We had 2 events last night concerning Mad Max, one of which I could have done without quite easily. After dinner, the babies decided that enough was enough, it was time to fly the nest so all 7 babies started walking off the bed and running/walking around the whole of the room. This sent Tia Lusso into panic stricken mode, and Amarula was not much better. They both knew that there was no way they would be able to get 7 babies back on the bed as they could only carry one each at a time. So I left the mum's to go running around the room after the kids and I went outside to do the litter trays/water/food in the stud houses. When I came back in, I was absolutely horrified to find Mad Max lying on the floor in a funny position near the leg of one of the office chairs, while Tia Lusso was on the office chair with Pepper. Straight away, I went to Mad Max and picked him up and to be honest, I was truly thinking the worst because I knew exactly what must have happened. Tia Lusso was frantic because the babies wouldn't stay on the bed when she put them back there, so instead, she had the bright idea to put them on the office chair. Mad Max was one of those babies and he had obviously crawled straight off the office chair and fell onto the hard floor below. (Lee and Susie are you having a coronary as you read this?) I grabbed Pepper off the chair, put her on the floor, and then put Mad Max back down on the floor to see what damage had been done to the poor guy. You have no idea the relief I felt when he squealed at me and then walked off in a totally different direction. I just sat there watching him go around the room monitoring him and thanked God that he was not injured, or even worse. The next thing I did was remove BOTH office chairs, and wheeled them into the lounge room where they stayed overnight because I can not leave them in the back room unless I'm in here in case it happens again. I know I have said this before so often but we try so very hard to ensure we have no possible accident zones in the back room but I was well and truly caught out last night. Now that was the bad event that happened. Now onto the good event..................While the babies were still running around, I figured I might try to see if I could interest one or two of them in a bit of "proper" food. Each time their mum's get fed the chicken, if the babies are walking about, they will go over to the plate, sniff the chicken and then walk straight through so they've not quite picked up on what they should be doing with it but they certainly seem attracted to the smell of it. So last night I had the ingenious idea (and I don't know why it's taken me this long to think of it), of using the chicken stock to help with the weaning. As you know the mum's eat mainly freshly cooked chicken and mince on a daily basis, and this means that I'm forever collecting jars of chicken stock, so I heated some of the stock up, poured it over the James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits which I placed in a small bowl, I then mashed the biscuits with a fork until they became mashed up and soggy. I then put my fingers in the mixture, held it out to the babies and every single baby apart from Salt loved it and ate quite a bit of it straight from my fingers. Mad Max decided that it was in fact so good that the fingers were not good enough and he ate straight from the bowl. Without any prompting from me I swear, he just went straight over to the bowl, put his head down and started gobbling up as much as he could. I was amazed.What a very clever boy and not even 4 weeks old yet. I do not know why it's taken me this long to think of soaking the biscuits in the stock. Normally, I soak them in boiled water to make them soggy, or my evaporated milk mixture which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Even now I can't believe how quickly all the babies took to it. It certainly bodes well for when I actually make the attempt to wean them properly. I am rather relieved to say that Patriot, Lethal Weapon and Braveheart have not got into any sort of mischief or trouble at all thank goodness. My 2 Black babies are such little treasures. They are so funny and I love the way they look at me when I speak with them. Graham and I had lots of giggles as we sat out here before dinner last night watching them wrestle with each other. This must be the longest entry so far? In which case I'm wondering what on earth I can say about the Condiment's to make their entry look equally as interesting.

I must start of today's entries by saying that I really do feel like I am the luckiest woman in the world. Today is my birthday, I am 136 years old (nope, it's not a misprint, it's how old I feel) and I have just spent some time playing with our beautiful babies who are now turning into proper little kittens right before my very eyes. They are such wonderful babies and could melt the hardest of hearts and make even the most sour person smile. Watching their wrestling matches is such tremendous fun. Both Tia Lusso and Amarula are going absolutely mental at the moment because their babies want to explore and they do not want that at all. Not only that, but every time I open the door to the back room if I am going out to get something, I have to be so very careful because Lusso flies out the door like a shot straight after Ice, or whoever else may be in the vicinity. There is no way this girl wants anyone in here to see her babies.

