Reason No. 105

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very excited about getting home and seeing Yinky and Yazza again.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was manically excited about getting home, and particularly about getting to make lego with Daddy.

Reason No. 104

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did .... because they handled the (much easier) journey home well - no crying, whingeing, complaining, or being sick, like most of the other children on our flight seemed to be doing!

Reason No. 103

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she finished our holiday in style on the swimming front, by first doing a whole length of the pool without armbands, and then doing an underwater width using breaststroke.

I love Seth more than I did ... for his wide-eyed trust (gullibility?) - having woken up in the morning with a grasshopper on his bed, at bedtime Daddy managed to persuade him that we'd installed a completely invisible anti-grasshopper machine under his bed.

Reason No. 102

I love Seth more than I did ... because he is so interested in everything wherever we go so it's a constant "What's this?", "what's he doing?", "what's she saying?" - half the time it drives us mad but it's lovely too"

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she has miraculous powers of recovery - she's clearly getting very tired with the heat to the point of falling asleep in the car and not wanting to eat her tea.  But the prospect of Jake and the Neverland Pirates on TV for the umpteenth time leads to an amazingly swift recovery.

Reason No. 101

I love Amelie more than I did .... because she loves the "How to Train Your Dragon" book which Daddy is reading every day and wants to discuss the plot in great details.

I love Seth more than I did ... because he was very taken by the boats at Agios Stephanos, telling us which ones he wanted to buy and what colour he would paint them (normally the multi-million pound super yachts!).

Reason No. 100

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did ... because they were 'super fantastic' according to the waiters at the restaurant where we had lunch in Kassiopi who were bowled over by them saying "efkharisto poli" when they got their food.

Reason No. 99

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she looked very cute in her new purple sunglasses but was insistent that they didn't match her purple swimming costume at all (because it has white spots and a butterfly on it and the glasses are plain purple).

I love Seth more than I did ... because he has become a bit of a philosopher - today he came up with "everyday the roads don't know where they are going" and "the sea is the sky and the sky is the sea".

Reason No. 98

I love Seth more than I did... because he has made major strides on the shower front, with the help of his swimming goggles and a pan of water!

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she is such a sweet girl, particularly when I had another meltdown, this time in the mad traffic in Corfu Town (mad Greek drivers, no sign posts, very hot weather) - when we finally parked, we had a hand squeezing conversation as we walked along!

Reason No. 97

I love Amelie more than I did.... because she has now decided that she is going to be a writer when she grows up and so spent the day writing lovely stories including one called "The Mad Hat" and one called "The Dinosor (!) School".

I love Seth more than I did ... because he has decided to be an artist and so spent the day doing fantastic drawing and colouring of paper aeroplanes which he then spent ages throwing around the house.

Reason No. 96

I love Seth more than I did .... because he has a fantastic imagination which means that he can make up wonderful and weird stories, like he did over tea.

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she continues to be persistent and determined with her swimming - she swam a whole width without armbands and now wants to let her armbands down and never use them again for swimming!

Reason No. 95

I love Amelie more than I did... for her heroic swimming - from being the screaming scaredy cat of day 1 to being desperate to swim without armbands on at all.

I love Seth more than I did... because he was very keen to go up Mount Pantokrator despite being scared of heights, and was very keen to be photographed at the monastery at the top with Barnaby Bear, so that he could take the photo back to show his RE teacher at school.

Reason No. 94

I love Seth more than I did.... because he loved chasing little fishes in the sea and had no fear of being in amongst the rocks in the sea (the same still cannot be said about the shower.....!).

I love Amelie more than I did ... because she is an emotionally little angel who, in the midst of Seth's shower melt-down, came to me with tissues and cuddles to make me feel better.

Reason No. 93

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did.... for the looks on their faces when I came out in my bikini for the first time - dropped jaws and speechlessness.  I would like to think that this was because I looked jaw-droppingly gorgeous, until Amelie said "Mummy's in her pants" and Seth said "Look at Mummy's boobies"!

Reason No. 92

I love Seth more than I did.... because he was very excited about going to see the old fortress in Corfu Town , despite the fact that he was really really scared of heights at the top.

I love Amelie more than I did.... because she is an olive monster - over lunch she squirrelled away the last olive onto her plate, then put a "who me?" look on her face as if butter wouldn't melt!

Reason No. 91

I love Amelie more than I did before we went on holiday because she was so excited about going in the swimming pool, and would have done it in her nightie if we'd let her, but then screamed every time we tried to let go of her (even with armbands on).  However, by the end of the day, she'd persevered and was mostly swimming alone.

I love Seth more than I did... because he's a boy of contradictions - one minute flinging himself into the pool and splashing around to his heart's content, then the next minute he was screaming the place down because he didn't want his hair rinsed in the shower because "it almost went in my eyes"!

Reason No. 90

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did before we went on holiday because they both handled our nightmare, 8 hour delayed journey to Corfu really well - sometimes they can both be a bit whingey when they are bored and very impatient to get places, but they seemed to really enjoy the experience!

Reason No.89

I love Seth more than I did the day before yesterday because he was very excited about going on holiday - but more excited about going to Grandma's house, particularly because "Grandma's really going to like my hair!".

