Bonfire Night

As usual the Village Pub just across the road from our house had a Bonfire and put on a barbeque, and of course served drinks! Drama Teen was pretty upset as me and Mr Messy had said we weren't running her over to her Boyfriend's town to go to a Bonfire with him, as it would mean driving into the town in the rush hour, and by the time we got back to our Village there would be nowhere to park. And whichever one of us was doing the running round would only be in the house a few minutes before having to set back off to pick her up again. So she invited Boyfriend to come here, he refused saying the Village Bonfire was lame and boring. Drama Teen was hurt that he didn't want to come over and see her, even if he didn't think he'd enjoy the Bonfire that much. Poor baby :-(

Little Prince was higher than a kite with excitement about Bonfire Night! He was looking out of the window to see if the Bonfire had been lit every few minutes from the second he arrived home from school!! By the time it was lit and Mr Messy took him over he was way too hyped up and they came back within about 5 minutes, with Little Prince in a foul mood. He slammed around for a while until me and his Dad could stand it no longer and I got him ready for bed. He asked to cuddle up in my bed with me before going to sleep and while we lay there he wanted to talk about his birth family. He explained that he had been feeling very very sad about losing his birth family, and felt like crying a lot of the time. He even wanted to cry at school sometimes but was worried that his friends would laugh at him. Poor little man :-( He was also angry that it isn't fair that he had to leave his birth family, and that he has lost more things/people than anyone else he knows (apart from Princess Lollipop). I agreed that it wasn't fair, and that I wished I could make it better, but unfortunately I can't. But I can be there to hug him when he feels sad, and I'll always be there to talk to him about whatever he wants. Then we started to hear fireworks going off and he started squirming about and it was obvious there was no way he would get settled to sleep now!

I let him get dressed and took him back over to the Bonfire. It was cold and wet, but Little Prince didn't notice!! He stood behind a wall watching the Bonfire, and when he noticed some older children throwing things into the fire, he had to join in!! Thank goodness he was behind the wall or I'm sure he would have burnt himself!! I stood and chatted to N and her husband, she is the daughter of my friend who died just before Little Prince was placed with us. She couldn't believe how BIG he is now!! We chatted about the 4 month trip round the world she had been on recently and she told me that she had been living at her Dad's house, but was moving the next day to a new house further down South. She is a High School teacher and is loving her new job, she hated the previous two places she taught. It was lovely to see her and catch up with what she is doing. Her Mum used to talk about her (and her two brothers) all the time, and I've missed that connection with the family.

When it was obvious that the fireworks had finished I persuaded Little Prince to come back home. After I'd made sure he'd had a good wash, his hands were covered in mud from picking things up to throw on the Bonfire, I got him back ready for bed and got him snuggled up in his own bed. He didn't settle down very well, as fireworks kept going off sporadically for ages and disturbing him.

While me and Little Prince were out Mr Messy had taken Princess Lollipop to bed, and he must have fallen asleep with her. I watched some TV expecting him to reappear at any moment, but it got later and later and there was still no sign of him. I went to get ready for bed and found that between him and Princess Lollipop they had taken up all the room in our bed and her cot! I couldn't move Princess Lollipop without disturbing her, and Mr Messy was obviously exhausted so I didn't want to wake him and ask him to move either. I grabbed a blanket and went back downstairs to sleep on the sofa. Mr Messy woke up at some point in the wee hours, and came down to find out what was going on, so I got some sleep in my comfy bed. I was the exhausted one by the time morning came round!

A Phone Call I NEVER Want Repeating!!!

Mr Messy rang on Wednesday evening, I thought he was just going to say that he'd been caught up at the office and would be leaving late. However, his first words were "I've been in a little accident on the motorway" OMG OMG OMG!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing and my heart was in my mouth! Luckily he immediately reassured me that he was alright and that he wasn't hurt and the car only had body work damage (its a bit mangled round one wheel arch). He'd been coming down the motorway sliproad and a lorry flashed him to go in front of him, however, due to the bad weather and poor visibility neither of them realised that there wasn't enough room. Mr Messy's car got caught on the lorry and they got stuck together!! The lorry had to reverse off Mr Messy's car, while Mr Messy pulled forward to get them unstuck! They took each other's details and the lorry driver said he'd never had an accident before and didn't really know what to do! Once they had enough details from each other they both went their separate ways, Mr Messy was able to drive home. Both Little Prince and Drama Teen were panicked about their Dad, and we were all very very relieved to see him when he arrived home safe and sound.

