New LEGO kits for us are always exciting! When you have a real passion for a product, like we do with these amazing bricks every new kit released tends to get those corners of my mouth pointing upwards. What really makes me happy though especially as a custom builder is a new LEGO piece. To anyone else it would just seem like an insignificant piece of plastic but each new element created can open up a world of building possibilities.
When I first saw the LEGO City - Town fun in the park kit I was in complete awe! I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous but as I have said many times before, LEGO is a way of life in our home and has a huge effect on how me and the boys interact every day, so it's only natural that these little things (to us) would be a big deal. With so many Minifigures in the kit, there is a great selection of torso's faces and legs. I'm not sure how many of them are new designs but I've not seen most of them before and didn't have any of them in our collection so from a custom builders point of view, the body parts alone would have already had me hooked on this interesting kit.
What did make me laugh to myself was the fact that for the first time ever LEGO had made me broody. With the inclusion of the amazing new baby minifigure, It had me wishing there was a baby in the house just so the Lego adventures that we come up with for our posts could include a Gifts from the Pirates baby.
What really touched home for me about this amazing kit was the wheelchair included in the set. When you have a son with a disability who is as much of a fan of LEGO as his brick obsessed dad, having these sort of extras is really important. Seth isn't in a wheelchair but he does have mobility issues himself and for me seeing this little piece of plastic showed that the world of LEGO was becoming even more diverse.
I had made a wheelchair myself a few months back when I needed a professor X for something we were building. It turned out fine but this new LEGO wheelchair has a lot more playability.
I love a kit that Spurs on some serious LEGO roleplay. What I found really interesting about this kit was the fact that when I opened the box for Opeie to build, for the first time ever he didn't follow the instructions when building the Minifigures. He sat and created his own little families and friendships and all I could see between his characters when I looked at what he had created was love. It made me realise how innocent Opeie still is and being homeschooled means that he will keep that innocence for a little longer.
It may be a bold statement but for me, this kit is my favourite from this year so far. While Seth and I like to create large structures, Opeie definitely concentrates more on the characters, their personalities and what sort of people they are. These City characters have been played with every day by Opeie and I imagine they will all be going on many adventures over the coming weeks (possibly even to a volcano).
Our fun didn't end there with the LEGO building. On the evening that Opeie built the kit I popped out to pick a friend up from work and he had very kindly got hold of the fountain kit for the boys, to say thank you for helping him out earlier in the week. All this LEGO City fun has got us all talking about whether we should make our own custom LEGO city so watch this space.
If from the post I haven't made it clear just how great the Town fun in the park kit is then I'll leave you with this. If you are a fan of LEGO you need this in your collection.
I'm not sure why but every time I have started to write this post about Opeie's birthday over the last two weeks I have drawn a blank. I honestly think that I'm in some kind of shock that he has already been around as long as he has and it has thrown a spanner in the works as far as writing has gone. It doesn't matter how many times you hear the words 'they grow up so fast' or 'they'll be a teenager before you know it!' nothing prepares you for just how fast the time with your child really does go by. The day he was born is so fresh in my mind and that look he gave me when I held him for the first time is permanently etched.
Becoming a dad completely changed my world, it took every thing I had thought about 'family' and turned it right on its head (for the better). After a pretty confusing upbringing from a family so wrapped up in themselves, I had got to my late 20's with no real value for family and now that I think about it that was pretty sad. Then Mrs M came along with Seth and put me back on the right path, a path I felt like I should have been on many years ago. When Opeie joined us our family felt complete and having him there really gave me purpose.
I get a little emotional around Opeie's birthday and I kind of feel like I'm not myself for a few days. I think its because in a way it does take me right back to all of the bad times that we were living with on the build up to his arrival. It was a tough pregnancy, physically for Mrs M and emotionally draining for me, watching the person I adored really suffering. All through the year I think about how lucky we are that Opeie is here and how much respect I have for our independent midwife Amanda who was there right by our sides through the entire pregnancy. Amanda not only made sure that Opeie was brought into this world safely but she also made me and Mrs M realise just how strong we are as a couple.
