"Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of aresponse. It is therefore fear-based."

It had been a while since the pirates had visited the house, not because the boys had been misbehaving but because we're saving for something (all will be revealed). The boys have been so good and we thought they deserved a mini treat. For those of you that don't know where our name came from, this ones for you.

We Introduced the pirates in to our daily life to keep Seth's behaviour at a level you expect from your child and to reward him for being a great kid. He's never been a naughty child but he did go through a phase of throwing some pretty immense temper tantrums. To be fair I put a lot of it down to the transition of having his life split in two and going from house to house.

The pirates watch the boys all the time, much the same as Santa who watches them at home through the light fixtures (quite a creepy thought really). The pirates though watch the boys EVERYWHERE. When they have a good run of excellent behaviour or they do something especially great they are rewarded and this can happen anywhere. When Seth was ill in hospital the pirates visited and left him something in his room. they leave things in his car seat when hes had a great parents evening. They've even been known to leave gifts on benches in parks.

When were at home and the pirates have been, the boys hear the sound of waves crashing against the beach (good old white noise app on the iPhone) and they excitedly search the house looking for their message.

The pirates have become a big part of our lives, even more so with the blog being started.  What's nice is that all the excitement Seth has already had from it Opeie is now just starting to understand. Seth and Opeie are great children, thoughtful and caring. The way we bring them up has everything to do with that and the time and effort we make with them has been important to their development. It's nice to think that those pirates in the sky have a little influence on that though too.

Sketchbook memories #2 - Opeie at 9 months sitting on Eames chair with Fisher Price ball

I found myself with half an hour to kill last night, Mrs M was in the kitchen making chocolate, the house was tidy and Opeie was fast asleep so i quickly grabbed my sketch book and pencils. Since stating my doodling again I'm taking every spare minute i can to do a quick sketch. Most of my favourite photo's are on the iPad, i have them on there because i like to have Opeie's early pictures easy to access, us parents always have nostalgic moments and sometimes i just need to see his little face as a baby. 

Today's sketch was from when he was around 9 months old, I had brought Mrs M an Eames chair for Christmas and we had placed him on there with various toys for pictures. There was a lovely one of him with Spider-man but the shot with the vintage Fisher Price musical ball seemed to have more character.

It's been a while since sketching faces and i really need some practice so hopefully they will get better with time. When Opeie saw the picture he said 'Baby Opeie'  so it cant be all that bad.

Previous Sketchbook memories posts...

• Sketchbook memories #1 - Daddy and Opeie at 6 weeks old

Yet another proud daddy moment...

Every day without fail Opeie does something that makes me so proud of him. Since starting his potty training 5 weeks ago we have not needed to go back to nappies and for the past three weeks there has been not one accident. He's used toilets wherever we have been and is always letting us know when he needs to go. Earlier while we were tidying the house i walked into the lounge and Opeie was sitting on the potty, he had taken off his shorts and pants and taken care of business himself, what an amazing little chap he is. I was dreading potty training but he has made it all look like a walk in the park.

It's great to know that he is confident enough to go himself and just shows how much more independent he is getting. Lets just hope he never gets to the point where he doesn't need us at all, I don't ever want to feel obsolete.

Well done Opeie I'm so proud of the way your growing up, your an amazing little boy.

Daddy xx

"Whatever is fair in love and war is also fair in crimefighting."

I wrote a post in November about the different kinds of building materials me and the boys use in the house, when i wrote the post i was really excited about writing this one but i knew it wouldn't be written until after Christmas. Back when i wrote the last post we had found some building blocks by Fisher Price that i hadn't seen before called Trio and the boys really loved them, especially Seth as the blocks are bigger than Lego and i think he finds them easier to play with.

As there wasn't much to play with in the box i decided to look on eBay to see if anyone was selling a bulk load of them but there wasn't. On the off chance i decided to look internationally and when i did i got really excited by what i found. First off I'd like to say that Fisher Price are amazing. Mrs M collects vintage Fisher Price toys and Ive been so impressed by the Batman Imaginext range which Seth has loved and equally impressed by the Batman Little People and Wheelies range which Opeie loves playing with. I did think there was anything else out there comic themed but as i found out during that eBay search there was a Batman Trio range that hasn't been released in this country.

