This will hurt me...

Spring-loaded box traps. A fool-proof way of dealing with troublesome children! Everything that I learned about parenting I learned from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Henry here is taking a break from helping out with the gardening to get some practice in on his horse-riding. All we need is a saddle. And a horse. And some jodhpurs. And a whip. Hang on a tic, I don't even like horses. They're too gamey.

With baby number two rapidly approaching [t minus 24 days and counting] , we have not appeared to have got much closer to determining a name agreeable to all. So again , I appeal to the wisdom of the crowd for assistance. The boundaries: first, replications of initials are problematic and best avoided which means that K, J and H are excluded. Second, it has to sit comfortably with “Henry Fitzgerald McCracken” which obviously further limits the choices. The short lists as they currently stand: Boys:   Otto, Ezra, Frederick, Levi, Isaak, Albert, Conrad. Girls: Clementine, Izetta, Audrey, Ivy, Violet, Astrid, Iris. Obviously I have my favourites, Jennifer has hers, and Henry definitely has his. The problem is reaching broad agreement. Seriously, the stalemate here makes Yalta look like a breeze. I am happy to take new suggestions or endorsements on any on offer above.

My wife and I have got another baby on the way (19 weeks on Thursday). Now last time, we both agreed within a reasonable period that Henry was a good name, and that it worked well with the last name, and also with taking my wife's surname as his middle name. Thus, our first born is Henry Fitzgerald McCracken. We're both pretty happy with that name, and everyone agrees he's a pretty good little bloke. Here he is looking slightly worried about the prospect of a challenger on the horizon. Here is the anxious little bloke So, my issue is that we've got to find a name the equal to Henry. I think that the bar is high, so the pressure is on. As with last time, we've gone our separate ways and compiled our own lists, with the intention of pruning them down and then merging them for the final master list. We can then 'test' the names to see how they go. I myself have already started testing names on dear little Henry (male and female), which - to be frank - is beginn...