The importance of cutlery

I thought it was about time I put an update on here about the boys.

Ben's now two years and eight months old to be precise; Ciaran's ten months.

Ciaran cut another tooth last week, notching up the sixth fang in his ever-expanding set. Ben got his full set some time ago.

Poor Ciaran.

His cheeks are as red as the fiery furnaces of Hades half the time but, having such a benign temperament, he doesn't tend to grumble too much about it. He just puts his fingers in his mouth and sucks on them for a while or gnaws on a toy.

He's well into his baby-led weaning phase and has been eating solids with ease for months. He still takes a bottle, but that's more of a dietary supplement than a gastronomic necessity.

He's also well into the crawling phase.

He started properly about two months ago and it's the old familiar story. Nothing is safe in your living space, and I have to cordon off half our living room with cushions and pillows to stop him pulling over a CD rack or chewing on a plug lead.

Both boys started nursery last week as Ellen started her new four-day-a-week job.

For Ben, it's familiar territory.

In fact, it's the same nursery he went to before we had Ciaran. His old carer even met up with him on day 1 of his second stint to greet him and help him settle in.

He's still getting used to it and often sobs uncontrollably well before we've even left the house to go down there. He picks up on tell-tale early morning indicators, like Daddy packing the nursery bags with clothes and bottles or getting the coats ready.

However, crucially, he settles in quickly when he's down there and becomes perfectly happy in his surroundings. He certainly plays an active role in his class, as his clothes attest when we pick him up.

His language development is the other main thing on the surge at the moment.

He's picking up everything, and you can have meaningful little conversations with him now. On the debit side, his tantrums have taken a sharp turn for the worse in the last four weeks.

He is very insistent about what he wants now. For example, he refused to eat his dinner tonight unless he had a spoon the same size as Daddy's.

Choosing the right cutlery at dinner time has suddenly become an important task in our house. Daddy got him an identical spoon, and then he wanted the same bowl as Daddy's. And round and round we go.

So that's the position for now kiddies-wise.

Ellen and I both feel much more on top of things now than we have done for, erm, ages.

Out of control most of the time, still, but not out of mind.