My daughter has her first play soon. They're showing Noah's Ark at her nursery on the 26th of June. Raven will be a ladybird. Of course. I'm quite excited though I do wonder how on earth they'll make her stay on a stage with mum, dad, Arthur and grandma sitting in the audience. But I'm sure it'll be super cute regardless.

Raven is a lot less testing with me than she is with her father. I suppose that's because in many ways he is the main caregiver and main caregivers are always subjected to more trying behaviour than subordinate caregivers. But when she's poorly, I'm the person she wants to cuddle. But then, I am her mother after all. I fear Arthur will never need to be looked after to such an extent by Adam and thus not develop quite such a closeness with him, because Arthur the main reason why Adam has become Raven's caregiver. Did that make sense?

But I'm glad she doesn't test me as much as she tests Adam. I couldn't be on my own with both of them for 3 days like this if she was. I know she's away at nursery for a good part of the day, but as any parent can tell you, the hours I do have her at home are by far the most stressful ones because they are the ones where she is most tired and most things have to happen by a certain time – and add to that the constant demands of a nursing baby...

Speaking of nursing baby, I'm counting down now to Arthur being introduced to solids. In 19 days he'll be 6 months old. Arthur, like Raven, will then join the ranks of the less than one percent of babies that are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of their lives. Before I offend anyone with my rabid views on child rearing, let me just reiterate that the recommendations regarding breastfeeding and introducing solids are not mine – they are those of the WHO and all national government health organisations with a breastfeeding policy.

I – of all women - do understand completely how it can be difficult for a lot of mothers to keep breastfeeding exclusively for 6 months. Especially with subsequent children. It takes time. As in, time where you sit down with your tits out completely unable to do anything else. Except watch telly. And it takes a partner, who supports you 100%. I constantly have to remind myself that I am in fact doing something worthwhile and important when I breastfeed and Adam's running around like a twat doing all sorts of chores around the house. As in, assure myself that I'm not just a lazy cow watching telly for hours on end. And when Raven's so obviously wanting my attention it's really hard to be sat there with Arthur on my lap. But I do want to be able to give him what I gave her, namely my undivided attention and of course the precious liquid gold he too needs and deserves. And this, I guess, is the main reason why Raven's at nursery full time now. And the reason why I look forward to Arthur's first solids so much more than I looked forward to Raven's first solids. Because I hope that with Arthur getting bigger and more independent of me, I can be more of a mother to Raven again. Does that make sense?

Speaking again of Arthur, he has, much like his sister did around this age, started waking up every couple of hours during the night. Not because he's hungry (though many parents think so and thus start introducing solids at this stage) but because he wants a cuddle. The world is becoming bigger and scarier and more exciting and vivid and frantic and full of stuff by the day for him and he simply wants assurance that I am there. It's also now his budding sense of Stranger versus People-I-Recognise is developing. And his sense of Mummy-Leaves-My-Field-of-Vision-Therefore-I-Must-Call-Her-Back. No doubt all part of the night wakening. With Raven we did a cold turkey. I slept in the guest bedroom for one night and Adam cuddled her when she woke up – but there was no titty for her and it actually only took one night for her to get over the need to be with me every time she woke up.

Gosh, putting it like that is sounds really horrible – why shouldn't my little babies be allowed to cuddle with me when the world is so big and scary, eh? Well, because mummies need to sleep, too! And because little babies are super grumpy when they're up every couple of hours every night. And little babies need to learn to fall asleep by themselves and trust that mummy will be there when they are actually hungry or in need of comforting.

Anyways, it won't be long till he starts waking, so I'd better get myself to bed.

Have a mentioned how much I HATE the Danish keyboard with its stupid ø placed where the ' should be???

And have I mentioned how there is actually more to my life than my children and that I ALWAYS sit down intending to write about some of the other stuff going on but always end up writing about them instead? How frustrating.