My daughter, Emily, starts primary school in two weeks' time.

And I can't believe how grown up she seems these days. In my mind's eye, she's still only a baby, just like my baby son, Matthew, in fact.

It's when you compare the two, side by side, that you realise how far Emily's come in four years.

Inevitably, when she walks into school in September wearing her pristine uniform she'll look a tiny tot compared to all the older children.

But she's grown up compared to Matthew.

She gets herself dressed, cleans her own teeth, puts on her shoes by herself (mostly, she still struggles with buckles) and uses words such as 'actually', 'parasaurolophus'and 'archaeologist' and 'palaentologist'(she wants to work with dinosaur fossils when she grows up).

Matthew is the spitting image of Emily at the same age, although, being a boy, he does seem more robust and stronger. His legs are phenomenally powerful. When he's crying, he pushes out with them and it's like trying to restrain a small animal.

Most people say Emily looks like Louise. I know what they mean -- both are beautiful.

Some have commented that Matthew looks like me. When Emily was a baby, they said she looked like me.

I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted because I've always thought all babies look like Winston Churchill.