The last week has been great - sitting on the floor playing with the children, being able to give the older two the 'time of day' and really listen to them. This is what is was like when I had one child. I hope that it is more than a passing phase. Perhaps it comes out of my own sense of personal fulfillment. I have been working really long hours at night on various administration and financial projects. I am once again seeing more of the surface of my desk, the floor in our bedroom and other areas in the home.





We are still proving Agate's food sensitivity to amines. In the past couple of months it has been evident when she has eaten chocolate - behaviour is defiant and oppositional, speech is loud, and her poos sticky. It appears to take about 3 days for the effects to wear off. On one or two occasions we were anticipating a return to 'normal' which didn't happen only to find she had stashed a chocolate away in her bed that she had thence eaten. Argh!

Agate is due to go to Australia with her grandparents later this month and the last thing that I want is for them to have to put up with her behaviour and toilet requirements. I will give them a list of foods that contain amines but still are not 100% sure that these are the primary or only culprits.





Agate has officially finished pre-school and is now home with us all for 'school'. She is at the end of learning her phonics and beginning to read. It all comes down to the concentration - if she hasn't eaten anything 'bad' she is teachable, otherwise there is no point.





Ruby has decided to take up a knitting challenge from one of the stores to knit a layette for a premature baby. She has started on the back of the cardigan first and is making good progress. I admire her heart and her commitment to giving to other people. We thought that after she finished this project we would both start to knit sets of premmie clothes for the Multiple Birth Club to lend or hire out - like leaving a legacy. I just hope that other people still know how to wash wool! When I think about doing this I am reminded of the many other unstarted and therefore unfinished knitting projects I have as well. And in the middle of it all I could really do with a long wrap jacket to snuggle into myself.

I really like to look for new patterns online at bernat.com knitty.com and rebecca-online.com (although the later doesn't add anything to their free patterns often). I'm always on the look out for new modern patterns so feel free to post your favourites.





We have new neighbours on both sides now (not that I knew about one until the day before yesterday). It is a strange feeling. The day the big house sold it was like a grief - a knowing that the former owner (deceased) was gone and that we would have to learn to accommodate new people and probably a large family.

We have since talked a few times about being able to move but with the focus not on escaping the neighbours but on moving nearer our families. I really don't know how we could do it and keep that house we are in.