Hit the pause button

The weirdest part about having children is the pull. You are so torn between wanting your children to be little forever and desperately wanting to fast-forward to see the adult they will become.

Pleading to get through a horrible phase as quickly and unscathed as possible, yet desperately sad as your baby disappears before your eyes.

One moment they are squishy cheeked with little legs and a long body, adorably disproportionate with a telletubby tummy. The next moment they wake up and overnight seem to have grown about a foot with legs to rival Kendall Jenner.

Fortunately for my eldest I have the sneak peak for how he will look as he flits between being the image of his father and the image of my brother. We aren’t related in some weird Fen way, you will be pleased to know, although in Spalding you can’t always be sure.

Wilf is more of a mystery, he might end up a sensationally gorgeous heart breaker, or Woody Harrelson (a gem of a comparison from my brother). I’m hoping for the heart breaker, grey eyes are just so cool.

It’s not until you become a mother yourself, you understand why your own mother worried so much.

Beverley Goldberg isn’t such a hilarious TV character when what she is doing is exactly what you will do in a few years time. Stealing ‘huggies’ when she can with her teenage children and driving to college when they don’t answer the phone for a few days. It isn’t embarrassing for fun, it’s embarrassing so you can sleep at night and not drive yourself insane with worry. I see that now.

So as I watch their little characters unfold, for the better and for the worse, I desperately want to hit the pause button. Just long enough to soak it all in and remember exactly how it felt to have two young children before their bags are packed for their first solo adventures. At this rate it will feel like five minutes time .

What a ride it will be though and by golly I hope they know I’ll always be their biggest cheer leader. Just perhaps have something in my eye quite a lot.