"Virtue has a veil, vice a mask."

At some point in the day, pretty much every day the masks will be on in our house, we love role play especially if it means that Seth gets to have a bit of a scrap. Its great being able to just throw one on and act like a child for an hour or so (not that i usually act like a grown up).

After seeing the Avengers movie i felt it a necessity to own all the masks, I'm a Captain America kind of guy, Seth will nearly always go for Thor and Opeie well need i say it? he's a Spider-Man boy through and through. I decided to write this post last week, i had been looking for the Hulk mask with the light up gamma eyes for quite some time but they were going for stupid money on eBay but while we were in TK Maxx both me and Mrs M spotted one at the same time for a mere fiver. I walked in Seth's room earlier to find Mrs M looking very fetching in it and a hulk costume. Hot!!!

 

Seth loves taking the Masks and accessories down the park so that we can run about being the avengers etc. We do get some funny looks but thankfully none of us care less. Its all about the boys and if their happy then were happy. Theyve always got a smile on their faces.

Its not all about marvel though, sometimes we get an unpleasant visit from the Sith Lord himself he generally potters round the house harassing Opeie. I'm still looking to get hold of a Boba Fett mask like the Vader one as we have the blaster so it would be rude not to.

I don't much like living in the real world, i am happiest playing with the boys in our super hero fantasy land. Ive come in to contact with all manner of villainous people in my life and it seems that a lot of people we me eet these days are wearing some form of mask meant to serve as a decoy for what they are really like. Thankfully the only masks we wear in our house are the Super hero kind. We are a genuinely happy family.

"Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up"

After a chat in the school playground one afternoon with Williams mom Vicky (Seth's best friend) we decided to start taking Seth to a Taekwondo class. We had talked about sending him to Karate or something similar mainly to boost his confidence and give him a good social life outside of school, it was an added bonus finding out that William went to this class as we knew that it would keep him motivated.

I'll be honest its not my cup of tea at all but Seth really enjoys himself while he is there and the lessons are just long enough for him not to be exhausted. Seth has a rare muscle condition and we assumed that there would only be so far that he would be able to go but Excalibur Martial Arts have been amazing at making sure that Seth is able to join in and he is not expected to do things that the other children seem to find easier.

I say all this but Seth doesn't let anything bother him. He is a very confident, happy and extremely affectionate little boy and were so proud of the way he is turning out.

Saturday is no longer called Saturday in our house it's Taekwondo day, although for a short time the weekdays didn't have names either, he just called them 'William days'. Seth loves seeing William and his brother Matthew at the classes every week and even though they get very excited and have a run about before class as soon as Mr McGinley starts talking, the look on their faces is all business.

Most weeks im quite shocked by some of the things that seth does, he kicks higher than i ever thought he could and when i show him the pictures i have taken he gets a very satisfied look upon his face. He is definitely getting more confident which is what we hoped for.

Mr McGinley's children also attend different classes of his and Mrs McGinley is always there too and their a lovely bunch and easy to talk to which is great for when your sitting watching. Seth's favorite parts so far include punching through 2 blocks that are slotted together (i think he felt pretty tough after that) and a padded man shaped suit with foot and hand straps that Mr McGinley wore while the children attacked him, after that class Seth asked me if when we got home could i masking tape pillows to my arms, legs and torso so we could scrap (I'm quite sure Mrs M wouldn't be very happy if i started strapping the bedding to myself).

A few weeks back Seth had his first grading and was really excited that he moved from his white starter belt up to a single purple stripe. The first 3 belts arn't official Taekwondo belts but i think its great that these have been introduced for the younger children as its great for easing them in to the grading system as im sure they get a lot more intense as the the grades get higher.

It turns out that Mr McGinley is also a bit of a Star Wars geek (just what i needed, more influence from the dreaded force). On a recent Summer event for the class he was dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi and guess what Seth was dressed as...

I really hope that Seth sticks with his classes as its really doing him the world of good physically and mentally. Its a great weekly add on for Seth's physio which we do with him at home every day.

I'm quite sure that Opeie will want to do what his big brother is doing when he is older and if he does then that's great although i think i would like to sway him more towards music and learning an instrument, I always thought it would be cute if we learnt one together but we'll see. 

Who knows, if Seth keeps it up maybe we'll see him at a future olympics???

"It sounds like something on a very trite T-shirt, but life is what happens."

Last week i was accused of only putting Opeie in Super Hero T-Shirts, now I'm not going to deny this, but it is usually me that dresses both the boys in the mornings and obviously if the choice in their drawers is between a plain smart polo shirt or an awesome top with the Avengers on then clearly its not a difficult choice to make.

I see the boys as an extension of myself. They love the things that i love and they want to be showing that off as much as i love showing them off. I am a doting father after all, that's what we do. I could think of much worse things that people put their kids in but that just boils down to a matter of taste. Their boys, they should be in tops covered in Super Heroes.

I was hanging the washing out last week and i realised that much of the space on the line had been monopolised by super hero attire so with this in mind and the spurring on of Mrs M's comment i decided to write this post.

If your local and see me out and about then you will know that most days i will also be wearing a Captain America top or something else childish and nerdy. I am a big kid that loves colourful clothing. The boys love it and sometimes we wear matching character tops, its cute.

