"Virtue has a veil, vice a mask."

At some point in the day, pretty much every day the masks will be on in our house, we love role play especially if it means that Seth gets to have a bit of a scrap. Its great being able to just throw one on and act like a child for an hour or so (not that i usually act like a grown up).

After seeing the Avengers movie i felt it a necessity to own all the masks, I'm a Captain America kind of guy, Seth will nearly always go for Thor and Opeie well need i say it? he's a Spider-Man boy through and through. I decided to write this post last week, i had been looking for the Hulk mask with the light up gamma eyes for quite some time but they were going for stupid money on eBay but while we were in TK Maxx both me and Mrs M spotted one at the same time for a mere fiver. I walked in Seth's room earlier to find Mrs M looking very fetching in it and a hulk costume. Hot!!!

 

Seth loves taking the Masks and accessories down the park so that we can run about being the avengers etc. We do get some funny looks but thankfully none of us care less. Its all about the boys and if their happy then were happy. Theyve always got a smile on their faces.

Its not all about marvel though, sometimes we get an unpleasant visit from the Sith Lord himself he generally potters round the house harassing Opeie. I'm still looking to get hold of a Boba Fett mask like the Vader one as we have the blaster so it would be rude not to.

I don't much like living in the real world, i am happiest playing with the boys in our super hero fantasy land. Ive come in to contact with all manner of villainous people in my life and it seems that a lot of people we me eet these days are wearing some form of mask meant to serve as a decoy for what they are really like. Thankfully the only masks we wear in our house are the Super hero kind. We are a genuinely happy family.

"I'm late, I'm late, For a very important date..."

 

Mrs M's Motherly instincts are in overdrive at the moment as there has been four new additions to our ever growing family leaving the pitter patter of tiny feet once more.  Thankfully i am not talking about four new children, although i would love a huge family i think four newborns together would be more hard work than i could deal with especially already having Seth and Opeie. I am in fact talking about the the four new bunnies that our Rabbit Brobee gave birth to this time last week.

As selfish as it sounds Mrs M has had to deal with the new additions as ive got issues with dealing with that sort of thing. I think it stems back from my hamster dying a while back, i was quite attatched to Cheesecake, probably sounds silly but ive just always kept away from pets in general since then but Mrs M really wanted the rabbits and she is more than happy to deal with that side of things. Its nice for the boys to have pets though.

 Despite this the babies are beautiful and when they were first born looked like little baby hippo's. Unfortunately one of them is really struggling at the moment and were not sure their going to make it but Mrs M is doing everything she can to keep the little one warm and fed. It seems she has not been feeding off Brobee and is looking very dehydrated so i had to pop out yesterday to get some kitten food which Mrs M has been feeding to the poor little thing.

 Yesterday we had some freak rain here in Shropshire and the area of the hutch where the babies were was filling up with water so we had to bring our smaller hutch into the house so that we didn't lose all of the babies as their nest was starting to get very cold and wet, so they are now living in the middle of our kitchen until later today when we can sort out the hutch. Yesterday we covered the roof in one of this aluminium emergency blankets so fingers crossed it will keep any excess rain water out.

We have 2 other rabbits, Miffy and Snuffy who im feeling a little guilty about at the moment as our attentions have been permanently on Brobee and the babies. Mrs M is getting quite stressed about it all but thankfully the breeder that we got Brobee from has been great and has even been over to see them and bring some special food.

The poor little one that were having issues with is having problems keeping warm so Seth has decided that He/She is called Mr Freeze....

...I stopped writing the post at this point earlier as i had to go out and sadly Mr Freeze didn't make it, Mrs M has been very very upset as she was doing everything she could to keep him/her alive. Despite my recent comments about not wanting to deal with that side of things Mrs M was so upset that i couldn't let her deal with sorting the body out so i wrapped the poor little thing in some lovely material and made them a little coffin so tomorrow we can bury Mr Freeze.

It's so sad but thankfully the other three and mommy are all fit and well so that's something at least. There's no shortage of love and affection coming their way so im sure they will be fine.

Rest in peace Mr Freeze 9/8/2012 - 16/8/2012

"Who cares about the clouds when we're together? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather."

There was always something quite magical when i was younger about taking my action figures outside and playing with them in the grass, especially if the grass was a little longer than it should have been. I used to tie string on the handle of my bedroom window and peg the other end into the grass outside so that i could get my Star Wars figures to zip wire out it was so much fun.

