That's all folks...

Well, after three and a half years and 200 columns, it's time to call time on diary of a dad.

Harry started school this week and although it's only half days at the moment, Melissa and I agreed when I started writing the column that I would finish when he started school.

After all, it's bad enough having an embarrassing dad about the place, let alone having an embarrassing dad that writes for the local paper.

Looking back over the last three and a half years, I can honestly say that it's been an incredible experience: from the unadulterated joy of Harry's arrival, to his first words and first steps; and from James' traumatic birth (I still get nightmares when I think about watching a limp little baby being snatched away by the emergency team that descended on the delivery room), to the robust, happy little baby who flaps around with excitement when I walk in at night.

The changes that happen in such a relatively short space of time are truly remarkable. Sometimes I look at Harry and wonder when he suddenly turned into the tall, grown-up boy he is now.

I've learned an awful lot. For instance, I now know that it is in fact possible to function with only two hours sleep a night. I also know that, unless England happen to be playing a Test series in India or Australia, television is terrible at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Having grandparents that live within a few miles has also been a huge help. As much as we love our boys, having the odd night out or night away is a real treat – and that wouldn't be possible if we didn't haven't such supportive parents.

Has it changed me? Absolutely. It's a bit of a cliché but many of the things I thought were important before we had children simply pale into insignificance now. My priorities are now very simple: Harry and James.

Thanks for reading.

Growing up...

James is changing so quickly at the moment that he already seems to be more of a little boy than a baby.

He is very aware of his surroundings and responds with a great deal of excitement when people pay him attention – particularly his big brother.

James gets extremely excited when he sees Harry – he thrashes his arms and legs so hard that at times I worry that he'll do himself an injury.

The other evening, a very tired Harry was lying down on the sofa watching a television programme before bed. James was in his little walker on the floor and started to gradually push himself towards Harry, who was a couple of feet away. After about 15 minutes – and plenty of activity – James had got within grabbing distance and promptly took hold of Harry's bare foot and started chewing on it. Harry was not impressed but didn't shout or kick out as I expected him to.

Instead, he got up off the sofa and pushed James to the other side of the room, before turning him to face the opposite direction. Harry then returned to the sofa and carried on watching the television without saying a word. Melissa and I were in stitches.

Mind you, we almost as surprised the other day when Harry, without prompting, started to share his yoghurt with James. Now Harry loves his yoghurts and, as a rule, refuses to share them with anyone. However, he obviously made an exception for James because he just started feeding him – and even scraped the excess yoghurt from around his mouth. James was delighted. I just hope this goodwill continues as they grow up.

Feeding time...

I don't want to tempt fate, but James has taken to his food very well indeed. After a predictably tricky start, he has grasped the concept of eating very, very quickly.

It seemed to happen all of a sudden. Before Melissa took the boys on holiday a couple of weeks ago, the process was, at least as far as I was concerned, a fairly fruitless and extremely messy exercise. At times, I wasn't sure James had actually swallowed anything.

However, he is now eating just about everything we put in front of him – and when he sees you approaching with spoon and bowl in hand, he can barely contain his excitement.

It's certainly helping with his sleeping, because he's now just about going though the night again.

He's still waking about five for some milk but I can cope with the early mornings much better than I can cope with one or two o'clock feeds.

The food is obviously agreeing with him, because he seems to be getting bigger all the time – he's well over 20 pounds now and feels every ounce of it when you pick him up.

One thing that has surprised me is just how similar James and Harry now look. At times, James looks like the spitting image of Harry at the same age, which can be quite disconcerting. This is a relatively recent thing as up until a few weeks ago, I thought that James looked quite different.

Unfortunately, James, like Harry, has inherited my lack of hair. I can't remember how old Harry was when his hair finally started to thicken – probably not much before he was two – but I was quite releived to spot a few hairs finally starting to sprout on James' head this week. I think I was bald until I was three or four so I just hope James improves on that.