Oh, and how bizarre was it when the lady running the group brought in a copy of my blog entry from last Wednesday which talked about the group! HQ had picked it up and mailed a copy to the local centre as it was about them. I’m famous – sort of

Oh, and Holly’s advanced speech was commented on, as was her excellent ability to sit and do craft whilst the boys her age and older ran off after a few seconds She is a star, albeit a sleepless one Alfie sat brilliantly for the craft, but then he is 3.5 nearly, and did go insane at the end and paint half the room in one of his manic episodes My two wonderful, but oh so different babies

This afternoon the council rat man came. He put poison in the composter as apparently the rat has been digging inside it to eat the fresher stuff – blee! We can’t put any new stuff in it for a couple of weeks, which is grim as throwing it away will seem so wrong. I also don’t like the idea of poison in the compost being absorbed into next year’s organic veg crop but I’m assured it breaks down and won’t cause any problems Next door were told not to put food on the ground too. Let’s hope they listen to the professionals!

The rest of today has involved playing shops and cafes, jigsaws, reading books, playing at being in bird hides (the weird photos of H and A wrapped in duvets signify this – what imaginations they have lol!), disinfecting the entire bathroom, sorting washing and building towers. How cute is H feeding cups of tea to Alfie’s teddies and her pop-up animals The garden pix are from Vomit Monday

Back home, after Holly had had a good bath and changed into PJs (and Rich had dismantled the sick filled car seat so I could wash the covers!), Alfie cheered up at the prospect of popcorn and watching Ice Age 2 DVD. Holly has been quite miserable all day although no more vomiting. I decided to stick to just breast milk with her, and she has fed about 15 times today. It’s all stayed down and must be doing her so much good. She had a digestive biscuit and plum this evening so we’ll see if they make a reappearance…. Poor girl has been asking for food all day. Alfie and I have been trying to cheer her up by playing farms, fire stations, racing cars, watching In the Night Garden DVDs, reading books. Alfie also made some butterflies to hang on his ceiling with Rich whilst I took Holly for a walk to get her to sleep this afternoon.

I hope Holly is over the worst now. She had a sudden energy surge an hour or so ago and went into the garden for a play on the swing and slide, and a run around. She’s only wanted to sit on my lap all day, so I’m hoping it means she’s on the mend. My main concern now is that tonight or tomorrow Alfie will get it. I know I will. I always do. And as anyone close to me knows, I have a phobia of sick bugs and they form the basis of much of my anxiety issues. I always go into Mommy mode and am perfectly fine cleaning the kids up when they get one – I just spend the rest of the time panicking about them

Oh, and Freak came round this morning as nice as pie, thanking me for my note about the rats and talking about solutions. He is so two-faced. He even spoke faux nicely to Holly. Yet he’s banged at the kids walking all day since…. Still, it was hilarious to watch Freaketta come outside in her short dressing gown with a bottle of rat poison and run terrified around the garden whilst the rat raced about – comedy gold

So, if you don’t hear from me for a bit you’ll know where I am – contemplating the bottom of the toilet or nursing a sick toddler or two! Talking of toddlers – how cute is Alfie covering himself in a duvet and pretending to be in a bird hide spotting herons With children there’s always a bright side

Anyway, nicer topics! Rich took an hour or so off this morning so that we could take the children swimming to Kingstanding pool. They were complete waterbabies! Both just launched themselves into the water and swam off into the deep end! One lady there with her 8 month old baby was commenting on their confidence in the water. Hard to believe only a few months ago Alfie wouldn’t go near the water (after liking it asa baby) and we thought we’d done well if he sat on the edge and dipped his feet in! It just proves that our non-coercive methods worked wonders. Or rather, our non-interference in the situation, just taking him to have fun and not forcing the issue, allowed him to find his own confidence at his own pace. You will never hear a Good Boy or Well Done from us, and it rankles every time we hear someone else say it to them (thankfully my mum, who sees them the most after us, has been taught the ways of unconditional parenting and so isn’t a culprit or I’d scream lol!)Thet are getting on fantastically in life without coercion, just with our unwavering love, support and presence.Oh, and the fact that Holly copies everything her big brother does anyway. Often this is very bad, but in this situation it’s great

Back home, we did a few chores before heading out to the library to choose lots of new books and have a bit of a read and play with their toys. We naughtily got both cakes and chip shop chips to have with lunch Then we put some bread on to bake for the picnic tomorrow, sorted lots of washing, read books, did several jigsaws, cleaned the fridge out, did some fuzzy felts, watched some Beebies and did some stickering! Cleaned the fridge out – it sounds so simple. Actually, it took forever, with varied degrees of help from both children and about 75 interruptions – to wipe bums post toilet, to get snacks (blueberries, apple, cherries, omelette and chocolate raisins were all provided at different points!), to top up drinks, to break up fights, to assist with jigsaws, to wipe up several spills …. All good fun though