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…