Again unfortunately, it isn't a long entry but hopefully tomorrow, I can get back to normal, although everything will all depend on Tia Maria as she is due to give birth on Tuesday so it's going to be very hectic here this week. Rosemary had a lovely visit with Gemma yesterday and it was nice that when Gemma visited, it was at a time when the Herbs were awake and playing (or running riot) because when Linda was here, the babies were more interested in sleeping than running around. You'll be able to tell by the photos below that we've finally had some "outside" success with the Herbs. Yesterday afternoon I decided that enough was enough and the little ones should realise that fresh air is indeed good for them so I picked up Chives, Tarragon and Parsley and took them into the cat run and put them down on the ground. After about 2 minutes of being very cautious, they decided it was actually wonderful and it just progressed from there. By the end of the afternoon, all 6 Herbs were playing outside, chasing each other, climbing things and it was really fantastic. This morning has been more of the same and they are really enjoying their forays into the cat run. I was also pleased to see that even though our neighbours children were in their garden making noise, the Herbs were not bothered at all by this. Rosemary was particularly funny because I had clothes hanging on the airer to dry and had sat the airer in the cat run as I normally do, however today Rosemary decided that if it was out there, it must mean that it was a new toy for her. So she jumped up onto the clothes, climbed all the way to the top of the airer and sat there smirking at the other Herbs below who were watching her. I must admit though that I did actually panic and removed her straight away as I was petrifed she would fall. Naturally, as soon as I'd put her back on the ground, she was straight back up on there! Our little ones are not eating as much "wet" foods now however they are eating an awful lot of dry food which is good. Their weight gains are still fine and I look at them sometimes and wonder how it is my babies have managed to just change so very quickly, right before my eyes.

It's not a very long entry today, nor will tomorrow's be as I have quite a lot to get through and sort out this weekend so please do bear with me. Our Herbs are all doing extremely well and I have now finally learnt my lesson about leaving the tablecloth to dangle for them onto the floor. Last night, just before dinner, Chives and Sage had been playing with the tablecloth (see 2nd photo below) and wouldn't you know it, I was moving about the house trying to get things done like a whirlwind as per usual when the tablecloth got caught up in my foot and sent my flying. As a result, the table cloth does not drape on the floor at all! It would appear that our Herbs' best time of day is just after dinner because that is when they are now at their most active. I close them in the back room while we adults eat our dinner, and as soon as we have finished, the door is opened up again and they all come tearing out like lunatics. The next few hours after that is nothing but sounds of thuds, bumps, and babies chasing each other. We have still made no progress with the great outdoors, namely the cat run, but the door will remain open and one day I am sure they will decide that they want to go out. Tarragon has now discovered the fish tank on the dining table and was absolutely fascinated with it. She was avidly watching the fish swim around and was trying to catch them with her paw. I'm actually surprised that it's taken her this long to notice them although oddly enough, the don't show much interest in the large tank that is in the back room where they sleep.

Great news for the Herbs! The missing mouse has been found! I have no idea who found it but suddenly this morning it appeared on the floor in the back room so we were all rather delighted. Then I found 2 of the new toys from Linda on the lounge a little while ago so obviously the little ones are enjoying those and trying to lose them now as well. Of course sometimes Sambuca is to blame because she does love to play with the kitten toys so chances are, she also carries them off somewhere. On a bad note, Amaretto is calling again! It's the first time since she gave birth to the Herbs so I guess I can't complain too much. The only problem is that when she's calling, the singing upsets her babies. I am hoping it won't last very long but that could be wishful thinking. Chives and Rosemary both sat on the first step today leading into the cat run and just when I thought they were going to follow their mum out there, next door's dogs barked, which set our own dogs off and obviously startled the girls so they both came tearing back inside. It would be nice if they would make use of the cat run at some point, particularly as Parsley and Sage will have a run of their own in their new home and from memory, Rosemary & Chives will be taken for lots of walks on harnesses so it would be nice if they became used to the outside before they leave here. Poor little Thyme made the mistake today of walking up to Sambuca who was standing around and as soon as she Sami's nipples, she made a beeline straight for them, straight underneath Sami's legs and was trying to latch on. Sambuca turned around and bopped her on the head making her run back to her brothers and sisters for safety. I didn't have the heart to tell Sami that is exactly what her own babies will be doing in 3 weeks time. A lot of this morning was spent tearing throughout the loungeroom and playing on the windowsill of the bay window. It's quite nice there because the window is opened up in the morning (it has a wire frame on it) so the babies can look outside, see what's happening out there and they have little battles on the windowsill which is quite funny to watch. I think the time will come though when the net curtains will have to be put up before they start trying to climb them. Although from memory, none of our litters have ever really been curtain climbers which is something I have been very grateful for indeed. There's very little in the way of photos today (only 4) but I'm hoping to take some more later on after lunch and if I can, then I will add them into the entry much later today.