We must have been really good last year as on opening our Christmas presents we realised that Santa must have stopped off in America to get some of the boys presents. Santa's the best (ill definitely be leaving him an extra mince pie next year). There were quite a few sets within the pile of gifts and the boys couldn't wait to get in to them. The Batcave is a great set and is pretty big too, what i and the boys loved most about it was how easy to put together it was, the instructions are really clear and because the pieces are bigger it takes no time at all to erect.

You cant have the Batcave, Batman and Robin without his evil counterpart. Good old Saint Nick kindly sent us the Joker Laugh Factory playset too which is colourful and lots of fun. This was the set that Seth had asked for for Christmas.

There are a fair few Sets in this range, one of the things i liked most was that 'The flash' got his own set with a vehicle, he's not one of my favourite comic heroes but i do still enjoy watching the John Wesley Shipp series and the boys love it too. I don't remember him ever driving around in a meaty vehicle like this though, i bet the insurance on it is a nightmare.

The most confusing of the kits was the Superman kit. The man of steel had Superhuman strength, Speed, Stamina, Invulnerability, freezing breath, super hearing, multiple extrasensory and visual powers, intelligence and regeneration but above all he could fly so I'm not sure what use he would have for an air craft??? any way its still a great little toy.

We did need another villain or it was going to be a very unfair battle, not that i want to give the baddies the upper hand but i do believe in a fair fight. The penguin and his umbrella rocket launcher was a great addition to our play.

When were playing with the Lego batman figures and the Batman themed things that we have built Seth loves a good Jokerbot, A battle with the Joker just wouldn't be the same without one so when Seth opened one of his presents to find a Trio Jokerbot he was a very happy little boy.

As i said at the start of the post im really impressed with Fisher Price, when your a dad that's in to comics and all things Super it can be difficult finding appropriate toys for your young children but Fisher Price has definitely helped with the introduction of new characters during our play time and overall i know it's safe. The only real downside is that many of the toys are not released in this country and seem to be exclusive for the US market. Luckily Santa gets to fly all over so it handy having a visit from that jolly chap once a year. Maybe this year Seth might get some of his Pirate Gifts from over the pond as they do work very closely with Mr Claus.

"It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new."

A few weeks before Christmas we had to go to Wolverhampton for something work related for Mrs M. On the way home we decided to pay a visit to a charity shop that Mrs M loves and I'm so glad that we did. Every now and again while mooching round charity shops we spot a great find, usually super hero related but on this day we found something very special.

Mrs M collects vintage Fisher Price and other vintage children's toys and when we walked in to the charity shop we both got very excited...

I couldn't believe our luck you never spot things like this and their very sought after. The vintage school cost us a mere £3 and another couple of pound for the characters,tables, chairs and other accessories. That alone would have got us both very excited but that wasn't the only great find we had that day, it seemed that the charity shop was brimming with vintage treats. We picked these 2 toys up also and until we got to the till we didn't realise that the two attach together and there is a handle to carry it. Its such a great toy and really put a smile on both of our faces.

And the fun didn't end there, this really was the best charity shop find we have ever had. One of the planes was missing a door and the other one had a broken tail but these sort of things just add to the appeal for Mrs M. The thing i love most about vintage toys is the thought of the story behind them, who played with them? where have they been kept for all this time? Well obviously we will never find out who played with them before but we know who plays with them now. Despite the abundance of super hero merchandise in the house its lovely to know that the boys love playing with all toys and they both adore these.

I doubt we will ever have a find like this again, it was so worth that short detour on our way home.

"Dare to wear the foolish clown face."

Hello everyone its Seth, today im going to be talking about the Jokers Funhouse. i have wanted the jokers Funhouse for about..... from when we left Florida. When we were on holiday we went into a shop and i saw the Jokers fun house and mommy and Pauly said i could have it,but when we looked at it it didn't have a joker and it was missing some bits. mommy went and asked somebody in the shop is there anymore but there wasn't so i got 2 Lego sets instead one was Catwoman and batman and the other was Lex Luther, superman and wonder woman and his big robot.

Pauly said that when we got home we could look for it but we couldn't find it anywhere. On Wednesday this week we went to the toy shop which was smyths to look for something for William. I asked Pauly shall we go to the batman aisle first and he said we could. When we got there we found the Jokers Funhouse. i felt really really happy but i didnt think Pauly would buy it because i thought it was expensive. Luckily a few days before mommy had put some money in mine and Opeie's money box. i was hoping there was enough money in our money boxes to buy it.

