China!!

No, not the country this time - the porcelain :-)

Me and Little Miss Sensible took Little Prince to the local pottery today, so that he could paint a mug each for his nursery teachers, to give them as a leaving present. It was a daunting task!! We were surrounded by shelf after shelf of delicate pottery items, just waiting to be painted - or in Little Prince's case broken?? We sat either side of him on a chair, and made sure his little legs didn't swing and kick too much, his little arms didn't wave around too much and his little fingers didn't grab too much!! Apart from that we left the 'design' up to him :-)

The lady in charge put blobs of different coloured paint onto a white tile, gave Little Prince a brush and he was away!! He daubed paint all over the mugs, inside and out, mushed all the colours together and had a whale of a time. The mugs will be glazed and fired overnight ready for collection tomorrow - I'll try to remember to post a picture. They are certainly unique creations :-)

And even though he has had a bit of a 'wild boy' day, I am very pleased and proud to report, that his behaviour was exemplary :-) And he didn't break anything. Just keeping everything crossed that I can manage to collect, transport, wrap and give the mugs to the teachers with as much success!!!

Shuffling forward

Just got off the phone to the DfES, I wanted to check that our papers had been sent off to the Chinese Embassy, as they said they would when I rang last week. The answer is NO, they will hopefully be sent to the Embassy this week!!

I didn't see any point asking why things are moving so slowly, even if they do give me a truthful answer (which is debatable) it won't fix the fact that our papers should have been sent last week, and weren't. I'm frustrated, but not at the 'tearing my hair out' frustrated stage. Again - what's the point?? I'd get myself all worked up and upset and our papers would still be sitting at the DfES on somebody's desk. I think I'm at the resigned, can't keep hitting my head against the brick wall, have to accept what is happening stage!!!

They couldn't even tell me how long its currently taking the Embassy to process papers, as the two people who deal with the Embassy aren't in today. The lady said they would get in touch and let me know once our papers have returned from the Embassy, just as they let us know at each stage what is happening!! Which is a joke, as they have only written to us twice, both times to point out problems with our papers!! We never even got an initial acknowledgment letter, to say they had received our papers. At least I have got it noted on our file that we want to send the dossier to the CCAA ourselves, using DHL. The sooner its out of DfES hands the better.

Radio programme

A radio programme called China girl was aired on BBC Radio 4 today, covering the stories of various different prospective adopters as they go through the UK process to adopt from China. The producer is Emily Buchanan, herself the adoptive mum of two little ones from China and the author of a book about her experiences adopting them (From China With Love, The Long Road to Motherhood). The second part of the programme will be aired next week. The programme gives a realistic insight into the trials and tribulations that prospective UK overseas adopters go through and is well worth a listen.

Both programmes are available online using the Listen Again feature for a week after the broadcast.

Catching up AGAIN!!

I really must get back into the habit of blogging more regularly! But as the Summer hols are looming (school and nursery finish on Friday) I'm probably not going to get a whole lot better until the kids are back at school in September!

Not a lot been going on really. Drama Teen had her final Stagecoach lesson on Saturday, and it was a 'bring an adult with you' session. Being the shy, retiring types that we are me and Mr Messy nominated Little Miss Sensible as the adult!! She didn't seem to mind and even enjoyed herself, and most importantly they didn't kill each other after an enforced 4 hours together - a minor miracle!! Drama Teen's got her end of term reports from Stagecoach and they were fabulous, she is doing so well and I'm a very proud mummy :-)

On Sunday we were supposed to attend a village field day, but due to the weather (soggy as usual) we didn't go. It was bucketing it down ALL DAY!!! Drama Teen was highly miffed that we didn't go as she had arranged to meet one of her friends there, and couldn't understand why we didn't want to go and wander round a field in the pouring rain!!!

Little Prince spent the whole weekend counting down to visiting his friend this morning. The days of the week went Friday - Saturday - Sunday - FRIENDday. He and his friend spent a couple of hours playing side by side mostly, but sometimes together, while me and friend's mum chatted. Friends mum was quite incredulous that we had time to have lunch and walk (well Little Prince goes on his scooter and I try desperately to keep up!!) up to school, as she ended up going in the car. Everyone has seen how fast Little Prince moves - that's how we managed it lol.

