"Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence."

Warning the following post includes fully grown adults acting like children, in Ikea!!!

When we decided that i was going to be the stay at home parent the first 6 months were a little lonely. Yes i had my best friend permanently attached to me and watching him develop day by day continues to blow my mind but ill be honest, back then the conversation really wasn't that riveting. Some days i was just longing for adult conversation or pining after Mrs M to come home from work so i could feel human again. I know that probably sounds awful but that's just how it was sometimes. As we began to venture out of our comfortable little bubble where the only inhabitants were us i was wary about letting people in. I had been let down by many people in the past so my guard was definitely up.

going to toddler groups and usually being the only dad there was daunting at first and there were a few classes we attempted to go to where we were made to feel quite unwelcome. But we persisted and were rewarded with some pretty great people to hang out with. Over the last few years we have built a small army of great friends and i feel like the more trusting side of me has returned.

Ive talked about many of our friends on here but as i ran around Ikea last week acting like a big kid i realised that two of the people i hang out with a fair bit have had a bit of a bum deal on the blog so i thought id drag them into the limelight. Tabiitha and Dawn have been awesome, If you're a parent with children at school you will more than likely have a lot of parents that you say hi to every day and have no idea who they are or what they are like, well Dawn was one of mine. She was the first person i ever spoke to in the school playground and although we didn't speak properly again for two and a half years we said "Hi" every day.

We eventually started talking and became friends and Tabiitha joined the team, we had plenty to talk about with her being from Birmingham originally too, although she still pines after Brum and i couldn't wait to see the back of it. Since then our friendship has blossomed and i feel really lucky to have met the both of them. They were unexpectedly there for me and Mrs M when we really needed someone and it meant so much to us when they jumped to our aid. I know that this sort of post isnt usually the sort of thing i write about but as the blog is a diary for the boys to look back on i think it is really important for them to know who has had a big impact on us or has helped us out along this awesome parenting journey.

It's lovely to know i am at a point in my life where i am surrounded by great people. Opening myself up to new friendships has definitely made me a better person and this new found 'welcoming people into our life' has had a positive impact on Opeie. He still has his innocence and it'll be a long time until his views are jaded by not so friendly people but he needs to learn that friends are important and when you care about your friends you'll do anything for them.

You never see Spider-man going food shopping!!!

Going food shopping is grim! as my friend Chris put it tonight 'It's a chore'. It's not just the standing at the end of the checkout watching the final item getting swiped through and realising that you've spent 3 times what you had planned (although it add's to the experience) but more the aisle upon aisle of supermarket zombies walking around filling their trollies in a daze (that Includes me), there's something about walking through those doors that sends me into a trance and why is it I can never remember what I need? Even if we've written a list I still manage to forget something important like loo roll. Mrs M says I spend most of my time walking round with my head in the clouds, the supermarket just seems to magnify that.

Luckily today mine and Opeie's silent agreement has kicked in and he dropped off right before we arrived, Perfect timing. Thus leaving Mrs M to go in rather than me as she shops like a grown up and I'm more likely to hit the toy aisle and add a minifigure or two. well I have to add something to make the experience more exciting. If your a regular reader then you'll know that I love this time in the car to reflect, or in this case have a little man moan.

At least when we get home i can take advantage of all the goodies that Mrs M has picked up so at least that's something. Fingers crossed this is the last time we will have to come this week.  

Rant over...

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

Back in March last year we went away and we felt that this was a great chance to give Seth his own money. So we brought him a little bag and a wallet of his own so that while we were there he would have his pocket money to spend on what he wanted. Since coming back we've not really used his bag or wallet so as we were going to see our friends Chris and Michelle this weekend and Seth had some pocket money saved we thought it would be a good idea to reintroduce them to him.

I think it's important to get your children used to money, to explain the value of each coin so that they realise how much things cost etc. We have always tried to explain the value of things to Seth. Thankfully Seth isn't one of those children that is always asking for things and he really appreciates everything he gets from us. He's so kind and rather than spend his pocket money on himself he would happily spend it on Opeie ( remember the batman post? ), On the way to our friends he thought we had accidently turned off to the Toll road and offered to pay the toll (he's so cute). As for everything Seth does/has Opeie has to copy so we found him a little bag to put his toys in too.

Well we went to an old fashioned sweet shop later that afternoon and without thinking we paid for the sweets that Seth picked. About 30 minutes later Mrs M noticed that Seth was a bit quiet and asked him what was wrong, he said that he was upset that we paid for the sweets and he didn't get to spend his own money so we took him back to a toy shop that we had been to earlier in the day to spend his money.

Turns out that it wasn't the getting new things that Seth was excited about but more the using his own money which i think is great and he would have felt exactly the same buying himself Lego or paying the Toll charges on the motorway. It's things like this that make me realise were doing a really good job and bringing Seth up. He's selfless and that's such a great characteristic to have.