"Smile is a good reply to the dark world."

Day 67:

Life can throw some serious curve balls at times. The last few days have been awful, If it wasn't for the endless smiles caused by Baby Yoda being delivered today I think I may have had a mini breakdown. One thing I can always rely on is this little dude being there to pick me up when I'm having an emotionally challenging day. Being a dad (especially to this superstar) is what life is all about. 

"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time."

Pretty much every night I lay next to Opeie after reading to him thinking 'I'm going to write a post tonight' and every night I head downstairs, lie on the sofa and get overwhelmed by the mass of emotions that seem to stop me doing anything that I enjoy recently. If you've got this far into your life and you've not been faced with the reality that life, at times, can be an absolute arsehole, then you are doing pretty well. I've had my fair share of utter crap throughout my many years on this earth, some (not many though) I take full responsibility for, but the bulk of it has been thrown at me by the unpleasant people I have met while navigating through this storm of a life.

I had however thought that 8 years ago that had all ended and that my life was on track for the celebration of love and kindness that I felt like I deserved. Sadly I should have known better. When you finally meet 'the one' (and for me it was the one that I wanted to start a family with), It feels different than than any other previous relationship. For me, this was the rest of my life and I can honestly say that I put everything I have into developing that into a relationship I could be proud of. Unfortunately, there were two people in that relationship and only one was really putting in the effort when it came to matters of the heart.

When you are in a relationship with someone that holds their career in higher regard than anything else then there is only one direction that relationship is going in. I shouldn't have been surprised when I heard those heartbreaking words because there was a 3 year build up to that point, but then hope can be a very dangerous thing. And I did hope that she would see that her actions were destroying the magic we had built in the early years and that there is more to life than climbing the career ladder.

I wanted this blog to be a happy place for the boys to look back on and see all of the amazing things that we have done together and I hope that it still can be. I felt that it was important to write this post though, not only to mark where life changed for us all but also to break down the wall of negativity I had built, stopping me from doing the things I love most. The last 4 months have been a real learning curve, There have been more tears than I think I have ever cried, thoughts and feelings I thought I would never have and I've ended up really losing myself in all of it. 

If there is one huge thing I have learnt from all of this though it's that I have the most amazing group of friends that I could ever ask for. Not only for being there for me but also being amazing support for the two most important people in my life. The love, kindness and effort of all of them (and you know who you are) has got me through what could have been my lowest point. Life can seriously throw you about at times and I'm not expecting this new life as a single dad to be easy, but honestly, aside from the upset and confusion, so far it has been more fun than I've had in a long long time.

The boys and I have a whole new life ahead of us and I plan on embracing every moment I have with them, Its time to claim our lives back, there is so much fun to be had.

“Ninjas don't wish upon a star, they throw them.”

I love that I've now got to the point where the boys can just use their imaginations and create blog posts for me. Opeie received two great LEGO Ninjago kits for his Birthday and he was so excited about getting them built and creating a story for them. He called in the help of his big brother and they sat, played and created. It's what being a kid is all about and I love watching them play together.

Anyway over to them two...

Samurai VXL and Dragons Forge are just two of the great new kits from the Ninjago range. The full selection can be found HERE.

 

 

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

It seems that every year at the end of march, that Ferris Beuller quote pops into my head "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". Tonight was no different, as I stood in the kitchen making a cup of coffee, thinking about Opeie's birthday yesterday, it surfaced again. These are words to live by. 6 years can go by so quickly and the last 6 have been my quickest to date. Becoming a parent seems to push the accelerator down on life and as I reminisced about that first time I saw that boy of mine, I found myself feeling so proud of how much we've packed into this time, it may have flown by but we have embraced every family moment.

Those first years, as difficult as they were at times, taught me so much about myself and shaped me into the person I always wanted to be, becoming a father was my defining moment. As Opeie developed so did I and things have been that way ever since. Parenting has been the most amazing adventure and I feel so lucky to have both of the boys in my life. With each birthday of Opeie's that passes, I find myself going over all of the the things that we have accomplished as a family and it really blows my mind.

During those early years I never could have envisioned me being the stay at home parent, let alone home educating Opeie too, but that is where our lives have taken us and I would never change a thing. Watching your children grow up and pass that birthday milestone each year is amazing but home educating adds an extra level to that feeling because you get to fully see that development and be a full time part of it. Knowing that you have been the one to teach them to read and write, learn maths and be a fountain of information at the age of 6 is a huge thing for us.

6 years on and I honestly couldn't ask for a more amazing child.  Opeie has completely changed my world. He is witty and kind and so much fun to be around but most importantly, he is always smiling, which for me was the most important thing to concentrate on as a parent.

