Reason No. 135

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was desperate for a 'light sabre belt' so that she could play Star Wars with Seth - so I made her a sheath to fit her belt and her sword and she played madly with it (for all of 10 mins!)

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he did really well in the park today when he climbed higher than before and did some bits of the obstacle course that he's been scared of before.

Reason No.134

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very excited about going to his friend Robin's house today and Robin's mum said that he had been fantastic and that they had played really well together.  He was still buzzing when I came home from work much later on.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had a lovely day at home with TWBD (and a lovely lunch with me) when, amongst other things, she acted as his stylist helping him to choose a suit, a pair of trousers, a jacket and a pair of slippers!

Reason No. 133

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because I got a fantastic welcome when I came home from work - a nice contrast to yesterday when they totally ignored me and leant around me as I kissed them so that they could continue watching the TV.  So tonight was lovely and quite unexpected!

Reason No. 132

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he did some fantastic bike riding today after previously struggling with a bike that he had grown out of.  Now that the bike has been fixed, he's going to be the next Bradley Wiggins!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is also shaping up to be a Laura Trott - despite the fact that she had quite a bad fall last week when out on her bike, she was very brave and determined to get back on her bike today and to ride really well.

Reason No. 131

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they have not stopped talking to everyone - us, people in shops, Lego characters - about how much they have enjoyed being at Legoland.  It has been a hugely successful mini break!

Reason No. 130

I love Seth more than I did before because his face going on the Viking's River Splash was fabulous - blissfully happy - and every time we approached a corner or a splash he said "Incoming!"

I love Amelie more than I did before because after we had been on the Viking's River Splash she said "That was disgusting - can we go on it again!"

Reason No. 129

I love Amelie more than I did before because, after our first afternoon at Legoland she said "That was the wettest, worstest, loveliest day ever!"

I love Seth more than I did before because he absolutely loved every minute of the rides at Legoland and, as usual, defied expectations and didn't get scared even when we went down the huge drop into the Pirate Falls ride.

Reason No.128

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because over breakfast this morning they were both desperate to tell me about the 'How to be a Pirate' book that TWBD has been reading to them.  Although sometimes neither of them seem to be listening to the story, Seth said "you'll never guess what happened in this book last night - you won't believe it" and then between them they described the story in great detail including Amelie being very taken with someone biting the other one's bottom, and Seth telling me that the dragon poo-ed in someone's helmet.  They were very tickled by this and hearing them tell the story was hilarious and lovely.

Reason No. 127

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because TWBD was reading her a story today and had to go and leave it to check up on dinner; when he came back and carried on reading she said that she already knew what was going to happen because she had continued reading the book in his absence.  And this was quite a difficult book with lots of hard words.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because TWBD bought him and Amelie in to town to have lunch with me during work and I got a fantastic welcome from Seth who ran up the road and flung his arms around me and gave me a big kiss.

Reason No. 126

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he finally overcame his fear of the bath today and managed to dunk his entire head under the bath when washing his hair.  Next challenge - the shower!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she climbed up to the top of a climbing wall at the playground today, without any help, and was very proud of herself.

Reason No. 125

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she and Seth discovered the 'joined-up writing' bits of their phonics books and loved practising it.  Amelie said "I could do this all day".

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, although he normally doesn't like reading or writing or generally doing anything that he thinks of as 'learning', he also loved the joined-up writing and said it was 'awesome'!

Reason No. 124

I love Seth more than I did yesterday but I just don't get him!  I suppose it's having 2 children to compare but Seth seems to be on a completely different wavelength to both me and Stephen. He's motivated differently, he thinks differently and he communicates differently. But I love him beyond anything else.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is continually trying to get better at everything she does. She still whinges and complains I'd she doesn't get her own way, so is far from perfect. But I love that she's so easy to motivate.

Reason No. 123

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because, although she has recently complained about nightmares about bears chasing her, she managed to sit through the whole of 'Brave' which is full of very scary bears chasing people.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he got very scared in the film, so much so that I had to take him out, but he was clearly very interested in the film, wanted to talk about the plot and was even asking if there was a Brave 2!

Reason No. 122

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is such a gorgeous loving little boy when he wants to be and he has wanted to be a lot today so I've had lots of kisses, cuddles and hugs.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is so sweet when she's being grown up. This evening when I was feeling a bit 'end of the week rough' she said "so where does it hurt exactly Mummy?".

Reason No. 121

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they had a great day today with "the world's best Daddy" (as declared by Amelie when she said that there should be a line on their sticker chart for stickers given to Daddy for being the best Daddy in the world!).  Anyway, today they worked with TWBD to make a model of pirate island (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) using cardboard boxes and toilet rolls.  The result is astounding - as seen below.

Reason No. 120

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very brave at the doctors when Daddy and Amelie took him this morning about his weeing problems, including giving a sample on demand and answering all the doctor's questions like a big boy.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was also very brave when she fell off her bike in the park. As she said on the phone to me "I was going down a really big hill and the I hit a hole and I hurt my arm and my leg and my knee and my hand and my side and my bottom". Luckily none of that hurt translated into major injuries or blood but needed big kisses and big plasters!

