GrumpyDaddy

We've reached quite a milestone recently with the twins starting school. I have no idea how four and a half years have passed so quickly. Both Pat and Kitty have launched themselves into school with great enthusiasm and are really enjoying the experience.

Seeing them start school is an emotional experience. For most parents its the same I expect. It is the end of an era. An era that began with feeds through the night, then nappies galore, first steps, potty training and garbled talking. Starting school feels like the cut off point between infants and children. And a change to a different kind of parent.

We've been away on holiday - hence it being quiet on here. I couldn't be bothered blogging via smartphone. The frozen north was our destination - a week in the Peak District. We didn't actually see many peaks as the trip was really made to catch up with my family who we've not seen for a while.

This was also the week we celebrated the twins' fourth birthday. It was also the week baby Will managed to give himself a cut and a black eye by falling over and twatting himself with a toy car. Poor little pickle. He's a tough cookie though, he was up running around and terrifying us with his wanton disregard for his own safety within minutes.

Meanwhile I got to meet up with old schoolmates in our old local for the first time in years. Just like old times.

Our twins' favourite people in the entire world are my wife's parents - who they know as Granny and Grandpa.

But being under two they've not quite mastered these two words yet. Granny is apparently "Momo" and Grandpa is known as "Bumpa".

That was until we visited over the New Year. Now it seems both twins seem to have evolved "Bumpa" into something that sounds almost like "Bumhole".

It's actually so clear that at one point my surprised brother-in-law said to the twins "Don't call me dad a bumhole!"

Kids eh?

We had a lovely morning in Richmond Park. The twins really enjoyed the freedom to toddle at will and we loved the freedom, fresh air and joy of being together as a family.

A few weeks ago I bough a Canon EOS 5 via Ebay. This is the first 35mm SLR I've ever owned. And this morning I got back my first roll of film.

While some of the pictures were very blown out due to my inexperience with slide film I did get some really great shots. Certainly I feel that the camera was £30 well spent.

You can view some more of my efforts on film in this Flickr set.

Right now, as I type these words, my wife is downstairs about to give our children their first cookery lesson.

They are going to make chocolate cornflake cakes.

The children are 18 months old.

How exactly do you think it's going to go?

Update: Here's a photo of the aftermath.

Today marks a watershed in my life as a parent. For the first time I've taken a pair of scissors to our son's hair. His beautiful curly locks are no more. And while I've done a decent job of his first haircut (if you don't look at the back of his head) it's quite a sad day.

My good lady wife is already sad that our little munchkin's curls have gone and she's not even seen my efforts yet - the twins are having their afternoon nap.

Our fifteen-month old daughter seems to have learned to speak this morning. Obviously not well enough for a spot on Quote Unquote, but there's a definite change in how she's communicating.

Instead of the regular babble of dadada and mamama there are definite recognisable words now - even if they are not spoken entirely correctly. So we get "ba" for ball, "bu" for book, "dat" for that, "Dayee" for Daisy and today for the first time we get a resounding clear "no" with a shaking of the head.