Verdict on First Day Back at School

Little Prince says he is settled back in at school and he was settled waaaay before lunchtime :-) I wasn't called over to talk to his teacher, so that can only be a good sign :-) The one thing that might upset him over the coming couple of weeks is that his actual teacher has had her family emergency, and won't be in. The substitute teacher is one that was used extensively last year, and one that he trusts and feels safe with. So hopefully this will mean he will be able to cope with the sudden, unannounced change and will stay calm and well behaved. Fingers firmly crossed!!

I've decided not to let Little Prince go over to friends to play, or to have friends over to our house this week, to give him time to settle back into the school routine properly. He has been so wild over the holidays that I feel he needs this "calmer" time for a while, when he plays with friends after school it can easily and quickly escalate into chaos and I've had enough of that this last 6 weeks!! Little Prince was quite upset about this at school and begged and begged for his friend J to come over, but I stood my ground and explained to J's Dad what we were doing and he understood. Once Little Prince realised he wasn't going to sway my decision he didn't make any more fuss, and apart from a big argument with Drama Teen over what TV programme to watch and his usual getting in Princess Lollipop's face and talking aggressively (she just tells him to "Dop it" ie "stop it"), he has been calm and stable since we got home. Even when I explained to him that he wasn't allowed to play in the garden until he and Daddy had, had a talk about what Little Prince had been up to! When gently pushed Little Prince knew what Daddy wanted to talk to him about "Messing with Daddy's stuff." I've explained that Daddy isn't cross, he just needs to talk to Little Prince about it and how unsafe it is.

First Day of School

Today was Little Prince's first day back at school, and his first day in the Juniors. He spent most of yesterday telling us how terrified he was feeling, whilst also being really excited about seeing his friends again. He will have the same teacher he has had for the last two years, the four teachers have shuffled around classes, and one of the main reasons was so that Little Prince could carry on having the same teacher he was used to :-) I know it isn't the only reason, but I really appreciate the care and thoughtfulness from his teacher and the school :-) I have been emailing with his teacher, letting her know how Little Prince is (or more accurately isn't!!) behaving, forewarned is forearmed and all that!! She has also let me know that she has a family situation that could mean she has to take time off suddenly, so that I can prepare Little Prince and help him cope, if possible!

I've just had a phone call from the Educational Psychologist who is coming to see me at home on Thursday, to update his information about Little Prince, as part of the assessment to see if he needs a Statement of Special Educational Needs.

My mobile hairdresser has just been and trimmed my hair, so now I can see past my shaggy dog fringe!! I feel so much better now, having my hair in my eyes gives me a headache and makes me feel all scruffy, so now my headache has gone and I feel a lot smarter :-)
I've washed all the bedding from Little Prince's old toddler bed, as someone from Freecycle is coming to collect it in an hour or so. He doesn't cope very well with changes and has refused to move into a big bed, but he is so tall he really doesn't fit in the toddler bed any more, not surprising really as he is 7 1/2!! He knows the bed and bedding are going, and is very upset, so its probably best that they go while he is at school and tonight he and Mr Messy can finish the last bits on his new slide bed. Hopefully he will sleep well and not just mess about up and down the slide all night!!!

Shopping Shenanigans

Yesterday we had to take Drama Teen shopping for the things she needs for college. I was dropping her off at her boyfriend's house after he finished school, and he lives in the town we had to go shopping in, so it was convenient. As Little Prince wasn't back at school, we had to take him too, which wasn't so convenient! He did NOT want to go shopping and he did NOT want to shop for someone other than himself, and he certainly did NOT want to shop for Drama Teen's jeans!! He shouted and made a fuss in every shop we went in, then decided he would shut his eyes and not look at all the yukky clothes, which of course meant he walked into everything! He had a complete meltdown when Drama Teen tried on anything! We only managed to visit two shops, luckily she found some suitable jeans, and we only had to get her notebooks/pens etc after that. I was very proud of Drama Teen that she realised how much Little Prince was struggling and didn't insist on getting every single thing on her list, just the essentials. We tried going to a cafe to see if eating would calm Little Prince down a little, he behaved fairly well in the cafe, but Princess Lollipop decided she didn't want any of the food we had bought for her and insisted on shouting "No" at the top of her voice, most of the time we were there! If it isn't one of them its the other!!