Reason No. 119

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because I was unexpectedly able to give them both a big kiss before leaving for London early today, and they were both really snuggly and kissy so I left with a lovely warm feeling inside.

Reason No. 118

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because today was his "best day ever" (again!) when he got some new toys - a pirate ship, Jake and the Neverland Pirate figures, and a Lego star wars model - to share with Amelie.  He was very very excited (and understatement).

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she showed her mature emotional intelligence again when receiving the toys - she couldn't help herself pointing out that the pirate ship wasn't Bucky (the ship from Jake) but when I gave her a look (because Daddy had done a lot of research into toy pirate ships and there isn't a toy Bucky) she quickly corrected herself to say "but it's even better than Bucky"!

Reason No. 117

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because her swimming went from strength to strength again today when she did her whole lesson without any armbands. She's now decided she definitely wants to be an Olympic swimmer when she grows up!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he stayed with me while Amelie went swimming and was a joy throughout. He played happily with his toys, all the while singing the James Bond theme tune (bizarre given that he has never seen a Bond film!).

Reason No. 116

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he took charge during our visit to Graves Park today - he had been before with school but none of us had so he took great pride in showing us the way and bossing Amelie around.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had been very stoic with her cold - despite having been sick in the night and having a nosebleed all over her pillow she was determined to have fun at Graves Park including in the playground.

Reason No. 115

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she really wanted me to get my hair dyed red today, and tried to hide her disappointment when I came home without scarlet highlights.  And then spent the rest of the afternoon, periodically saying "I can see a bit of a red stripe here" and "this bits a bit golden" and "why don't you keep your hair curly like mine?"

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was far more interested in his own project of creating a Star Wars fighter out of Lego - having watched Star Wars at lunchtime.  He took a picture from a book of an aircraft and used his Lego to copy it in great detail.

Reason No. 114

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because they had a fab day today with Amelie's schoolfriend Abi who came over to play.  They all played really well together and had a lovely trip out with Daddy to Chatsworth.  So generally another lovely holiday day for everyone (except me!).

Reason No. 113

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is really keen to grow up, as evidenced by our experience doing her hairwash tonight where she wanted to wet her own her, put her shampoo on, massage it in and rinse it off.  And she was very proud of her ability to do most of that on her own.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he also wanted to wash his own hair, but more importantly managed to have a bath with hairwash without any screaming or crying that there was water in his eyes, ears, hair, fingers, toes etc etc etc!

Reason No. 112

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because they spent the day with Daddy and they all had some very grown up and democratic discussions about various decisions during the day - whether they should buy tickets for the cinema before or after having lunch, and whether, if one of them wanted the toilet during the film, they should all go or the other one should stay watching.  Apparently it was like having a debate with adults (or at least teenagers) and they came up with some very sensible ideas and reasons.

Reason No. 111

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she went out cycling with Daddy and Seth today and she is now cycling like Bradley Wiggins - maybe she is going to be a triathlete with the cycling and the swimming!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he explained to Amelie about marriage today - "you wait until you're older, then you find someone you like, then you marry them".  Easy!

Reason No. 110

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has really got into the Olympic thing, today deciding he wanted to be in the sailing (after watching Ben Ainslie win gold) and said that he had had "a good idea" which was that the sailors should tie their ropes to the side of the boat and then pull hard.  He had clearly been watching them struggling with holding on and pulling at the same time.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was a complete star at her swimming lesson today - before we went on holiday she was pretty much the worse in her group and wouldn't swim without help from the teacher; today she was the best in her group and went for it throughout the lesson.

Reason No. 109

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they have both really got into the Olympics since we got home from holiday and today it was great to see them practising their headstands on the carpet, doing the steeplechase round the living room, and pretending to race out of the blocks after watching the 100m.

Reason No. 108

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has finally got wise to the 'Daddy pretending to drink bathwater' trick (see earlier posts) and tonight gave Daddy his 'cup of tea' and then kept a very close eye on him so that he couldn't pretend to drink it and pour it away.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we went shopping for pants, trying to find some dark coloured ones which will hide marks better (so she doesn't report every single 'wiping accident' to her teachers at school next year). Unfortunately, they don't make dark coloured pants for girls her age/size so she suggested getting boys briefs instead.  And they fitted fine and looked normal so we'll see how it goes when she starts wearing them.

Reason No. 107

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she did some fantastic climbing when she went to Chatsworth with Seth and Daddy today.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he climbed to the top of the slide at Chatsworth even though he thinks he is (and probably is) very scared of heights - feel the fear etc. etc.

Reason No. 106

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has had a really good day at home with Daddy and Amelie today, and behaved really well despite being very excited about being home and wanting to catch up on everything including playing, drawing, watching TV and making lego.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very lovely when they dropped me at work and practically dragged me back into the car asking me to stay with them today.  I wish!