prince :-( I also told the Specialist that school had noticed a difference in Little Prince's ability to concentrate last half term, and had asked me to mention this to the Specialist. In the end the Specialist said we could try a different kind of medication. This is a quick release version of Ritalin, that only lasts for a limited time. The Specialist has prescribed two 4 hour doses and one 2 hour dose per day, but asked us to try to limit its use during the Summer holidays so that Little Prince's weight gets chance to catch up again.

The consultation seemed to take forever, and Little Prince obviously felt it took too long as he demanded to leave part way through and went back to the waiting room to play with Princess Lollipop under Drama Teen's supervision. When I got out of the Consultation Room I found both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop sat on the floor howling at the top of their voices over some argument or other!!! I bet the staff were glad to see us leave!!!

We made our way back to the other side of the hospital to get Little Prince's new medication from the Pharmacy. Unfortunately there was almost an hour's wait for the prescription to be filled, and as I didn't fancy coming back to the hospital on another day I said we'd wait. It was the longest hour of my life!! Little Prince spent a lot of time screaming, or rolling around on the floor, or hiding under his chair or hitting himself. Luckily (for the other patients) we were sat in a small alcove where his behaviour couldn't disturb too many other people. For part of the time I took Little Prince outside to play on a verge near the entrance, but I couldn't stay there with him for too long as Princess Lollipop was getting upset as she wanted her Mummy and she didn't want to share me. They are tearing me in two :-(

When we finally got Little Prince's new medicine I took the three of them into town to get some lunch. Both littlies had a huge meltdown when we walked past Mcdonalds!! But I was NOT giving in, and dragged them kicking and screaming (literally!!!) to a nice cafe round the corner. We had to change to the second cafe as Drama Teen couldn't see anything she liked on the menu at the first cafe we tried. We sat down, cue lots of fuss from Princess Lollipop who to sit NEXT to Mummy, but Little Prince had already claimed that position!!! It took ages for everyone to decide what they wanted to eat, and as soon as it arrived it was pronounced "EWW" by Princess Lollipop who refused to touch any food whatsoever!!! She also demanded that I hold her glass of milk, which was impossible over the table with all the plates of food in the way!! We finally persuaded her that it was ok if Drama Teen held the glass!! But still couldn't persuade her to eat anything. Little Prince on the other hand ploughed his way through most of an adult full English breakfast!! After the meal both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop demanded lollipops, which I said an emphatic no to, and we set off for to complete the rest of our errands.

We had to call in at Bodyshop to buy some more Shampoo and Conditioner for Little Prince. Far from just walking in and picking up what we needed, paying and leaving, no it couldn't be that simple could it?! I had to listen to the whole product spiel from the saleswoman about how they had taken out the parabans and all the other bad stuff, I DON'T CARE RIGHT NOW!?!?! Just give me the bl**dy stuff and let me out of here!! Couldn't they see my mad kids running amok round their shop?!?! Little Prince stuck his finger in all the lipsticks and daubed it all over his face, and Princess Lollipop was shouting and running about too.

Next was the Kodak shop, to get a Passport Photo of Drama Teen. As is traditional she hated her photo, but it fits all the complicated criteria and should satisfy the Passport people!! And guess what while this was happening Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were yet again running amok!! In the centre of the shop is a bank of four computerised stations with little cubby holes underneath. When Little Prince just hid himself in the cubbies it was fine, when they started to play hide and seek and run round and round the consoles it got overly manic again!! I was so pleased when we'd paid up and could leave! It was only a short walk back to the car, but it felt like a marathon!! Little Prince kept running off and making his loud noises. Princess Lollipop dawdled but still demanded to hold my hand, even though I was miles in front trying to keep up with Little Prince!!

On the way home I pulled over and rang Mr Messy, who offered to have Princess Lollipop at OUR shop for the afternoon, to separate the warring siblings and give me a little break!! I could have cried I was so relieved :-) After dropping her off I called at the shop and loaded up on the C's - chocolate and coca cola :-) I needed them, I really really needed them!!! And after stuffing my face with all the chocolate I felt soooo much better :-) Drama Teen who had tried her best to help me with the two maniacs this morning got a break too, and I think she needed her Boyfriend's sympathy when he arrived soon after we got back. Thank you for trying your best this morning Drama Teen, I really appreciate it :-)

I then had to spend over half an hour on the phone sorting out the new car insurance. I can't believe it took so long urgh!! When it was finally sorted out, I got Little Prince to rush round getting his swimming bag packed ready for his swimming lesson. Its a good job I had a quick listen to the answer machine messages, as his teacher had left a message cancelling the lesson!! Little Prince was not happy at having plans changed right at the last moment, but as he'd had a dose of his new medication he didn't kick off too much.

