Wednesday 15th March
Poor Lily is calling yet again. She just seems totally fed up with it all at the moment, and it is making her a bit bad tempered with the other cats and kittens, which is really quite unlike her. My hands are tied at the moment, as there is little I can do to help her, except for to be there for her, cuddle her, reassure her and make sure that the kittens don't wind her up too much!!! The sun is shining in this room at the moment, so I am hoping now that they will all start to settle down. They are due their afternoon sleep soon. When they do all go to sleep, I will pick them up and put them altogether, somewhere cosy, so that when they wake, they wont find themselves on their own. When they have been playing boisterously, they have a tendency to fall asleep just where they stop playing. At the moment, they are congregating on the window sill, in the sunshine.

Most of them have been up on the landing with the younger kittens, playing, just for a short while this morning. Spotty and Fluffy are really good with them.

All has gone quiet for the moment, Lil is resting on the scratching post in the hallway, 4 of them have made their way onto the bed settee to sleep, 2 are asleep on the windowsill. Lil has now just jumped on my lap and is grumbling, and there is a fight going on ont he bed settee!!! it takes them so long to wind down sometimes!!! I have just taken a photo of all of them, as they are at current, so I will attach those in a minute.

Tuesday 14th March
You will laugh at one of the photos in today's little collection. Spotty last night, came face to face with her reflection in a small mirror, and got herself all worked up. She sat there, on and off, for about 15 minutes, trying to scare the unknown visitor off. It really was very funny to watch.

I weighed them all last night...what can I say about my Nia, she is the same weight as my largest boy, Frodo!!! 1kg 300g's!!! Saffie weighed 1kg 180g, Bilbo weighed 1kg 115g, Spotty weighed 1kg 40g and Fluffy only weighed 1kg 65g. I say only weighed, because at birth, she was about the same size as Nia. The difference is that Nia likes to eat, and eat, and eat and eat!!Fluffy on the other hand is really fussy, so has not put on the weight that she should do. I am not overly worried about this, as she is staying with us, and we will fatten her up when the rest of her siblings have gone. Spotty was always going to be lighter than the big ones, as she was the smallest at birth. But she is doing fine, as you can see by the photo and is not fussy like her sister!!! I did however see Fluff eating some fish this morning, that was a first!

They are all awake at the moment, running around. G's kittens are upstairs on the landing, with the barrier to stop them coming down. It is interesting to see that Lil's kittens don't tend to go up there. They did come up for a look last night, and big Chocolate girl, decided to take on Saffi!!!!

Fluffy does actually go up there with them quite a lot, she seems to get on with them well, which is good for me, as she is staying here!! Although I think the reason she goes up there, is to steal their milky food!!!

Spotty is sitting on my lap as I type, she is a really lovely little girl, sweet and very pretty, providing there is not a mirror in the vicinity!!!

Monday 13th March
I will start by writing a tiny bit tonight. Richard insisted on sleeping down here, I told him that no way would he go to sleep with 6 kittens leaping all over him, he asked me to give him the benefit of the doubt. And how he did it I will never know, but after only 5 minutes, he was fast asleep, with Lil's babies leaping all over him!!! They have now just joined him on the bed, with Lil and are suckling away, with lots of purrs.He on the other hand is snoring away!!! I am typing this with only the light of the lap top to help me. and G has just come down......to use the litter tray AGAIN!!!!

I mean, how many times can you clean out litter trays at this time of night. I have been operating a conveyor belt system, for the past hour and a half......no sooner have I cleaned one, there is someone else wanting to use it................I will have nightmares about litter trays soon!!!

Oh well, I am going to transfer my photos across now, so they are done for the morning, I have just taken one of Lil's babies ( G is still digging!!!!) on the bed, hopefully it will come out ok. G has just joined them, as her kittens are asleep!! Now she has gone back upstairs to her little family. Soon I can sleep!

Well it was a hectic hour and a half last night! It always is that time of night, I don't know what happens to them!! They are all settled on the bed settee again now. G is with them, but I shall soon send back off upstairs to her babies, when I have typed this. am glad that they are getting used to sleeping on the bed now, and quilts, and I know I am going to tempt fate by writing this, but so far, touch wood, not little accidents on the quilt down here! Quilts can be an inviting place for little toilet accidents, as they are nice and soft, and remind them of the bedding from when they were first born.So I am making sure they are used to sleeping on this quilt now, before they leave for their new homes, which really wont be long now. I will sign off for today, and start on G's little entry.

