Reason No. 165

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he spent a long time over lunch telling us about a film he watched at school with an invisible giant alien. What he got was ET after lunch, but he really loved it.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she gets loads of homework but is really excited to do it all, even when she can't do it. And on top of homework, today she did a Christmas card for us to send to everyone.

Reason No. 164

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they were both really fantastic and grown up today - we spent the day painting a room and they spent the day occupying themselves, playing nicely, and hardly complaining at all.  The only low point was when Amelie fell and banged her cheek which caused a lot of crying, but she recovered and no real harm was done!

Reason No. 163

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he's becoming a very musical boy - firstly when waiting to pick Amelie up from ballet he was playing drums in the playground and showed real rhythm, then when at home, he showed us what he had learnt in his piano lesson and already knows where all the notes are.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is getting really good at ballet - compared to the little elephant in a pink dress when she started, she now looks like an actual ballerina with proper pointed toes and gracefulness!

Reason No. 162

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I arrived to pick her up from school to find her completely engrossed in working on a computer the school library - a very good sign.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he told us all at breakfast that his name is in the bible and he was really interested to know who Seth was and whether he had done any stories about Seth at school - we managed to point him to the links with Cain and Abel (brother) and with Noah (ancestor) so he was happy.

Reason No. 161

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he made a great "Seth and the beanstalk" at his school's 'fairy tales fancy dress' day, as evidenced by the photo below!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she spent ages this evening showing me the dance steps that she had learnt at school which apparently were shake, stroll and wiggle.  I did my best to try them all!

Reason No. 160

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they both were very good today at occupying themselves (and each other) including reading quietly by themselves while TWBD helped Nanny Mabel with her furniture and then ate their tea together sensibly while we moved some furniture into the garage.

Reason No. 159

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was so excited about going on his school trip tomorrow to a fairytale adventure park, and was so devastated when it was cancelled today because of a bad weather forecast.  Anyone would have thought the world had ended, the way he reacted.  But he's still very excited about going in fancy dress on Wednesday - and says that his costume is going to be the fancy dress costume of the year! - hopefully that won't be rained off.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because this morning so stated firmly that Yazza (the cat) is so big it looks like she's having babies.  The fact that Yazza is a very old lady and is on a constant diet doesn't seem to have registered with Amelie!

Reason No. 158

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she is like a little me sometimes, telling Seth "if you don't move this Lego, someone will sit on it and break it" and telling him off for burping and generally being naughty.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he lets it all wash over him and he still loves Amelie hugely, giving her big cuddles and kisses and letting himself be bossed around as much as he does the bossing.

Reason No. 157

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when he is tickled, he has the most lovely happy twinkle in his eyes and smiles unreservedly.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she turned interior designer today, choosing a light pink paint for her bedroom and declaring that her flower stickers would look much better on pink than they do on the current magnolia.

Reason No. 156

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she got full marks in her first maths homework this week.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he looked extremely cute in a peak cap that TWBD bought for him to wear when he goes to school as Jack (and the Beanstalk) next week.

Reason No. 155

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he brought home 2 pieces of work which were 'roll of honour' at school, and was very proud of them.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very funny when talking about her tummy ache "it makes funny noises which sound a it like frogs in my tummy!".

Reason No. 154

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because I wasn't well today and she was totally lovely when I had to sort out breakfast and take the children to school.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was hugely amused by something that happened at school today - it involved a parcel, a huge wardrobe, Jack (without his beanstalk), two policemen and Cinderella. What actually happened wasn't clear but they were real people ("but I think they were dressing up Mummy") and were obviously hilarious!

Reason No. 153

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when he finally buckled down, and learned some difficult spellings, he got them all right. Now our challenge is to get him to concentrate on the important stuff in life!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has already started to doubt the existence of Santa Claus - she told TWBD that Santa didn't exist and that all the presents came from Mummy and Daddy. We'll have to spend the next 3 months persuading her otherwise!

Reason No. 152

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had her first ever spelling test and (we think!) she got them all right!

I love Seth  more than I did yesterday, but I didn't when he got me up at midnight to say he needed the toilet.  On the plus side, at least he now seems to get the idea that getting up to the toilet is a good thing (rather than not getting up at all.......)

Reason No. 151

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he decided today to start reading the newspaper with me - no idea what sparked his interest but it seems to be a maor step forward and we read several headlines and first paragraphs together.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had a whale of a time building dens and campfires at her friends' birthday party today which was in Eccy Woods. Luckily it didn't rain so the adults were happy - but they still got pretty muddy!