Once outside i would dig holes and put my figures in them and fill them back in, leaving them only visable from the waist up and sometimes just the arm, leaving the garden looking like a battlefield of fallen soldiers. This i only did with the few figures i had duplicates of or ones that i wasn't emotionally attatched to. Seth has a collection of Action man dolls for doing just that which i have brought from various charity shops. Theres always action men in our local Charity shops, Seth's not bothered about them which makes them great for playing with outside and perfect for targets when we have the Nerf guns out.

We had brought Opeie and Seth an Imaginext van each from Toys R Us which we had put away for Christmas but it seems that now Mrs M is more impatient than me about giving the boys their toys. So after some VERY good behavior from Seth including always looking after his little brother and being generally lovely, Mrs M decided we should give him a treat from the pirates, So we put the van somewhere in plain sight and Mrs M said "i think i just heard the waves" (this is how we let Seth know that we think the pirate ship has been) so excitedly he ran off round the house searching for his booty.

Well as always Seth was very appreciative of his gift and looked up into the sky and said "thank you pirates" in a very jolly voice. The weather was lovely so we got a blanket and took all the Batman toys out in to the garden, and due to some lazyness on my part the grass was slightly longer than it should have been... Excellent.

I always think that when your playing with your toys outside it makes the role playing more realistic and who doesn't love sitting out side when the weather is nice. Plus you have the added bonus of random vines and plants that can wrap around figures stopping them in their tracks, great if your playing as poison ivy. Everything in the garden can be part of our play. climbing frame, slide, the figures can even grapple to the washing line and then crawl across it. The possibilities are endless.

When Seth wrote his last post (allow me to break the ice my name is freeze...) he mentioned his hammer car which i realised at the time he had had for a while but it hadn't been mentioned in any of my imaginext posts. He is right though it does look a little like a shoe. Its great for beating down the caped crusader though (it always seems to be the good guys taking a beating).

Opeie really enjoyed playing outside with all the toys although he has a tendancy to throw things about so when we packed up to go in i was left hunting around the garden for figures. As usual the Batcave had been taken over by villains and Batman and Robin had been locked up in Arkham Asylum. I have a feeling Seth is going to end up being a fan of the baddies like me. Especially when it comes to DC as the villains have so much more depth to them. 

When we went to see Batman live last year the Joker completely stole the show and Batman was left just looking like an extra in 'Joker Live' but that's a post for another time.

I'm quite sure there will be another Imaginext post soon as its all the boys want to play with at the moment, although i am waiting for star wars to rear its ugly head again. I'm hoping i have a few weeks before Seth's back at school and Williams Jedi talk starts influencing Seth again.

Previous Imaginext Post's:

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom."

"Still they cry out for him... for their hero and savior... but he is broken... and Gotham is mine!"

"Don't adjust your sets. Welcome to the Oswald Cobblepot school of driving. Gentlemen, start your screaming!"

 

"In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play." 

 

 

"Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up"

After a chat in the school playground one afternoon with Williams mom Vicky (Seth's best friend) we decided to start taking Seth to a Taekwondo class. We had talked about sending him to Karate or something similar mainly to boost his confidence and give him a good social life outside of school, it was an added bonus finding out that William went to this class as we knew that it would keep him motivated.

I'll be honest its not my cup of tea at all but Seth really enjoys himself while he is there and the lessons are just long enough for him not to be exhausted. Seth has a rare muscle condition and we assumed that there would only be so far that he would be able to go but Excalibur Martial Arts have been amazing at making sure that Seth is able to join in and he is not expected to do things that the other children seem to find easier.

I say all this but Seth doesn't let anything bother him. He is a very confident, happy and extremely affectionate little boy and were so proud of the way he is turning out.

Saturday is no longer called Saturday in our house it's Taekwondo day, although for a short time the weekdays didn't have names either, he just called them 'William days'. Seth loves seeing William and his brother Matthew at the classes every week and even though they get very excited and have a run about before class as soon as Mr McGinley starts talking, the look on their faces is all business.

Most weeks im quite shocked by some of the things that seth does, he kicks higher than i ever thought he could and when i show him the pictures i have taken he gets a very satisfied look upon his face. He is definitely getting more confident which is what we hoped for.