Pauly didn't have his wallet with him so he had a clever plan to get the jokers Funhouse. we went home and Pauly got some money and went back to smyths i thought it wasn't going to be there anymore and i was worried. there was only 2 on the shelf and i thought someone was going to buy them but luckily they were both there. We looked for something for William as well but i couldn't find anything cool.

Then we went back home we took the Funhouse out of the box. Opeie tried to get hold of it. Pauly why does Opeie always do that? do you think he wants to join in and be involved? do you think we will finish the blog tonight? do you think my tooth will come out tonight? will you be shocked if it doesn't come out? Pauly what are you writing? (Seth started on a barrage of questions then so i thought i would just keep typing).

The Jokers funhouse is really cool, when i opened the front doors there was a red car in there which is for the joker to drive about in and find batman  and when he finds him he can put him in the jail in the funhouse of course. my favourite bit of the funhouse is the hammer that moves up and down so you can put batman, robin or superman under and squash them.

I asked Seth which he prefered, the imaginext funhouse or the Lego one i built him?

Hmmmmm......tough choice,  your Lego one because it has funky bits in. i like the table with all the weapons on and the imaginext one doesn't have many rooms, it doesn't have ANY rooms actually. but i do like the fisher price one because it goes with all our other batman stuff.

Id still really like the big Batcopter that i have seen and also Pauly would like the big Mr Freeze base which is really cool and i would like the Batboat too but I'm going to have to be really good.


Seth was so excited when we rounded the corner at Smyths and saw this, he literally couldnt catch his breath. If i'd have known it was going to be there i would have filmed his reaction. Weve been after this since March and it was the reason i eventually decided to build him the one out of Lego, which to be honest i actually think is better (and thats not just me blowing my own trumpet). Seth is getting so much more into the blog posts and before he had even finished this one he was talking about what he wants to write about next so please keep reading it really motivates Seth that people out there are interested in what he has to say. 

Seth were very very proud of you. x


 

"Who cares about the clouds when we're together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather."

There was always something quite magical when i was younger about taking my action figures outside and playing with them in the grass, especially if the grass was a little longer than it should have been. I used to tie string on the handle of my bedroom window and peg the other end into the grass outside so that i could get my Star Wars figures to zip wire out it was so much fun.

Once outside i would dig holes and put my figures in them and fill them back in, leaving them only visable from the waist up and sometimes just the arm, leaving the garden looking like a battlefield of fallen soldiers. This i only did with the few figures i had duplicates of or ones that i wasn't emotionally attatched to. Seth has a collection of Action man dolls for doing just that which i have brought from various charity shops. Theres always action men in our local Charity shops, Seth's not bothered about them which makes them great for playing with outside and perfect for targets when we have the Nerf guns out.

We had brought Opeie and Seth an Imaginext van each from Toys R Us which we had put away for Christmas but it seems that now Mrs M is more impatient than me about giving the boys their toys. So after some VERY good behavior from Seth including always looking after his little brother and being generally lovely, Mrs M decided we should give him a treat from the pirates, So we put the van somewhere in plain sight and Mrs M said "i think i just heard the waves" (this is how we let Seth know that we think the pirate ship has been) so excitedly he ran off round the house searching for his booty.

Well as always Seth was very appreciative of his gift and looked up into the sky and said "thank you pirates" in a very jolly voice. The weather was lovely so we got a blanket and took all the Batman toys out in to the garden, and due to some lazyness on my part the grass was slightly longer than it should have been... Excellent.

I always think that when your playing with your toys outside it makes the role playing more realistic and who doesn't love sitting out side when the weather is nice. Plus you have the added bonus of random vines and plants that can wrap around figures stopping them in their tracks, great if your playing as poison ivy. Everything in the garden can be part of our play. climbing frame, slide, the figures can even grapple to the washing line and then crawl across it. The possibilities are endless.

When Seth wrote his last post (allow me to break the ice my name is freeze...) he mentioned his hammer car which i realised at the time he had had for a while but it hadn't been mentioned in any of my imaginext posts. He is right though it does look a little like a shoe. Its great for beating down the caped crusader though (it always seems to be the good guys taking a beating).

Opeie really enjoyed playing outside with all the toys although he has a tendancy to throw things about so when we packed up to go in i was left hunting around the garden for figures. As usual the Batcave had been taken over by villains and Batman and Robin had been locked up in Arkham Asylum. I have a feeling Seth is going to end up being a fan of the baddies like me. Especially when it comes to DC as the villains have so much more depth to them. 

When we went to see Batman live last year the Joker completely stole the show and Batman was left just looking like an extra in 'Joker Live' but that's a post for another time.