I then had to try and get hold of Mr Messy who was waiting at the swimming pool to drop Princess Lollipop off with me, so that he could go and pick Mrs LMS up from work! I tried every method of contacting him that I could think of and it still took ages to get hold of him!! When we eventually managed to speak to each other, we decided I'd go and pick Princess Lollipop up from OUR shop and take her with me to pick Mrs LMS up, I could hear her screaming for Mummy in the background!! She screamed even more when I picked her up and Daddy fastened her in her carseat when she wanted Mummy to do it!! However she fell asleep within moments and I had a peaceful drive to get Mrs LMS. Princess Lollipop managed to sleep through me having a major whinging session to Mrs LMS about how horrible my day had been!! It felt good to get it all off my chest and have someone who knows what it can be like sympathising with me, thank you so much Mrs LMS.

On the way home I made Mrs LMS go to the shop to get me some MORE chocolate - yes today has been THAT bad!!! She was also kind enough to cook for the littlies and not get upset when neither of them would eat!! And then she cooked a roast pork dinner for the rest of us, yum yum :-) Food always tastes so much nicer when its cooked by someone else :-)

Little Prince had quite a few major tantrums in the evening and kept slamming upstairs to his room. I think today has been too much for him too, poor lad. We are going to have a few days of him taking his new medicine so we can all calm down after today's disaster before I let him have another few days off medication. Princess Lollipop was also very easily upset and tantrumming over every little thing, so I took her upstairs for an early night. She calmed down pretty quickly but took ages to get to sleep. She slept better last night and her cough didn't wake her up so much, hopefully she'll have another good night and we can all have a good rest and wake up feeling better tomorrow.

My plans for tomorrow are to have as stress free day as humanly possible. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to take the littlies (and Drama Teen if she wants to come along) to the National Trust-like property where there is so much room to run around, a fantastic playground for them both to play in and fresh air and freedom to counteract today's restrictions.

This Week

2011-08-11T18:27:00.002+01:00

Monday was a quiet day, especially for Princess Lollipop who kept falling asleep. I think she was either knackered after her weekend of hardly any sleep, or she was so relieved to be home she just relaxed completely. Shortly after getting up in the morning she fell back to sleep, spread eagled on the floor in the lounge - she looked like she was hugging her house!!! She woke up briefly and then fell back asleep stood next to me with her head/body on the sofa and her feet on the floor!!

Luckily Mr Messy was able to come and pick Little Prince up after an early morning photo shoot, so I didn't have to disturb Princess Lollipop. Mr Messy deposited Little Prince at his friend's house, and they played there until mid afternoon when I had to pick him up again. Little Prince had a fabulous time, he really misses his best friend E (he moved to a neighbouring village and changed schools) and loves it when they can get together. We'll be having E round to play at our house next week, and Little Prince can't wait :-)

On Tuesday morning Little Prince and Drama Teen had an early morning appointment at the Dentist for their check ups. Little Prince's teeth are strong and healthy, Drama Teen has a small cavity that her orthodontist noticed at her last check up, and the Dentist agrees it needs filling. I agreed to let Drama Teen be treated privately for her filling, so that she can have a "tooth coloured" filling instead of the horrible black ones. She will have to go back in a couple of weeks to have that sorted out. In the afternoon Little Prince's friend J came over to play and they played beautifully together - absence makes the heart grow less argumentative?!?! Normally when they play together they have a least a couple of stand up rows!!!

On Wednesday evening me and Mrs LMS waded our way through a mass of paperwork that I'd been putting off dealing with. However, its all now sorted out and out of the way. Thank you so much Mrs LMS I really couldn't have done it without you.

