After I walked out of my parents’ house on Saturday, I proceeded to do exactly what I’d promised the boys. I took them out and we had an excellent day together.

I had taken Daniel to a little harbour round the coast called Portbradden earlier in the week. While the weather wasn’t wonderful, we managed quite a lengthy walk that revealed some interesting little places along the coast. It was then that I resolved to come back at the weekend for further adventures.

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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.

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…

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…

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!

There are points in the parenting cycle I love and those I don’t. Most men I speak to seem to agree that the baby stage is hard to deal with - the crying, the tantrums and the dirty nappies. And that’s just their wives.

Seriously though, the first couple of years are the hardest as far as I’m concerned. Daniel had his second birthday last week. A milestone by any standard, but it seems to be marked by how quickly he’s progressing lately.

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Daniel’s latest phrase is “Yay, dat!” It used to be just “Yay!” whenever you offered him something he wanted (usually food), but this last couple of days he’s been adding “Dat”. Meaning “that” in case you were wondering.

One of the funniest things about him is the zeal he puts into this. You’d honestly think he’d won something.

In general, Dan’s speech is coming along pretty well. A few months ago he used the almost universal “Ushhh” to refer to anything and everything. These days it’s more refined. You’ll hear “Nink” when he wants a drink, “RoRo” when he’s talking about his sister and a very clear “Jakey” for his brother.

I had a brief bit of flashcard play with him tonight and was impressed with how well he repeated some of the words. It’ll be interesting to see if he starts remembering the words and using them every day.

Daniel is in the middle of a deadly phase - the sneaky dropping the toilet roll into the toilet phase! Because of his size and the distraction that the other two (and their friends) often present, he’s finding it very easy to sneak into the bathrooms and make a bog roll bomb.

I think all of our kids have done this at one stage or another. It doesn’t make fishing the damned things out any easier though.

Here’s the worst one though - one of the kids’ friends went to the toilet just after Dan had thrown a roll in. Couldn’t have been a number one, it had to be a full-on, rancid number two. Why is it that other people’s kids make ungodly smells when they visit our bathroom?

Well, anyway, I was off at work, so Lisa had the honour of removing the offending article. Not before phoning me and trying to pass responsibility to me. Thankfully, she didn’t wait until I got home and worked up the nerve herself.

As of right now, we’re locking the bathroom doors from the outside so that he can’t do any more damage. Up until today’s grocery shop, Dan had caused quite the toilet roll shortage through his little crusade!

There’s a couple of wee moments with the kids recently that I want to write down so that we can remember them in the future. That’s what blogs are for, after all…

Rachel was recently sharing some chips with Jake one evening. As they emptied the plate, one chip remained which Rachel zoomed in on. She recoiled in horror when she discovered it was covered with ketchup. Ever helpful, Jake picked up the chip, licked the sauce off, and passed it back to Rachel. There was only a flicker of hesitation and you could see her thinking ‘What the hell‘ before wolfing it down. Yuck. I’ll be reminding them of that when they’re teenagers!

Sometimes, as a parent, you wonder if the kids are really aware of what’s going on in your life. I recently got a bit of good news, and sat Rachel down to relay it to her. To my surprise, she gave me a big hug and a kiss and congratulated me. I was gobsmacked. Even more so when she talked Lisa into having a secret party for me to celebrate. Apparently she damned near invited half her class.

The sceptic in me thought it might be an opportunity for her to get a big wedge of chocolate cake, but she seemed to love the attention for doing something so nice.

Now Daniel. Wee Dan. Not so wee any more. That’s right, he’s at the charming age when he can climb out of his cot! Cue a stair gate on his bedroom door, and a swift move to a bed - no point in keeping the cot around. Since we’re making big changes, it’s time to take away the dummies as well I think. The bedtime routine has changed as a result - Dan goes to bed first, and when he’s settled Jake follows.

He’s waking quite early in the mornings at the moment, too. Before we go to bed, we swap the stair gate across to the top of the stairs. So when he wakes in the morning, he comes in and visits us. Hooray! 5:30am starts return!

I just love the stage that our baby boy is at right now. Actually I should probably stop calling him a baby, he is more of a toddler at this point. But he is our youngest and last and I want to have a baby for just a bit longer!

Anyway back to the point, Daniel is 21 months old and chattering like a monkey! I love watching the joy on his face when I understand what he is saying, and more often than not what he wants to eat.

Many of Daniels first words have been food or drink related. Unsurprising, considering thats all he ever wants to do. He is now constantly asking for bananas, toast, biscuits, chocolate (I know, I’m a bad mother), grapes, milk or juice. When he asks for whatever it is he wants and I understand him he immediately yells “Hooray!!”, it’s just so cute.

I can see Daniels temper starting to lessen as he is able to communicate more. I am so looking forward to the day that he can say, “mummy, I am hungry and would love to have my dinner now.” But for now, “bye bye” and “banana” are more fine by me.