When we got home Little Prince played out in the garden, which seemed to use up a little bit of energy. Eventually got him to bed and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. I feel so awful, but I am really looking forward to him getting back to school and having a break. Usually I love having the kids at home for the school hols, but this Summer has been long and difficult and I've reached the end of my patience and understanding!

When Mr Messy came home he went out to his shed to get a charger for his drill so that he could finish building Little Prince's new bed. He found the charger, unfortunately he also found the chaos that Little Prince had wreaked in the shed!! He has obviously been sneaking in there and has knocked loads of tools all over the floor and broken quite a few, tried to open cans of paint and messed with lots of dangerous tools!! We are going to have to ban him from playing in the garden until we can fit a padlock to the shed door. Tonight Mr Messy is going to explain to Little Prince how dangerous this "game" is and we are going to get a padlock fitted this weekend!

Wedding Fayre

Mr Messy and Drama Teen have gone to a local Wedding Fayre this morning, to check out the competition!! On the way there they let the electrician back into the shop to finish off the last bits and pieces, hopefully we don't have a disaster again like yesterday! Drama Teen is being dropped off at her boyfriend's house on their way home, so we won't see her until this evening, when we will have to go and pick her up again. Its getting quite irritating that it is only us that does the running around, and Boyfriend's parents don't do any of it, but as we are the only ones willing to do it we'll have to carry on or the kids wouldn't be able to see each other at all, and that would break Drama Teen's heart :-(

When the electrician has finished he's going to ring us up, and me and the little two have to go and lock the shop up and collect the keys. Then I get the wonderful experience of taking two little ones to the supermarket!! What fun!!!

By Jove I think we've cracked it!

Hoping I'm not tempting fate here, but me, Mr Messy and Princess Lollipop all got a better night's sleep last night :-) I was able to reach over and comfort Princess Lollipop as soon as she disturbed, so she didn't wake up properly and went straight back to sleep. I'm a little fuzzy on how many times it happened, but it was certainly a LOT easier than having to run to her room and try to get her to sleep. And she stayed in her cot all night too, so me and Mr Messy weren't crushed at the edges of the bed trying to avoid flailing limbs and being tickled by her mass of curls :-) Fingers crossed this solves the sleeping issues we've been battling with since we returned home from Ethiopia!

Electrickery!!

We got a call from the electrician working in the shop to say that there was a problem! Apparently when he turned the electricity off to complete the job, it turned off the electricity to a connected property at the back of ours. Unfortunately when he turned the electricity back on the connected property didn't come back on! All the meters and control panels are in the neighbouring shop, which had already closed!! Mr Messy made loads of phone calls and ended up going back to the shop for an hour or so to make sure everything was put right and all our neighbours are still speaking to us! Luckily he was able to sort everything out. Unfortunately I got a phone call to say in all the rush and confusion he had forgotten to take the shop keys with him, so me and the little two had to run over there and drop them off. Princess Lollipop screamed most of the way there, she had just come out of her bath (which she loves, but HATES having her hair washed and brushed) and was in a foul mood. She was also very unimpressed to see her bedroom without her "nightnight" (cot) and screamed even more when she saw it in Mummy and Daddy's room!! She had just about stopped screaming when we arrived at the shop, but as soon as she saw her Daddy she had to let him know what a bad time she was having and started screaming again! He was a bit shocked with the greeting, but she soon calmed down again after lots of hugs.

Excellent Reading

We bought Little Prince the new Lego Harry Potter game for the Wii at the start of the Summer holidays, for all the rainy days we are bound to get in an English Summer!! He LOVED it and became very adept at playing, and between me, him and LMS we managed to complete the whole game!! The first time we have ever completely finished a game before :-)

Anyway playing the game got Little Prince very interested in Harry Potter and he's watched some of the films we have on DVD and also started reading the first book - himself!! He manages a few pages a night and LOVES it :-) He is understanding the story he is reading too and takes great pleasure in telling us all about it the next morning, or recognising the bits he has read in the DVDs or in the game.