Thursday (today) I couldn't leave it any longer and had to bath Princess Lollipop and sort out her hair. She was NOT happy, she still isn't feeling well and isn't sleeping and didn't co-operate at all with the conditioning and combing! It took ages to get it all done, but I persevered and got there in the end. After that I had to take some paperwork over to the Post Office to have the Post Mistress certify it (certify it was a true copy of the original and confirm she'd seen the original too) for Mr and Mrs LMS's Visa application. Mrs LMS has been working on this (and stressing over it all) for weeks and weeks now, but tomorrow could be the day when it can all get posted over to Mr LMS for him to actually lodge the application :-) I can't tell you how happy Mrs LMS is to have finally got to this stage :-) Fingers, toes and everything crossed it all goes smoothly and quickly and that Mr and Mrs LMS can be together again soon.

I made an appointment for Princess Lollipop to see the Doctor this afternoon, her cough has been getting worse, she is off her food and is finding it very hard to sleep. It was a total waste of time!! The Doctor examined her thoroughly and could find nothing wrong, so said it must be a viral cough and there was nothing he could do!!! I know there isn't a medication for every cough, cold and sniffle, but she seems so out of sorts and not herself that I really thought there must be something that could be done to help her feel better :-(

When Mr Messy had collected Mrs LMS from work, he came back home and picked up Little Prince (who Princess Lollipop has been picking on all day) and took him with them back to OUR shop to give Little Prince a break! Princess Lollipop sobbed and sobbed and then fell fast asleep! Which will probably mean yet another disturbed, sleepless night, but there was no stopping her falling asleep!!

The Weekend

2011-08-11T18:20:00.002+01:00

So much went on that I can't write it all down! It was a wonderful, fabulous weekend and we all had enormous fun. Little Prince loved the HUGE garden he could run around in, and the nooks and crannies and various rooms in the house he could go and curl up with his Gameboy when he needed some peace and quiet. There were a few children his age to play with and they seemed to get along very well together, although I think they took turns playing with Little Prince - as he tired out one another would take their place lol.

Princess Lollipop didn't have such a great time :-( I'm not sure if its the fact she has since come down with a viral cough, or the fact that she found being surrounded by so many Ethiopian children quite scary (she hasn't been around that many Ethiopian children since she was in the orphanage). She definitely wasn't herself over the weekend, she was very very clingy, her sleep was extremely disturbed (and therefore so was mine and Mr Messy's as we were all three sharing a double bed) and she refused to eat very much at all. She is very sensitive, so it could have been a bit of both (sickening for her cough and being in the company of so many Ethiopian children) causes that made her like she was.

Me and Mr Messy had a great time, I was a limpet post for Princess Lollipop who mostly wanted to be attached to me and not stray more than a few inches from my lap. Mr Messy spent the weekend taking some fantastic photos of all the children and their families, most of the parents were astounded that he managed to take such great photos without any fuss or bother :-) He's just that good :-)

We've already set a date for next year's gathering and I can't wait :-)

Friday

2011-08-11T18:17:00.003+01:00

In the morning Princess Lollipop had her 2 1/2 year Developmental Check-Up with the Health Visitor. As expected she was at, or mostly exceeding, her developmental milestones :-) Her speech especially is very advanced, which is to be expected when she has so many people to talk to and with!! After the Check-Up I had to go to the opticians for a contact lens check up. After the trouble I had with the last set of lenses, this new set was fantastic :-) The optician agreed and my lenses have now been ordered and will be posted directly to me, glad that's all sorted out now! I've hated having to wear my glasses!! Much too vain for that!!

After lunch me, Mr Messy, Little Prince and Princess Lollipop set off on our long drive to see our friends for the weekend. Our friends have kindly (or madly!!!) invited lots of families with children adopted from Ethiopia to stay with them for the weekend and I'm really looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones, and cooing over all the babies and children of course :-)

The journey seemed to take forever, but was actually a very pleasant, non-motorway drive :-) We had to stop a few times for "wee breaks" for both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop! The first few stops, despite her obvious need, Princess Lollipop refused point blank to use the travel potty. It was only when she was much too desperate to do anything else that she agreed to use it. And that was the one and ONLY time she agreed to use it!! The most expensive "spend a penny" EVER!!!

We checked in at our lovely B&B and then nipped over to our friends to spend a couple of hours with them, before returning to the B&B for the night.