Sunday 12th March
I am writing this today, with Spot, Fluf and Bilbo sitting to my left, watching, and waiting for an opportunity to walk across the keyboard,they are also wrestling with a pencil, it does not make for very relaxed typing! I have only just got up, after a somewhat chaotic morning so far. Rich came into my room at (Ni Ni has just joined us)7:40, I don't know why, but I can only assume with the attention of waking me up. He left after I growled at him. But rich does not shut doors tight, and of course within minutes, Lil is in, followed by her offspring. I am lying there, dimly aware of lots of bodies thudding all around me, until I realise what has happened. I call Rich to get them out, which he does, or at least claims to have done. But it transpires that 1 kitten has been left.....Fluff, who is now yelling her head off to be let out. So I get up to let her out.

Lil is showing signs of calling again, poor love, as she is being very noisy. I get up, to find that Rich has also been into the lounge, again no shutting the door properly, and Lil and 6 kittens are running riot in there. Thankfully he had put Percy out first!!!

So it has not been a very relaxing day so far.

The photos for today's diary, I took last night, in this room, while I was sat on the floor on my laptop. Still cameras cannot really capture the speed and force with which these kittens move around this place. They were launching themselves at me from all directions, and when you have a sleeveless t shirt on, that can be very painful!!! Nothing is safe, and things are being knocked over in all directions and from all surfaces. It is hard to relax, as you are waiting for what is going to go flying next!!! Oh yes, early this morning, Tim was having a wee, and did not shut the door, and as he was in action, Saffy came running (you know what I am going to say here!) in and leapt straight into the toilet!!!! Tim had to hastily extract her from the toilet bowl...

Saturday 11th March
As it was Saturday, I was treated to a little lay in. I was woken up by fluff and Nia who came in for a cuddle. Nia is the larger of the Tabby girls, and the quieter of the 2. I have called her Nia as part of her ped name is Nianna, an Elven name, so it naturally shortens to Nia. However, the children have shortened it even further. If you have watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you will remember the Nights of Ni!!! The word Ni is said with a certain emphasis, that you would only know if you have seen the film. Well, now when little Ni comes in the room, my 2 boys go around saying , Ni Ni!!! So now she is tending to be called our little Ni Ni, poor little girl!! It is funny how the journey of their pet names travels.

I have a quiet weekend really, no one is coming to visit the kittens, so it is just the 3 of us.

My morning routine is done, downstairs has been hoovered. Fluffy, Spotty, Nia and Lil, braved it out, and stayed on my bed settee, the other 3 scarpered! G stayed in her basket with her babies, but then I don't go into the bathroom. the bathroom has been cleared out. Food all done and cleaned out, litter trays checked. Now Lil and her kittens are asleep on my bed settee, I will take a photo of them now, and include it in the photos in a minute. I have just done that.

Hmmmm, we had a bit of a naughty kitten early this morning......The children have been told to close their doors at bed time, partly because their rooms are a health hazard, and I don't want any little accidents on the bedding, if the kittens get disorientated in the night....guess what. Rich goes to the toilet early in the morning. Lets be honest, he likes to leave his door open, as he likes the kittens in with him. Not any more he doesn't!! He was woken, I use his words here, "my leg was feeling nice and warm". Yes, you have guessed, a kittens was weeing on his sheet, and obviously not aiming very well, as it weed all over his leg!!!!!!!!! My first reaction was to be cross with Richard, and then I saw the funny side of it. I don't know who the culprit was, as Rich said that he jumped up and cursed. So, I suspect he will shut them out of his room at night times from now on!!!! More washing for me though.

Spotty and Nia have just woken up, and they are currently fighting on the settee!! Photo just taken!

Friday 10th March
The names, Spotty and Fluffy, plus a few curses have been uttering from my mouth this morning!!! 4 lovely Tabby points are asleep and quiet, Spotty and Fluffy are NOT!!! They have managed to knock all the trophies off the window, clamber over the keyboard while Tim ( who is still home with a very heavy cold) tries to write a story, and are now squealing and generally keeping everyone else from relaxing. Poor Lil just looks at them, grumbling every now and then!!

And how much cat litter can such small creatures (oh no, they are back in......Spot on the window sill, Fluff heading for Tim's keyboard) use!!! When they wake, it can be manic,as they all decide to toilet at ( oh help,Tabby boy just come to join in the trouble) (batteries just knocked off the now shut up kitten box) once, but not all in the same litter tray!!! ( second tabby boy just joined us!!! trying to climb on my lap top!!!)

