"Dude, suckin' at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something."

The Wii U has definitely taken over as the most played with Console in the house and Ive been loving getting back in to sitting with the boys and playing games. Mine and Opeie's recent favourite is the fourth installment from the Adventure time games, Finn and Jake Investigations. Personally I wasn't a massive fan of the last three but the boys loved them. Finn and Jake investigations is a completely different concept and when I read up on the game before hand I knew it was going to be my sort of game. Apart from the mid level fight scenes the game is a slow paced puzzle adventure game. You play as Finn but use his trust companion Jake to progress through the level.

With countless items to pick up through your adventure, you need to work out how to use each one or which of their many from the land of Ooo to give them too. My favourite part of this game is that each level plays out like an episode from the series and they are equally as bizarre as the show. When we first started playing I thought that the game would be too difficult for Opeie to play (being 4), but we've been sitting down together and working out the puzzles as a team, he's picked up on quite a few of the things Ive not noticed too which is interesting.

I wont give too much away about the level content but in the first two levels there are people being kidnapped and hairy beasts upsetting the residents and characters to spring from jail. We're only three levels in but we are really looking forward to completing the rest of the game. Finn and Jake investigations is available on all the usual consoles but also available on the Nintendo 3ds (perfect for mobile gaming). 

Algebraic!

Now time for a little outdoor adventuring I think....

"well there's just an empty space..."

If your child is really in to music then there is a good chance that like us you get to hear them walking about singing snippets from different songs, sometimes slightly off key, sometimes with their own lyrics remixed in to the tune but always adorable and very entertaining. Opeie has been singing the same few lines for two days now and although the lyrics didn't instantly make me think of a song there was something about the structure of the two lines that had me racking my brain everytime he happily walked by singing. I asked him what he was singing and he said he wasn't sure what it was but I had played it to him, it was a man playing a piano and he really liked it.

The words "there's just an empty space on my side" and "look at me" had been ringing around in my head for days and as I typed them out just then I realise it should have been as clear as day what he was singing. Opeie even pointed out that it was one of the songs that I had chosen during a game we were playing last week where we were picking our favourite songs from 1984 (when I was Opeie's age) and I still failed to make the connection.

Right before bed I asked him to sing the lyrics to Mrs M to see if she could shed any light on the lyrical puzzle. Using her best friend Google she found the song in seconds. It is such an amazing song that I should have got it straight away. I am loving Opeie's new found love of music and his music taste is impeccable.

"P for pneumonia, pterodactyl and psychosis"

When we became play patrol agents for Bigjigs Toys one of the wooden toys I really hoped we would be lucky enough to review was the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle as we're teaching Opeie his letters. He's been able to say his alphabet for months but he doesn't understand which letter is which so you can imagine our excitement when we opened our recent mission and found the item inside. We took the Alphabet puzzle with us on our travels yesterday and enlisted the help of an outside agent, auntie Lottie.

I knew that Opeie would like it and its already been played with a lot. I'm really hoping that it will help his understanding of letters over the coming weeks. We've been working on Opeies colours too over the last two weeks so I was pleased to see that Bigjigs Toys had colour coded the wooden blocks to go with the spaces in the alphabet board, on the board they had also included the lower case letters in each slot which I thought was a great touch.

As much as we loved the toy there was one or should I say two issues. Not with the toy on the whole but with the letters 'K' and 'Z', both of these letters only fit one way Round which probably seems like an I significant issue but for a two year old learning his letters via a wooden puzzle it can be quite frustrating when he is expecting each piece to fit. Opeie knew that he had the right letters for the slots but they just wouldn't go in which ended up confusing for him.

Apart from this though the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle is a great toy and I wouldn't let that put me off buying something that I know would benefit Opeie's development. This item is going to become very useful as Opeie is learning and anything that keeps him motivated to learn and entertained at the same time will always be a fantastic toy in our eyes. A definite thumbs up from Gifts From the Pirates.