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.

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…

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!

Jake was due to start nursery school in the middle of the month as part of the phased introduction to school life. However, Lisa got a call yesterday to say that Jake could start tomorrow if it suited.

Even though it was slightly short notice, we were more than happy to let Jake go in earlier - the classroom size would be slightly smaller and he’d benefit from being able to meet his classmates gradually. Going in toward the end means you’re walking into a huge class full of strange faces.

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I got a little weepy tonight as my wee 4 year old blew out the candles on his chocolate caterpillar birthday cake.

In honesty, he won’t be four until tomorrow, but we had a party tonight in his granny’s so his cousins could join him.

He is such a massive wee boy, he actually looks like he is about five or six years old, but it seems like yesterday when we brought him home from hospital all fresh and new.

His birthday has turned out to be quite power ranger themed. It doesn’t matter what other gifts he gets….he has a green mystic force ranger, so all is right with the world.

Quick post about something I’ve noticed recently - Jake grinding his teeth in his sleep.

I noticed it a few times when I was putting him to the toilet at night, but then he climbed into our bed one night and kept us awake with this awful grinding sound. It was unbelievable.

So. now we know this is going on every night. First, I’m interested to know what’s causing it. Second, I wonder if there’s any way to stop it, or if it’s something he’ll just grow out of.

Has anybody gone through this before?

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!

Jake has become a Power Ranger addict! I don’t know how to treat it. Does anyone know of any good classes or groups out their for addicts and their families?

Every time I see him he has a power ranger figure in his hand. He sleeps with them, he eats with them, he takes them to school, they even get pride of place in our bathroom sink as he goes to the toilet. Suggest storytime to Jake and he wants to read his Power Ranger annual, suggest a game and it’s swords out and we’re all pretending to be rangers and zords.

He has been planning which colour Power Rangers he will get for his birthday since Christmas. We have the same discussion every day, though the colours may change… roll on August!

We got the long awaited letter today. The one saying that Jake has been offered a place in the local preschool nursery and thankfully will be attending in the morning session.

When Jake was first born I thought it would be difficult for him to attend preschool for two years. He was born in early August and so by the time he starts primary school he will be five years old. Now his fourth birthday is almost upon us and I am glad it is nursery and not primary school he will be attending in September.

Academically he could go to primary school and I think he would fare well, but emotionally I think he will benefit from the extra year at preschool and at home. Jake is still very dependant on us (his parents) and I think another year would help ready him for ‘big school’ and being away from home for 5 hours at a time.