The next morning Mr Messy didn't go into work and sorted out the details with the insurance company in the morning. The car will be collected on Tuesday and taken to the insurance approved body shop to be fixed, and Mr Messy will be given a courtesy car while his is being fixed. He will work from home again on Tuesday, so that he can be in OUR shop and I can wait at home for the body shop man to arrive. Hopefully it won't take too long to fix.

Rest of the Week

I haven't blogged the rest of the week in detail as I've been really busy going through Little Prince's Proposed Statement of Special Needs, that we received last week. When we first received it I was so relieved that he was being given some official help that I was over the moon, but on reading it in more detail I've realised that it doesn't address some of Little Prince's needs properly. So I've been going through the report and appendices in great detail (line by line!!) and noting ALL the evidence contained in there to show that Little Prince has more needs than the Proposed Statement is supporting. I have also show the evidence that they made a mistake with one of his diagnoses - he has severe dyspraxia, but it is noted on the Proposed Statement as "mild." I took advice from one of the forums I read and quoted case law and precedents, to say that the Proposed Statement should be more specific and that they aren't taking into account his emotional and behavioural needs. Although it is bittersweet to be arguing that my gorgeous little boy has severe emotional and behavioural difficulties :-( I know that he has, but he is so so much more than that, he is a loving, kind, funny fabulous little boy too - but I had to write down all the evidence to show his difficulties rather than his strengths.

It took ages to go through the 1/4 inch appendices, and was hard work, but it will be totally worth it if it gets Little Prince the help at school he needs. I was on a roll by the time I'd finished that job, and finally got round to ordering the Curly Q hair products that are the latest recommendation to help keep Princess Lollipop's hair in good condition. I have also cut down on the washing of her hair, and have just been using conditioner on her hair every other day. It is so much easier to comb through and she hasn't cried at all when I'm doing her hair since I started doing this :-) Her hair looks much healthier and in much better condition now too :-)

My next job was to find out what was happening with Little Prince's urgent re-referral to his Paediatrician to get an official diagnosis of ADHD and give him a trial of medication to see if that helps his behavioural problems. I spoke to the Paediatrician's secretary, who was extremely helpful, she took all the details and promised to get back to me straight away. She rang back within about 15 minutes, to say that a reply had already been sent to our GP, but unfortunately it states that the Paediatrician can't see Little Prince again and that he still has to wait another EIGHT MONTHS to be seen again by the CAHMS Externalising Behaviour Clinic!! The letter recommended that the GP try to refer Little Prince to a different hospital that might see him sooner. Being anally retentive and wanting to make sure this wouldn't make the wait longer, I contacted the other hospital to speak to the Doctor recommended in the letter. This Doctor no longer works at the hospital, so when I explained what I was trying to do I was put through to the ADHD Nurse, she was out on home visits so I left a message.

Mr Messy is working from home today so he went up to OUR shop early, and I took Little Prince to school and then came home and rang the ADHD Nurse again. She had already left me a message on the answer machine while I was up at school. I was a little longer up there as I gave Little Prince's teacher a copy of the letter I'd sent regarding his Proposed Statement, she was impressed with the amount of detail I'd gone into! And she said if the LEA SEN Dept contact school they will fully back up what I'd said. Anyway back to the phone call with the ADHD Nurse! I explained that we had been having so many problems getting Little Prince an official diagnosis of ADHD, despite his former Paediatrician and our GP being convinced he has this condition. She was incredulous that the Paediatrician hadn't made the diagnosis official and started him on a trial of medication. But she also explained that he might not qualify for a diagnosis once he'd been seen by them. I asked how long the process could take, as I don't want to get our GP to make a different referral that takes even longer than the one we are waiting for already! She said that the Dept has been given notice that all their ADHD patients are going to be transferred to CAHMS, so it is possible that could happen before Little Prince gets seen and we'd be back where we started!! However, she said to get the referral in and see what they could do (I've taken a note of the Dr's name and will talk to our GP when he is back next Tuesday). Once the referral is received at the new hospital they will send out a Connor's Questionnaire and another one that I can't remember the name of, to both us and school. She will make a home visit to see us and Little Prince and then a decision will be made as to whether or not he needs to be seen at the clinic. She also told me that it would be early next year before he was seen at a clinic as the Doctor only has two new patient clinics per month, and he isn't in work for most of December. However, she was pretty confident that the questionnaires would be sent out and the home visit completed before the end of the year. This sounds so much more positive than any news we've had about this recently, and I am hopeful again, that Little Prince (and me!) will soon receive the help he so desperately needs. Fingers crossed this isn't another wild goose chase!!