Thursday

2011-08-04T22:43:00.002+01:00

This afternoon I took the littlies out with my friend J and her three children. The weather has been awful all day, so we decided we'd have an indoor play somewhere. Last time we took the children out together we went to an Indoor Play Centre, and J's two boys (who are about Little Prince's age) didn't want to let Little Prince join in with them in their games. This obviously upset Little Prince and he got quite upset about the whole thing. The Indoor Play Centre's play areas were too old for Princess Lollipop and she didn't cope with the whole thing very well either. So thinking of this, when discussing with J where we should go, I tried to steer away from going back to that same Indoor Play Centre. In the end the only thing we could think of was to take the children to the cinema! Princess Lollipop is only 2 1/2 and has never been to the cinema before, so I wasn't sure how it would work out, but thought we could give it a go!! It had to be better than the Indoor Play Centre, right?!?!

The only suitable film at a suitable time, was Zookeeper, not what I would have chosen to see as Princess Lollipop's first time at the cinema, but hey, go with the flow... Me and the littlies arrived a few minutes early, and J and her three arrived about 15 minutes late!! Little Prince was fretting and convinced we had the wrong time, the wrong cinema or had missed them and J and the kids were already watching the film!! When she finally turned up we got our tickets and sweeties and took our seats. Not for long, Potty Training Princess has a new trick to get Mummy jumping "My wee wee coming" and off we trot to the toilets. Again. And again. And Again!!! On the 4th or 5th trip, I told her this was ridiculous and she had to stop being silly!! And she managed to stay in her seat till the end of the film after that!!

When the film finished we took the children outside and let them run around and play on a field next to the cinema. At first the children played well together, but after a while Little Prince tired out J's boys and they didn't want to run around and chase with him any more. Instead they decided to fight with each other!! Little Prince was getting fractious and we decided to call it a day. J took her children home, and I took the Littlies to a fast food place to feed them before going home.

When we got home Princess Lollipop told everyone about her day. She told them about the "Giant TB" (giant tv) and about "going toyut lotta lotta" (going toilet lots and lots) and "Mummy say it rid-sticy-lus and my stop it" (Mummy said it was ridiculous and I had to stop). She talked about the "giant TB" a lot, I think it made a BIG impression, although she doesn't seem to remember anything about the film lol.

Wednesday

2011-08-04T22:16:00.002+01:00

Wednesday was a pretty boring day. We didn't do much during the day, the littlies played in the garden and didn't do too much arguing and fighting either!

In the early evening I had arranged for a joiner to come and check out some jobs I want him to do. I need him to make a new door and window for the cottage at the bottom of the garden, and also to make the Playhouse door into a stable style door, and put architrave round the door and windows of the Playhouse - its got to look pretty!! We went inside so he could measure up to make a redundant airing cupboard into some useful shelves, and while we were inside the heavens opened! It rained so hard the raindrops were bouncing back upwards!! The rain wasn't the only thing bouncing, Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were bouncing off the walls too!! Little Prince doesn't cope well with "intruders" in his house, and because he was hyped up getting crazy, Princess Lollipop joined in!! I think they scared the young (probably childless) joiner to death!!!

Mr Messy had taken Drama Teen with him to collect Mrs LMS from work, and then take both of them to the optician to have their lenses checked. Drama Teen's lenses are fine, and a three months supply has now been ordered. Mrs LMS on the other hand has been having a lot of trouble with her new trial lenses, and a different type has been ordered for her. On the way home they called at the Chip Shop and brought tea home with them, I like no cook evenings :-)

Tuesday

2011-08-02T14:48:00.003+01:00

Mr Messy spent the morning fixing Drama Teen's Boyfriend's damaged 'Ped, he seemed to enjoy tinkering with it :-) Little Prince was interested for a while then gave up and said it was too boring and came inside to play on his Gameboy instead. Mr Messy didn't have the right glue, so he and Drama Teen went out to the DIY Shop to get some more. They had a good look round, but decided against buying a plasma cutter!! It sounds like something off a science fiction programme, and I have no idea what it actually is, so I'm glad they didn't buy one!!!

Drama Teen fretted until she'd heard from Boyfriend, who had a lie in and only started texting her later in the morning. She calmed down considerably once she was back in touch with him :-) When Mr Messy had finished fixing all that he could on the 'Ped, he went out to OUR shop. Drama Teen was still in a tidying up mood, so she did all the washing up and had another go at steam cleaning the shower. We'd eventually found the "small tools" we needed - in the obvious place - a compartment on the steam cleaner itself!! The steam cleaner worked a LOT better once it was being used correctly, and the shower looks so much better now!!!

