Reason No. 74

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we spent the afternoon, while Daddy and Seth were at a birthday party, doing her homework on gorillas.  I never got as excited about homework as she does, so it was great fun making a gorilla collage using black felt, pipe cleaners and various other bits of stuff.  Picture to follow - it looked fab!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because the big surprise arrived in the post today as predicted - a home made postcard with a photo of himself on it and, in lovely writing it said "To Mummy and Daddy This is a letter from me at Birkdale love from Seth xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"  He was particularly excited to find that the postman had stamped his stamp!

Reason No. 73

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is very excited about a 'big secret' which we are going to find out about tomorrow (hopefully!)  It somehow relates to the post box near the Botanical Gardens which he went to today and saw a postman near to.  Watch this space.......

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I had a lovely morning at her school, playing my horn to her and her school friends.  She was desperately excited about it all before, during and after, and everyone seemed to have a really good time.  Phew!

Reason No. 72

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I picked her up from after school club she was busy sewing a little wool picture which she put in a bag she had also made, brought home, and then continued making rather than watching TV  or doing anything else at home.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he got two 'good reading' stickers in his homework book and his teacher wrote "Seth has really taken off - in his own words 'I can just read without thinking about it'".

Reason No. 71

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when we were coming home from school, discussing the fact that in a couple of weeks time they will have finished their first year of school, Seth said "Soon I'll be going to university Mummy". So I said "When do you think you will be going to university?" and he said "When I'm about 10". So we clearly have a genius on our hands!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is clearly focused on the shorter-term having met her new teacher today. She was very enthusiastic about the prospect of Year 1, and was particularly excited about the fact that in Y1 she will need to have her own pencil case! Thrilling!

Reason No. 70

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she told me at great length about everything she did at school, when I phoned up from the train on the way home today - practically minute by minute detail - and then when I managed to get home in time to see them before bed, she told me practically second by second! But at least she loves school and is still excited about going every day.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he had his school 'oscars' event today, where the boys all had to dress up in formal gear.  Seth looked great (photo below) - but was very disappointed that he didn't win an oscar (he's shaping up to be competitive!).

Reason No. 69

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I called from work to say I was on my way home, all I could hear in the background was the two of them chattering away in conversation over their tea - Stephen had no idea what they were talking about but it sounded like a very vigorous debate.

Reason No. 68

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was so lovely this morning doing her homework, including writing 8 very interesting facts about gorillas in her homework book - next weekend we're going to make a gorilla collage so watch this space for that!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he and I started a jigsaw together while Amelie was at swimming lessons this morning - he is very keen to do big adult jigsaws and has a really good eye for pieces that might fit (but sometimes a really bizarre sense of what fits!).

Reason No. 67

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he stayed home with Daddy while Amelie went to her party, uncomplainingly and the 'Lego King and Crown Prince' did their usual fantastic work, with Seth creating the 'pod racer' below completely on his own and out of his imagination.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had an ice skating party this afternoon, for the older sister of one of her friends.  Mummy was very trepidatious because last time we went Amelie was very timid and clung on tight to her 'penguin' skate aid throughout.  Today she was a revelation - off skating on her own within 15 minutes of starting, abandoning her penguin and starting to play fun ice hockey with her friends.  A star of the future?!

Reason No. 66

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has shown a natural talent for playing the horn today!  I got my horn down from the attic and played a few tunes for the children - they, of course, were desperate to have a go and Amelie in particular made a pretty good sound!  See video below.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he adores his talented sister.  After watching Amelie doing her ballet lesson after school (and attempting to copy her from outside the hall), Seth was so excited when she came out that he flung his arms round her and gave her a huge kiss!

Reason No. 65

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has coped very well tonight with having 'stop nail biting' liquid painted onto his fingers tonight, to try to stop him chewing his nails to the quick.  It tastes disgusting, and he cried when he first slipped up and put a finger in his mouth, but he's now gone to sleep and hopefully will remember tomorrow and not bite his nails any more!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very excited about the tooth fairy coming last night - so excited that when the tooth fairy arrived, she discovered Amelie with her hand under her pillow holding tight on to her lost tooth.  Luckily the tooth fairy was able to extricate the tooth without waking up Amelie and Amelie was thrilled with her shiny £1 coin in the morning.  She said that she thought she had felt the tooth fairy lifting up her pillow but she couldn't tell me whether the tooth fairy had wings or was stunningly beautiful!

Reason No. 64

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she lost another baby tooth today and we had a very long discussion about the tooth fairy - before the tooth came out, she said that if it fell out in the night, would the tooth fairy still know to come (Mummy - "No, you would need to tell Mummy and Daddy because they have to use the special tooth fairy phone to call up the tooth fairy and let her know to come visit").  Then when it  did come out and Mummy, learning from previous experience, wrapped it up into a large packet of tissue for easy access later, Amelie said "You will tell the tooth fairy to expect a large tissue parcel rather than just a small tooth won't you and tell her that it's OK to take the tissue away with her".

