This morning, we have a small problem. Not with the babies, so don't panic. The Mel's are doing just fine and are absolute sweethearts. The problem is with Amarula. Yesterday afternoon, I realised that I had totally run out of James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits and they are the only biscuits that our cats and babies are fed on. I never feed anything else because having tried other brands such as Iams, Hills etc. none of them are as good in my personal opinion. I actually thought that I still had another bag of the JW in the garage as we always buy it in bulk and store it in there and when I went out to get some, there wasn't any! We live in a small town, 2 pet shops, neither of whom stock it. This meant I had to get a totally different brand, it was either that or they would all have no biscuits. Today I have to go to our local garden centre to pick up some bags of it as I know they stock it, but anyway, the biscuits have had a horrific effect on poor Amarula who now has diarrhoea :( Tia Lusso is just fine, it hasn't affected her at all but then her mother had a cast iron stomach as well. Amarula must be so very uncomfortable as it's not pleasant at all, to say nothing of the mess in the litter tray. I've now removed the "other" biscuits from the room, I had put freshly cooked chicken down which will be better for her as chicken is so very bland, and I have also put Probiotics in the water. I will make her up a mixture with some natural yoghurt as well to see if that also helps. Now I know this entry is not really about the babies themselves, however I do think it's important that our new families know everything that goes on with regards to their babies upbringing and their babies' mum as there really is no point in "hiding" any problem, no matter how small it may be. One good thing is that this hasn't had any effect on the Mel's at all as they still made adequate weight gains during the last 24 hours. Mad Max is definitely, without a doubt, the loudest baby in the room. Patriot used to be quite loud, however, Mad Max can shout for England. Braveheart and Lethal Weapon (who currently, to my way of thinking, looks like a black teddy bear at the moment, rather than a kitten), are really both quite happy with being handled, as is Patriot, and now when I pick those 3 up, they just look at me and listen to me speak gently to them. There is no point trying to speak to Mad Max at all because his voice drowns out absolutely everything!

I'm afraid that today we have "box" photos again. I had every intention of going up to the kitten room after lunch to take separate photos just like yesterday, however, I had the chicken in the pot for about 4 hours this morning and the problem is that because not only am I the worst cook in the history of mankind, I'm also the messiest. So time that should have been spent taking proper photos of the Condiments and the Mel's turned into time that was instead spent steam cleaning the stove top. Still, at least some photos are better than none and our daughter won't have to spend an hour scrubbing the stove when she does the kitchen this evening :)

Well our Mel's weights were fine again this morning when I weighed them so it does appear as if there is nothing to worry about thank goodness. When I went into the room after lunch to check on everyone, Mad Max woke up however he only opened one of his eyes and not both. The other eye was firmly closed. This means that I had to bathe the eye with some boiled water and open it. Poor Mad Max was not impressed at all and didn't hesitate to tell the whole world that he was being "murdered". As you can imagine, Tia Lusso hit the roof and was most distressed. Anyway, the eye opened and I was pleased to see that it was perfectly clear underneath the eyelid and there that was no "gunk" coming out at all. Whenever an eye sticks, I have to monitor it closely because sometimes a baby can have problems due to the mum's washing their bottoms and then cleaning their faces, but other times, this can mean a sign of an underlying infection which obviously would then need to be treated with antibiotics/eye cream. When I finished with Mad Max and put him back in the box, Tia Lusso picked him up and took him back over to the other babies to comfort him.

Patriot, is without a doubt, the most vocal and most stubborn baby in this litter. All of the Mel's, even Mad Max, have excellent vocal chords but then I expect that anyway from my Oriental babies, however Patriot is loud enough for all four of them put together. He is also incredibly determined and stubborn. When I put the babies on the bedding this morning to have their photos taken, Patriot spent more time climbing all over the bedding, even climbing down it at one stage, than he did looking pretty for the camera. He has such a look of determination on his face when he wants to go somewhere. Today's gains weren't as good as yesterday so I'm going to be keeping an eye on them to make sure that nothing is amiss and that they are all doing okay. They are all certainly very lively babies and now, all four of the Mel's lie in the box and groom themselves (and each other) which is so very sweet. Amarula is looking too thin for my liking so I'm going to be giving her lots of extra meals as well as supplementing her with Nutri Drops to see if that makes a difference. I really do hate seeing her like that but I've been expecting it as her mother is exactly the same.

