Reason No. 316

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he did something very funny today but I can't remember what it was!  Whatever it was he said "you know something, and this is reall true!" And then did a pretend faint when he said it. But that doesn't help because I can't remember what it was!  But if I remember in the middle of the night, I'll write it up tomorrow!

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because we had her parents' evening tonight and Mrs Hardwick was very positive about everything she does - great at spelling, reading, maths, creative stuff, contributing in class, making friends, working out problems etc. So generally an all round star!

Reason No. 315

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because, despite the fact that Seth was nasty to her and laughed when she fell over, she still argued for him to have a biscuit when they got home from school.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he is very proud that he's got a new best friend called Arrian.  Whether Arrian knows is another matter!

Reason No. 314

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because I was accosted by a bundle of excitement, cuddles and armed with Lego when I got home from London.

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she seems fully recovered from her chest infection and still managed to get 10 out of 10 in spelling and did some fantastic reading for homework tonight.

Reason No. 313

I love Amélie and Seth more than I did the day before yesterday because I had great phone calls with them from London which were along the lines of "yes everyone thought my costume was great, I did well in my spelling test and Grandma sent us some new Lego"!

Reason No. 312

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we finished the costume today and even he thinks he looks fab and is looking forward to wearing it tomorrow!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had a lovely 'girl' film session after lunch - we didn't want to watch what the boys wanted to watch, so we went upstairs and watched Harry Potter (or at least, Amelie watched the film while I fell asleep).  It was a lovely snuggly couple of hours.

Reason No. 311

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she showed her bravery at the playground up the Heights of Abraham today - doing her mountain goat impression by jumping from thing to thing without any real fear.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he showed his bravery too - even going up on the cable car was very scary for him and then when we were up the top, he even went up the Prospect Tower with its scary spiral staircase.

Reason No. 310

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we spent a lot of the day sorting out a costume for him to wear on Monday for World Book day - he was very resistant to our idea of The Cat in the Hat but then Grandma read the book to him and we started to make a huge hat, and he came round to the idea.  Picture to follow!

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she has been really good with her antibiotics today, even though she hates the banana flavour, and actually reminded us when we forgot to give her a dose.

Reason No. 309

I love Amélie and Seth more than I did yesterday because we had someone else visiting today and they managed to be quite calm and well-behaved whilst being very excited about having another mug to demonstrate all their toys to.

Reason No. 308

I love Seth more than I did a few days ago because you have to love a boy who manages to keep up his excitement and energy levels for several days in a row.

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she's desperately trying to keep up with Seth in the excitement and energy stakes but is clearly exhausted by her chest infection, cough and being up in the night.

Reason No. 307

I love Amélie more than I did a few days ago because when I said "guess who I saw at St Pancras station" she said "Grandma of course" because clearly I'd bump into Grandma in London. And she was right!

I love Seth more than I did a few days ago because he was super excited about Grandma coming to visit and by the time I got home, after bedtime, all the grown-ups looked completely worn out by him.

Reason No. 306

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he gets so wound up over his Lego making - today he got a new model which he was trying valiantly to make but couldn't work out. So he got more and more upset with himself until he worked it out and then proudly declared "it's all sorted out now Mummy".

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she and Seth were very sweet sharing a secret and giggling at lunch time. She kept whispering things to him and he would giggle then whisper something back.

Reason No. 305

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because, in spite of having a bad cough and cold, and clearly feeling a bit rough, she's been in good spirits and still telling TWBD off when he tried to wind her up that tomorrow is a school day.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he said that he wished it wasn't half term because "I really like learning new things at school".

Reason No. 304

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, at bedtime, we had a really good conversation about a picture that Seth had done of a dinosaur which is now in my 'secret box'. And Seth was persuading me to show him my secret box and give him his picture back.

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday because she was fantastic today helping me choose and put up new pictures throughout the house. She was very keen to pick good ones of all of us and to put them in good spots around the place.

Reason No. 303

I love Amélie more than I did yesterday (not least because I've worked our how to put the accent on her name on my iPad which she'll be thrilled about!) because I took her to school this morning and we had a lovely grown up conversation on the walk up to her school - subject matter not important but the conversation was very mature. 

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very excited and happy when he came home from school that he danced around the living room in his underpants, singing to himself. 

Reason No. 302

I love Seth and Amelie because 'they' bought me a fabulous watch for Valentine's Day and they gave me some lovely cards too. I feel very loved on the day of love - and I hope they do too!

Reason No. 301

I love Amelie and Seth more than I did yesterday because they are both on full 'secret alert' for Valentine's Day tomorrow. When I arrived home there was lots of whispering, and Amelie said she had done something "secret for you and Daddy but it's not a secret to Daddy cos he knows about it". Seth was desperate to know about presents, but not convinced by Daddy's explanation that it was a tube of smarties!