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because it was his first school sports day today - where the boys worked in teams rather than individually, and Seth was absolutely excellent at things like throwing and jumping.  He completely threw himself into every event and loved every moment - to the extent that when they announced the winning team at the end, and it wasn't Seth's, he burst into tears because he was so sure that they had done the very best of anyone.  He clearly has a competitive spirit - but hopefully gets over his inability to lose graciously!

And here is a picture of him trying the hardest he possibly could in the 'torch relay' race.

Reason No. 63

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because his teacher said today that his maturity in recent days had been a revelation - we don't yet know what that means but it sounds good and is something to be celebrated!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she bought home from school a computer picture of herself in her ballet gear and below it "I went to my ballet exam at scool yesterday.  we went in to dans.  I got a sweet and I mit get a certifeecut."

But I haven't seen them (awake) at all today so I am looking forward to tomorrow breakfast to catch up.  After a couple of days spent in ministerial meetings about child sexual exploitation amongst other difficult subjects, and a night spent in a hellhole of a hotel, I love my children, my husband and my home more than ever before!

Reason No.62

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did (the day before) yesterday because I had to stay over in London yesterday so I saw them at breakfast and then only had phone contact.  But for the first time we have been sending text messages to each other - me sending them a text for them to read out and them then telling Daddy what to send back (because predictive texting is still a bit beyond them).  And last night's text said "Seth says he will try not to wee in the night.  Amelie says she hopes you get a nice sleep and that grandpa is OK."

Reason No. 61

I love Seth more than yesterday because he has been (mostly) lovely to his Daddy today on Father's Day, although at tea time he did throw a (funny) wobbler where he said "I'm not going to make lego with you ever again if you don't give me some more bread".  I think that it would have been a great relief to Daddy to think that he never had to make lego again, but he clearly convinces Seth that it is the most enjoyable thing in his life!

I love Amelie more than yesterday because as we drove off to her ballet exam today, she said "You know, Seth really loves me - but I don't think I'm allowed to marry him am I?".  No, but she'll struggle to find someone quite as lovely!

And so will he, as evidenced by the picture below of Amelie in full ballet garb, for her exam today.

Reason No. 60

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because children are the future and we should model our lives on them - they argue and fight but 10 minutes later, they make up and love each other again.  That's how everyone in the world should behave.

So says the Dalai Lama who I met today in Manchester.  There wasn't a great deal in what he said which was either new or very profound, but he is one of those people who enter a room and people hang on his every word.  His message is that we should give our children the self-confidence to think for themselves and to speak up.  Honesty and trust are important.  And that we shouldn't expect them to do everything that we tell them to, because Buddhist teachings say that you shouldn't act on faith alone, but should act after investigation and experimentation.

So here's my iphone picture of His Holiness (and bodyguard!), taken from my front row seat.

Reason No. 59

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because his enthusiasm knows no bounds - today's trip to Castle Dyke was 'awesome' and 'cool' despite the fact that "Castle Dyke wasn't really like a castle at all" and the fact that it rained so the sports field was flooded and instead they played in the car park.  But he loved it any way!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was the only one in her year who could tell Daddy (when he went to help out this morning) that if a minute had 60 seconds in it, half a minute has 30 seconds in it, and she explained that this was because 6 is made up of 2 lots of 3 so if you take away half of 6 so get 3 and so 30 must be half of 60.

Reason No. 58

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has to do an'explorer's kit' for her homework at the weekend but can't get her head around the fact that she is pretending to be a jungle explorer ("but I haven't been to the jungle before") or that she could make up a map and a guidebook for her exploring ("but I don't know where the jungle is - will you be able to tell me?"). For a really good role-player, I don't think she quite gets this!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is very excited about his jubilee day tomorrow which involves wearing his jubilee hat and going to Castle Dyke which is his school playing fields. This evening he told me that Castle Dyke is the biggest field ever and that it's "the coolest place in the whole world, although I'm not sure what it's like because I've never been there!".

Reason No. 57

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very excited about his Olympic fancy dress day today - but very worried yesterday and last night about whether we had given any thought to what he would go as.  My first idea was that he should go as a squash player - because we have a spare squash racquet - but unfortunately then discovered that squash isn't an Olympic sport.  So he worse the same clothes and carried a table tennis bat - phew!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she makes me laugh with her obsessiveness sometimes - she was due to bring home Rosie the Bear from school the weekend after next but her teacher said we could swap as we have lots of exciting plans for this weekend.  I asked Amelie whether the person who was due to take Rosie this weekend was upset and she said "No, definitely no, but she did look a bit upset after I had reminded her several times that it was me taking Rosie and not her".  Knowing the way Amelie obsesses about things sometimes, she probably told her friend every 5 minutes that Rosie would be with Amelie and not with her!

Reason No. 56

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I got a very sleepy kiss and cuddle at 6.15 before I went to get my train and lots of very loud "love you mummy"s when I was on the train home this evening.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was sitting on the stairs waiting for me to come down this morning - which was lovely because otherwise I wouldn't have got to see him all day, but not so good that he was up and ready to go at 6.15 in the morning!

Reason No. 55

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because I love the way he still thinks it is hilarious to hide under his bed clothes when I go to kiss him goodnight and finds it side-splittingly funny to be 'found'.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is so sociable, particularly with the boys!  She loved having Seth's school friend, Robin, for a playdate today and even wanted to (almost) cuddle up with him to watch TV after tea.  Where does she get that from?!! (not me!).