Last night one ( kitten just fallen off, fluffy apparently, behind kitten box!) of the kittens, managed to knock over a whole glass of red wine, onto my nice, or once was nice, beige carpet!!! I poured lots of salt over it, and hoovered it up, but there is still a lovely red stain on the carpet. OK, silly place to put glass of wine, with kittens around, but it was only there for a second, and that was all it took!!

This morning, Rich left his bedroom door open, so I came home to find (another thud, Spot has just taken a tumble!) Lil and the kittens snuggled up on his pillow, that will do his allergies the power of good! I took a couple of photos of them snuggled up there.

Oh yes, and I took a lovely photo of my Tabby boy, he saw himself in the mirror, and got all upset, you can see him with his tail all fluffed up!!!

They have all just left the room, so a sigh of relief from Tim and I !!!

Thursday 9th March
To set the scene in the house as I type, with the older kittens. 2 of them are asleep on Timothy's bed, which is interesting, as he has a cabin bed, which is high off the floor. As I have Timothy home from school again today ( we have had such a rough time with illnesses this winter) I am suspecting that he may have put them up there with Lil! The other 4 kittens are asleep on the landing, on the old scratching post. They seem to prefer to go upstairs at the moment. So I have a redundant 'scratching mouse' and new scratching post down here!!! But there is not the room to put any more on the landing now. I am looking forward to better weather so that I can get the rabbit back outside, and have the conservatory back for the cats to run in. I am also hoping to have an outside run ready for early summer.

It is nice now that the older ones are growing up, as they now have become part of the day to day running, they wake, they sleep, they play, as and when they feel like it. whereas when they are very young, I really needed to be around when they had their waking times, and fresh food would always be given when they wake. They eat a lot of biscuits now, so I just need to keep an eye on those levels, and I give them fresh chicken and fish about 3 to 4 times a day, depending on when they ask ( apart from Fluffy!!!!!! And she just screams for her 'special food')

Wednesday 8th March
I am sure these kittens just keep growing!!!! They did go to sleep earlier last night, I sat up with them, towards 11.30, having a mug of green tea before sleep, and finishing off a drop of wine. It was my birthday yesterday, and I had some lovely tissue paper wraping a present. I put it out for them, knowing just how much kittens LOVE tissue paper. I had it arranged on the small scratching post, hanging from the little posts. They had such fun attacking it. I wanted so much to take lots of photos, but just as I started, the battery lost its charge, so I couldn't take any at all. So instead, I took some this morning, of the kittens just starting to settle down,after attacking the tissue paper. When they go to sleep now, they tend to sleep in lots of different places, and now that they are bigger, then do not very often all sleep together.

When I returned from the school run this morning, I found Lil being very noisy, yelling at me. Something had obviously upset her. It was only when she stopped yelling, that I heard a pitiful yell upstairs. It seemed that poor little Saffy had been shut upstairs in Richards bedroom. Poor love, she sounded as if she was losing her voice from yelling so much . When I ran upstairs and let her out, she purred like crazy!!!! And Lily was quite!!

Tuesday 7th March
Lily's babies are well and truly awake at the moment. But they have slept a lot this morning, so I had a little peace. Last night, I went to bed around midnight, and I was aware of lots of thumping around outside my door, and lots of thumping of feet running up and down the stairs. It is nice that they can have all the space to run at night, and a jolly good thing that they cannot open my door!!! Sleep would be a thing of the past if they could do that.

Fluffy continues to be a menace, she refuses to eat anything else other than the milky mix that I put down, so I must try to put down less, to encourage her to eat other food. She tends to come and hoover up the left over from the little kittens. She looks at disgust at anything else put down, but she screams her head off outside the kitchen door when I am boiling the kettle!! My large Tabby girl, whom I shall call Nia from now, just eats, and eats and eats!!! Such a contrast between the two, although their weights are similar. Spotty, is a sweet girl, but very much a menace and a naughty little thing given the chance. She tried to 'fly' on Sunday morning, as she took a rather large leap from the banisters. It reminded me of the time Smeagle did it from the last litter!!!

Lily tends to watch them from afar, often from the safety from the top of the climbing post. The photos that I took last night, I took from within the safety of the kitten box, as they were thundering all around!

Monday 6th March
Lil's kittens seemed to be awake a lot of the night, phew, I don't know where they get their energy from, and they are eating me out of house and home!!!! And the litter tray usage is getting silly!!!! They will be 10 weeks old on wednesday, and I certainly know that they are here. I have had to shut them out of the bedroom here, as they were going crazy, the little ones wanted to get out to join them, they were squealing and going crazy, G was getting really stressed and the older kittens were wrecking everything in sight...so I have just shut the big ones out, so that I could attempt to write this!!! It is better for me now that they are in the open space at night times, because I do not have to stay up and wait until they tire before I go to bed!! They woke up about half an hour before I went to bed, so I took a few photos of them playing on the stairway, they were really moving too fast to take any quiet shots!!!

