This blog, as usual is poorly updated at the best of times. Whenever something nice or cute happens at home, you make a mental note to blog it later. Then by bedtime, it’s gone.

Aha, but not today! Today’s escapade involves a fat dad (me) and two short-arses trying to amuse themselves while the women folk (Lisa and Rachel) went off to dance class for an hour.

Determined not to be stuck bored at home with Jake and Dan growing increasingly restless, I decided to take the pair of them for a walk. I had some concerns about Daniel, because being 2-and-a-bit, it was likely he’d get tired and I’d end up carrying him most of the way. I also had a bit of trouble persuading Jake to come along with me. He wasn’t keen on the idea of a country walk.

Anyway, taking them both by the hand, we dandered out of the street. It wasn’t long before I spied a snail hiding in the long roadside grass. I pointed it out to the boys, and that started a little nature trail of them trying to find bugs in the grass.

Down the road a bit, I gave them a couple of sticks and let them chop the heads of dandelions. One of my own personal favourite passtimes, although it’s more fun with nettles (I decided it was safer not to share that particular point). So, with all this stopping to bash up dandelions, you can imagine the walk took much longer than I intended.

Both of the boys walked valiantly and without much complaint and I tried to keep the walk interesting by pointing things out to them and chatting to them along the way. Jake’s decided that he’d like to go cycling along the road with me someday, and I might do this when I know the road’s relatively deserted.

Anyway, we got home with both of them babbling about how much fun they’d had, so not a bad result, and I didn’t have to carry Daniel far at all.

This is it. The cat who adopted us. Or Swissy as Rachel likes to call it.

The latest news on this moggy is that she attached herself to the woman who lives two doors down from us. She started to feed the cat and ended up making sure it got innoculations and stuff like that. Lisa talked to her the other day and she was surprised to hear that Swissy was still around.

I think the agreement is that we have some kind of ‘joint custody’ arrangement. Read the rest of this entry »

I am pretty sure that I have spent the last year telling my children that they couldn’t have a pet. How is it then that we have ended up with a cat constantly perched on our front door step?

Not only does it sit there day and night, but it has now started jumping onto the windowsill and miaowing loudly every time it runs out of milk in the little container Rachel fills each day.

I have never been much of a cat person. I have an allergic reaction any time I get too close to one, and I don’t particularly like their nature, but watching Rachel sitting on the porch step in the rain, with Swissy cuddled up on her knee just melts my heart.

I sometimes listen to her at the window as she chats to the cat and tells it how lovely it is. I really have to put it on video and play it back when she is a teenager and going through her ‘hate the world’ phase. It will remind me of our wee sweet girl we had way back when….

Of course the cat hates Daniel. He chases it, sits on it, tries to catch its tail. It’s all out of love of course, but he just doesn’t understand that he is torturing the poor creature.

I am beginning to realise that it is only a matter of time before Swissy becomes officially ‘our cat’. I just hope the thing is house trained!

Our attic room is temporarily a ‘play room’. Which means it’s a place for the kids to throw their toys around without us having to look at the resulting mess.

Every now and again, I take Daniel up to the attic and we watch a DVD together. We throw ourselves down on the beanbags and, if the conditions are right we’ll both fall asleep. We did this yesterday afternoon - I stuck on the Shrek The Third DVD and we both settled down for the movie.

I love afternoon naps. That feeling of sinking into a deep, warm sleep, cushioned in a big comfy beanbag. I must’ve fallen asleep first because I don’t remember much beyond Charming’s rousing speech in the fairytale tavern. My eyes flicked open at one point and Dan had rolled off his beanbag and was curled up on the floor beside the cupboard.

There was another brief interruption when Jake tracked us down and looked like he was about to start making noise with the toys. I remember gruffly dispatching him and feeling slightly guilty before the sleep overtook me again.

I enjoy these little naps, they’re very refreshing and there’s something nice about having a little sleep with Dan side by side in the beanbags. Must find a way to make this a regular thing…

This is one for you, Rachel. You’ve always been an early bird, and since you’ve been able to tip-toe down the stairs, we’d frequently wake to the sound of your TV programmes and find you comfy on the sofa enjoying some time to yourself.

During the week though, I’m always up ahead of you. But you have an uncanny knack of knowing when I’m awake and I’ll hear ‘Dad’ whispered from the top of the stairs while I’m making toast. When I hear my name, I always put on a couple of extra slices just for you.

I was just about to head out the door this morning when I heard your whispered greeting from the top of the stairs. You emerged from the darkness, bleary eyed and fuzzy haired and we had a beautiful hug at the bottom of the stairs. There’s nothing like getting a big hug from your little girl first thing in the morning to send you off in a good mood.

So, I went out into the rain and you came to the window to wave me off. Until you saw ‘Swissy’, your adopted cat that now seems to live under the car. He/she appeared as soon as I opened the front door, and as I drove off, you had your head out the living room window chatting to your new friend.

Hell, it’s been a mad few months in our house.

Our websites are getting more and more popular. My day job is getting busier and more stressful. I don’t update this blog as often as I’d like to, because I want to record some of our lives for the kids.

As a family, good things are happening, and not-so-good things too. Rachel and Jake are going through a great time. Both are being real sweethearts, conversational, witty and creative.

Jake’s demonstrating amazing concentration and imagination with craft toys like KidK’nex and Magnetix. He comes up with patterns and shapes all by himself and invents little uses for them. Rachel is in complete awe of this in him and sometimes asks him to make things for her.

