"True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice."

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.

Opeie, I need you to be the Ant-Man.

Sometimes i feel so sorry for the boys. If like us, as a parent you are completely smitten by your children there is a good chance you are continuously shoving a camera in front of their faces. Add in to the equation that i am a dad blogger and you can imagine how much the camera comes out. I am terrible for all the 'go and stand over there' and 'pull this face', especially when i am writing our LEGO posts and more creative reviews.

I should know better, I would hate having a camera pushed in front of me but most of the time the boys just go with the flow. Sadly though, sometimes they are not in the mood and one of them cracks. A few days ago was one of those times. The day Opeie started to shrink!.... and wasn't very happy about it.

"Taking photos is a form of collecting."

I always end up with a huge amount of photos that don't make it on to the blog so i thought i would write a post that is just that, photos that didn't fit in with the posts i was writing about at the time, so here's a mish mash of pictures while I'm emptying out my phone, enjoy.

"The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten."

"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.

"If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it!"

Stumbling across old photo's will always put a big smile on my face. Time flies by so quickly, i can't believe he's two this week.