Reason No. 44

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is currently obsessed by all things Royal having had a 'street party' at school today for the Jubilee and the other day she told her teacher that her Grandpa used to live with The Queen. Not sure what her teacher made of that!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he drew a fantastically detailed picture of Concorde at his after-school club with tall buildings, trees, rooftops and birds.

Reason No. 43

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because on the way to school he said "I want to learn about everything".

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because it's her Daddy's birthday and she gave him a present and card before school then came home from school and said "I was going to make you a birthday card at school today.  But I forgot...."!

Luckily I didn't forget so we've had a lovely day (when we weren't working) with presents, cards, nice dinner and a few glasses of wine.

Reason No. 42

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because I unexpectedly got to see them when I came back from London and they both gave me lovely big smiles and kisses and cuddles which made my day!

And they had already been very chatty on the telephone - Amelie very excited about her school sports day practice where she won the egg and spoon race and Seth talking all about doing playball.  Maybe we have two sports stars in the making!

Reason No. 41

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he brought home a huge giant's head from school and explained to me in great detail how his class takes it in turn to bring home the large displays from their classroom, and then he told me all the different things the other boys have taken home in the past.  And then he wanted it stuck on his bedroom wall, but nowhere that he would be able to see it in the night in case it scared him in the dark!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she came home from school buzzing (ha, ha) after presenting her bee project, even though she admitted that she didn't do her wiggly bottom dance (apparently bees wiggle their bottoms when they collect nectar) for her class - in any event, she got a round of applause and was very happy.

And I love my two cats, Yinky and Yazza, lots too, because they are the laziest cats in the world - particularly in this weather where all they want to do is lie down and sleep (as demonstrated by the photo below)!

Reason No. 40

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because I just do!

So I've realised that I don't need to find a specific reason why every day because some days I just look at them and wonder how I managed to create such beautiful, clever children, and today was one of those days!

Reason No. 39

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we spent the afternoon together (Seth having gone to a birthday party) - firstly painting a piggy bank at Planet Pot, then doing her homework project on 'mini-beasts' at home.  She did the most fantastic poster about bees and we made a bee out of egg boxes as well!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we went to the supermarket together this morning and on the way he told me all about the life cycle of the frog, coming back at the end to the frogspawn we found in the garden and the two frogs we found 'playing piggyback' (!) - "what happened to the other frogs from the frogspawn and why weren't they joining in with the game of piggyback?".

Reason No. 38

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he went on a playdate after school and his friend's dad said he had been fantastic and a pleasure to have over. And this is borne out by his wonderful politeness at times like when I was reading a bedtime story tonight and he said "Excuse me mummy, sorry to interrupt but..." and then asked a question about the book.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is getting so much more mature every day - and this is a bit of a sad one but today I snapped at her at breakfast and instead of getting cross or bursting into tears, she turned away and carefully wiped off the tears that were rolling down her face. Which made me cry.....

Thank goodness it's the weekend - the heat is unbearable when I'm working but will hopefully lead to some fab times at the weekend.

Reason No. 37

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is full of cold and sleeping very heavily and the last couple of days she has carried on snoring when I've been to get her up in the morning.  Today she looked so adorable that I climbed into bed bedside her and she reached over, gave me a big kiss, and carried on snoring.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he came home from school for the second day in a row looking like he had been rolling in the mud and said to me "Daddy said that you were going to cry when you saw me - you're not going to cry are you?" - so I just laughed.  Which helped a bit!

Seth seems to be the opposite of stain repellent - he attracts it and today I've had to throw his school shirt away before mopping him down head to toe.  Amelie is not immune either!

Reason No. 36

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he declared in the car on the way to school that "when I grow up  I'm going to be a spy.  I've been practising spy things with Duncan at school.  I'm going to need a cool spy car and lots of spy things".

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is really generous even when Seth's not.  Yesterday she made some flap jack at school and today Seth made a biscuit.  She offered half of hers to him and some to me even though he refused to give her any of his.