We were all in this room last night, watching a bit of tv, I was in the box with the little one, while the older ones were into mischief everywhere else. A couple of them cuddled up on the seat. I dare not let them into the lounge, as it would be just too stressful for Percy, even though they would love to get in there to 'investigate' the place!!! They have been in all the other rooms in the house now.

Saturday 4th March
Well, the kittens now have my bedroom, and they have been having a ball in there for most of the morning, and Lil is happy to have my bed back again, and is cuddled up there resting.

They were really good at the vets yesterday, and they were all given a clean bill of health, that is always a relief. They were curious when we got in the surgery, and wanted to get out of the basket to explore, they didn't seem phased at all. They were not too keen on the needle though!!!! so it will be interesting to see if they are so keen when they go for the next lot!!! They may remember. They have all been chasing around the house since, so there seem to be no side affects, always a relief to get the first vaccines done.

I bought them some cold chicken slices yesterday, and some cold ham, and they hoovered it up!!! So I decided that yes, they liked that. If feels like a swarm of locusts when I put food out, they all swarm in and clean the plates up.

fluffy does not seem to like much of the other food though, she like her milky mix, and she stands outside the kitchen door, yelling and yelling until I emerge with it!!! she then leaps a round my feet until I put it down on the ground. She must be the girl that we are going to sleep, because I only seem to have fussy cats!!!

Friday 3rd March
Well, last night, I allowed them to keep the run of the hallway, bathroom, landing and stairs over night, no more shutting them in the bathroom. That made life easier, and G was ok, even though it seemed as if they were pruning around out there all night!!! whenever I woke, I was sure I could hear them leaping around!!!

They are due to go for their check up and vaccinations at 2.30 this afternoon, so I am crossing my fingers that everything will be ok, and that the vet will be happy with them. They have finished their current course of worming paste, just one more to go now, before they go to their new homes. I am sort of dreading going to the vets, I will be glad when it is all done and I can bring them home again. When you are in the waiting room, everybody wants to look at them, and I try to keep them covered up, at this age, to protect them from any nasty germs that maybe floating around. So all you can hear is lots of squeaking from behind the towel!!!!

The photos that I have to share are ones that I took before going to bed last night, they were all playing up on the landing, making a lot of noise!!!

Thursday 2nd March
I have sneaked into this room, after dropping the children off at school, without Lil and her kittens really knowing that I have come back, I am hoping that they will stay asleep until I have finished writing this.

I took photos last night, as they were going crazy, at around 11pm. Something seems to happen to them at that time of night!!!!!! It is very difficult trying to take photos when they are running around like crazy things, attacking everything that moves. I tried to take one photo of a kitten on the stairway, but by the time my camera had responded, all I had was an empty stair, lol, the kitten had scarpered!!!

Spotty and Fluffy continue to be the hooligans of the bunch, if there is trouble you can guarantee that one of them will be involved, with a look of , 'it wasn't me mum, I am much too pretty'.......................This is only a short write up today, as I have to go off to the hairdressers, I suspect they will be cross with me when I get back, for daring to go out!!!!!

Wednesday 1st March
Before I sat down to write, I was just thinking how much quieter she had been so far today, and maybe she was going to stop calling, and give us all a break..............and then she started up. I have shut the door, so that I can concentrate on this in peace.
I am letting them have short periods of time in different bedrooms now, they love to play under my bed, playing a game of hide and pounce from under my duvet that is hanging down. I think underneath beds is a very exciting place for kittens.

I gave them their first worming paste, they have a little over a period of 3 days, ohhh, they loved that!!! I think they thought something nice and milky was going to come out of the syringe thing, and then the look on their faces, bless them. They shook their little heads and then jumped off my lap in disgust, lol. The easiest way to do this, is to wait until they are asleep, maybe close to them waking up, and then scoop them up one at a time while they are still sleepy, the medicine goes down nicely before they have even had time to work out what is going on!!

I have rearranged their vaccinations for Friday afternoon. But as it turns out, I could have taken them today, as the man has still not turned up to mend my washing machine. I shall have to visit Tesco's later, to buy some cheap towels, if I cannot wash them, I will have to buy them!!!

It sounds quiet outside now, I think they have gone to sleep. They have had a jolly good run, used the toilet, eaten, squealed a lot, and now they need their rest!! As for the cat litter that I am getting through. My poor bin men!!!!!