When Princes Lollipop had her nap, me and Little Prince had a play on Lego Star Wars on the Wii, although once again it was Little Prince playing and me looking up how to find the minikits on the computer. Just before she woke up Mr Messy arrived home from OUR shop, he'd had no visitors all day and OUR shop was hot and stuffy and he was fed up.

Monday Visitors

2011-08-02T10:45:00.004+01:00

Mr Messy went to OUR shop with Drama Teen, and Mrs LMS drove herself to work, so it was just me and the Littlies in the morning. Then at lunchtime Mr Messy brought Drama Teen and her Boyfriend home, and Mrs LMS finished work at lunchtime, drove over to the Train Station and picked up Baby Sis and her Baby S :-)

Baby Sis and Baby S had come to see us this time :-) Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were thrilled to see one of their baby cousins again :-) Little Prince was thrilled that Baby S watched whatever he did, and when he sat next to her she would hold onto him :-) Princess Lollipop wasn't too pleased that Baby S kept trying to grab her hair though!

When it was both baby girl's naptime, Baby Sis got her baby to sleep in her buggy and I took my baby Princess Lollipop to her cot. She fell asleep pretty quickly, the trouble is so did I!! I was so embarrassed, I don't get to see Baby Sis that often and didn't want to be upstairs fast asleep for her visit!! Princess Lollipop wasn't asleep too much longer, and was fairly grumpy as she hadn't had enough sleep! When both babies had woken up we took them in the garden Baby S had her first experience of sand, and found she didn't like how it tastes!! Then she, Princess Lollipop and Baby Sis went on the trampoline, I'm not sure Baby S know what was happening to her, but she seemed to like it lol.

All too soon it was time for Baby Sis to go home :-( None of us wanted her to go, as we were enjoying hugging Baby S too much! Mr Messy was just getting ready to take Baby Sis to the station when on the spur of the moment he decided to drive her all the way home instead. I liked that idea as I had loads of outgrown clothes to give to her again, I ran upstairs to sort them out ready to go. I had started a bag to send already, I just had to sort out the rest of the clothes, as Princess Lollipop generally has a LOT of clothes it took me quite a while!! I filled a bin liner to overflowing, and still haven't gone through the pyjamas and the tights!!

Later that evening when Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were tucked up safely in bed, me, Drama Teen and her Boyfriend decided to tackle some of the clutter in the kitchen. Well to be completely honest it was Boyfriend's idea, we just tagged along!! Me and Drama Teen tried to work out how to use the new steam cleaner, to get the shower sorted out, while Boyfriend sorted through the mountain of receipts and coupons that were piled on the kitchen worktop. Boyfriend had the easier job, we couldn't get the steam cleaner to work properly at all!!! We finally worked out we needed the pack of "small tools" which we couldn't find anywhere, so we gave up!!

Just after Boyfriend had left our house on his 'Ped Drama Teen got a phone call, one of those that starts "I don't want to worry you, but..." He'd come of his 'Ped just as he was leaving the village!! Luckily he wasn't hurt, well he had ripped his jeans and scraped his knee! But he was very worried about the state of his beloved 'Ped, (Evie) :-( He'd already rung his Mum and his Step Dad was on his way to pick him up, so all me and Drama Teen could do was sit at home and worry!! Then we got a phone call from Mr Messy, he'd come across the stranded Boyfriend on his way home and he and Boyfriend's Step Dad were bringing Boyfriend back here. They drove one in front of Boyfriend on his damaged 'Ped and one behind him, both with their hazard lights flashing as the 'Ped's headlight had been damaged. Boyfriend was fairly shaken when he got here, so we got him a cup of tea as we assessed the damage to the 'Ped. Mr Messy (who used to ride a motorbike years ago) said it was only superficial damage and would be easily fixed, much to Boyfriend's relief :-) The 'Ped stayed here for a sleepover, and Boyfriend and his Dad will be round tomorrow to pick it up.

Sunday Visitors

2011-07-31T18:08:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-30T21:40:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-30T10:55:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-29T22:59:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-29T22:41:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-29T16:12:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-29T16:06:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-26T16:14:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-26T14:27:00.003+01:00

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!!

