Charlie's latest trick is banging 2 cups together - he loves it and it keeps him entertained for ages. He had a bit of a grizzly day today due to a nasty cough but otherwise is doing great.

Philip was better from his latest bug by the weekend and has managed his 2 days at nursery, trying a new playgroup, his swimming lesson and a toddler group. After all that he seems to be catching up on sleep a bit. He's really coming on with his swimming from a very underconfident time 6 months ago when he wouldn't really get in the water and is now all giggles as we splash about. With his "number suit" (buoyancy jacket which has numbers inside to tell you in which order to take out the floats) he can float about on his own and is beginning to get the idea of propelling himself a bit with his legs.

He's still loving spotting numbers and encouraged by a tell the time with Thomas book can make the 'o clocks. Am not sure how much to encourage this as I don't really want him to know when In the Night Garden is on the telly! Counting is a big game where he knows the numbers in sequence so if he knows how many items there are he can do a reasonable attempt at counting to about 4 or 5 (whereafter he runs out of concentration). However this evening he was counting out fistfulls of books - 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6. "There, 2 books" he annouces having moved about 20 onto his bed! He's so cute when we do the nighttime songs screwing up his eyes tight and joining in with the words in his childish voice.

Me, I'm just beginning to get restless at all this being around the house. Time to start taxing my brain a bit more. First target is to start moving the kitchen forward again (still got bare plaster walls) and then I've got some professional exams to take (again). Urgh.