Reason No. 300

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he made a fabulous red truck out of cardboard boxes, with wheels that go round, and he brought it home very proudly this evening.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she came out of school, very straight-faced, the shouted to the whole playground "I got 12 out of 12!" Which is great considering at the start of the week she only knew about 1 of the correct spellings.

Reason No. 299

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she has had some artwork selected for the Sheffield Young Artist competition so is going to be displayed at Ponds Forge in May - can't wait.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because for the first time tonight he asked what I was going to write in my blog about him. Amelie is normally obsessed with this question but Seth is never bothered.  So I think that's a good sign that he's beginning to care about people's perceptions of him. And I told him I was going to write that he is a gorgeous lovely boy and I adore him. So now I have done!

Reason No. 298

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he sometimes shows flashes of brilliance which he normal hides - like today when he suddenly recited all the days of the week in French.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because today she told TWBD that he couldn't play football anymore because...... When pressed, she denied it was because he is too old "because you're only 62 Daddy!"

Reason No. 297

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because, when we were out for the day, she suddenly proclaimed "Do you know Mummy, girls don't sweat they passpire"!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because during our journey he explained lots of things to us about light - that rainbows are made by the sun shining through the rain and all the light splitting up into different colours. And then he said "and you know something else really interesting - black is not a colour". We were all suitably astonished!

Reason No. 296

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because, after last night's fall out over him wanting a new game for his iPad, this evening he said he wanted to ask me something. He wanted me to guess what a word was if he wrote it in the air. But he was worried I would throw his iPad away (last night's threat!). Unfortunately he couldn't spell Mario so we didn't get very far (or throw his iPad away!).

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she brought a load of school work home for us to see before parents evening and it had some fantastic writing and maths in it, including some poetry that she insists she wrote but I can't quite believe it!

Reason No. 295

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she's getting better all the time at the piano - and I can't keep up with her!  She has a piano book with duets where she plays one note with one hand, and I have fiendish accompaniments which I can't get right!

I love Seth more than I did yesterday he learnt a new note at his piano lesson today - F. He the told me that next week he would learn G, the week after H, the week after that I etc.  So he was delighted when I said that pianos only go to G so he's nearly learnt all the notes!

Reason No. 294

I love Seth and Amelie more than I did yesterday because we had a great conversation on the way home from school with Seth saying "do you think paper floats or sinks?" Amelie - "floats". Seth - "correct!"  Seth - "what about a pencil?"  Amelie - "floats". "Correct!"  Seth - "what about cotton?"  Amelie - "floats". "Right and wrong!"  Seth - "A paper clip?"  Amelie - "floats".  "Wrong!"  Lovely!!

Reason No. 293

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because at bedtime, she hadn't had her hair brushed or her bobble taken out for the 3rd night in a row. When I said that I would have to smack Daddy's bottom for forgetting she said "it was my fault really, for not reminding him or doing it myself".

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because his piano playing is going from strength to strength but his big problem is that he plays mostly from memory, then when he forgets the music, he gets completely lost!  But his memory is pretty good!

Reason No. 292

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he has the most acute Star Wars antennae!  TWBD bought some Lego for himself today, double bagged it and hid it but Seth still sniffed it out and was obsessive asking about it. He wasn't persuaded by any of our explanations and we had to resort to threats to shut him up!

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she blows me away sometimes with her welcome home. Today she was desperately excited to see me, wanting big cuddles and to tell me all about her day. It's lovely to come home to!

Reason No. 291

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she moved on from 3 spellings right out of 12 when practising yesterday to getting 12 out of 12 by the end of the day. Hopefully she'll keep this up when tested at school tomorrow.

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because he was very scared watching "Paranorman" at lunchtime - so bad that he insisted on sitting on TWBD's lap with his head buried - but he gradually got braver and emerged slowly from his cocoon until he enjoyed the end of the film.

Reason No. 290

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because we had a lovely, calm day and he did some fabulous maths homework about relative weights of fruit and veg.

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because she told us about how she learns things like her spellings - she said "I lock them in my mind and then I swallow the key so they can't get out!"

Reason No. 289

I love Amelie more than I did yesterday because when I got to school to pick her up from ballet, she was fully dressed and ready to go. Unfortunately still in her ballet shoes but never mind....

I love Seth more than I did yesterday because when I picked him up from school he had the most fabulous picture of a helicopter ("an army helicopter Mummy!") and he talked all the way to Amelie's school about how he'd seen it in the film of the BFG and copied it.