Poor Sage got a bit of a shock this morning. I had made a cup of coffee and was half way through drinking it when he decided to stick his nose in. Obviously it was still quite warm and the look on his face was priceless. He stared up at me, leapt up over the coffee cut, jumped from the work surface onto the other chair and started licking his nose, whilst shaking his head at the same time. I had thought he would have learnt his lesson but sure enough, 5 minutes later he was back up on the desk trying to do it again! There was yet more foam from my chair all over the floor again this morning and I'm beginning to wonder just how many more litters my beloved chair will survive. I'm dreading the thought of replacing it as it's just so comfortable. Sage and Parsley had a lovely visit today with Linda and Emma and both boys had wonderful cuddles which was really sweet. Parsley put on a really good show by purring very loudly and sleeping on their laps whereas every time Sage was picked up, he ran away. Linda very kindly bought a bag of toys for all the Herbs to play with which was really lovely of her. I haven't given them to the babies yet though as they are still asleep but by tomorrow I'll be able to let you know how they got on with them. At long last we've had some "outside success" with the Herbs. It's been quite nice weather here this morning so the door has been open and both Tarragon and Sage suddenly realised that their little world was actually a bit larger than they thought. Sage went down one step, stood on the next step sniffing about when Tarragon came up behind him, and I think she startled him because he came tearing back inside. Tarragon then decided that she would go down one step and then she came back inside as well. After that, Chives started to have a sniff outside as well. It's so funny when the babies discover something new because their little noses start quivering and their eyes open up wide as they look around and it's really amazing to see them as their minds are registering something different in their world. Chances are, within the next week if the weather stays okay, they will venture a bit further having made it to the steps now. All of yesterday afternoon and part of this morning, the Herbs have been little terrors again, playing lots of mad games and not caring who gets in their way. They've also been trying to wrestle with each other on my chair while I'm sitting on it so I now have little claw marks all over my back and my arms. No matter how many times I pick them up and put them back on the floor, they just come straight back up.

It would appear that I spoke way too soon with regards to the Herbs not destroying my chair! You wouldn't believe the mess that greeted me this morning when I first came downstairs and walked into the back room. There were kitten biscuit crumbs and foam absolutely everywhere. I just stood there in disbelief. Some of today's photos aren't particularly wonderful but hey........that's what happens when the babies break my decent camera (yep, I'm still going on about the camera episode). But at least you will be able to tell by some of the images below, that the babies are still enjoying their tablecloth games. Our little ones are doing so very well and even Thyme is starting to grow more fur now which I am absolutely delighted about although I must admit that I was getting rather used to my "bald baby". It's not a particularly long entry today either because I've got quite a bit to get through. Actually, this whole month is probably our busiest month of the year as we have quite a lot going on but provided the Herbs don't destroy anything else, I should still be able to get the daily entries online. Out of all our babies, I've discovered that Parsley and Tarragon are definitely the "purriest" ones in the litter. Both of them will purr as soon as you look at them and once you stroke them, it just gets louder and louder and is non stop which is wonderful. The other Herbs also do purr quite a lot but Parsley & Tarragon really do stand out in the department. Parsley is your typical boy in the respect that wrestling with his brothers and sisters takes up a lot of his waking moments and to him, this is much more important than exploring whereas Tarragon, while she will sometimes wrestle, she prefers the chasing games and the exploring. I've also discovered that out of all of the little ones, Thyme is the cleanest. She is extremely thorough when it comes to cleaning up any mess in the litter tray and when it comes to dinner time, she really is amusing. If she happens to finish eating before the others (which isn't often!), while everyone else is still gathered around the plate, she will start scratching at the paper until she picks it up and tries to drape it over the food to cover it up. It makes no difference to her who is in the way as she tries to cover them up as well. After a minute or two of doing this, I actually have to move her because it does tend to put the others off eating. Tomorrow I will also give you some idea of Chives, Rosemary and Sage's personalities but I thought if I did that today, I would have nothing to write about in tomorrow's entry :)

