"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

Micro Scooters have been a huge part of our lives for the past 3 years and there have been a crazy amount of adventures had in that time. I've said it so many times over the years but being able to whizz around with the boys and be a part of all the fun is one of the things I enjoy most. They've given the boys so much confidence and have also taken the pressure off Seth's muscle condition at times when we've been out walking.

In all these years though I've NEVER been out scooting alone, until last night! Mrs M had work that needed to be done and I had nothing I needed to do so I packed a backpack, chose some tunes (DJ Yoda's how to cut and paste country and western edition for starters), popped in my headphones and embarked on my own moonlight adventure. There was of course another reason for my solo trip out (because I never stop being a dad!). The boys have been playing Pokémon GO recently and I figured I could scoot from ours to the town park (where there are an abundance of Pokéstops and plenty of those little critters to catch and hopefully take over some yellow and blue gym's along the way). GO TEAM VALOR!

It's amazing just how quickly you can get about when you haven't got two little ones stop starting every 5 minutes, and switching off and going into my own little world was so much fun. I did have a chuckle to myself at one point when it clicked that I was a 36 year old chap scooting around, battling Pokémon and taking down Gym's, but I knew the following morning Opeie and Seth would be excited if they had new Pokémon added to their collection. As I arrived at the town park the sun had completely gone and the darkness made me realise that if I'm going to do this more often I really need to invest in some form of lighting before I end up breaking my neck.

After spending an hour hitting up all of the Pokéstops in the park and loving every minute or my solo scoot I decided to head home. The music and the scooting complimented each other perfectly and the warm evening breeze made the scoot even more enjoyable. I had to scoot down a very dark lane on the way back which to be fair was pretty daunting, if it hadn't have been for the torch on my phone I'm not sure how I'd have done it. I really need to get some lights sorted.

By the time I had got home I'd scooted 12 kilometres and was feeling pretty great about my little adventure. Opeie woke up this morning excited to see 3 new Pokémon in his Pokédex and despite there being a dull ache in my calf muscles the excitement of going up a level had Opeie eager to get out and scooting again this morning. There is something so relaxing about a solo scoot in the moonlight and if my legs let me later It might be me, my iPod and my Micro Scooter hitting the streets once more.

"You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby Right round round round"

While driving home one afternoon we were listening to absolute 80s on the radio, it's the station that is always tuned in for when the iPod isn't in the car. An absolutely shockingly awful song came one and I cant for the life of me remember what it was now but what did stick out was the DJ announcing that the song was released in 1984. Me and Opeie were chatting while the radio was on and I explained that the song was released when I was his age, This had Opeie asking what songs I liked when I was his age. I couldn't answer because honestly I have no recollection of being in to music at all back then.

Our conversation that day started a little game one night with us and Mrs M, to go through all of the big hits of 1984 and pick our 5 favourite tracks each. I was quite shocked to find that some amazing songs had come out that year and it ended up being quite difficult to narrow it down to just 5. Here is what we came up with though.

Opeie:

Last Christmas - Wham!

Radio Gaga - Queen

You spin me right round - Dead or alive

Against all Odds - Phil Collins

and...

Mrs M:

Karma Chameleon - Culture Club

Purple Rain - Prince and the New Power Generation

I Just Called To Say I Love You -  Stevie Wonder

Last Christmas - Wham! (clearly a popular song choice)

and...

For Me:

 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths

Against All Odds - Phil Collins

Hot For teacher - Van Halen

Purple Rain - Prince and the New Power Generation

and...

It was interesting to see that we each picked one song from the other two lists. Music is such a huge thing in our house, we sing and dance a lot and Opeie is building quite an extensive and eclectic collection on his iPod. We briefly started working on the year Mrs M was 4 too. It'll be fun to see what 1990 has to offer, Stay tuned (see what I did there!).

"Where words fail, music speaks."

I've written many top 5 posts about the music that Opeie has been listening to over the years. This morning is quite a big milestone on his journey in to musical preference. His number 1 song (which has been the same for a long time) has today been knocked off its pedestal. It seems that Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy is no longer the song that has been putting the biggest smile on his face. I'm sure Phil Lynott would be gutted at the thought of our mini air guitarist devoting more of his attention to a new track but sadly thems the breaks! What song has hit the top spot I bet you are thinking!! That, I will reveal shortly.

The shattering news got me thinking about Opeie's eclectic taste and I realised I had not yet written about the fact he now has an iPod with his own personal soundtrack on, which goes most places with us. Opeie loves popping his headphones in and going in to his own little musical world and I think it is so important to embrace that. Music is a big thing in our house, we all favour it over screen time and it is something that brought me and Mrs M together when we first met.

 It is so interesting to be a part of Opeie's new found love and watching him enjoying certain songs and artists really is awesome. Although there are some recent songs on his play list he definitely seems to favour the 70s and 80s tracks in his collection. The more he listens to the songs the more confident he gets singing a long. the Rupert Holmes classic is no longer "If you like being a Koala and getting caught in the rain" (which honestly, I am a little sad about). Some of my fondest memories during my own childhood were because of the music my parents listened too. I remember many car journeys with my dad listening to Thin Lizzy, Steve Vai and Judas priest and I love being able to pass that love of a great song down to my own musical enthusiasts.

Seth had never really shown much interest in specific songs (apart from intergalactic by the Beastie boys), but his little brothers new found hobby has also go Seth paying more attention to what is playing the car and around the house. Myself and Mrs M listen to such a broad spectrum of music I like to think that the boys have got access to a huge variety of great material.

I know the suspense must be driving you crazy so here's Opeie's new number 1! Drum roll please....

 

 It seems that in less than 24 hours (when I started the post), the top spot has been taken again, So It seems only right to leave you with tonights updated No 1.