 

Now Opeie has got a little older and is starting to understand things if he see's a top lying about that he fancies wearing he will let us know about it by holding it above his head. this will usually be one of his many Spider-Man tops or more recently his T-shirt to his Hulk PJ's. But also if hes wearing a top that he likes and he gets food down it or makes a mess he will do everything he can to stop us from taking it off him. He's wearing his Spider-Man PJ's at the moment, he would happily keep them on all the time.

 

Despite Mrs M's earlier comment, she mentioned to me today that she wishes she had brought a female spider-man T-Shirt that we had seen at universal studios when we had been away earlier in the year. so shes obviously not that bothered about all the super hero clothing, i think secretly she's just desperate to join in, and who could blame her were the cool kids, as Seth says.

Well the boys will continue to be covered in Super hero print but i will do my best to even it out a bit...honest. Today though everything is clean and fresh off the line so i have my pick of the fun T-shirts so it would be rude not to take advantage of that. Which do you think he should wear?

*Update*

After visiting Chris and Michelle last weekend Opeie came away with another two great super hero T-shirts. He wore the Ironman one for the first time yesterday and it looked great on him, hes a proper little crime fighter. The Spider-Man T-shirt is for when hes a little older even though he's desperate to wear it now. Thank you so much guys we really appreciate your lovely gifts.

"droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that."

Today is William's brother Matthews birthday bowling party and Seth is very excited. I love going to the parties and seeing how happy the kids are. When your older you tend to forget how simple and care free life used to be. I went to one a few weeks ago and the kids looked so happy dancing to the Hokey Cokey and the Superman song.

I asked Matthew's mom what to get him but i obviously knew it was going to be Star Wars related, i just didn't know what. It seems that William likes the more aggressive characters with the blasters and lightsabers etc but clearly Matthew has a more sensitive side as he favours the Droids and Wookies.

So me and Seth looked about and decided to buy him a large 13" Chewbacca figure, hopefully when him and William are having a battle, over sized Chewbacca will give him more of an advantage over the smaller lightsaber wielding characters.

Seth thought it would be a good idea to cut up one of his Star Wars comics to use as wrapping paper and he was right it looks fab, and what star wars birthday would be complete without a message from Yoda himself?

Any way Happy Birthday Matthew, were really looking forward to your birthday celebrations.




*Note to self: Don't let your 1 year old play with the box of someone else's present! packaging looks like its been kicked around a car park!!!

“You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? … It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.”

It's time to get over the Star Wars sadness that has occured over the last few months and embrace it fully. Seth lives and breaths the force and there is nothing this super hero fan can do about that. So let the Galactic heroes collection for Seth's Birthday and Christmas commence. Its not been that long since i wrote the last post including the pictures of the figures he already had but Ive already managed to get my hands on all of these and ended up with a second Millenium Falcon (which is useless to me). It seems that these are far easier to get hold of than the Super hero Squad figures, which for Seth will be great news but for me and Opeie its a bit frustrating.

I may not be into Star Wars much but i do love these little figures, the main problem i have though is that apart from episodes IV-VI, i have no idea of the names of most of the characters making it very difficult to keep track of the collection. This will probably mean somewhere down the line i will end up buying characters i already have. Obviously multiple storm troopers would be a bonus but who wants 1 jar jar binks let alone 2???

Collecting these has reminded me of all the figures i loved of mine, my favourites when i was younger were Max Rebo the leader of Jabba's house band (the blue elephant looking thing with the trunk playing the crazy circle piano) and the Gamorrean Guard (the Green Pig Faced fellow wielding an axe from my last Galactic Heroes post. 

I was always playing with my Star Wars figures and now I'm thinking about it i dont think my love of marvel really got properly going until my mid teens so i guess i see why Seth is so into it. As much as he goes on about Star Wars if i ask him what he wants to watch on the TV, 9 times out of 10 he will say Spider-Man so maybe there's still hope. 

 

" Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes."

Ive been a fan of the Fisher Price and Playskool comic figures for a long time, even before the boys were a part of my life. I had collected the Spider-man and friends Marvel range when they were first released (Kinda hoped id have a son to give them to and when i finally did he was very excited about them). A year or so ago i spotted the Playskool Star Wars range and knew that i had to have them for Opeie even though at the time he was probably the size of a peanut unaware of his dad's obsessive compulsive collections.

Even if they brought out a new range of these when the boys were older i think i would still buy them for any future grandchildren we may have. Probably sounds a bit mental but i want to be prepared (i wonder if i would be cool grandad or just weird old grandad that still reads comics and loves Spider-man?). I think that these toys are great for getting your kids into the things that you yourself love and more importantly, being made by either Playskool of Fisher Price you know that they are safe for your little ones.

Seth would be all over these if he knew they were in the house, He really like's the chunkier figures, i think its because their more robust, so many of the action figures you get these days are flimsy and have so many joints a younger child could easily break them. I sometimes get these out of their box for Opeie to play with while Seth's at school and he nearly always goes for C3P0 (I think he must be part Magpie).

The X-Wing for this collection is great, making noises and playing the theme tune etc. Only problem is the size and heavyness of it, i wouldn't say it was great for the younger kids. I'm assuming Seth will end up playing with this more and Opeie with the smaller Galactic Heroes X-Wing. I like how with many of the boys toys each of them have their own version of their toys so they can play together.

Well im still missing two of the characters which i will get round to tracking down eventually. Unfortunately with Star Wars i have a lot less motivation with completing a collection. Not that the boys would even notice, their just happy of the new toys.