Busy Busy Weekend

On Saturday morning me, Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to an NCT Nearly New Sale. Unfortunately most of the stalls had children's clothes of the opposite sex to New Child, so we only bought one item. Which is probably a good thing as we already have two big bin liners stuffed full of clothes lol. I am also interested in joining the Mum's and Tot's coffee mornings that our local NCT run, so it was nice to meet a few of the other parents before going along to a meeting. Mr Messy was there to see if he could work out a way to work with the group to promote his photography! Everything is about his photography at the moment!! When we arrived we were handed a carrier bag of promotional leaflets, and one of the leaflets was from another local photographer - so it won't be easy for Mr Messy to "break into" this established partnership, but he's determined to get his style of photography known in the group and some people are bound to prefer his relaxed, non studio, style of photos.

Drama Teen spent most of the time we were there moaning that she was bored, so we eventually gave in and took her to the shopping centre, where she had seen a "really cool" skirt that she HAD to buy!! Usually when she shops she choses her clothes and buys them without trying them on, which inevitably leads to lots of returns or a wardrobe full of clothes that don't fit properly!! We insisted she try the skirt on, and its a good job we did or she would have bought the wrong size! I don't approve of the skirt very much, its WAY too short!! But remembering the things I used to wear at a similar age, and the fact that she was paying with her own money, we let her buy it! She went out later to the local cake shop, with her Dad and brother and spent most of the time trying to pull the skirt down to make it longer, so I think she will wear it over leggings next time lol. Which would actually make it a lot cooler in my eyes!!
On Sunday, I was up bright and early, well I was up early anyway!! As I had been persuaded by my friend Kate to go to the OASIS conference in Birmingham. The conference was about empowering visible adoptees to counter the questions they will inevitibly be asked about their difference to their parents. It was run by an American charity The Centre for Adoption Support and Education (CASE) And based on the programme they have developed called "Wise Up." Which stands for the four different options they show the children that they can use when confronted with questions

• Walk away
• It's private
• Share something
• Educate

There were separate workshops for adults and two different age groups of children. Unfortunately Little Prince was too young to attend, but hopefully they will run a similar conference in a few years when he is old enough (and calm enough?!?). The children all seemed to really take the message to heart and to have enjoyed themselves. The parents part of the programme was pretty tough going at times, its hard to hear how your child is likely to face such a barrage of questions! But it was also very useful to have strategies to turn to to help our children cope with this. But the absolute bestest part of the day was catching up with friends in the very small UK IA community :-) One friend and I had arranged to meet up (and just like at school she saved me a place at the meeting) and afterwards we went for a meal in the Chinese Restaurant opposite the hotel. Good food + good company = good times :-)