Week 26 diary

Well, here I am, sat writing a diary for the first time in ages. Jamie has just come to show me a sword he's made out of Lego. "It's a Captain Hook sword Mummy," he just told me. I don't know what it is with little boys at the moment, but Jamie and his friends seem obsessed by Peter Pan!

It has been a wonderful few months since I last wrote - not without incident of course, but wonderful all the same. First of all, there was Christmas. As prospective adoptive parents, this was one of those occasions we were really looking forward to - our first Christmas as a real, bone fide family. We weren't disappointed! Although the lead up was more frantic than normal, it was better than we could have ever hoped for. There are so many moments during the whole of December that I could talk about! Ones that stand out are Jamie's Christmas Concert at nursery, during which I sat with tears bubbling out of my eyes and was constantly blowing my nose - it came as some comfort that Tim was doing the same! Then there was the visit to Santa which was really lovely and Jamie absolutely adored it and just couldn't believe his eyes when he walked into the room and the real Santa was actually there! Of course, Christmas Day was an absolute delight and didn't disappoint! Jamie We spent time with family and friends and had such a lovely time. For us it was just magical!

Since then we've been really busy getting back to normal after the mania of the Christmas holiday. It has been nice to get back to our old routine. Of course, things are never smooth running and Jamie continues to be able to throw a tantrum as good as the next guy. These are now few and far between, but usually are a result of him not getting his own way and it has been hard after Christmas and the relaxing of the normal rules to reign things back in. We've had some beautiful tantrums - mostly again with Jamie sitting on the bottom step, thumping the floor and shouting a combination of "Silly Mummy" or "Silly Daddy" or "Poo". Thankfully Tim and I can still just about manage to laugh about it! I've developed an "I'm being serious now" volume of speaking, which usually makes Jamie stop in his tracks and you can see this look on his face as if he's thinking "Boy, I think I just overstepped the mark!"

I have to say that the responsibility of being a parent is such a huge undertaking, and I constantly remind myself how much I underestimated it. I have developed the ability to multi-task to such a level, that I truly don't know if I'm coming or going sometimes! I have lists absolutely everywhere, and our family calendar has become the most important document in the household! Jamie certainly has a busier social life than us - he's constantly out at friends' houses or at parties. Tim and I have yet to manage a night out just the two of us without him, although we have plans afoot to rectify this quite soon!

Jamie continues to be the inquisitive little boy he has always been. We were making the most of a great opportunity the other day to talk about "his story" when he actually said "Mummy, when you and Daddy are old, I will get a new mummy and daddy. Although we constantly talk of the role of his foster carers, I think he really got muddled and had somehow got a thought that he moved from them to us because they were "old" (they were a retired couple). I just gently reminded him that they were his foster carers and what their job was, and said that we were his forever mummy and daddy and we would always be together. I felt I dealt with it as well as I could and tried to put it in the best way possible. It didn't phase him at all, and after I'd answered he just carried on playing! I am sure that this is just the start - the more difficult questions are surely to come!

Life with Jamie continues to be sometimes stressful, but for the most part it is funny, inspiring and continually amazing. The best times for Jamie-speak are in the car on a journey when he'll be babbling on about something he normally knows little about and will come out with a classic; the other day he was chatting away and said very seriously "When people are naughty to fish, the fish come along and clump them" (yes, I don't know what clump means either!). For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I found this so off-the-wall and hysterical, that I laughed until I could hardly breathe! The other day he asked whether he could watch "Piglet's Blue Movie" (it should be Piglet's Big Movie) which again had me and Tim in hysterics whilst Jamie sat there looking at us as if we'd gone mad! He is now getting very forthright in his opinions about what he should and should not wear, and is allowed to choose his clothes most days. This usually results in a right mish-mash of colours and I must admit the staff at the nursery must wonder what I'm on when they see some of the combinations he turns up in!

We are definitely going to re-apply to adopt again in the Summer. Jamie has mentioned about his friends having brothers and sisters and he really seems quite keen. We'll go by his lead and take it step by step, although we've already had to try to plan ahead with our holidays as to how we'll cover attendance on the adoption course again along with covering school holidays!

It is now a year ago that I made that call to our social worker when she first mentioned to us about Jamie. We sat and told Jamie about this the other night after dinner and he stretched both his hands out across the table and grasped ours and said "I love you Mummy and Daddy". What greater reward for adopting do you need?"