It’s hard to explain just how cute Jake is. When he speaks to you, he’s sincere and polite, always. And he loves to explain things to you. Not the way Rachel used to when she was younger - she used to make the rules up to suit her desired result. Jake works through his ideas of how the world works and listens to us when we explain where he’s got things slightly wrong.

He’s such a beautiful little man and he shows great patience when you’re smothering him in hugs and kisses.

Rachel. There’s a bright girl. But we forget she’s vulnerable and needs reassurance now and again. Lisa mentioned this to me the other day - we tend to nurture Jake because he’s shy, but assume Rachel’s alright because she’s a bit older.

She loves reading together. We do her homework every night, and she reads one book to me, then I read the more advanced book to her. She’s coming on in leaps and bounds and won a present in school today for being so good at her sums.

She’s not half the diva she used to be, either. There was a time when Rachel was such a fusspot and would argue with you over anything. At the moment, she loves alone time with us and just to sit for a while and chat. We spent half an hour in the attic tonight with her messing on the computer and me sketching.

Daniel’s frustrated and frustrating at the moment. He’s another bloody sharp operator, knows what he wants and is very stubborn about making sure he gets it. His speech is coming on well. And as Lisa mentioned, his toilet training is coming along well, despite some lapses.

The frustrating part is his tantrums. He sees himself on a par with the other two and doesn’t like being made to play to different rules. I think the best adjective for his rages is apoplectic. Remember I said about Rachel being the diva? Well, Daniel has picked up the torch.

If experience has taught us anything, it’s that these phases pass and we just need to try to keep cool heads until that hallowed day arrives…

Dear children,

Just a quick note to remind you that not every parental sacrifice has to be a big thing. Tonight, we were alone in the house together without any bread and only 3 pancakes left in the house for a bedtime snack.

Now, in our house, the pancakes are mine!!!

But tonight my loves, I sacrificed my pancakes for your gastromical pleasure. I even committed the crime of putting jam on one for Jake. Jam on a pancake is sacrilege in my book, but there you go.

You can thank me later.

We’ve done it! We’ve toilet trained a child or the third and final time, and that feels good!

Just before Christmas, Daniel decided that he didn’t want to wear a nappy anymore. We had known from late summer that he was ready, but in our laziness kept putting the inevitable off. We just didn’t want to spend a week mopping up puddles from every corner of the house.

When the time came though, wee Dan displayed amazing control. He took off his nappy one day, sat on the toilet and pee’d. He got such a great response from us that he more or less refused to put the nappy back on. We persevered, got out the new Thomas The Tank Engine underwear and the whole thing was actually quite easy.

Here we are, one month later and Daniel has had only a handful of accidents. Like his father (definitely not his mother!) he displays superior bladder control, and usually adequate bowel control, though when he misses the toilet, he does it in a big way.

It’s strange to think that for the first time in more than six years, we have no nappy wearers in our house. No having to change that stinker every morning, which is great, but also no more babies, which is weird.  Once again it has hit home that our babies are growing up!

This one’s for Rachel. I had a bad dream at the weekend. About you. And in the dream we’d lost you in a car crash.

It was one of those strange dreams - it lasted long enough for me to feel grief. And there was a bizarre amount of detail. For example, Jake was having trouble adjusting and I remember him having difficulty with suddenly being the eldest. And there only being two boys.

I woke up sad that Sunday morning, but you were up with the dawn as usual and probably didn’t notice me being extra huggy around you. And at the moment, you probably don’t notice that I’m trying to spend a bit more time talking to you, getting to know you and what’s going on in your little life.

The dream may have been significant, because I’ve been feeling that you and I are drifting at the moment. You’re busy with friends and school, and I’m wrapped up in a lot of things. Jake and Dan are about the house quite a bit, but you’re a busy little scamp and rarely up for a chat during waking hours!

So, knowing that you hate going straight to sleep at night, I’m calling in for little chats after you go to bed. We’ll sit high up on your bed and talk about what’s going on. You’ll tell me about stories you’ve read, and maybe I’ll share some stories with you. If I can get a word in edgeways.

I’m enjoying watching you grow up. At the moment, you’re funny, sociable and quick-witted. You enjoy teasing and being teased (but not by the boys). Sometimes you’re volatile, and you’re still a fickle eater. You’re getting along unusually well with Aiden and Lucy right now, but your friendship with Lauren is becoming a bit strange as she’s not keen to share you and wants to stay in her house a lot. We’ve noticed that this bothers you and you want to be in our house a little bit more.

Anyway, there’s a little update for you. I just wanted to share this one in case I forgot it. Hopefully no more of those bad dreams for the foreseeable future.

Little Jake, tonight was your finest hour. You peed for the first time standing up.

In years to come, we’ll take this for granted and you’ll probably boggle that I even bothered to write this down at all. But I’m so proud wee man.

A couple of months ago, I talked to you about going to the toilet standing up. The idea sounded fun to you, and I even gave you a couple of demos as to how it should be done.

I think it was a mix of stage fright and impatience that made you give up after about a week. We decided it wasn’t the right time, and I didn’t want to pressure you.

Seems it was a good idea, because this evening, after Daniel vacated the bathroom (he’s toilet training at the moment), you just sauntered up to the bowl. Noticing the swagger, I casually suggested that you might want to try it standing up tonight. We lifted the seat up and you got in position and let it fly.

Funny how watching someone pee can make your heart sing, but I was (and still am) so proud that you did this without thinking about it, without worrying. I think I’m going to try this at bedtime for a few nights and see if we can work it into the daily routine until you’re comfortable working by yourself.

Oh, and congratulations on the wee shake at the end. You looked like you’d been doing it for years!