The children's victims

I sometimes feel sorry for the visitors to this house. Not the majority, who know what they are getting themselves into, but those few poor, unsuspecting souls who visit and end up being the children's new best friend for the duration of their stay. Not through any fault of their own, except perhaps that they are a little too keen to play, but more a combination of the time of day, the wildness of the children and the visitor's inability to realise that once you start something vaguely fun with kids it is usually very hard to stop until someone is crying.

Last week's victim was Giles who called in for a cup of tea and ended up spending a good few hours as a human climbing frame, an artist's assistant and chief train track engineer to name but a few. He was rewarded with endless cuddles from both Anya and Sonny and a very obvious reluctance to let him go home but it certainly wasn't the brew and chat he'd called in for.

Tonight's victim was Terry, aka Andy if you are Anya who after meeting him properly for the first time last year couldn't get it out of her head that he wasn't called Andy and, even after not seeing him since that first meeting until tonight, immediately started calling him Andy again!

Terry was splashed by otters in the bath, breathed on and raah-ed at by two fire-breathing dragons over tea and then also used as a human climbing frame (this was entirely his fault, mind you, anyone who picks up small, giggly children and throws them over their shoulder is asking for it really). It was when I left the room and returned to find Anya sitting on his knee, jumping up and down and sticking multi-coloured feathers in his hair that I wondered if he might ask them to stop. But no, the mayhem continued until he had a child clinging on each leg whilst trying to walk around the house, begging him not to go - he was only going to pick Ian up from Llanberis. Again, Terry was also rewarded with lovely cuddles before they went to bed, but he did leave looking rather more dishevelled than when he came.

I think kids are a bit like cats, only where cats can spot someone who doesn't like them from a mile off, kids can spot a sucker from the same distance.