I'm quite sure there will be another Imaginext post soon as its all the boys want to play with at the moment, although i am waiting for star wars to rear its ugly head again. I'm hoping i have a few weeks before Seth's back at school and Williams Jedi talk starts influencing Seth again.

Previous Imaginext Post's:

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom."

"Still they cry out for him... for their hero and savior... but he is broken... and Gotham is mine!"

"Don't adjust your sets. Welcome to the Oswald Cobblepot school of driving. Gentlemen, start your screaming!"

 

"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play." 

 

 

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom."

It's new toy day at home, actually im saying that like its a rare occurrence. It seems that Star Wars has become a thing of the past,well at least until the start of the new school year. Its amazing how not having William about 5 days a week filling his head with nonsense about the force has changed Seth's perception of what it is he likes. (I'm now kind of hoping that this new found shunning of Skywalker and his friends isn't going to last as i have a big box of figures collected for Christmas). Maybe he just needs to be subjected to William in small doses. 

Its all about Batman at the moment so ive been taking full advantage of the Imaginext 3 for 2 offer at our local Toys R Us. The boys had had some pocket money so we took them to blow it all on the good stuff,Toys. Opeie fell asleep on the way so i sat with him in the car while Seth and Mrs M went and had a mooch. They came back to the car and Mrs M said they had picked some and put them behind the till.Oops!

Clever me hadn't told Mrs M that i had already brought a few pieces for Christmas and Seth had picked those exact ones, so there was an awkward moment for a second when i was the villain saying no I'm sorry you cant have those. Ill explain at Christmas that the reason why was because Santa had phoned us to say he had got them already for them.

I managed to talk him into picking some others that were equally as fun and to be fair Seth isn't spoilt ,even though i said no he is still appreciative of everything he gets. Because we have brought him up knowing how lucky he is that he has such nice things and parents that devote most of their time to him and his brother.

Anyway enough of my babbling, Seth wants to write about his toys today so ill leave you in his capable hands.

"On Sunday me and Opeie had been good boys so we checked our money boxes to see if we had enough money for some toys, we didn't but mommy and Pauly said they would put some more pounds in. we went to Toys R Us and i went in with mommy, mommy said we could have 2 big trucks a joker truck and a two face truck and a Batplane. we put them by the till and then Pauly came in and said i couldn't have 2 big trucks but i didn't feel sad or anything. then we went to look at the batman things together and we got the Mr freeze set and the Joker bin lorry and i was allowed to keep the plane. i was really happy with what me and Opeie got."

"My Mr freeze figure came with a gun its for freezing batman and robin or any policemen that come to get Mr freeze. he came with an ice lair that has a computer, he uses it so he knows when batman and robin and the police come to get him and also for his evil plans. there's also a frozen shaped thing that the goodies can go in and it looks like they are frozen. The Mr freeze character is my favourite part because i wanted the figure for Opeie's jail cell because there is a Mr freeze on one of the doors and all of the jail doors have the pictures of the villains on."

"The jokers bin lorry is cool and the bit with the hook goes down when you put the jokers feet in the twisty bit. i think its funny because its got no bin, i like to put all the batman figures on the back and sometimes Opeie's little cars, their also batman. sometimes i put jokers hammer car on there, i think it looks like a shoe. the thing i like most about it is i can put all the batmen on it and robin can drive it. They drive it because the baddies always take over the Batcave. Bane is the leader of the baddies and he always tells the joker and two face to beat up batman. Id really like the two face big truck so I'm going to be really good and hope i will get it for my birthday its on November the 1st."

"The plane has got a finger push up bit that shoots out disc's from the front and sometimes i like to put some other batman figures holding on to the blue bits so they can stand on the wings. It came with a different batman figure which means i have got 5 different batman's. i have lost a blue one, i think he has been caught and thrown in a crazy hospital because someone saw him walking around talking crazy that he's the real batman. The Batplane goes on the side of the Batcave, it has a little stubby bit that fits in the side. Later on were going to have a Batman battle, the baddies are going to take over the Batcave, Joker says... actually we will leave that for another blog post"

(seth wanted desperately to use an ellipses (...) as he has been learning about them at school)

Another great piece by Seth if i do say so myself. Well the figures are being set up as i type so i should end it at that and go and decide whether i am one of the good guys today or a trouble making baddie but we all know im going to be a baddie, thats what im here for mwahahahahaha...