After all this camera nonsense, it didn't really sink in yesterday that my Herbs are actually 8 weeks old now. I was looking at the top links on this page with absolute horror when I realised that there are only 5 weeks left after this one! We had some lovely cuddles with them last night on the sofa while we were watching TV. All the Herbs decided to join us and Thyme cuddled up with dad, Tarragon was cuddling with me and the other 4 were all tearing along the back of the sofa and the chair and tables, chasing each other and having lots of fun. It was really great to see and these "cuddle" moments we have with the little ones are really very special. This morning I remembered why I stopped putting a tablecloth on the dining table and why I used to just keep an old rug on it. The little terrors keep pulling the end of the tablecloth down further and further until it's on the floor, leaving part of the table uncovered, as this then gives them extra climbing assistance and it also means that they can pounce on each other from behind the tablecloth on the floor. At one point, there was Chives halfway up the tablecloth swinging back and forth, while Sage was hiding behind the part on the floor, Rosemary was on the other side, poking at Sage through the tablecloth. I shouldn't laugh really, nor should I encourage it, but they were having such a lot of fun that I didn't have it in me to put the tablecloth back where it should be........on the table. We still haven't been able to locate our missing mouse yet and I did yet another hunt last night for it with no success so I really do not know what they did with it. I am grateful that we still have 2 left that are in relatively good condition. Although one is minus a few feathers and it's not difficult to figure out who the culprit was because I caught Parsley running across the floor with a little blue feather hanging out of his mouth. None of our Herbs are showing any interest yet in going outside at all which really surprises me as previous litters have thought it was great to explore in the cat run. When I open the door leading into the run, Cacao and the Ugly Stepsisters all go straight out but the babies tend to then go in the opposite direction. I am presuming that the weather doesn't actually entice them to venture out but hopefully we'll have a few sunny days and they might change their minds.

As you can see below, I actually managed to take some photos today using one of our other digital camera's but what a nightmare it was! It's one of those Kodak ones that prints out real photos etc. etc. and we haven't had it that long but only ever used it once so I had no idea how it worked, let alone having to install the software on my system and find the lead. Unfortunately, it has no zoom on it at all so I have to be very close to the little ones as I take the photos. I'm hoping that as I get used to it, the photos will get better however it is rather basic to say the least. Still, any photos are better than none at all I guess. This is a difficult entry to type because right now, Tarragon is sitting on my lap, playing with my arm as I type. She is about to be removed though because if I don't go and make a coffee I won't have the energy left to actually complete the entry (yes it's been one of the those mornings). My little ones are now 8 weeks old and are starting to become a lot more in dependant. This is really noticeable in the fact that during the day, they now spend as much time playing and sleeping in the lounge room as they do out here. When they were first exploring the house, they would go as far as the loungeroom, have a look around but would always coming running back to the back room. It's totally different now though and the only drawback to this is that it takes me an awful lot longer to do a head count because the Herbs are now found in the oddest of places. They have now cut out one of their morning meals so they are currently on 5 "wet" meals a day and obviously there is kitten biscuits all over the house so they can snack whenever they want to. The Herbs now have a new toy and this is my wastepaper bin. It's taken them a lot longer than our previous litters to have caught onto this one. They realised that if they can tip the bin over, some of them can climb inside, while others start rolling it around and they absolutely love it. Naturally this means that I can't have any rubbish in my bin at all (defeats the purpose of having one really) but I don't mind as the little ones get so much enjoyment out of it.