In my head this was going to be a post about his birthday celebration, but as usual I've waffled on.

There was only one way he wanted to kick off his birthday fun, and when given the option of what he wanted to do on his very special day he opted to go to Ikea (which made us chuckle). It wasn't quite what I was expecting him to say but our little Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen has big design plans for his bedroom wall and was desperate to get some colourful picture frames so that he could start redesigning, I love his creativity. Yesterday was a day of family and he had an awesome time. 

Another year has passed and I cannot wait to see what the next 6 years have in store for us. Being a dad is Awesome!!!

"It's an ongoing joy being a dad."

Opeie gets more and more adorable each week. When he was a baby I loved the way he would smile at me and reach out to touch my face. When he learned to talk, the words 'I Love you Daddy' hit me like a crazy wave of emotions (and still do). Now that he can write himself, his latest addition to his adorableness, is leaving me little notes about. I had hoped it for so many years, but I never actually realised that being a dad would be this amazing. I feel so lucky every day

 

“Nothing makes a room feel emptier than wanting someone in it.”

The problem with deciding to have a couple of weeks of intermittent writing is that you spend the following few weeks playing catch up. A couple of weeks back Mrs M had to work away for a week in Holland and it was the first time we have had to spend this sort of time away from her. I wont lie it was really difficult, not because I need her home to help with things, me and the boys had that covered but more because we just need he about. All those little things that sometimes we take for granted, like tucking the boys in at night, reading, the crazy sofa acrobatics that they do and for me the way she looks at me when she tells me she loves me had been put on standby for 5 days.

For Mrs M the time flew by because she was so busy, but for us, not so much. She may not have been with us but she made sure that despite being away she made a huge amount of effort to make us all feel special (Do you remember the treasure hunt?). To show her how special she is to us, we spent our time making a banner so that we could surprise her at the airport.

The Friday evening we picked her up was really emotional. I had given myself a headache through the sheer excitement of her coming home, the boys were eager to get to the station the day before she was due to get back and as soon as Mrs M saw our boys standing there with their banner there was floods of tears. Despite the fact that we were away from her for the week, myself and the boys are so proud of what she has achieved this year in her career. For someone that puts so much effort in to everything she does and is passionate about her work she deserves everything that is coming her way.

Mrs M, you are an amazing person and I feel so lucky every day that you go to such lengths to look after us, I hope you know how much we adore you. X

"I'm inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age."

I love scooting!!! but despite all the amazing fun I have with Opeie and his friends I have been longing for another slightly unhinged parent who like me has no shame at all to go whizzing around with. When me and Opeie are out together scooting about there is a mixture of reactions we get from passers by, mainly a lot of "awwwww...", and rightly so, we must be the cutest scooting duo around. Occasionally though I can see people mumbling 'look at that idiot' or words to that effect. Honestly I couldn't care less as the only thing I care about is the huge smile on my child's face and I needed another parent to share that with.

We planned yesterday to meet up with our friends Emma and Matthew from Another Last Story. Matthew is the proud owner of a brand spanking new Mini Micro in celebration of his fourth year on the planet and we hadn't yet been out burning up the streets with him so we couldn't wait to get to the park and see what he could do. I still had my Micro black in the shed and it was a great chance to load it in to the back of the car so that Emma could scoot too.

The first 5 minutes of our scooting adventure was a little hairy when Matthew decided to tackle a hill despite not quite mastering the use of the brake. As we all watched him pick up speed and fly towards a brick wall I thought a hospital visit would be taking up the bulk of our afternoon but luckily those brown cords he was wearing slowed him down and the smile on his face as he looked back said 'don't worry, everything is okay!'

As always for a midweek afternoon play date we had the playground to ourselves, which gave the boys plenty of space to run about and for me and Emma to act like imbeciles. There was a moment where I covered Emma in a handful of dead leaves and was trying to use my phone so that she could use it as a mirror to clean herself off. Sadly the excitement was too much for me and as she looked at me like a mental case I realised instead of turning the phone around I had just flicked the screen and was looking at myself!!

Our scooting venture out soon turned in to an autumnal leaf fight and of course I got buried in leaves for the greater good of two smiling children. I love this time of year, cool weather and colourful leaves everywhere. I'm not sure why but Ive always loved that point where you need a coat or warm jumper, I think I just love that cosy feeling over being a sweaty summer mess.

It seemed that even after scooting, the playground and the leaf battle, the boys were still brimming with testosterone and there was some serious energy to burn off so we hit the park gym hard. It was time to go for burn...

