Reason No. 13

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because her excitement about a play date 3 days away is already reaching fever pitch - long explanations of discussions at school about what they are going to watch on TV, what they are going to eat, what they are going to play.  By the time we reach Thursday, we will have been driven bonkers by it!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday, despite the fact that at bedtime, as I was telling him that I wouldn't see him at all tomorrow, he said "OK.  Can you go now as I have to hide before the Daddy monster comes in here".  So it appears he has already got over the "Mummy - at home lots = good and Daddy - at work lots = bad" distinction.

And I love my husband lots and lots more than I did because not only is he a great house-husband, but he also bought me yum-yums for my tea!

Reason No. 12

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he spent literally hours making an aeroplane out of amazon boxes and padded envelopes, colouring each individual piece and then 'flying' it around living room.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had her first proper swimming lesson and came home from it absolutely buzzing about getting into the pool on her own, doing 'spiderman' around the edge of the pool, being a starfish and putting her face under the water - according to Daddy she kept a constant chatter throughout the lesson!

Reason No. 11

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has a very good sense of humour - on the way to a friend's party today she said "Mummy I've just seen a sign on a shop which said exit.  What does exit mean?"  I said "You tell me" and she said "It means 'get on with your driving, we're going to be late for the party'".  Obscure, yes, but see Reason No. 6 below to see why I think it's hilarious!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, during a game of 'Sorry' today he got cross with Amelie beating him and said "Amelie's blooming bonkers".  If nothing else, this demonstrates that our attempts to avoid using bad words in front of the children have been successful!

And in general today, both children have been absolutely fantastic under quite difficult conditions - Daddy sliced the top off his finger and spent the morning in casualty (now very bandaged up and still in pain) but they behaved very well and stopped a problem becoming a complete nightmare.

Reason No. 10

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is so excited about the prospect of a trip to Pizza Express tomorrow that, when I said it might be difficult because Daddy will be using the car, he suggested that we should either go in an aeroplane or by helicopter (because we have both of those sitting in our back garden!).

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because, in a discussion over dinner, she asked whether vegetarianism was a religion like being a Christian.  But her school topic of a few weeks ago on food did teach her something as she explained to me that we should all eat fair trade food because it means that farmers get paid properly, and when her fish for tea didn't have the fair trade logo, she said that this meant the farmers hadn't been paid.

So the first week back to school after holidays has been a good one.  Seth said he had learnt nothing today - apart from how to make things in design & technology and how to swim in swimming - but nothing apart from that.  And Amelie did ballet after school - I thought her dying swan was lovely but apparently it was a flying fairy!

Reason No. 9

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I got into a slight dispute with another driver on the way home from school she said "maybe he didn't see you" (always thinking the best of people - good!) then "no I think he just pushed out and pushing is naughty - I think he must be a baddie" (realism - excellent!).

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he launched into a full scale negotiation with Amelie over breakfast about which toys they could play with before school and which they would therefore have first go on after school.

Unfortunately the negotiation mentioned above didn't go entirely to plan when the two parties couldn't come to a consensus and one threw a toy at the other one.  But we are still learning and I'm sure that one day they will be as successful at negotiation as their Daddy is!

Reason No. 8

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he greeted me from school singing beautifully and behaved fantastically almost until bedtime.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she read The Gruffalo to Seth for her bedtime story all by herself, getting even the difficult words right and providing an ongoing commentary ("the mouse is only saying that to the fox because she knows that the fox wants to eat her and isn't her friend"!).

It was wonderful to see the children after not doing so yesterday - absence really does make the heart grow fonder - but by the end of today at work I was totally exhausted so patience and positivity was essential to get through until bedtime!

Reason No. 7

I love Amelie more than I did (the day before) yesterday because she has taken over the 'Mummy' role in our household, advising Daddy on how to do her hair in the morning and other useful things that he needs to know about the twins' morning routine.

I love Seth more than I did (the day before) yesterday because he brought home from school a certificate for a 'Gold Award' for getting hundreds of house points last term, as well as being 'Star of the Week' in the week before the holidays.

This was the first day in a while that I hadn't see the twins at all during the day, having got up at 5.30am to get a train to London and only getting home at 9.30pm.  But I had some lovely phone conversations with them both before and after school, where they were enthusiastically telling me about things like Seth's new playball lessons and Amelie's plans for play dates.  So that made the long train journeys feel a bit easier.  Hopefully these days will be few and far between - if not, Daddy is going to have start writing posts on this blog for me!