The downside of having someone for a playdate is that Seth is very excited still, even an hour after he has gone to bed, so is still shouting about things he's forgotten to tell us and things he can see in his room etc. etc.

Reason No. 54

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very keen to help Seth make is Jubilee hat for school and spent ages colouring bunting triangles in red and blue (and pointed out to me that she didn't need to colour the white ones in!).

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very excited about his Jubilee hat, drew 2 fabulous union jacks to stick out of it and spent ages choosing pictures of flags and other things from last week's events to stick on to it.

Reason No. 53

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, in the ongoing battle over food, he cracked a funny joke this morning over breakfast - when I said that if they said they didn't like a particular food, I would make them eat it every day, Seth replied "I don't like pizza"!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very excited all day about going to her friend's birthday party, mentioned it every 5 minutes, but when she was just about to go, she went up to Seth, gave him a hug, and said "I'm going to really miss you"!

Last day of half term holiday tomorrow then back into the swing of the school run again - hooray!

Reason No. 52

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because over lunch she got very excited about doing the activity sheet that the restaurant provided, including doing a whole word search and doing some little anagrams.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he absolutely loves watching Jake and the Netherland Pirates and, when he thinks that we aren't watching, he sings along to all the songs, word and pitch perfect.  If he thinks we're watching, he refuses to 'perform'.

It's raining again... and again.... and again..... and it has a bit of a dampening effect on the mood!

Reason No. 51

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he demonstrated again how he pays attention even when you think he isn't doing (or maybe it's the subliminal power of radio advertising!) - whilst playing with cars with Amelie he suddenly said "I'm not looking for this in a car" which is quoting directly from an advert for Volvos (I think) that is currently running on the radio.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is becoming my stylist - having offered to help me pick a new dress, today she suggested which jewellery I should wear with it, matching to my shoes!

Reason No. 50

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is brave in inverse proportion to her size - at Chatsworth today, she climbed around the new rope walk without any apparent fear and only had to be helped a couple of times when she was just too small to reach the next rope.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is still fooled every bath time when he gives Daddy a 'cup of tea' (bath water - yummy) and believes Daddy when he drinks it after saying "ooh look over there, there's a huge spider" (Seth "where?"; Daddy "oh no it's gone" whilst pouring water down the sink; Seth "Amelie, Daddy really drank it!".

Back to work tomorrow - boo - but only for 1 day - hooray!!

Reason No. 49

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he baked a fantastic loaf I'd bread with Daddy while I went shopping with Amelie and was very proud of it (particularly when he got to eat it).

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was great during the shopping and had a long unprompted conversation with the lady on the checkout about school holidays and things.

Reason No. 48

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was so determined to complete the obstacle course at the top of the Heights of Abraham - although she is small and skinny, nothing was going to stop her from climbing up and over all the rope walls and swinging on all the rope and chain obstacles - she was incredible!


I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, having said for weeks that he was scared of heights so he didn't want to go on the cable car up the Heights of Abraham whenever it was mentioned, he enjoyed every minute when we set off and also climbed to the top of the tower up there, faster than any of us.  So clearly he's not really afraid of heights after all!

Reason No. 47

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he volunteered to read one of his homework books this morning - never happened before - and found it hilarious which made reading with him even more fun.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she got very animated over Sunday lunch, waving around her fork so much while she was talking that she managed to flip a piece of Yorkshire pud into her drink!

And the children have been very good all day, considering that it has rained constantly and we haven't been out, apart from to take Amelie to her swimming lesson.

Reason No. 46

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she does 'very excited' like no-one I've ever known - she can get excited about the slightest thing and prospect of going to York for the day was almost too much for her this morning.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he couldn't get enough of the trains at the National Railway Museum.  This meant it was trains at the exclusion of everything else - even a fly past by WW2 planes including a Spitfire, a Lancaster and a Hurricane failed to impress him, he was so desperate to get back to climbing up on trains, going under trains and riding on toy trains.

And I love all my family more than I did yesterday because we narrowly avoided death today when an extremely dangerous driver pulled out into the lane we were in, not marginally in front of us as often happens but right alongside us without so much as a glance before he did so.  Luckily there was no-one in the outside lane so I could swerve to avoid him otherwise we would have certainly spent the day in a mangled wreck being cut out by fire crews, rather than spending an exceptionally fun day in sunny York.

Reason No. 45

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we finally had a bath breakthrough tonight - after weeks if not years of refusing to lean back for his hair to be washed, he finally accepted that leaning back and putting his head under the water in a few inches of water is nothing compared to putting his whole head under the water in a swimming pool where he can't even stand up.  Having agreed that, he leaned back so he was practically lying along the bottom of the bath for a much easier hair wash!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I spent part of this morning helping out at her school and I got to see how great she is at school, how hard she works, and how well behaved she was even when her Mummy was there and she had the opportunity to be a bit naughty if she had wanted to.

And now we have a very long weekend and several days off work for the Jubilee bank holidays and half term.  Long live the Queen!!!