My 3 boys

Ben and Steve cuddling Charley this morning. Ben asked for a muslin for his shoulder as well :D "I need mus'in too, mummy"

The wind and rain have been relentless overnight. We woke up to find the last remaining fence panel down on the right hand side of the garden (to add to the 2 that the previous high winds brought down), and during the morning the wind brought down one of the rotten fence posts on the left hand side of the garden holding up the neighbour's fence. Unfortunately our fence was holding up their fence and the post and panels it was supposed to be holding up took out two of our fence panels as it came down. I really don't get this habit round here of having two fences running alongside each other down the gardens. Do people really dislike talking to their neighbours so much? Does it cause that much disagreement to just put up one decent fence and look after it? Anyway I hope the fence coming down will finally get the left hand landlord talking to us so we can get rid of their rotten fenceposts and just have ours which look and feel a lot more stable.

Steve's been off to the doctors' today to see about getting antibiotics for his chest infection. He's been pretty collapsed really. Even so he was able to take Ben down first thing to let me and Charley get up slowly. It's been a good system, me doing the night shift and Steve letting me lie in while he does the morning shift. And then we both stumble through the rest of the day together ish.

I've managed to get my hair washed though which is always a happy achievement, and I've trimmed my fringe - I'm getting to be a dab hand at that!

We've not managed a great deal today really. Although we did manage to get rid of the futon! Bought that futon when we moved to the South, built it in the attic in our cottage when a friend came to visit so he'd have somewhere to sleep. It's hosted many a friend and family member over the past 4 and a half years. And now it has a new home! And we have space to build some shelves which, once Charley is asleep and transferred to Steve's shoulder, is what I'll be building. (And trying not to use the wrong screws, or to lose a screw that doesn't exist.)

The last word today goes to Steve. I'm so grateful to him for holding a screaming Charley of an evening while I spend some quality time with Ben putting him to bed. Ok so sometimes it's the other way round and I get the difficult Ben (in which case Steve gets called up anyway while I hold a happy Charley) and sometimes Steve gets a contentedly sleeping baby as well.

But the times I get to sing Ben to sleep, like tonight, are truly truly special.

Thankyou Steve. xxxx