I've been having a great time with our Mel's as they are all so very responsive now and when I get down on the floor to chat with them and stroke them, they all look at me, and Patriot actually walks over to me so I can pick her up. Which naturally I do, the only problem of course is that as I pick her up, Tia Lusso bites me (gently) because she wants me to put her back on the bed. I am convinced that Lusso blames me for her children roaming about the room. All of our Mel's are very inquisitive babies and they have barrels of confidence which is lovely to see.

You will notice that I managed to take separate photos for today's entries. The photos were actually taken last night and as a result, I think they are darker than they should be.

Well despite what Graham says, the Mel's DO love my singing, they particularly love it when you sing Irish songs to them and Mad Max, who still squeals if he gets picked up, is perfectly happy for me to stroke him and tickle his belly and sing to him. It really does seem to calm him down and he finds it soothing which is lovely. He has now been off the bed exploring, just like his brother and sisters so all 4 of our Mel's have all taken those first steps off the bed and into the big wide world. Lethal Weapon and Braveheart really make me smile because they are always together at the moment, where one goes, the other follows and they do look quite similar sometimes. Last night, Patriot wasn't sure about going for walks, she did think about it and on 3 occasions she went to come off the bed but each time, she then went back to Tia Lusso and eventually started feeding instead.

Extremely quick entry today with no photos because my darling Guinness left me today and I've had the most wonderful time with Guinness' new owner, May of Mazpahs Siamese and Orientals. It was so lovely to spend time with May we both enjoyed our time together. I think May enjoyed watching the Condiments and the Mel's as they fed, wrestled with each other and the funniest thing was that each time a baby strayed from the bed (which they are starting to do more and more often now), Tia Lusso would go straight after them, pick them up and take them back to the bed where she would dump them rather unceremoniously. Amarula was content to watch the babies wander so long as she could see exactly where they were but Tia Lusso was having none of it. I really do not know what she'll do in a week or two's time when all the children are running about all over the place. I guess if nothing else, she will get plenty of exercise. All of our babies are doing very well, they are so very energetic when they're awake and their wrestling matches really do have me in fits of laughter as I watch them. Like all babies, they are real time wasters. I promise that tomorrow there will be photos in the diaries and I will do separate entries. I have a little bit of "breathing space" now as my previous children have all left me and I had been planning on putting the final entry in the Pints' diary today but I have run out of time so that will be done tomorrow.

Patriot is the first of the Mel's to explore the back room, but unlike Lethal Weapon and Pepper, she actually went incredibly far and she was having a wonderful time sniffing everything. She is a very brave girl and not intimidated by anything at all. So typical of the Havana attitude towards life. Lethal Weapon has also explored a small part of the room now and it was funny because Braveheart did go to follow her brother but then decided that the milk bar was a much better option. Mad Max is the only Mel who so far hasn't had much of an interest in leaving the bed but I have no doubts at all that by Sunday, all four babies will be out and about. I did have another look at our babies' sexes today and was rather relieved to see that Mad Max and Lethal Weapon are still male, whereas Braveheart and Patriot are most definitely still female.

Yet again, the entries are the same but we should resume normal entries tomorrow. Today has been so very busy because the morning was spent cleaning out the back room and bringing Tia Lusso, Amarula and their babies downstairs to the new home. The move went incredibly well and the babies, as well as the mum's are both really happy which is great. I have taken away their box now as it is cumbersome and when the kids move downstairs, they are much better off going straight onto bedding where they can move around, as and when they want to. Tia Lusso surprised me as I did think she would go nutty with her babies out of the box and in a different room but she settled perfectly well so that is just wonderful. One thing I forgot to mention is that you might remember me saying Tia Lusso was getting sick and tired of being cooped up in the kitten room and had been crying at the door? Well I got it totally wrong! She was not crying at the door because of loneliness and boredom, she was crying at the door because the little minx is in full call. She has been screaming her head off and making love with all the cat scratch posts for 3 days now. Way too early for her to be calling again and the biggest problem now will be to monitor the babies weights' closely and ensure that the calling is not having any effect on the milk or the babies. So far though it's all okay which is a big relief. There's just a couple of photos in today's entries, the first of which will show you their brand new home.