Over the weekend LMS and The Boyfriend booked their flight to Berlin for the start of their jaunt round Europe. LMS still isn't sure where else they are going, and where they are flying home from, hopefully she will find out sooner rather than later!! Both LMS and The Boyfriend are highly intelligent and sensible young adults - so why am I panicking so much about them going on this trip??? And how many text messages can I send them per day before I'm labeled a neurotic, over protective mother?? And if I can't cope with her being away for three weeks, how on earth am I going to manage when she goes to university in September????

Sports day and Pin Ups!!

It was Little Prince's very first school Sport's Day today. He was a little star and won all his races :-) His first race was a sprint - he won easily and didn't even look like he was trying!! The next race was the bat and beanbag (egg and spoon for little ones) and he said he wasn't very good at this one in practice - but he stormed over the finish line well in front of everyone else. The final race was the hat and bag race (run - put on a hat - run - pick up a bag - run to finish) and once again he was miles ahead of the rest. One of the teachers even jokingly told us off for training him lol. Its me that needs the training to try and keep up with him!! Its quite a change for me as a cheerleading parent to be cheering a winner, as Little Miss Sensible and Drama Teen are athletically challenged!! After their races the nursery teacher presented each child with a certificate for being 'Sporting Super Stars' and Little Prince definitely is :-) He was more interested in the sweets the teacher gave them than the certificate!! After we got home we had to explain to Little Prince that he had won all his races, he thought that as the children had been split into small groups and each race was run 3 times, once with each group - his group being second, that his group had lost!! He was elated to know that he had WON :-) He is highly competitive!! I can see years of standing on the sidelines of sports fields cheering him on, ahead of me :-)


Now on to pin ups!! Little Prince has his first celebrity crush!!! He is in love with Daff-a-nee (Daphne from Scooby Do!!). He kisses her picture in his Scooby Do colouring book, and tells me all seriously 'I LURVE Daff-a-nee' Oh dear! I thought I was the only woman in his life - I don't think I'm ready for a rival just yet!!! We think he has been watching too much Scooby Do recently though!! He was playing hide and seek with Little Miss Sensible and The Boyfriend - and decided to hide in the utility room. Rustling and clunking was heard from the utility room (and just to check he hadn't decided to hide in the freezer AGAIN!!) LMS asked what he was doing?? Blocking the door came the reply. LMS opened the door to find it 'barricaded' with the mop bucket and juices boxes!! It also exposed the flaw in Little Prince's logic - the door opened the other way!!! It does show he is bright and imaginative though :-)

Another hurdle jumped

I rang the DfES today and found out they have received our dossier safely back at their offices, after its two trips to our Notary and the FCO!! I asked them when I should prepare the Postal Order for the next stage (Chinese Embassy), and they told me to do it now and send it off to them!! They will check that our dossier is now ok over the next couple of days, and then it will be sent straight off to the Embassy!! I shot straight off in the car to nearby Big Village and sorted out the Postal Order and sent it Special Delivery (guaranteed next day delivery and insured for up to £500). Fingers crossed that everything is alright with our dossier this time, and that it will be sent to the Chinese Embassy quickly.

Although we have now passed this next hurdle, I don't feel that excited! I know the size of the queue currently at CCAA (only just referred up to 14th Nov 2005!!) and its very disheartening to know that we will be at the very, very back of that!!! Estimates of when we eventually will receive our referral are between 2010 and 2019ish!!!

Evidence for embarassing the Kids!!!

I consider it my duty to be able to embarrass my kids!! You know the sort of thing - kissing them goodbye while their friends are watching, skipping down the road, singing loudly, dancing in public, holding their hands etc. And in that vein, and for future reference, here are Things That Little Prince said!! With translations for those that don't speak KID!!

Is it just Grannies that can drink pommygranny (pomegranate) juice??

I love racing peas (runner beans!!)

Hiya big boobies (to DADDY!!!)

Not liking his best friend cos she had bubbles (bobbles) in her hair!!

Ponk-a-howt-ness (Pocahontas)

Completing (deleting) things

Look Darth Vader (loudly in a shop pointing to a lady in full burqa, given his background we are working on this!)

Mangled Disney Songs

The Bear Ne-Sesames, The simple bear ne-sesames - forget about your worries and your stripes

In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room - where the birds sing words and the flowers BOOM (shouted very loudly!)

It's a Small World After All - Just one moon and one golden sun, and Chinese friendship to everyone.