Reason No. 6

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was totally excited about being back at school, about all the things he is going to do this term such as playball, swimming and design/technology, and spent ages telling me about it all in vast detail.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because of the following exchange at breakfast time:

Amelie: Mummy, do you know what 'exit' means?
Me: Eat your breakfast it's almost time for school.
Amelie: Silly - it doesn't mean that - it means way out!
Cue manic giggling!

So we're back to school and back to work today - and for the first time, I have a house husband and childminder who has spent the day doing food shopping, household chores and picking up and dropping off the children at school.  Bliss!

Reason No. 5

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she occupied Seth and herself for the 3 hour journey back home and then continued to make up games and scenarios with him as Super Girl meets Way Big (Ben 10 Alien).

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he got totally engrossed in making lego when we got home and after 45 mins produced a pod racer type thing ("it doesn't have a name Mummy") with 6 wheels and 2 drivers and then continued to play with it for even longer.

So we had a good day again despite a long journey and then some quite boring time while we unpacked, did washing, sorted the house out and got ready for school tomorrow.  And now the twins are sleeping peacefully and we're catching up on about 30 hours of TV!

Reason No. 4

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he sang "I love you Mummy" again and again when I was getting a bit frustrated with his messing around - it's hard to remain cross with a singing 5 year old!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she identified all the Disney films from the first few bars of music from them - even films like "Mary Poppins" which she's only seen once.

Today we had a car journey of 8.5 hours (door to door) which is pretty challenging for a 5 year old (and possibly more challenging for the parents of two 5 year olds!) but we managed to survive. And we've got another 3.5 hours to look forward to tomorrow. But an evening of Scandi-Crime on TV beckons so I'd better focus on the subtitles now!

Reason No. 3

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I told her that she was going to get a treat at the supermarket because she had behaved (comparatively) well she said "I want you to buy Seth a treat too because it definitely wouldn't be fair if he doesn't get one too".

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, when I told him that I would have to be back at work on Monday he said "It's not very good when you go to work Mummy because we love you and want to be with you".

Today it was more difficult to come up with many reasons because we had a day of very trying behaviour (particularly from Seth) - possibly due to tiredness at the end of our holiday and the prospect of a long car journey tomorrow. Whatever the cause, I'm tired myself tonight - but have forced myself to think about the positive things the children have done so that I go to bed in a good mood and not just exhausted.

Reason No. 2

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he behaved fantastically at lunch today, ate his fish even though he didn't know what the sauce on it was and offered Daddy a chip without being asked.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was so involved in Harry Potter book 2 that she asked constant questions such as "What if Hagrid isn't the person who opened the chamber of secrets" and "Maybe Harry and Ron should wear the invisibility cloak into the forest in case they meet some monsters".

And many many more reasons! Today we've visited the French seaside (because we're on holiday here). We listened to Stephen Fry's fantastic audio recording on the way there (as we have throughout our long car journeys for this holiday) and walked on the beach in the sun and the rain. Then we had a great lunch in a port-side restaurant where the children behaved very well - and having recently read "French Children Don't Throw Food", I can confirm that they don't, but neither do ours!

Reason No. 1

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she chose a lovely dark pink dress to wear, then teamed it with some trainers and skipped her way around the muddy farm tracks taking the dogs on a walk.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is absolutely definitely certain of things (which may or may not be true) such as "I've NEVER been across a bridge in the car before. I've really really never........"

So those are my first reasons. And today was a triumph of positivity breeding positiveness. I saw positiveness in everything - that's not to say that we didn't have typical 5 year old behaviour from both twins but they were very keen to give Mummy some examples for her blog and there were many many examples which I could have used.

So why choose the ones I did? Was it wrong to paint my daughter as a pink-wearing skipping princess and my son as opinionated. The answer is that I picked the things that appealed most to me today and that's the way I'll go from now onwards. And hopefully over the year, we'll see that they are by no means one-dimensional children.

The Main Reason

I am the mother of 5 year old twins. That I love them is self-evident. But sometimes parenthood is difficult. Some days I go to bed feeling like I've spent the day in a battle of wills and my throat hurts from raising my voice a touch more than the parenting manuals would endorse. So, inspired by the sort of articles you see in women's magazines which say you should focus on the positive, and after watching 'Julie and Julia' last night and realising that I'll never keep up with a blog unless I have a daily purpose, I'm going to write every day about one thing each of the twins have done which makes me love them even more.