Then it was time to jump back on our trusty scooters and do one last lap of the park before heading home. I'm so glad that Opeie has someone to talk Micro-Scooters with now and having an extra grown up (I use the term loosely) to scoot around with really made the day for me. I'm still thinking that a Shropshire Micro-Scoot meet needs to be taking place.

I had been looking for someone worthy to give my Micro black a new home, rather than it be left in our shed to only come out occasionally and Emma definitely looked like she was enjoying being a part of the action, so the scooter went home with her and Matthew ready for their own scooting adventures and hopefully many more wheeled adventures with us. 

Welcome to the team guys x

(great shot by Opeie i thought!)

"Whoops!" the aliens gasped. "Oh dear!" But their pants-tracker was BLEEPING. How could underpants be here?

Our ever expanding dinosaur book collection is getting pretty big at the moment and Opeie cant get enough of all the dino facts we read about. Before getting in to the factual side of his mesozoic learning adventure there was Dinosaurs love underpants. Opeie would walk in to any of our local libraries, make a beeline for the children's sections and start thumbing his way through looking for entertaining dinosaur related stories.

Recently it has been all factual dinosaur books that have been taking up his reading time but when we were offered the chance to review the new book from the fun pants collection Opeie jumped at the chance. Aliens Love Dinopants follows the same crazy path as the other titles before it. This time aliens are catapulted to a distant land untouched by humans, luckily the trusty pants tracker finds that there are underpants near by. They are greeted though by not only a pile of huge pants but a group of angry pants loving dinosaurs that had eluded the human race and were living a peaceful life hidden away. I did have to google and see if it was based on a true story but sadly no.

Opeie found the book very entertaining and it was lovely reading out in the sunshine staring down at a peaceful valley, we talked about how we could image the dinosaurs living there munching on all the lovely plants (and wearing their undies of course!). We're both looking forward to the next installment  of pants fun.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

Ever since seth first began to confidently read for himself and like many of us before him, he has been captivated by the books of Roald Dahl. For me as a child I was hooked on charlie and the chocolate factory and the witches. These timeless stories are everything that a child wants when reading, intrigue, adventure and all manner of gross things happening. Its not just the stories that hooked me in when I was younger, The illustrations by Quentin Blake still to this day have me buying other books he has illustrated solely on how these books made me feel as a child.

For Seth it has always been The Twits and me and Mrs M enjoyed every minute of reading with him and hearing the story again. Roald Dahl's stories are amazing and extremely stimulating for a young mind but there is something really special about being able to reread the books with your own children knowing that they will most likely feel just like you did as you went from page to page.

As you can imagine when we were asked to take part in Roald Dahl day we jumped at the chance and we were excited to hear that there were two new editions of this well loved book 'The Twits' coming out. For the smelly Twit lovers out there, a copy that comes with a selection of scratch and sniff stickers, we were not sure what to expect, but the revolting stench that comes from these stickers after you glide your nails across them is definitely worthy of Mr Twits cheese and sardine filled beard, yuck.

For the more hairy Twit fans out there a hard back book with Mr Twits rough facial fuzz protruding from the cover. Either of these books would be an amazing edition to any child's library as it would be a shame to grow up not having the chance to immerse yourself in one of Dahl's books, that have entertained so many children for such a long time. I cant wait for it to be Opeie's turn to be introduced to these books although he did listen in on many of Seths reading sessions and as expected was very entertained by the grossness. 

I really hope that these new editions spur on some updated versions of the witches or Matilda, although I think we have all of Roald Dahl's books in our ever expanding children's library.

Roald Dahl day is on Sunday 13th of September so get making some stinky beards, giant craft peaches or golden tickets to use on some chocolate fuelled adventure and celebrate the amazing work of stories that will entertain generation after generation.

Now it's time for us to dust off Seth's world book day costume from last year so that Mrs Twit can get ready for his big day.

Avoiding another 'Soggy bottom' with Netflix.

We've reached that point in the year again where the smell of bread and cakes is filling many of the homes in the UK and social media is blowing up with talks of The great British Bake off. Personally I'm not a fan, so while Mrs M and Seth had their weekly bonding session this week, I popped my headphones on and did some work on the blog, hoping to avoid the sound of Marry Berry's 'soggy bottom'. 

As i gazed across the room i smiled from ear to ear when i realised that that adorable mini version of myself had the same idea and was sitting contently sporting a dinosaur T-shirt, new trucker cap and catching up on the recent Netflix children's show Dinotrux.

Part dinosaur and part truck, whats not to like? Dinotrux is every boys dream and the first season, based on the books by Chris Gall is available to view on Netflix now.

"We are what we see. We are products of our surroundings."

