"A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait."

Every day I'm feeling more and more obsolete, Opeie is becoming so independent that at times like this I'm at a bit of a loose end, it's good for the writing though especially on days like today as Opeie runs about the soft play area desperately trying to befriend everyone he comes in to contact with. He does say 'come on daddy' every now and again but once i start following him he's off again happily talking to other children.

Opeie is such a loving and thoughtful little boy for his age and people always comment on his politeness and manners when we are out and about. As I sit here writing this I can hear Opeie saying 'what's your name? I'm Opeie (or Hopeie as he pronounces it). Opeie clearly needs to be around children his own age more now so (despite it being very upsetting because i makes us even more aware how quickly the time has gone) we've started looking at nurseries. 

It's great when were out and he talks to new children but some of them like a little boy today can be really quite mean. Today Opeie met two boys (cousins), Charlie, a sweet little boy around Opeie's age, happy to just be running about and William, a child I can only describe as a spoilt little brat with a terrible attitude who was probably a year older.  This little monster got the hump because his cousin wanted to play with Opeie so started saying things like 'go away' 'we don't want to play with you' and 'stop following us' he even tried to block Opeie's way out of spite. Opeie doesn't understand thankfully and was happy just running about but honestly I just wanted to trip the little monster over.

Kids at the age of 3 and under shouldn't be like this. They are supposed to be innocent and want to be friends with everyone they meet. What annoyed me more was the mom could hear her son yet said nothing, she seemed like quite a well to do woman as well. Apart from me telling the boy that I thought he was very rude and shouldn't talk to people like that I managed to bite my tongue. The last time we were at this soft play area I told a boy off for purposely pushing Opeie over with quite an aggressive look on his face. To be fair though the dad dragged his son out of the place and wouldn't even look me in the face. It's not my place to correct other people's children but if their parents can't be bothered I'm not having anyone be abusive to my boy. If I heard Seth or Opeie talking to anyone like that I would be devastated, but they have been brought up to show respect.

Opeie started to look tired and i was needed once more for cuddles (good to know i still have some uses), my very sweaty haired boy needed some sleep. I may be needed less and less as the days go by, he makes it clear he can brush his own teeth, feed himself and put his own shoes on but I will always be there to protect him and fight his corner, were a team and I'll always have his back, no matter what.

And this little piggy went "wee wee wee" all the way to the Playbarn

We had a great time this morning, since going to the soft play area by us last week Opeie has been saying 'ball pit' everyday. I wasn't really impressed by the cleanliness of the place so again I was a bit wary about going to another one. Opeie was desperate to go again though so (hand sanitiser and antiseptic wipes in hand) I decided to take him to one that we had spotted when taking Seth to his weekend Tae Kwon Do classes. It's a little off the beaten track but I was hoping it would be the soft play area that would restore my faith in clean indoor play for children. As soon as I had walked through the doors I knew that it had. The play area I'm talking about is Pigg's Playbarn which is situated near Bridgnorth at the Apley farm shop. Everywhere is clean, looks new and the staff are very friendly. There was no stale smell (which seems to be a reoccurring thing with indoor play areas) and the pads on the play area were the colour they were supposed to be (rather than a dirty brown colour).

Although I personally wouldn't do it because I love joining in with the boys, what I love about Pigg's playbarn is its the sort of play area you could let toddlers go in alone (while bigger children are at school of course). Opeie loved running about and found getting to the upper levels easy to get too. Now that Opeie seems confident with when he needs to loo I'm trying to get him out as much as I can as myself and Mrs M have been concerned that he has not had much time to interact with other children. We needn't have worried though as the way he acted today made me so proud of him, he has such great manners. He accidentally knocked a little girl over and immediately said sorry, got out of one of the little tikes cars to let an eager looking boy have a go (great sharing) and when a little girl snatched something off him he politely said 'bless you' ( I like to think that was his own first sarcastic 'excuse you' but ill teach him all about that soon haha. He also made a little friend called Talia (which being the geek that i am made me think of Talia al Ghul) and they played really nicely together. Opeie's such a loving little boy.

With another two successful toilet trips in the bag I think it's safe to say he's really starting to get the hang of knowing when he needs to go and its great that he is confidently using toilets out and about. I still can't believe how lucky we've been. It was great to see Opeie mixing with other children and I even got to have some adult conversation (which doesn't happen a lot these days) With some moms although we were talking about breast feeding and potty training. Overall I was really impressed with Pigg's Playbarn and we will definitely be going again at some point next week. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that's in the area.

 By the time we got home the little man was shattered so it was straight to bed for him. Id be lying if i said i didn't drop off myself for 5 minutes, oops.