Reason No. 35

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she gave me a beautiful Aspinal red lizard skin purse for my wedding anniversary (and told everyone at school that it was our anniversary because she was so excited about having made me a pink clay pig as well).

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he gave me a beautiful gold and red lizard cuff for my wedding anniversary (and was totally excited about the whole present giving thing).

We clearly give the children far too much spending money if they can afford such lovely presents - plus they are obviously very clever to go online and order the presents.......

(or maybe I just have a completely fab husband......)

Reason No. 34

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he told me on the phone that he had decided that he was going to write a book when we are on holiday so we agreed that I would remember to take some glue and a book and he could stick things in it.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very excited (and a bit confused!) on the phone about having made a snail at school.  She had decided that it was for our wedding anniversary (which is tomorrow) - until Daddy told her that wasn't possible because it had to be baked in the oven and she wouldn't get it back for a week.  But it's the thought that counts!

Another day with only phone contact, not helped by the fact that both children woke up grumpy and brewing colds so phone conversations in the morning weren't very productive.  But in the evening, they were both much better and much more enthusiastic - so long as I didn't talk too long and interfere with their TV watching!

Reason No. 33

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is such a ladylike little angel - during lunch with friends today she marched in and announced to the table "I've got poo in my pants" and later, during a demonstration of her ballet expertise, she accompanied her 'dancing' with some fruity bottom noises!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he loves having visitors and telling them all about Star Wars, Lego and all his other favourite obsessions, whilst practically sitting on their knees and holding their hands.

Reason No. 32

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he finished his tea, sat back from the table, and said "That's more like it".  Don't know where he gets that from!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she finds great excitement in the most bizarre things such as getting new cream and medicine for her eczema - by the way she went on today, it might have been ice cream rather than eczema cream!

Poor Amelie has eczema all over her from the neck downwards, which started a couple of weeks ago.  She has barely complained about it, but has is clearly very itchy a lot of the time.  But she is still a happy little angel and I adore her.

Reason No. 31

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she took Daddy to school today to help out with her class and she told him that he was very lucky to be allowed to help out because only one other Daddy had been to help out; but also that he shouldn't be upset if he wasn't in the same group as her!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he looked so thrilled that Mummy and Daddy had both been to pick him up from his swimming lesson and must have drunk a gallon of swimming pool water because he was smiley and so determined to show us that he could put his head under the water and open his eyes at the same time.

Reason No. 30

I love Seth more than I did the day before yesterday because he met a African Giant Snail at school and spent ages raving about its size and how they looked at it through a viewer and how the viewer also took photos etc etc.

I love Amelie more than I did the day before yesterday because she was very proud when she told me on the phone that she was given a merit at school because she had been doing The Hungry Caterpillar and had made up her own story which her teacher said was really good.

Another day where I didn't see the children at all because of a long trip to London.  But talking on the phone is almost as good (almost...)

Reason No. 29

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because her reading homework - which she described as "the shortest book ever" - ended taking about half an hour to read because she spent 5 minutes discussing every detail of every page, questioning what it said and giving a narrative about what had happened.  The book was about men going to the moon and she was absolutely astounded that this had happened "in real life????".


I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he told his teacher that the books on the table at school weren't right because they are doing minibeasts at the moment and sharks and kangaroos aren't minibeasts.  Then he said decisively "So that's the reason we're going to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea at the theatre next week, it's because we're not really doing minibeasts, we're actually doing 'animals' this week"!

Reason No. 28

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because after eating his main course he leant over and said conspiratorially to me that when Daddy had opened the cupboard with the jammy dodgers in it earlier, Seth thought he had seen a packet of yum yums and maybe they were for pudding.  Daddy said that the cupboard had been open about 30 degrees for about 5 seconds but eagle-eyed Seth can spot a cake a mile off!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she spent all of tea time describing what they had done at school in outdoor PE, which seemed to be about practising for sports day and involved lots of running, jumping through hoops and being in teams.  Unfortunately her team didn't win at all - which she said was because the bigger girls were all in the other teams.