2011-07-25T22:01:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-25T20:34:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-25T14:46:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-23T21:36:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-22T21:24:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-21T20:08:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-21T13:12:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-19T16:16:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-18T17:47:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-17T22:29:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-17T18:59:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-17T18:40:00.004+01:00

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

2011-07-17T00:15:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-16T23:36:00.004+01:00

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

2011-07-15T10:01:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-14T23:49:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-14T19:25:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-11T12:55:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-11T12:06:00.003+01:00

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!!

2011-07-09T20:22:00.003+01:00

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

Mad Saturday

2011-07-09T19:21:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-09T18:55:00.003+01:00

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

2011-07-09T18:48:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-06T19:35:00.003+01:00

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!

Tuesday

2011-07-05T18:35:00.002+01:00

Garden Clearance Man was back again this morning. We were supposed to be having a skip delivered first thing for him to put all the excess soil he's having to take out to level the trampoline space, but the skip didn't arrive until lunchtime!! So he got on with some of the other jobs, like jet washing the patios and play equipment and demolishing a bit of concrete that was in the way of the trampoline space.

The Plumber also arrived to have a look at the leaking valve on the oil pipe. He and Garden Man discussed how to make the pipe safe, it should be in a protective sheath and buried underground, not laying along the top of the soil! Once it is replaced and in the correct protective sheath, then Garden Man is going to build a box/bench out of decking wood to cover over the old brick work in front of the garden wall, and to enclose the gas pipe. Hopefully then it will be safe from Little Prince, if he ever does manage to find his Dad's axe again!!!

Garden Man managed to get most of the excess soil into the skip, but didn't quite manage to finish before he had to go home, as he'd promised his partner he wouldn't be late tonight. He is coming back on Saturday to do some more and between now and then is going to work out a price for the woodwork we want him to do. He was very apologetic that things are taking longer than he originally estimated, but I have been adding jobs to the list along the way, so I'm not worried.

When I picked Little Prince up from school, he was grumpy that none of his friends could come over to play! Eventually he rang up a friend who lives a few houses up and invited him round, and luckily T was free and wanted to come!! I can't imagine the fuss that Little Prince would have made if T hadn't been able to come!!

Drama Teen finished College early again, but caught the bus straight round to OUR shop, so that she and Mr Messy could go and collect Mrs LMS and then Mr Messy could take both girls to have their eye's tested and sort out new contact lenses. So once again they were late home, thankfully T is quite a calm friend and Little Prince wasn't too difficult this evening!

Monday

2011-07-05T18:19:00.002+01:00

On Monday I had to pick Drama Teen up from College at lunchtime, and then we popped over to the Flooring Company that I had arranged to buy an off cut of cushion floor from. The flooring came in a bigger roll than I thought it would, but luckily it still fitted in the car, especially as Princess Lollipop was fast asleep and didn't get upset about it being right next to her seat! She did wake up once we got home, and was most indignant about the intruder in her space lol.

During the day Little Prince's trampoline was delivered in two enormous boxes, that are now sat in the hall waiting for the garden to be ready! Little Prince and Princess Lollipop are very very excited, and not that patient!! I hope our Garden Clearance Man can finish quickly!!

After school I took the littlies to the park to alleviate some of their frustration about not being able to play in the garden yet. We stayed at the park until it was time to go and pick Mrs LMS from work, the littlies managed to wear me down and I got them a Drive Through tea on the way to getting Mrs LMS. I'll have to remember to drive the back way more often, so we don't even pass the tempting place!! When I picked Mrs LMS up she was extremely excited at the new friend she'd made at work!! Apparently the friend is a young lady from the same State in America as Mr LMS, who is married to an Englishman and they went through the same Visa process that Mr and Mrs LMS are about to apply for, last year!! I think this has helped cheer Mrs LMS up a lot, as she was getting quite overwhelmed by all the documents she has to assemble! So to be able to talk to someone who successfully went through the process last year, and get their advice, is going to help her so much :-) She was even more excited to learn that her friend's Visa came through in about a week!!! Although Mr LMS will probably stay in America until early September even if he is allowed to travel earlier, to finish his Electrician's Apprenticeship.