Rest of Monday

Drama Teen arrived earlier at OUR shop than I thought she would, so we did see her :-) She wanted to pop over to her old High School and say "Hi" to some of her friends before she went home, so to give Mr Messy more time to get ready to see his bridal clients tonight, he left to pick Little Prince up and me, Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop stayed at the shop. We didn't stay too much later, as we had to get back by 4pm to look after Little Prince while Mr Messy went to deliver the disc with the fashion shoot images on it. We got back in time, but the fashion shop owner had already rung to say he would come over here to pick the disc up, so Mr Messy went back to the shop to wait for him. I'll be really glad when the photography business is up and running and the only job Mr Messy needs, as I'm starting to feel really sorry for myself having to look after the littlies all on my own so much.

Monday

As mentioned in the last post Little Prince got up early again today, and ploughed his way through most of his Halloween sweets!! Although after watching lots of American made Halloween TV programmes he is insisting its Halloween candy!! I made him some breakfast, but as expected he didn't eat much of it!! He did have a large glass of milk, so at least he had something healthy inside him!! He was happy to be going back to school to see his friends, he misses them during the school holidays. I popped into school to chat to his class teacher, as we had received his Proposed Statement last Friday and I wanted to make sure he was aware of that. She says the 13 hours support it states that the school will receive funding for him is a great outcome. She also said the wording about "reducing the support so that Little Prince doesn't become dependant on adult assistance" is fairly standard wording and not to worry about it. She agrees that he will probably need more support when he reaches High School, and will be very supportive in trying to obtain that for him.

Me and Princess Lollipop then drove over to OUR shop and met Mr Messy there. After his exhausting day yesterday he decided to work from home today, so we will be in the shop together. He received a message from the Posh Shop he did the fashion shoot for yesterday, asking if they could come over to collect the images at lunchtime in time for a meeting they had this afternoon. Mr Messy went back home to put the images on a disk, but found that the export from the editing programme would take over 6 hours, so he will drop the images off at the shop later. He also has to take the preview album to show the couple from a recent wedding he shot tonight - busy boy!

To my utter surprise the first visitors we got in OUR shop today were my Mum and Dad :-) They hadn't said they were coming over and just turned up out of the blue :-) It was lovely to see them :-) Me, Mum and Princess Lollipop went to the bakery for lunch and a chat, and then took Princess Lollipop over to the newsagents to get her some chocolate. Mum doesn't see her grandchildren all that often, so when she does she loves to spoil them :-) And me - she treated me to lunch :-) Thank you Mummy :-) Dad went for a liquid lunch at the local pub! We got back to OUR shop and sat on the sofa chatting and playing with Princess Lollipop until Dad came back and they had to go and catch their bus to the train station to make their way home.

Drama Teen is finishing College early today, and is coming to OUR shop to meet Mr Messy. Although me and Princess Lollipop will have already left to pick Little Prince up from school and won't see her till later.

Halloween

Little Prince was up VERY early as the clocks had gone back during the night, and he didn't realise! He was MEGA excited that it was Halloween and also that my Baby Sis and her Fiance were coming over. Baby Sis is expecting their baby in early January, and Little Prince is desperate to feel the baby "rumble" in her tummy :-) Baby Sis didn't mind and Little Prince sat very patiently with his hand on her tummy waiting for his cousin to "rumble" and talking to her :-) It was very sweet to watch :-)

Mr Messy and Drama Teen had left early in the morning to go to a fashion shoot for a posh clothes shop in a nearby town. The shoot was set to last until the mid afternoon with professional models, hair and make up artist and lots of different locations around the town to shoot in. When they had finished Mr Messy rang us up so that we could set off and meet him at OUR shop. Little Prince decided he wanted to go in Baby Sis's car, rather than in mine. We had to park on the outskirts of town, as the centre was cordoned off for the town's Halloween Festival. As we were walking down to OUR shop we met up with one of Little Prince's friends, so we had a chat before continuing on to OUR shop. Mr Messy was going to do a Maternity Shoot with Baby Sis and Fiance, so I took the littlies out for a walk round the shops. We went to the Youth Club first as Mr Messy said they were doing face painting, we waited in the queue for quite a while, before Little Prince decided he didn't want to wait any longer. I got him a toffee apple, which he wanted to eat to try and get his loose tooth to come out! He didn't realise that just licking the toffee wouldn't help loosen his tooth lol. We then walked up to the town's car park, where there were fairground rides set up. Little Prince chose to go on the Fun House ride, although he just ran round the whole thing in record time and then said he wanted to go on everything else! I distracted him by taking him in the newly opened children's play area and he had a fabulous time running round and climbing up and down the slide. There wasn't much for Princess Lollipop to play on as most of the play equipment was aimed at older children and she didn't want to ride on the swings. The steps up to the slide were too far apart for her to manage, but she could climb up the slide perfectly well anyway.