So I'm back in the bosom of the family today, in time for tea with my babies (all 3 of them) and wishing I never had to go away!

Reason No. 27

I love Amelie more than I did the day before yesterday because she came home from school with a homework project about bugs and didn't want to watch television or play or eat tea until she had had a long discussion with Daddy about what bugs she should do and then looked through her encyclopaedia before making the decision to focus on bees and wasps.

I love Seth more than I did the day before yesterday because he had a science day at school and explained to me on the phone in vivid detail how he had been out into the playground and seen a huge explosion, and how he had made pink slime which he had then brought home with him.

And I didn't arrive home from London until 8.30pm so only heard about Amelie's exciting project and saw Seth's pink slime then - ho hum!

Reason No. 26

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, although we (and his school teacher) often think that he doesn't listen well enough, he clearly does because today he stated with conviction that Beauty and the Beast in 3D "is spectacular according to the TV" and the other day he asked whether I was taking my hire car back to webuyanycar.com (said in the same irritating sing-song way as on the radio advert which is running all the time at the moment).  So if we could only harness the power of the TV and radio, we'd have a genius on our hands.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we took the twins' homemade kite up Stanage Edge this morning and she was very brave holding on to the kite despite almost getting carried over the edge in the strong wind.  On the way back down to the car she said "Phew that was a bit of an adventure!".

Reason No. 25

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was an angelic duckling in her ballet exam practice (one of those stuck on an icy pond whose legs go in all the wrong directions but look totally adorable!).

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because at breakfast he held forth for several minutes about why he should have more pancakes than me because bigger people need less food than smaller people. When Daddy then said that on that basis Amelie should have more than everyone, he looked a bit shocked for several seconds then said "you're joking Daddy" and laughed for a long time!

Reason No. 24

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he swam without armbands for the first time and was very proud of himself, even though he admitted that a grown-up held under his tummy for most of the time.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she suggested that Seth should take a picture of the dinosaur mug that he made at the weekend to take to his show-and-tell - he has to take a photograph of something and talk about it and Amelie's suggestion was absolutely spot-on and something even us adults hadn't thought of.

And Seth and I love ice cream more than we did yesterday because we had a Mr Whippy cone in between rain showers this afternoon - he ate the cone and I licked the leftovers off his nose afterwards because we didn't have any tissues!

Reason No. 23

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she went on a playdate today with a friend from school whose mother had provided 'child-friendly' white bread sandwiches which Amelie refused to eat saying "we don't have this kind of bread at home" but then proceeded to tuck into the family's normal granary bread.  My little healthy-eating campaigner!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when I picked him up from his after-school creche he was nowhere to be seen while they were tidying up.  And although my first thought was that he had made himself scarce to avoid the chores, I then heard a little voice from underneath the table where Seth was passing out all the random pieces of lego, train tracks and other toys to the others who were putting them away.

So I'm very pleased that I have both healthy-eaters and obsessive tidiers - just like Mummy!

Reason No. 22

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he greeted me when I got home from work with armfuls of drawings that he had done at his after school club, all showing rockets and aircraft and spaceships - all "spy things" according to him - which he wanted to stick onto the airplane he made last week.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she brought home midweek homework for the first time today and was desperate to do it, even though she was clearly very tired, and then she read a 16 page book in 5 minutes.

Reason No. 21

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has been the complete antithesis of yesterday, having spent the day at Chatsworth with Daddy and being bright sunny chatty Amelie all day.  And to look on the positive side of yesterday's behaviour, I'm convinced that it's just because she is very emotionally intelligent and so was affected by general parental grumpiness!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when I picked him up from school he was so excited about everything that he had done and told me that his school was the best school in the whole wide world because it has the coolest train tracks with London Bridge and everything!

And today I love where I live more than I did yesterday because I had a wonderful drive over the Woodhead Pass this morning - the sun was shining, newborn lambs were frolicking in the fields and white horses were dancing on the reservoirs.  Unfortunately the "all's right with the world" feeling evaporated when I reached the Manchester side of the Pass - but this is a positive blog so I won't dwell on that!