I dropped Mrs LMS off at OUR shop, as she had a Doctor's appointment and would come home later with Mr Messy. The littlies weren't happy at leaving her there and wanted both her and Daddy to come home with us. They are both working very hard in the Photography Business and are often not home until later in the evenings, meaning the littlies don't get to see either of them very much :-(

Saturday

2011-07-03T12:47:00.002+01:00

The Garden Clearance Man had re-arranged his visit to Saturday, and said he would arrive at about 8.15am. He turned up at about 9am, the worse for wear!! Apparently his sister had visited him last night and they shared some bottles of wine, which he isn't used to drinking and he was feeling slightly "delicate" lol. He got no sympathy for his self inflicted headache!! It didn't stop him working his socks off again though. I asked him to concentrate on clearing the patio where the Playhouse will stand, it needed the ivy growing up the wall behind the patio clearing, the patio itself clearing of leaves and debris and jet washing. He didn't bring his jet washing machine with him, so he'll have to do that next time. He did finish clearing the rest of the space though, and made a very good job of it. He also managed to dig out and level half of the space where the trampoline will go. The excess soil is now piled up on the other half, ready to go in the skip when it arrives on Tuesday. During his clearing he noticed a strong smell of oil, and found that where the pipe from the oil tank connects to the safety valve on the house wall that its leaking!! I managed to get hold of a plumber who is coming to look at it on Mon/Tues - perhaps our fuel bills will go down once its fixed!!!

Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were a LOT of hard work all day, they both obviously wanted to be out in the garden, but it wasn't safe while the Garden Man was working out there working! On the occasions I had to go out and discuss what Garden Man was doing, they went wild in the garden. Or started fighting and throwing things if I left them inside!! It was such hard work trying to keep both of them calm and playing nicely, and I got more and more frazzled as the day wore on!!

Garden Man also managed to trim some more of the ivy on another wall, it now looks like an ivy hedge rather than an overgrown ivy monster!! A huge improvement. He also pruned some more of the apple tree, and it doesn't look so leggy and overpowering now, although there are still some more bits to prune, he'll probably have to go over the other side of the wall to finish those so he didn't get them done today. Garden Man also apologised profusely for under estimating how long it would take him to sort out the trampoline space! I'm not bothered in the least, as I thought he'd underestimated it lol, he works very hard and its obvious he's not trying to scam me, so as long as it gets done I'm happy.

We also discussed options to make the run down cottage safe and secure from Little Prince, and have come up with the idea of building vertical slatted gates to close off the huge open front and replace the falling down garage doors. This means that we don't have to fence off the front of the cottage and we get another small patio area, and it will make getting in and out of the cottage a lot easier than if we did have a fence and small gate set up :-) I'm really pleased with the way Garden Man thinks through the problems we currently have with the garden, and comes up with solutions that will not only look aesthetically pleasing, but are safe for Little Prince :-) And I really can't wait to have a usable, safe garden again for the littlies to play out in - and neither can they!! Most days Princess Lollipop will gaze longingly out of the patio windows, saying "My go outside garden finish. My play wheeee bump slide."

Anyway after such a frazzling day, I was overjoyed when Mr Messy suggested going out for tea, I didn't feel like cooking, not that I do very much at the moment as Mrs LMS does most of it so she can practice for when Mr LMS arrives :-) But the thought of getting out of the house with the littlies and not being stuck in all evening was very appealing too :-) Drama Teen had been at a Geeky convention all day, and decided to go back to her boyfriend's house rather than come out with us, so it meant we could go in just one car rather than two. I would have rather gone in two cars and had all my family together, but she is growing up and becoming more and more independent and I'm trying hard to accept this.

The meal was lovely, even though the restaurant was very crowded and understaffed, so the service was very slow! Mr Messy found this irritating, but I enjoyed the slow relaxed pace of the meal and spending time with the family. Little Prince had been told he had to try very hard to behave himself, and although he did have some pretty major blips, he mostly managed to behave :-) When we got home the littlies went almost straight to bed, and Mrs LMS wasn't far behind them. She gets up extremely early each morning to be able to chat to Mr LMS on Facetime and is constantly tired, poor love. I stayed up long enough to go and collect Drama Teen from her boyfriend's house before going to bed myself. I left Mr Messy downstairs watching The Dirty Dozen, which seemed to be very cheesy and almost a comedy!!