Due to a severe lack of time today etc. etc. both entries are exactly the same and there are no photos but I will make sure I include photos in tomorrow's entries. All of our upstairs children are doing extremely well and everyone made good gains again during the last 24 hours. The Mel's and the Condiments had some visitors today because Uncle Mike and Aunty Lulu came over to see them and the majority of the children didn't hesitate to show our friends exactly how vocal they can be even at this age. Vinegar was the only baby who was happy to be held without making a fuss. Even Tia Lusso and Amarula were quite good with regards to allowing visitors in to see the children which was a relief because due to Lusso's protective attitude I have been a little concerned about how she would handle visitors and whether or not she would even let them in the room but she was really quite good. She let me pick up the children to show them off but naturally once they started making a fuss, I had to return them to the box. Both mum's figured that the best way to stop me picking up the kids was to lie down and feed them and of course it worked straight away because the mum's know full well that I won't pick up one of the kids if they are latched on and feeding. On the whole I was really pleased with how well both girls accepted "strangers" into the kitten room and it does give me great hopes for when the babies move downstairs and their new families start to come to have cuddles with them.

Both diaries have very few photos in them today sorry and the photos were taken while the babies were in the box because Tia Lusso is not in the best of moods due to the fact that I swept and mopped the kitten room today and because she is so protective of the children, she did not appreciate the boom, or the mop coming anywhere near the box. I did try to tell her that it has to be kept clean so that the babies remain free from germs etc. but she didn't want to know. I figured that it was much better for her to then just snap a few photos without disturbing either her, or the babies.

Mad Max is the first of the babies to start to groom himself. When I was weighing the babies this morning (everyone had reasonable gains again overnight), I was putting Lethal Weapon back in the box and there was Mad Max grooming his back leg. It was so lovely to see. His mother, and Tia Lusso are both very clean girls so it looks as if they are making it a priority to teach their children to be very clean also. I'm just delighted with the Mel's progress at the moment and they are simply beautiful babies.

These are not long entries today as it is Easter Sunday and it's taken me an hour and a half just to sort out the photos alone for all 4 diaries. I also slept in this morning which has put me behind a bit as well.

Our Mel's are doing very well indeed and are continuing to make good weight gains on a daily basis which I'm really pleased about. The more I look at Mad Max, the more convinced I am that he will definitely be a Seal Point and Patriot's colouring is looking quite nice at the moment for a Havana. None of them were happy at all with being weighed this morning, nor having their bedding changed. Mind you, they had been sound asleep when I went in there to do the morning ritual. I am pleased that I had put the mother's out of the room prior to weighing them because the Mel's let me know in the most loudest of voices, exactly how they felt about being woken up. I tell you, the language that these children use at such a young age is rather frightening!

I do not know where the last week has gone and I can't believe that our Mel's are already one week old. They are all such beautiful babies are doing so incredibly well. I'm delighted to say that they have all virtually doubled their body weight within the first week. To be honest, I wasn't expecting that they would as I have found sometimes in the past that 7 or more babies with 2 mums sometimes means that some of the babies don't get to feed as much as they should, even though there are plenty of nipples to go around but obviously all of our Mel's are having no problems at all finding a nipple whenever they are hungry. They also all have their eyes fully open and are starting to move around the box quite a lot more now. Patriot is still proving to be a very persistent child and I do think that he gets frustrated that his legs don't work as well as he thinks they should because he's awake and not feeding, he is trying to move about but is not getting to his destination quite enough. Lethal Weapon and Braveheart spend an awful lot of time climbing all over each other when they are not feeding or sleeping. They seem to take comfort in the fact that they have each other and they are generally always found on top of each other. Mad Max on the other hand is perhaps feeling a bit like the odd one out as he is in the only Siamese in the litter. Sometimes he just crawls off on his own, and other times he joins in with the Condiments.