Reason No. 20

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we went to the park this morning and, despite being a bit afraid of heights and other scary things, he went on the zipwire and would have gone on it again and again.  While he was waiting he kept up a constant narrative "I'm not going to be afraid at all and I'm going to hold on tight and everything is going to be fine".  And it was!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has no fear at all - at the park, she climbed up every bit of the obstacle course, smiled all the time and never flinched.

Today was one of the days when this blog is invaluable to me.  It's been a day when it was very hard to find anything positive to say as my lovely clever smiley daughter turned into a bit of a kicking screaming monster.  Coincidentally we watched The Incredibles with the children this afternoon and she reminded me very much of the baby who explodes into flames and then turns into devil baby near the end.  But I'm focussing on the positive, so holding on to her fearlessness and smileliness this morning and feeling much better!

Reason No. 19

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because on the way to her swimming lesson she said to me "I'm never going to stop loving you Mummy, even after I'm dead" - not as depressing as it sounds but due to the fact that last week I recited to her my favourite poem, Sonnet 43 from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ("and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death").

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we went on a 'bear hunt' up Stanage Edge this morning, and when we found footprints, we tried to guess what they came from. Seth's first suggestion was not a dog, sheep or cow but a unicorn (definitely been watching too much Dora The Explorer)!

And here are some pictures of the family up Stanage Edge - beautiful sunny weather, virtually no-one around, and only the church bells from Hathersage in the distance.

Reason No. 18

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he stayed home with me while Amelie and Daddy went to a birthday party and we had a lovely time together. He behaved fantastically and was upbeat and happy all afternoon, and didn't seem to miss Amelie once.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because every night when I go up to check on her before bed, she's thrown all the covers off and is lying there with her bare bottom in the air. Don't know where she gets that from - I like to be well wrapped up in bed. But she swears blind that it never happens because she always wakes up with all the covers around her!

Reason No. 17

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had an argument with Seth over tea when he told her he wasn't her friend and she said "No you're not my friend, but you are my brother".  That told him!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he had an argument with Daddy and said "I do not want you to ever say anything like that to me again!".  Which sounds horribly familiar!

This makes is sound like a very argumentative day, and it hasn't been really, but I do find that the children both say the funniest things when they are angry.  Sometimes, I can't help but laugh (bad Mummy!) which either leads to a full scale tantrum, or completely stops the argument when they laugh too!

Reason No. 16

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because I loved seeing the look on his little face when I turned the corner to pick him up from school this afternoon - the best thing in the world after a hard day at work.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because this morning she promised me that she would look after Daddy on her school trip today and would make sure that everyone knew not to hurt his poorly finger again.

So Daddy did his first school trip with Amelie and her friends - which he seemed to enjoy - and Amelie had her first play date - which she absolutely loved.

Reason No. 15

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because when I got home from work they were cuddled up together on an armchair watching TV, giggling together about their feet and not fighting!  It makes me realise how lovely it is to have twins and how lucky they are to have each other.

We never had that dilemma about whether to put the twins in the same cot when they came home from hospital because they had been in separate incubators from birth (during the 7 weeks that they were in special care).  And when we finally took them home, I remember Seth looking at Amelie sitting on my knee as if to say "that's my mummy not yours" then reaching out and grabbing my hand away from her.  And although they still compete over whose turn it is to sit on our knees, they definitely seem to have a bond now beyond the normal sibling bond which is lovely for them and lovely for us!

Reason No. 14

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because I haven't seen him all day but the only  things he said to me (or rather, shouted down the phone to me) was "I love you Mummy" (repeatedly).

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is already organising Daddy and Seth when I'm not there including getting clothes sorted before and after school.

So another long day in London made worse today by a train strike on my line which meant it took much longer for both journeys.  But I'm home now, and tomorrow I'll see my babies a lot more.

And here's a photo of Amelie at her party on Saturday, with butterfly face make-up and a snake!