The more time I spend with the Pints, the more I realise that when they are a bit older, they are going to be such a handful as they all are extremely vocal, very forwards and very demanding. I actually think that this morning, they are giving poor Amaretto quite a headache because when they want something, they want it now. Today, the babies want to be out of the box, yet when they get to the opening and start to climb out, they then turn around, get back in the box and scream because they are not where they think they want to be. Amaretto was trying to have a meal today when all three Pints decided to come to the opening in the box and scream and scream at the top of their voices, not for any other reason other than the fact that they couldn't see their mum and they weren't sure whether or not they should go walkabout to try and find her. Amaretto went running back to the box, where they still continued to scream at her as they ran towards her and when she tried to pacify them by grooming them and trying to feed them, Caffreys did calm down however Guinness kept running back to the front of the box and XXXX was extremely indecisive as to whether or not he wanted a feed or to explore. I think she is going to have a bad day with her children and it is just as well that she has the patience of a Saint.

I now have an announcement to make regarding Guinness. I was studying her at 6pm last night, not for any particular reason other than I really think she is a darling, only to discover that my Havana boy, is indeed, most definitely a Havana girl. When I first sexed the babies, it was not until much later after they were born by which time their little "bits" had all swollen up and looked the same. Then, because I am not usually bothered about what sex they are unless I'm keeping one back myself, I didn't think to actually check again. I was rather surprised to discover that she had changed sex. I must admit that after that discovery I have been too scared to look at her 2 supposed sisters in case it turns out that they are boys, in which case I do not know how poor Teresa will feel about this because at the moment she thinks she is having 2 Siamese girls. I guess that I will do the decent thing and have a look later today to confirm once and for all what they actually are. The Pints are also making liars out of me because despite what I said yesterday about their weight gains slowing down, when I weighed them this morning they all had excellent gains again.

Our babies are becoming much more active as you can see in the photos and they are moving around all over the place and constantly climbing in and out of the box when Amaretto is not in there with them. If their mum is in the box they aren't really that interested in exploring but as soon as she leaves them, that is their cue to go walkabout. Their weight gains have slowed down a bit now which is no surprise really as the Pints are expending so much more energy now. For some reason Drambuie seems fascinated by them when they are out of the box and if she is not with her own babies, when she sees the Pints climbing out, she comes over to them to sniff them and see what they are doing.

You will probably notice that there are more photos than usual in today's entry and that is because I took some photos last night as well as this morning. The reason for this is that when I went up to visit the babies and mum's last night, as I've opened the door, Guinness was halfway out of the box trying to escape. I put him back in the box, hurriedly grabbed a load of bedding to put on the floor in front of the box so that it would be much easier for him. I then flew downstairs and grabbed the camera (contrary to popular belief, the camera does not reside in the kitten room). When I cam back upstairs Guinness was out of the box, on the bedding and starting the descent from the bedding to the floor. I was totally amazed to see the determination on his face and the speed with which he was "walking". He was obviously also incredibly proud of his efforts because with each few steps he yelled out to everyone in the kitten room at the top of his voice saying "Look at me, I'm free!". Drambuie was rather stunned to see this chocolate coloured baby heading towards her box whereas Amaretto took one look at him, walked straight past him and went back in to her box with Caffreys & Guinness. I let him have a little wander around the kitten room and then put him back in the box. Although by this time, Caffreys and XXXX both were at the front of the box wondering whether or not they should give it a go as well. Fortunately, all 3 Pints then decided that their stomachs were more interested in a feed and perhaps they should leave their explorations until after they had a meal. I must admit that every time I went back in the kitten room that evening, I would tentatively open the door and wonder whether or not I would find babies all over the room however they did stay in their box for the remainder of the evening. At breakfast time this morning though it was a different story. I am presuming that Guinness had a chat with his sisters during the evening and explained to them just which way to move their legs in order to escape from the box because while I was changing the Bush Rangers bedding, Caffreys was halfway out of the box to go for a walk of her own. I really do pity Amaretto because one all three babies are out of the box and running about she will never be able to keep track of them. There is of course, the hopes that these three will be good babies and will listen to their mum when she tells them to get in the box but I somehow doubt this will be the case.