When i started the blog i had hoped that somewhere down the line i would get to work with companies that would make a lasting impression on the boys growing up and brands i really respected. I had two in mind that had had a HUGE impact on my own childhood, had shaped the person i am today and helped with my development, not to mention getting me through some bleak home situations. I feel really lucky that I got to work with them both early on and continue to work with them on a regular basis. Despite these two companies having a huge impact on the boys lives too and that they give us countless hours of father son bonding time, an unexpected brand crept into the top spot and has opened up the way we play together (By giving us wheels).

Micro-scooters completely changed the father son dynamic and being able to take the boys on scooting adventures really added another level to the crazyiness we get up to on a daily basis, not to mention the confidence scooting gives the boys, especially Opeie. I'll never forget the day my black Micro scooter was delivered, i had thoughts of packing backpacks full of things we would need for Goonies style adventures. It was clear from that day that those two wheels were going to change everything.

There's something so addictive about scooting, especially as a parent because scooting with your children puts you right in the middle of the action. I love listening and watching the boys play and being able to be a part of it is so morish. The time spent whizzing around with them takes you right in to their world and Seth and Opeie love having me on their team. Its like being the head honcho of an MC only with vehicles powered by feet and the cutest bunch of misfits you can imagine.

The scooters have been everywhere with us and can pretty much always be found in the boot ready for action. In fact we've been out scooting every day for the past three weeks, we are always on the look out for flat land and smooth trails to investigate.

I ride into the school grounds to pick Seth up most days and its interesting that many of the moms want to have a go, who wouldn't, they are so much fun. Once you've had a try you don't want to get off. When we first got the scooters even nanny and grandad got into the spirit of things on one of our outings too.

I own a lovely black micro scooter which has taken me everywhere, I had become part of a scooting gang and my life was complete. That was until the day a courier came to the house with a large intriguing package. The contents of the package were going to change the way i scooted and being the big kid i am i was very excited! The Micro Suspension scooter is what i can only describe as the Bentley of scooters.With a sleek new shape and a classy bronze paint job I couldn't wait to get it out of the box and take it for a test ride. 

Hypothesis:

Seth informed me that i should include a Hypothesis because he had been learning about it at school. At first glance i thought it was going to be a lot heavier and i was concerned about the suspension under the deck as it seemed low. But i expected the twin suspension to make journeys a lot smoother.

I love the micro black but as with everything there were a few things i would have personally changed to make the ride smoother and more practicle. The double suspension on this new beauty instantly sorted my first issue. I don't live in a big city and there is a lot of uneven walkways, making some scooting quite bumpy and i think as the heaviest member of our scooting gang i probably notice the bumps a little more. I thought that having air filled tyres would be a great idea for solving that but the two part suspension makes an unbelievably huge difference to the smoothness of the ride, taking out a huge amount of the bumps.

The second issue was one that wouldn't effect most scooterers (is that a word? what do you call someone that scoots?) but there is something the new suspension scooter offers that makes my adventures with the boys a little easier. A while back we borrowed a Gopro from a friend of ours and of course we attached it to the scooters. Seth has a Micro Flex classic scooter which has a 360 degree turn on the front wheel which i was always a little jealous of as the front mud guard on the micro black stopped that from happening. The suspension scooter adds the 360 turn (why do i need it i hear you ask?). Well, we fell in love with the Gopro and Mrs M brought us one to continue our adventures. Using a secure and solid bracket, Sometimes we film ahead of us and sometimes we film ourselves talking directly to the camera, the 360 degree turn means we can just spin the handlebars to change the shot, genius!

I wanted to really put the scooter to the test to review it. Our micro scooters aren't something that come out occasionally and are hidden away most of the time. Ive had the suspension scooter about a month and i estimate that its done about 50 miles. That probably sounds crazy but a huge chunk of that was actually racked up a week ago when me and Opeie decided to go to London for a few days. The plan was to get to all the places we needed to be without using the tube. We scooted from Paddington (where we were staying) to the London eye (3.2miles) and back, also to Leicester square (2.4miles) and back and to the natural history museum (1.7miles) and back just to name a few. It was an awesome few days and being able to scoot long distance smoothly is great and so convenient. The thing that really blew me away though was that we saw London from a completely different angle and visited beautiful places that we would never have seen underground.

Some may say i am biased but i think if you're young at heart and want to get in on and be a part of all the fun and adventures your children are having then any of the adult scooters from the Micro-scooter range are a must. I didn't think for one second that they would have this much of an impact on the amazing time i have always had with the boys but scooting together really opened up our world to a huge list of possibilities and (especially with London) helped us see a beautiful more natural side to the big city.