One group of parents were quite annoying, they were letting their children (3 boys all around 3 years old) run round and through the swings. I'm sure they would be the first to make a fuss if one of their little darlings got hit by the swings!! Eventually they did seem to realise that their children were causing problems and moved them over to play somewhere else. Princess Lollipop noticed a little boy (again about 3 years old) who had similar colouring to her, and chased after him shouting "pwetty pwetty." When we show her herself in the mirror we say "pretty girl" and now she calls all black people "pwetty" I don't think the little boy understood what she was saying so he didn't mind, and soon he and Little Prince were playing chase and catch. Little Prince played with him nicely, being careful not to bang into him or run too fast, very sweet :-) Mr Messy, Drama Teen, Baby Sis and Fiance had joined us by then, and it had started to rain. The shoot hadn't worked very well at the shop, so Mr Messy will visit them at their house next weekend to try again. Mr Messy and Little Prince stayed to play some more, while the rest of us went to the shop to get some sweets for the Trick or Treaters and then went back home, where it was warm and dry.

As soon as we got home I rushed around getting Little Prince and Princess Lollipop dressed in their Trick or Treat costumes, having got myself in a complete muddle about what time it was (we haven't changed all the clocks over yet!). So we were ready and all set to go an hour early!! Little Prince was excited to finally be in his costume, although by the time it was actually time to go out he had lost his mask and we had to all frantically rush round to find it!!

Me, Drama Teen and Baby Sis and her Fiance loaded up all the baby things I'd sorted out for them in their car. Luckily they had listened and brought their care empty, as there was a LOT of stuff!! They set off to return home just as Little Prince's friend J's Mum arrived to pick us up and take us to her end of the village, where we met T (Th for you LMS!!) and his Mum and took the boys Trick or Treating together. It got a bit fraught as J's big sister and her friends wanted to Trick or Treat on their own, and J's Mum wanted them to stay with us! So the boys would eagerly rush from house to house, while J's sister and her friends would dawdle along behind us trying to stay away from us!! We walked all the way through the village back towards our house, where I decided it was time to go home. Little Prince objected, so I left Princess Lollipop there with Drama Teen and Mr Messy and let Little Prince visit a few more houses, before insisted he had to come back home. Once home he declared it was the BEST Halloween EVER :-) I persuaded him to eat a sandwich before tucking into his haul, and by the time he'd finished he wasn't that hungry and didn't bother with his sweets. Although he did wake up really early the next morning and eat almost all of it!!

Mr Messy spent most of the evening editing the photographs from his fashion shoot, as the magazine is going to press in 10 days time so they need the images very quickly. He managed to get a basic edit done on over 300 pictures though - well done Mr Messy :-) I was able to catch up on watching all my saved Quantum Leap episodes from during the week, and also to get one of Little Prince's new school trousers shortened. I would have got all of them done, but I forgot till just before I wanted to go to bed, so just did one pair to be going on with and I'll get the rest done tomorrow.

Saturday

Not much happened on Saturday really. Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to the shop, although Drama Teen didn't spend much time there as she had to go to the hairdressers and have her hair bleached again (in preparation for turning bright blue!!) and then she got the bus to town to meet her Boyfriend. She spent some time with him before watching him in a theatre performance, and was picked up by Mr Messy late in the evening when the performance had finished.

Princess Lollipop had had a very very disturbed night, so when she went for her nap I laid down with her. While we were both sleeping Little Prince got lonely so he looked up his friend J's phone number and rang him for a chat :-) He is very resourceful :-) He invited J to come round the next day, which wasn't going to work out as we were expecting visitors!! I rang J's mum once I'd woken up and we agreed to take the boys Trick or Treating together in the evening instead of J coming over to play, which would work out a lot better.