Not a lot...

...to blog tonight! Spent the day trying to dry out wildlife magazines and camping gear from the flood and washing anything that was washable! Then decided that it really can't all go back in the cellar, so where? Roped Paul into a mass rearrange of the garage -sorry half a garage - remember we rent - well our landlord has a mass of old vetenary equipment and cupboards, wardrobes, shelving and general trash which he is hoarding in the back of the garage which is part of our rental, but can I get Paul to tackle the issue with him...! Grrr s:( !! So I decided we might as well utilise some of those empty cupboards, but where to put them? Arranging them around redundant radiators and planks of wood...I'm still not happy with it and would really like to pull the whole lot out and start from scratch, but how to with 5 small ones to care for as well - it would take a solid day? So I might have to make do with the best of a bad job (I'm a perfectionist at heart and really like everything to have a home, so this is tough for me). I hate living in a house full of boxes that are full of things I only need on odd occasions and would ideally store in a loft - but I don't have a loft in a downstairs flat and I don't have a functioning cellar either. So the half a garage is my only other option and that's chock with bikes, scooters, trailer, trail-a-bike, gardening gear (from when we had a garden and in hope of one again someday!)and now contents of the cellar too. Really I'd like to rehome some of the stuff IN the house (not just that from under it), but I think that's unlikely to happen. SO - the gist of it is, I'm a little frustrated by my lack of storage space - and with 5 children there's lot of 'stuff' needs storing! Ho-Hum!!

Other than that a very uneventful day. The boys went to tennis this morning - three days of an hour and a half in the morning, but yesterday was rained off. Joel loved it and is talking about wanting a racket. Good - that's something else they can do 'together' but without stepping on each others toes (hopefully - scuse the pun!). :)

Abbie was less of a pain today - less whingy and whiny (isn't that such an annoying thing?!)& less demanding of IMMEDIATE attention when she wanted it. I forgot to say yesterday, but she has just taken to biting her sister (this is my 3yo biting the 2yo) when Phoebe doesn't do things exactly right. I'm finding it a really tough one to deal with. I've tried reasoning with her as her language is good enough to do that, I've tried sending to sit on her bed for a length of time and then making her apologise (she finds that hard), I've even tried showing her in a controlled way that biting really hurts - just in case she didn't realise! And then last I smacked her - something I do try to avoid if I can with her, and especially for violence, because I cannot see how violence for violence teaches much at all. But all to no avail. Today though, Phoebe bit Abbie, so she got a taste of her own medicine and we told her she was to blame (in a roundabout way) for showing Phoebe that that was an option. My main concern is that Abbie ONLY does it to Phoebe - never outside the home or to anyone else, but Phoebe is only 2 and I'm worried she may experiment with it elsewhere as a 'control' technique - let's hope not! Anyway, any suggestions anyone? I hate it and want it to stop ASAP!

I just remembered the other thing I've been meaning to blog. Ellie has weaned herself at only 8 months :( I was SO not ready for her to do that, but she had three feeds from me one day, two the next and then the following day point blank refused to go anywhere near me. I expressed a little milk into a cup (thinking it might be an odd teething thing), but she spat out the milk! 10 days on and my boobs feel really uncomfortable (although I think I'm over the worst now) - so much so that it's hard to get comfy in bed at night and I keep waking myself up by lying wrong. I've never had this before as the others have all weaned slowly. This was just such a sudden stop. I am really sad (strange because I was always glad in the past when they eventually weaned, to have my freedom back a little). I don't really want her to be independent of me yet. I liked having an excuse to take her everywhere with me - not that I should need one of course, but some of my friends are not so into kids as me! It's bizarre though because she still gets really excited when she sees me, like as if she is expecting a feed, but when it's offered she just laughs at me and turns away. It's horrible! :(

Well that's about it - I think - ended up quite a bit in the end!