Reason No. 150

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they had a great day celebrating Nanny Mabel's 89th birthday. They were very keen to make cards, wrap presents then to give them to NM so they could help unwrap and then eat cake!  It was a lovely day.

Reason No. 149

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is desperately excited about the prospect of getting new Lego at the weekend - he can sniff Lego out and managed to find some new Lego people in his box and realised that TWBD had bought and made some new models and these bits were the leftovers. So he has been organising 'investigations' with Amelie to search everywhere they have access to, to see if they can find the new models - but no luck so fat!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she got her ballet exam certificate today and she had got a distinction - so she's definitely inherited my artistic and balletic tendencies!

Reason No. 148

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she did her first yoga class today and came home buzzing. She learned 'a dog having a wee', 'a palm tree' and 'a magic carpet' which she demonstrated at home - not sure these are formal yoga terms but never mind!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he had his first piano lesson today and learnt "that you use different fingers to play different notes". Great progress!

Reason No. 147

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was 'Star Scientist' at school today.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because in her phonics lesson today, she got all her words right and she was very proud of the fact.

Reason No. 146

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because this evening she said "I love homework" when she was learning her spellings for her first spelling test.  Seth's reply "You can do mine then"!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he forgot his school jumper yesterday then found it this morning in his tray at school - his reaction "Mystery solved Mummy" (to add to the "On the contrary Mummy" which he said yesterday - if only he was that mature in other ways too!).

Reason No. 145

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he brought home some reading tonight and read it really fantastically to TWBD - and the feedback from his teacher in his school book was that he had read really well too.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she was very excited about getting some homework tonight - and it's going to be 4 nights a week so long may it last!

Reason No. 144

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had a lovely afternoon at a birthday party and on the way, totally exhausted, she wearily said "It's been a lovely day Mummy".

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we were watching the Paralympics  marathon while Amelie was at swimming and when I said, who lives in Buckingham Palace he said "Grandma?".

Reason No.143

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had the most fantastic day doing a treasure hunt at Chatsworth. The weather was glorious and they were both totally occupied for 2 hours running around saying "This is totally awesome!"

Reason No. 142

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had a lovely chat about everything when I was taking her to school - she told me all about school and her theories on life, the universe and everything - or something like that.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because at bedtime he described to me in great detail the episode of Star Wars The Clone Wars that he had just seen - OK it was because he wanted to describe something he wanted to get in lego, but at least it shows he pays attention and internalises things when he wants to!

Reason No. 141

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he, under sufferance a bit, did some great reading this evening. He was sent home with 2 books which he said to TWBD that had to go back tomorrow so we dutifully read - and very well. Then on the way to bed, he said that he didn't have to takeback unil Monday. But I think it's a good sign that he forgot that and wanted to read!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because at bedtime I asked her to tell me what she had done at school. She said there was too much so I said "just tell me the highlights" - "what are highlights?" - "the best bits" - "they were all the best bits!".

Reason No. 140

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because her first day back at school went very well - she chatted non-stop after I got home about everything that happened, all the writing she had done, the dancing she had done, and even gave me a run down of the head's speech in assembly where she talked about doors!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because before school he did some fantastic writing about his holiday and was really proud of it, taking it to school and telling his teacher about how he had written very small and neat on purpose.

Reason No. 139

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was really pleased to be back at school today, mostly, it seems, because he loves his teachers so much - he greeted one of them with the 'Seth death grip' and generally seemed to have had a really good day.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she had  lovely day at home with TWBD (as she doesn't start school until tomorrow) and showed real determination in trying to get to grips with the bike without stabilisers.  Not quite there yet, but making progress.

Reason No. 138

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when TWBD was trying to buy an age 6 birthday card for one of her friends, she insisted that her friend was only 5. TWBD insisted she was wrong but Amelie stood firm. But TWBD bought the age 6 card anyway. And of course Amelie was right so now we have to go and buy another card!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because at Chatsworth he made a fab moat in the sandpit complete with water. Maybe he'll be a builder, or an engineer!

Reason No. 137

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was a fantastic help with cleaning today and even did some of the hoovering himself - very exciting for him (until it got boring!)

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she watched Superman II so intently that when I missed a bit (where Clark Kent re-gained his super powers) she was able to explain what had happened and gave me her theory about why it had happened (he picked up the green crystal and that contains all his super powers so they all just came back into his body again!)

Reason No. 136

I love Seth and Amelie because we decided they were ready to watch Superman today and they loved it!