I do believe that the first of our babies to emerge from the box will be Guinness. Every time I go into the kitten room to try and do anything such as weigh, take photos, chat to the babies etc, feed mums, Guinness comes running over to the front of the box while Caffreys and XXXX wait at the back to see what he will do next. I am always amazed at how babies from the same litter can develop such different personalities as they are growing up. For example, Guinness is quite the explorer at the moment and the bravest of all three Pints. Caffreys is a real poser, she loves look at the camera shows a keen interest on whatever is happening around her. She is very thoughtful at this stage. XXXX on the other hand is more concerned with food, her mum, and sleeping on her brother and sister. The next few weeks will be so much fun watching them closely to see how much the personalities that they currently have will change. Drambuie is showing a keener interest in the Pints now which surprises me however she only seems to do this when Amaretto is out of the box and wandering around or is eating. If Amaretto is not looking, Drambuie sticks her head in the Pints' box, studies them all closely, while the Pints look up at this rather fearsome, colourful creature (no doubt still remembering when she head butted them yesterday), wondering who she is and why she is so interested in them. Our babies are still making very good weight gains and their eyes are extremely clear and bright so all in all, they are progressing exactly as they should be which is really great.

I was beginning to think that I would never get this diary online at all today. It has been such a rushed morning with running around and appointments etc. and I seem to be getting further and further behind as the day goes on so this certainly will not be a particularly long entry. Poor Amaretto is going to have her hands full with the Pints very soon I think. They have finally discovered their vocal chords and do not hesitate to let the whole world know. That aside though, they are starting to hate being "confined" in their box. Not that they are confined at all, they are free to come out of the box and go where ever they want, however it's only today that it occurred to them that there is life out there and now they want it. When I had finished taking photos of the Pints and had changed their bedding, I moved over to take photos of the Bush Rangers, and next thing I know; I am hearing cries of outrage and protest coming from the Pints' box. I turned my head around to see what all the fuss was about and to my surprise, all 3 Pints (with Guinness leading the charge), were marching on a mission that led them directly to the opening in the box. They got to the opening, started sticking their heads out and you could see their little minds ticking over wondering just what manouvers would be required to get from inside the box to the outside world. I don't know what they would have done if Drambuie hadn't come over to the box to see what the noise was about. She obviously wasn't expecting them to be right at the front because she ran over, stuck her head straight in, managing to knock all 3 Pints over at the same time. She then swore at them, and walked off back into her own box. Amaretto was totally oblivious to the whole incident as she was too busy eating breakfast to worry about what her children were doing.

It did occur to me this morning that our Pints are now 2 weeks old and I still haven't managed to take individual photos of them yet so I really must get around to doing that as soon as possible. As you can tell by some of the photos below, our Pints are now learning how to play little kitten games. It's almost as if it occurred to them that they are 2 weeks old now and should be practicing to be proper kittens. It was so funny though because it didn't start off as a play fight originally. What happened was that Guinness & Caffreys were feeding (after Caffreys was kind enough to pose for the camera) and XXXX was more interested in crawling about and rolling around. All of a sudden a look of wonder came over XXXXX's face as she had her paw to her ear and realised that she had limbs that moved where she wanted them to go. She then got a bit carried away and presumed that she could do absolutely anything so she put both front legs in the air over her head and was about to do the same with her back legs. It was just unfortunate that Caffreys was coming over to see what all the fuss was about and got a smack in the mouth from her sisters' back paw. Caffreys took this an an open invitation to play but to be honest, her fighting skills aren't well developed yet and XXXX was definitely the winner. While all this was going on, Guinness was smart enough to figure out that if his sisters (well I'm presuming they are still both girls but haven't actually looked!) were playing, then that left an awful lot of nipples full of milk for him and him alone. I think it was about 10 minutes before the girls realised that their brother was getting their share of breakfast.