I love Amelie more than I did the day before yesterday because on the way to taking the cats to the cattery for their 'holiday', she said "it's really not fair on the cats because every time we go on holiday, we go to different places, but every time they go to the same place!".

So we are now supposed to be on our way to Corfu, having left Grandma's at 5am to get our flight, but the flight has been delayed by 9 hours, so we are back at Grandma's killing time before we go back to the airport after lunch.  Lovely!

Reason No. 88

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because we spent a lot of time this morning going through all the bags of stuff that they brought home from school and marvelled, not only at the fantastic pictures, drawings and other work that they had done, but also the way in which they have clearly developed over the school year.

And tomorrow we are going on our holiday so when I get back, I'll have to write up something like 16 more reasons all in one go!

Reason No. 87

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, over lunch today, he was very excited to tell me about everything he had done at school in the morning, including the bronze medal that he had received for finishing PP1, the gold award he had got for his house points and the certificate he had got for eating his dinner every day!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because, when I finally got home from work ready to celebrate being on holiday, she ran up the stairs to me and when I said "what's up, has something happened, do you want to tell me something?" she said "no I just wanted to give you a really big cuddle because we're going on holiday"!

Reason No. 86

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I went to meet her at lunchtime for her end of term picnic and she was great - playing with her friends, behaving better than most of them and afterwards really keen to go back into Weston Park Museum to tell me all the things she had learnt in the morning.

I love Eth more than I did yesterday because I picked him up from school at lunchtime and he was so lovely to all his friends as we left and even to their parents ("goodbye Oliver, goodbye Mrs Peat"). And he played really nicely with the girls at Amelie's picnic.

Reason No. 85

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did the day before yesterday because when I go home from London they were both making fantastic cards for their teachers with pictures and drawings on the front, lovely messages that they wrote themselves and lots of kisses!

Reason No. 84

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she brought home from school 2 huge bags full of fantastic artworks that she has done throughout the year - now we are going to have to find somewhere to keep/display it!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he also has a lot of new artwork, including a model of the Isle of Struay complete with lighthouse made out of a champagne cork!  On his way to bed, he said "my bedroom is a bit like an art gallery" so we are going to make a sign saying "Seth's art gallery" at the weekend.

Reason No. 83

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was really excited at visiting his local church today and especially that Daddy went with his class.  Here is Seth pretending to be a Daddy during a mock christening around the font at the church.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had her school report today and it was really really positive, particularly on her reading and on her independence and maturity.

And here is a picture of Amelie from Friday with her 'gold medal' from sports day.

Reason No. 82

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she made a fantastic pair of sunglasses for her school homework - very Dame Edna with glitter, feathers and pink lenses.  Whether they survive the journey to school is another matter!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because on the way to the supermarket, he told me in great detail about the different types of church building and how some churches in the war were bombed but the steeple stayed standing because it was made of rock.  He seemed very amazed by this thought and fascinated by the different churches we saw on our way home.

Reason No. 81

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has suddenly discovered a love of reading - we cleared out our books today for a book sale and Seth found things he really wanted to read, but definitely wanted to read them for himself. So he spent a lot of time sitting and reading out things with no prompting.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she ran into our bedroom this morning with such a big happy smile on her face, even though there was nothing planned for the day, she was just looking forward to a nice day en famille!

Reason No. 80

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because it was her school sports day today and she won the Reception egg and spoon race (slow and steady did the trick!), came second in the relay, and her house (Sapphires) won the house cup.  She was beyond thrilled.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he didn't win the pirate prize but took it very well, and he also got a great school report which said how good he is at music, creative stuff and lots of other things.

Reason No. 79

I love Seth more than I did (the day before) yesterday because he did another fabulous performance of his surfing parrot today and is absolutely fixated with winning the pirate prize tomorrow!

I love Amelie more than I did (the day before) yesterday because she loved the green fish stew that Daddy made for her tea and said "the sauce was very lovely".

Reason No. 78

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she went on a school trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and one of their activities was to draw a tree and put things on it that they wanted and she put 2 butterflies, some Lego for Seth and a glass of wine for Mummy. You can imagine what her teacher and the Mums on the trip made of that!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we went to the first showing of his play today and he was completely fab - sang his heart out and knew every word of all the songs.

Reason No. 77

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I phoned up from my train home, they both shouted down the phone "I loooooove yoooouuuu Mummy" which cheered me up no end after a long and tiring day!

Reason No. 76

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I spoke to her from my train back from London, and asked about response to her homework gorilla project she said that some of her classmates had done pictures too but none of them were as good as her collage.  Which is great because she's previously gone overboard to say that everyone's efforts were as good as hers so I love that she is getting more confident about how great she is!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because it was great to have a nice start to the day, no tantrums, no tears, no complaints, just a peaceful (but quick) breakfast with the children and a big kiss and cuddle before heading off for my London train.

Reason No. 75

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he makes a great surfing parrot!  He and 14 classmates are playing parrots in their summer play this week, and we got him practising this afternoon doing his song and all the actions.  We'll see whether he is as confident and enthusiastic on Wednesday and Thursday!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has agreed, against all her natural instincts, to have two targets for swimming on our summer holiday - to jump into the pool without sitting down or holding on to anyone, and to swim a short distance without armbands.  Given that she is scared of doing anything without armbands and holding on to someone at the moment, we'll see how determined she is!