Yey, I finally have a childcare solution in place! After much searching, turning over options and getting nowhere, we've had to give up on the nursery for Charlie and find him a place at a childminders. There are pros as well as cons of this option anyway so it may turn out to be better. Philip will stay at the nursery for his 2 days a week for now as it's likely to be all change for him in September. But the pre-school doesn't tell us whether he's got a place until May /June! So it's back to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's for me from June. Hopefully with a holiday in August, yet to be negotiated.

Charlie still not quite crawling. Kitchen still not decorated. Philip still not potty trained. But we are managing slowly to fight back the tide of chaos in the house so Charlie won't find so many important pieces of paper to eat when he does start moving. And everything's moving in the right direction.

Kiddie update - Charlie is just pushing through tooth no 4. The first 2 were the middle bottom ones as you'd expect but the next 2 aren't the opposing teeth on the top, there's a gap in the middle so far. He's also on the starting blocks for crawling which I seem to remember can go on for a while and then you suddenly realise they're half way up the stairs when you weren't watching. He can hold his bottom of the floor and go backwards when he's really keen to go forwards but then finds something else interesting there to play with so doesn't seem too frustrated unless he gets stuck.

Philip's incessant demand is "you read that story". He hasn't sussed that most people would define a story as a whole book - to him it seems to be each page that goes with a picture. Useful in one way as you can bring story reading to a close quicker. But the repeated refrain with each turn of the page can get a bit wearing. He is memorising whole chunks without 100% understanding what they mean and then plays bits out either repeating them as he settles for sleep or while playing with his trains to see if he can get them to make sense. Bits like Duncan crashing into the mine, or Mavis working at the quarry he doesn't really have the experiences to understand yet.

Over Easter we met up with lots of people who helped with the story reading marathon, and we visited lots of different places without staying away from home too much. Philip got a lot out of it all, and especially "helping" with some jobs at Gran and Grandfather's house and seems to have grown up loads. Since last summer we've noticed he gets unsettled when Ed goes back to work, he obviously gets a lot out of the attention 2 parents can give. But he probably needs time to process it all in between!

I've finally reached the point where I'm ready to organise a return to work. I popped into Arup to see what had changed (and what hadn't), thought about a couple of options and went to check with the nursery what days I could arrange. Bit of a blow, they're full in the baby room until October so a radically different Plan B is going to be required. I was thinking of moving Philip this September / Christmas anyway so it seems to make sense to change everything at once. But that depends on what pre-school place he can get which won't be clear until May or maybe June. So I'm still stuck with what ifs and maybes. I know it'll all be all right on the night, and I don't want to be too precious about my little darlings but I do find working out childcare choices very emotionally draining so it'll have to be done in little bits and is likely to take some time to find the right solution.

Phew - long post!

I've got interested in composting! Last weekend I picked up my father's copy of the Little Book of Composting and finally there's an explanation of some of the science behind it and suggestions I can understand of how to go about it (described in terms of hosting a good party for the organisms required). So what was an obsession of my fathers, is now an interest of mine. Now need to find time to dig out our old compost bin so we can get going with the new ideas.