The Herbs were most upset with me today because I hoovered and mopped all the downstairs floors etc. and as soon as I switched the vacuum cleaner on, babies were flying about all over the place, tripping over each other to try and be the first one upstairs away from that "bad machine". Goodness knows why when we've been using the vacuum cleaner since they were first moved downstairs. I do think though that they take their cue from the adults in the house because our adults have the vacuum cleaner and won't remain in the vicinity if we're using it. Anyway, by the time I eventually finished and it had been put away, I suddenly started seeing babies appearing from the strangest of places which did make me smile. Chives and Tarragon started to crawl out from the top of the DVD unit under the TV. Rosemary and Parsley crept back in from the upstairs part of the house, Sage didn't appear for another half an hour, (he really is a big baby!), and I sat down at my desk and little Thyme poked her head out from inside the printer. She is the only one tiny enough to have been able to fit in there. One good thing that happened was that I found where all the balls had gone, actually, I managed to get a rather large collection of toys that hadn't been seen for weeks and put them all on the floor in the back room. Unfortunately, one of the toy mice was accidentally sucked up by the vacuum cleaner and let me assure you that I will not be delving into the bag to retrieve it. Chances are though that by tomorrow, the toys will have been carted off to all parts of the house again anyway.

Sage has found a new toy in the form of rubber bands or anything else that he thinks he can steal from Graham's work surface. Cacao had been sitting in Graham's chair so Sage decided he would join her however once he was on the chair, it dawned on him how close he was to the work surface which (to a kitten) has lots of interesting things on it. Sure enough with a minute he was all over the desk picking up things in his mouth until he eventually settled on a rubber band. He then carried the rubber band onto the floor, started to play with it and growled at anyone who approached, even me, not that it did him any good because one way or another I was going to have the rubber band as I was worried he could accidentally do himself an injury with it. In the end I swapped him a mouse for the rubber band and he was happy enough with that. Three of our Herbs had a little adventure yesterday afternoon that I could have done without. As some of you are aware, our washing machine had packed it in and was causing lots of problems that I could have done without at the moment because it was taking up to 6 hours to do one load of washing and then I'd have to drain the water out through the front over and over again. Anyway, it had been like it for a few days so today we decided to buy a new one. When we got it back home, we went into the kitchen to remove the old one, obviously leaving a gaping hole that gave access to the cupboard with the sink and behind that cupboard. One of us forgot to close the kitchen door and 5 minutes later I walked into the kitchen to find Parsley, Chives & Rosemary all scrambling in and out of the cupboard and beyond! I nearly had a coronary as I could picture in my mind having to pull the kitchen apart to retrieve them back. Very fortunately, as soon as I went up to the hole and started calling "Babies, babies", they all came running straight into my arms. I tell you I couldn't scoop them up and out of there quick enough. They are at the stage now where I can only carry 2 Herbs at once, however, I didn't hesitate to grab all 3 on this occasion. Now that the little ones are over 11 weeks old, I have cut out their 4th meal which is normally between 10pm and 11pm. The babies don't seem to have minded at all and the reason I know this is because at the moment, throughout most of the night/early morning, I am coming downstairs to heat up the mixture and get syringes for feeding Sami's babies, the Herbs don't even come clambering to the door. Normally, as soon as I appear at the door at any time of night, they would be all over me for food, but now they either continue to sleep, or just look up from my chair (that's where they sleep at night) and then settle back down. Another indication is the amount of dry kitten biscuits they are going through in a 24 hour period.

The Herbs have made typing very difficult today to say the least. As I was trying to do Sambuca's entry, I had Tarragon, Sage and Sheridan's on my lap and Parsley and Thyme on my shoulders. Normally this would be great however they weren't sleeping and purring on me, they were darn well fighting with each other whilst sitting on me! So I'm trying to type, 5 babies are wrestling on top of me and I'm getting little puncture wounds all over my body. I did eventually have to become a bit tough and remove every single baby because I was getting nothing done at all. Mind you, they weren't particularly bothered, they just climbed straight up onto the other chair and continued wrestling on there thank goodness. Poor Chives had a little accident today. She was on top of the fish tank in the back room, when Parsley decided to join her and push her off! Fortunately, there is a small fabric rug thing that sits on top of the tank because Chives didn't fall from the top onto the work surface, she actually fell from the top of the tank, straight onto the floor, taking the rug with her which helped to soften her landing thank goodness as it's quite a big drop for a little kitten. I picked her up and hugged her and checked she was okay and within 2 minutes she was back on top of the darn tank. Some babies never learn!

