Week 23 diary

Life goes on in our household and things continue to go well. I know I said it last time around, but I really cannot imagine what it was like before Jamie came to live with us. What on earth we did with all our time I cannot remember!

We've been making the best of the glorious weather by going out and about and spending as much time outdoors as possible - running around and playing in adventure playgrounds is certainly conducive to a good night's sleep, if not for Jamie then certainly for us!

Recently it was my Dad's birthday and give Jamie his due he hasn't thrown a wobbly at anyone's birthday yet - his is such a long way off, it must seem like everyone else in the world is getting one and he's not!

After card giving and present unwrapping, we decided to go down to the local Harvester place for a meal. It was lovely as my brother and his girlfriend were up from London too, so it was nice for us all to be together.

Mind you, I think my Mum will forever regret saying she would take Jamie to the toilet when he asked to go. They toddled off, and Tim and I carried on chatting with everyone. Then we thought to ourselves that Mum and Jamie had been gone for a long time - even longer than it normally takes for Jamie to have a toilet trip! As I went to investigate, I met Mum and Jamie coming the other way, with my Mum slowly turning a lovely shade of puce.

Apparently, when she was helping Jamie wash his hands, a rather large lady came into the toilets. Jamie stared right at her, and just as she was disappearing into a cubicle he announced "Nan, that lady's got a fat tummy". My Mum was mortified - as there was only my Mum (who's very slim), Jamie and "that lady" in the toilets, it was no secret as to who he was referring to! I think that'll be the last time Mum offers to take him for a toilet break!

That afternoon, Jamie was having great fun playing at his Nan and Grandad's with his Uncle and Auntie that Grandad, Tim and I had a secret trip to the pictures when he wasn't looking! Did we feel decadent or what? It was so strange going somewhere together without Jamie with us! We did enjoy it though as that's one of the things that we've really missed being able to do as Jamie's really not yet of the age to be able to appreciate films like Terminator 3!

At last we've heard the date of our Final Adoption Hearing and it's really soon - not long after we come back from holiday. We are all really excited about it. In the envelope was a lovely invitation with balloons on it, so I scanned it into the computer that morning with Jamie, and he now has a copy of it on his bedroom wall so we can keep referring to it.

We've talked about it quite a bit and we've got him used to the fact that there will be a judge and he might even let Jamie try his wig on - Jamie's not too keen on this for some reason. He said to me the other day "You can try it on mummy", but I told him that the judge only lets special little boys and girls try it on. I don't think he'll go for it, but he could surprise us on the day!

We've had to start to do some serious work with Jamie now on his life before he went into care. Our social worker, Susan, thinks that the memories of his life before his foster carers have not been kept alive, so its up to us to backtrack and start to talk to him about it.

Susan suggested that we read the Nutmeg Gets Adopted book to him, and then at the end say that Nutmeg's story was a little like his and tell him in very basic and easily understandable language about what happened to him.

Well, I tell you, the morning I first did this I was in a right state. I was reading the book to him with the most dreadful attack of butterflies in my stomach, and when I got to the end of the book and started to say how his story was like Nutmeg's, I was sure that he could hear the quaking in my voice.

You know what he did?

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