I obviously didn't plan on Opeie's birthday post being so bleak but then there are a lot of emotional events surrounding his amazing day. 5 years old, I still cant believe it, although that time has gone fast we can happily say that we have filled those years with many amazing experiences for him and he is growing up to be a really amazing child. Not a day goes by where his dancing, skateboarding, amazing vocabulary and general glowing happiness doesn't blow my mind. There is always something he is doing or saying that is really special and as a dad I am completely smitten.
I too will pass on the message to any expecting parent that the parenting years (especially the early ones) really do go in to hyperdrive but I will always follow that with 'Embrace every parenting moment you have!.
A few days back I was looking through one of our external hard drives and I found a folder of photos I hadn't seen for quite some time. As I scrolled through the pictures i started to feel a little sad when I came across pictures of the custom Raleigh choppers that me and Mrs M had before Opeie arrived on the scene. As Mrs M was so ill during the pregnancy I left uni and my job to take care of her and Seth, it was the start of my 'stay at home dad adventure' that I've been on since.
There wasn't really much chance of us getting out on them and we knew the extra cash would really help so we sold them. I'm kicking myself now as they would have been great to give the boys when they are older. Sacrifices need to be made though when you make that decision to become a parent.
That sad feeling soon passed though when I continued to scroll through the pictures and came to this little cutie. We do make sacrifices for our children but the return you get from their adorable faces, addictive smiles and 'daddy I love you' comments means far more in comparison.
With that in mind though, he's no longer this size so I am thinking of two new custom bikes, a Raleigh chopper and it's little vintage counterpart the tomahawk, Watch this space.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Great film and Wise words! Although I've always known this, the past three years have been a shock to the system at just how true the words are. When you have children everything seems to go in to hyper speed so as a doting parent you need to be taking in every moment and grasping them with both hands. Earlier today Mrs M was looking through some old pictures and inevitably Opeie's baby photos cropped up. It had been a while since we had looked through them and I sat down next to Mrs M and was hooked.
It probably sounds bad and it may be just me but its easy to forget exactly what your children were like in the first weeks, of course I've got an image in my head (how I remember him), for me it was one of the first days I held him on my chest and I couldn't take my eyes off him, I was completely in awe of the little person we had created, but when I looked back on the old pictures and videos I realised just how much I had forgotten. He was beautiful, that has never changed but seeing him so vulnerable and new, made me instantly well up.
Looking through the old photos and videos is always amazing but it isn't great for Mrs M's broodiness which over the last few weeks has been getting considerably worse. Mine thankfully had gone into hibernation, that was of course until we clicked on that folder to be greeted by these baby pictures. I would love another child, maybe a little girl and I know Mrs M feels the same. It's such a shame though that we have such complicated pregnancies. That's probably a blessing though as I could see us with 7 or 8 if situations had been different. Mrs M's ultimate argument being 'what if things were different if it was a girl?" What if? When it comes to the 'wanting more babies saga' there's lots of what if's. sorry, as always I've gone off on a tangent a little.
Seeing the photos made me realise just how independent Opeie is these days, he just used to lay there care free kicking his legs and making funny noises. Everything was a lot more delicate, I was petrified I was going to break him some how so was wary of every little thing I did, a big change from the picking him up and throwing him about play fighting that we do these days. I had no idea what I was doing so in some ways would be looking over to Mrs M for some sort of approval that I wasn't making a huge mess of simple tasks, it soon didn't take long though for it all to come naturally.
Mrs M has been saying for well over a year "i wish I could have him as a baby again just for one day", she says exactly the same about Seth. I thought she was a bit crazy but I'm now starting to understand why. As they get older children need you less and less. Although its amazing Opeie having this new 'i can do it' way about him I do miss helping him doing the little things. He is becoming a great little man though, happy, curious, always asking questions and most importantly beautiful inside and out, when he wakes up in the morning the smile on my face is uncontrollable. I realise every day that I'm exactly where I'm meant to be, and I'm happy.
Last week i was contacted by my friends over at 'It's My Generation', if your a regular reader you may remember that they kindly put us in the top 5 dad bloggers in an article they wrote and are fans of the blog. They wrote some really great things about the blog and the admiration i have for my family. This time round they were writing a parenting article to the parents of the countries most recent edition to the royals, titled 'Wills and Kate: Parenting the Prince', a kind of what to expect now that your child is here. As i love talking about parenting (it controls everything i do) i was happy to give them my input.
