Being the father of twins imbues one with a certain amount of cockiness. After all - those early days together saw me as their sole carer having been cruelly widowed. And so when I hear couples talk about how hard it is to look after their one child I tend to inwardly snort with derision. “You want to try it with twins,” I think, “On your own, while your heart has been ripped out.”

But the truth is that no matter how well prepared you are, how much you think you’ve seen and done it all, the second time around is still difficult even for a couple. The twins didn’t walk properly until they were 15 months old. This was laziness on their part - they cruised for months - but thanks to our narrow house there was no gap that required them to let go of a wall to get anywhere. By the time they decided to give “look no hands” a go they were already experts at it. There was no phase of falling over, no wobbliness, all nice as simple.

...

William bless him, who turned one in July, decided he was going to take the big leap into walking a week before his first birthday. This delighted and amazed us. And really there is nothing cuter than him waddling around giggling to himself. But, heaven’s above, the lad needs a crash helmet. Walking at one is a very wobbly undertaking and nearly every day he manages to add another bump to his head. It frightens me really - he’s so confident and cocky about his walking - yet so willing to dive straight into a situation that’s going to leave him sore and unhappy.

Thankfully he’s a tough little bugger and without doubt the cheeriest baby I’ve ever scene. Actually the cheeriest person I’ve ever met. The lad is a constant source of smiles and laughter. Which makes those sad moments when he clonks his head on some furniture all the more sad, we’re not used to tears from him. Recently we went to Centre Parcs on holiday and rented some bikes with trailers for the kids, I wish I’d bought his little cycle helmet home.You can’t wrap them in cotton wool though - I have to just let him play, let him carry too many things around, over the little stip between kitchen and playroom and be there for him when he takes a tumble.