My aim for the day is to actually get all 3 diaries online before midnight! The Herbs have so far had a lot of bushy tails this morning and the reason for this is that they have spent 1 hour chasing each other non stop throughout the house and scaring each other half to death. All I've seen during this hour is babies flying past me at tremendous speeds, babies jumping up in the air with straight legs and massive tails and the funny thing is that when they get scared by another baby and jump up, this then scares the baby who was trying to scare them in the first place. I had a giggle about Rosemary who came hurtling out into the back room with her Basil Brush tail, she stopped at the water bowl for a drink and just as she had put her little mouth in the water, Sage came hurtling up behind her, also with a massive tail. This then scared Rosemary who nearly fell in the water bowl whereas Sage jumped up in the air and came down, landing on the little blue pyramid that they all scratch on. Life with babies is never dull or boring :) After their mad chase games, the little ones just zonked out on the lounge which is still one of their favourite sleeping spots and we did have some peace and quiet for a little while. Parsley surprised me today by being the instigator of wrestling matches on the lounge. More often than not, he will wait until he's attacked rather than starting the trouble but I watched in amazement as he crept up on Tarragon who was asleep on the lounge, and physically dragged her out from under Gonzo the Gorilla, halfway up the lounge and proceeded to pin her down and chew her ears. Tarragon didn't hesitate to retaliate after being woken up so rudely by her brother and I think it's safe to say that Tarragon won the battle as Parsley decided it would be more fruitful to groom himself than lose a fight to his sister. I also learnt a valuable lesson today as well and that is to never answer the door to salesmen if you have a baby in your arms. I had fed the babies their meal, closed the door to the back room so the adults wouldn't get in and eat, did a head count only to find that Chives was missing. I went looking for Chives because I knew she wouldn't appreciate missing a meal and just as I had found her and picked her up, the doorbell went. I answered the door, Chives still in my arms and there were 2 salesmen from some electric/gas company or another. As most of us know, dealing with salesman at the door is always a nightmare and the aim is to get rid of them as quickly as possible. The problem was that they saw Chives and then the oohing and aahing started, and even though I explained to them that I wasn't interested in whatever they were selling, they then wanted to know all about Chives so I'm stuck at the door with them without even a plausible excuse to get away! In future I will not be answering doors to salesmen with babies in my arms.

My apologies to you all for this rather short entry not going online yesterday. I had typed it up very late in the afternoon but most of my day was spent with 2 hour feeding and dealing with a washing machine that floods the kitchen floor and I forgot to upload the entry. Also, there are no photos I'm afraid but I will try and get some in tomorrow's entry. The Herbs, particularly Thyme, had a lovely visit yesterday from Elaine & Aiden. Elaine (who also has a Schimmel baby from Cacao's 1st litter) had previously booked Thyme quite a while back but obviously due to the problems we had, nothing was ever certain. Anyway, during their visit Tarragon & Parsley had wonderful cuddles sitting on Elaine's lap. Little Thyme who they had wanted to see was feeling rather anti social and more concerned with running about the house than being cuddled. The babies were all spoilt rotten by Elaine and Aiden which was really lovely, and so was I as Elaine arrived with the most beautiful bunch of flowers for me which was so very kind. Mind you, during the day, the flowers sit on the dining table and are carefully guarded by human eyes as the Herbs have developed quite an interest in them, so of an evening, the flowers are removed to the kitchen. At least this way I know they will still be in one piece the next day!

My little Herbs were an absolute Godsend late yesterday afternoon and again this morning. I am so tired now that my mind and body is on autopilot I think but the Herbs have made sure I'm definitely awake by bouncing around all over the place, all over me and then settling down with me for lots of cuddles inbetween my feeding of Sambuca's babies. They are such a fantastic bunch and when I watch them play, they really do make me laugh with their antics. One thing I've noticed recently with the Herbs games is that they are starting to become more gentle when they play with each other. A few weeks ago, when they would wrestle, you would hear little squeals which always means that someone has gone too far but I can't actually remember the last time I heard a squeal from any of them during a wrestling match. Do you realise we have reached 11 weeks of age and not one of those Herbs is a curtain climber! For all the time they spend in the loungeroom chasing each other along the bay windowsill, they have never once attempted to climb either the nets or the other curtains. Mind you, they make up for it by climbing up the tablecloth constantly. I have had to sit on the smaller office chair for part of the morning as Cacao and the Herbs took over my chair again <groan> and it's absolutely no use at all moving them, because they just move right back and shuffle around until they manage to push me off the chair. The worst offenders are Tarragon, Chives & Sage. Parsley still prefers to sit on my shoulder as opposed to my lap. A bit like a parrot really. We had to laugh at Tarragon this afternoon as she took it upon herself to go fishing...........in our large aquarium. She was seen sitting on the top of the aquarium hood, hooking her paws under one of the lids and raising it while peering in. Graham decided that it's now a good time to put something back on top of the hood to prevent her doing this as we really don't want Tarragon eating our Gourami!