To view the full article please click the link below. Thanks 'It's My Generation, I look forward to working with you guys again in the future.
Being a stay at home dad is amazing but there is one thing that I really struggle with if we are in the house. I find it really difficult to get Opeie to sleep as before Mrs M went back to work 5 days a week he had a set routine. As I went through my usual struggle today it got me thinking of the two main heavyweights in the battle against getting Opeie to sleep. Mrs M has been breast feeding Opeie for quite some time now and those relaxing and homely glands have given her the advantage on getting Opeie to relax and inevitably fall asleep since day one. My choice of weapon... The car. When I typed 'Breast Vs The Car' as the title I knew there was no competition really, who was I kidding. I know that as a male I definitely favour one from the other myself so I completely understand.
When Opeie is tired and goes down for a feed he looks instantly relaxed and comfortable like he's having some sort of out of body experience. Although the car does get him to sleep the continuous head flopping forward or having to go down a road filled with speed bumps can't be great and means that he doesn't get a completely uninterrupted sleep.
Opeie has to be absolutely exhausted to fall asleep in the car yet sometimes the effort that he has to put in to his feeding can do all the work for us getting him to his point of slumber in record time. I know the car is a poor substitute but short of growing breasts myself its all I've got.
There's also the added pain of being left sitting in the car for an hour while he sleeps, although it does mean I get to write on the blog (usually about what I'm staring at and more times than none what's on my mind/troubling me). When Mrs M is done feeding though she can get up and go about her day (how I long for breasts). She also has the added bonus of being able to pop them out wherever we are, fast food and speedy snoozing. Now I'm not in anyway saying that Mrs M has it easy, feeding has been a struggle over the years and I'm so proud of her for sticking with it, our boy is extremely healthy because of it.
I may be a little jealous of Mrs M's fleshy assets but I'm glad that Opeie is still getting the good stuff from her, I think it's the reason he is so lean. In the meantime I will struggle with Opeie's afternoon naps and will continue to be dependent on the magic powers of my 4 wheeled ally, On that note and perfectly timed the little cherub has just woken up. Excellent off to play again for me.
There doesn't seem to be a day go by where i don't think about the hardships we've been through as a family to get to where we are today and when thinking of this my thoughts always come to one very special lady in particular...
The day after my 30th birthday we had the greatest news i could have ever asked for, Mrs M was excitedly waving a first response test in the air with a huge smile on her face. We were going to have a baby, my first child. I was filled with excitement and couldn't stop smiling. I had wanted children since i was about 16, i always knew i wanted to be a dad but unfortunately unstable relationships and bad life style choices prevented this from happening. This was finally my time though and i was going to embrace it fully. I had no idea what to expect i just knew that what ever happened if it all went smoothly it was going to be everything i ever wanted.
The first few weeks were like being in a bubble, the thoughts of being a dad were taking over everything i did, I started buying toys and clothes and anything that looked fun. But then things changed, Mrs M started to get very sick and was spending more and more time in bed. She had suffered with severe sickness while pregnant with Seth but this was something else. Mrs M has serious anxiety issues with hospitals and the NHS in general (and after what we have been through i now understand why). We had a long talk one day and decided that hiring an IM (Independent Midwife) was the right thing to do. I wanted Mrs M to be as comfortable as she could and having someone at he end of the phone or there in person whenever we needed them made a lot of sense.
We contacted Amanda from http://www.bactonormality.eu/ and as soon a we met her we knew we wanted her to be with us on this amazing and soon to be emotional journey. I remember her leaving our house and us looking at each other and both saying how lovely she was. Things on the pregnancy front started to deteriorate and Mrs M was spending more and more time in bed. She was being sick 40ish times a day and it became very debilitating for her. I decided to keep a diary from the day i found out Mrs M was pregnant and i kept it up filling 4 books, Sometimes i think i should read through it all but i can't bring myself to go through it again as i think i would find it too upsetting.
