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…