No time to blog yesterday even though I managed to get 3 children all asleep at the same time in the middle of the day for 1 hour. I spent the time resting and eating my lunch in peace.

Yesterday I went to mothers group in the morning which is basically hanging out with a bunch of friends who all look out for each others kids so we can relax a bit and talk about kid stuff. It was a beautiful Sydney day and was lovely sitting outside in my friend Penny's garden. There weren't too many fights or accidents and nobody fell asleep on the way home so the outing was a success.

Of course we had to do something in the afternoon as well (staying at home is just not exciting enough for Simon) so I just went to the local park with my neighbour who has 2 kids similar ages to mine. I made Ben walk to try and get him tired so he'll sleep better. By now you'll be getting the feeling that the theme of this blog is sleep. I must admit that sleep is definitely a big focus of a mother with 3 kids 4 and under. I looked after my friend Penny's little boy for an hour or so and for half an hour there was actually 5 kids in the house with me as the next door neighbour's girl came over for a play. I wouldn't have imagined I could have coped with that even last year but its amazing how things change.

Today Michael (aka the ideal husband) was home ( he only works 4 days a week) and we had a family outing to Clown Town. This is not a city full of scary entertainers rather its a children's play place with indoor climbing equipment where adults can ignore their children and enjoy tea or coffee. Sorry some adults watch their children. It was quite challenging to watch 3 children with only 2 adults when the 2 oldest children were not officially allowed to play on the same equipment. That's right there's some for 2 year olds and some for 4 year olds and Ben is 2 and Simon is 4. Basically Ben thinks he's 4 anyway so he played on the 4 year old equipment.

Last night Michael's sister had a little baby girl. Mazeltov Rachel! Michael's parents have gone to visit their new granddaughter and three other grandchildren who all live in Israel. We are happy for them but sad to lose our best babysitters. Simon and Ben especially miss them.

Rachel and her husband may find the new website http://www.raisingchildren.net.au useful which has been put out with the support of the Australian government. I thought it looked really good.

This afternoon I took the boys to a different park where they rode their tricycles and played on climbing equipment. I got chatting to a couple of people at the park. People are so friendly when they're with their kids. One was a mother of a 13 month old who was having trouble with her very active child. The other was a grandfather who looked after his 5 and 3 year old grandchildren one day a week and loved it. They were really nice kids too.

Michael is out tonight at a work poker night but he left me a warm fire which is making me sleepy. More tomorrow.