Visits to the GP seemed like a waste of time and there was many hospital visits where the outcome was us being fobbed off and sent home. One Friday night Mrs M was so ill she collapsed, i think she had got to the point where she couldn't take anymore and we phoned for an ambulance. Seth was asleep and Mrs M didn't want to wake him so she went alone i was so upset with the way things were going. Not long after she got to the hospital she was being sent home and was made to feel like she was wasting their time. The following morning Amanda contacted a different hospital, came and picked her up and took her in and that's where she stayed for the night. She was dangerously dehydrated and was put on a drip but then again sent home the following day with doctors claiming she was fine. Four days later she was suffering with severe chest pains so we went to the GP who told us that it was probably a 'strained lung' but could be a possible PE but was sent away. When we got home we rang Amanda who told us that if there is a 'possible PE' then the protocol is to be sent to hospital by blue light as they can instantly kill you. So again this was not taken seriously and our INDEPENDENT MIDWIFE acted on what was happening. At the hospital they found 2 Pulmonary embolisms (blood clots) in her lung and the doctor gave Mrs M a 1 in 3 chance of survival. This is where i started to realise why she was so anxious about the NHS, all that fobbing off yet our IM Amanda did everything she could to help us out many times going beyond what her job entailed
Mrs M was prescribed many different drugs that seemed to have no effect and everytime a GP told us there were no other drugs to try Amanda did her research and found something else for us to ask our GP to prescribe. You could tell that both the GP'S and Hospital staff were getting annoyed with Amanda's contribution to our situation but the NHS were not giving us the level of care that they seem to think they are known for. There's a reason why there are private hospitals and Independent midwives, people want to feel looked after and we didn't want to feel like another item on a hospital conveyor belt.
The most significant part of this story is that while Amanda was doing everything she could to help us, researching every aspect of what was happening with Mrs M the GP's, Doctors and hospital staff had only one option for us to get Mrs M back on the road to recovery.... WE WERE OFFERED A TERMINATION over and over again, to the point were we sat together and talked and although we were both so upset we decided it was the right thing to do for Mrs M's health and booked an appointment at the GP to talk about it. We sat in the surgery and all i could think about was how this was going to make Mrs M feel down the line. We had the support of a great and very knowledgeable midwife but pure desperation was pushing us where we didn't want to go. While waiting a woman sat down next to us with a new born and we must have been thinking the same thing because when we sat down in the Dr's office neither of us said a word. We walked out and decided we were going to fight it, we had the support and full attention of an independent midwife, we were going to be fine.
Weeks went by and although Mrs M didn't get any better and there was lot's of time spent in hospital our Independent Midwife was there when ever we needed her at anytime of the day. Knowing that she had a special phone (which she called the Batphone, Seth loved that!) and was always on the end of it made Mrs M and myself relax just that little bit.
On the morning of Opeie's birth 2 Midwives and a trainee midwife came to our aid in the middle of the night and we were completely looked after. Although we all did everything we could for us to have the home water birth we had planned more complications occured and we had to be transfered in to hospital but Amanda never left our side and the other 2 were close by and this was very important to us. Opeie finally arrived, big, healthy and completely unaware of the trouble he had caused (little tinker). As happy as we were as a family this wasn't the end of Mrs M's health issues but our Independent Midwife's after care was truly amazing and was still there for us every time we needed her. Opeie wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the love,attention and dedication she puts in to her work everyday.
If your a regular reader then your probably wondering why the long, personal detailed post
so I'll hand over to Mrs M... Independent Midwives are going to be made illegal from October 2013, because the government is basically insisting that any Private health professional has full indemnity insurance, although midwives are Insured to do their jobs, an indemnity insurance doesn't exist, making it impossible for them to practice. ( Hands tied basically )
Which means, that from October 2013, women wanting an independent midwife won't be able to choose the care they want. They won't be able to choose the birth they want, as the NHS pigeon holes women into 'High Risk' for anything from being over 30 BMI, to having a previous section, ( which yes, has risks, but I know plenty of women who've had safe water births after a section) and lots of other reasons. So, if you're a woman or man, wanting to give women a simple human right, the choice where/ when/ how they give birth, please sign the petition below, we need 150,000 signatures to force the government to speak about it in parliament.