Mr McGinley's children also attend different classes of his and Mrs McGinley is always there too and their a lovely bunch and easy to talk to which is great for when your sitting watching. Seth's favorite parts so far include punching through 2 blocks that are slotted together (i think he felt pretty tough after that) and a padded man shaped suit with foot and hand straps that Mr McGinley wore while the children attacked him, after that class Seth asked me if when we got home could i masking tape pillows to my arms, legs and torso so we could scrap (I'm quite sure Mrs M wouldn't be very happy if i started strapping the bedding to myself).

A few weeks back Seth had his first grading and was really excited that he moved from his white starter belt up to a single purple stripe. The first 3 belts arn't official Taekwondo belts but i think its great that these have been introduced for the younger children as its great for easing them in to the grading system as im sure they get a lot more intense as the the grades get higher.

It turns out that Mr McGinley is also a bit of a Star Wars geek (just what i needed, more influence from the dreaded force). On a recent Summer event for the class he was dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi and guess what Seth was dressed as...

I really hope that Seth sticks with his classes as its really doing him the world of good physically and mentally. Its a great weekly add on for Seth's physio which we do with him at home every day.

I'm quite sure that Opeie will want to do what his big brother is doing when he is older and if he does then that's great although i think i would like to sway him more towards music and learning an instrument, I always thought it would be cute if we learnt one together but we'll see. 

Who knows, if Seth keeps it up maybe we'll see him at a future olympics???

"anybody know how to get cream filling out of suede?"

I was so excited last night about getting home from our friends house as they had very kindly brought us the Sesame Street DVD, Iron Monster and Sesame Heroes after reading my previous blog post about Sesame Street. I couldn't find it for sale anywhere and had given up looking. I couldn't even find it when we were in the states. Anyhow now thanks to some great friends (http://gingerjamphoto.com/ and wifey) Me, Opeie and Mrs M sat down and watched it last night and it was well worth the wait.

Super Grover is probably my favorite character and being Iron Monster just added to that (as you know i love anything Marvel related), you certainly wouldnt want to mess with someone that  "can iron out any trouble, straighten out any dilemma" and  "can permanently press out any problem". He really is the hero of the laundromat. Seth really enjoyed the 'Furry Four' episode, i probably should have started Opeie off on this sort of thing rather than jumping straight in to Spider-Man.

 

Opeie inevitably fell asleep on me half way through which i love because its usually Mrs M that he drops off on. After Mrs M put him down and the DVD was over we were still feeling in a Sesame Street mood so we decided to watch 'Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey'. It was by far one of the best documentaries i have ever seen. Im still shocked now that Elmo's voice come out of that chap. What a nice guy Kevin Clash is. Ive never really been much of an Elmo fan but i think after watching that i may look at him a little differently.
( EDIT- It's Mrs M here, I am one of the biggest Elmo Fans EVER. I actually think on a daily basis how I would love a pet Elmo, because " Mrs M loves you" - Said in the style of Elmo.
The thing I love about Elmo is that he is so loving and I think that is rare in today's world of TV, Film etc for young children, you never hear the word LOVE being used. I think that it is amazing that a little red monster ( when he's not really a monster) can bring so much happiness to so many little children across the world in such a positive way. ) Pauly is giving me a weird look for the constant tapping on the MacBook , and said "are you rewriting it about Elmo?"  I will write more about Elmo soon!!!! )

 

"Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear."

That exciting sound of the postman knocking the door will never lose its appeal. Ive been a good boy for the last couple of weeks and i haven't brought any toys for myself as were saving at the moment but its killing me. I don't know how I'm going to cope, there's so many things i want. I may not have brought anything for myself but that doesn't mean i haven't spent money on toys for someone else. Today the postie was delivering my friend Chris's patrol bear Fozzie for his Muppets Collection that he had written a post about last week.

Chris is a great chap and is always helping us out with things so we thought it would nice to get him something to say thank you. plus it gave me a bit of a toy fix so i hopefully wont have the shakes for a week or so. I think i get just as much satisfaction out of helping someone with their collection as i do with adding to my own.

Now were just keeping them peeled for something nice for his birthday.

"It sounds like something on a very trite T-shirt, but life is what happens."

Last week i was accused of only putting Opeie in Super Hero T-Shirts, now I'm not going to deny this, but it is usually me that dresses both the boys in the mornings and obviously if the choice in their drawers is between a plain smart polo shirt or an awesome top with the Avengers on then clearly its not a difficult choice to make.

I see the boys as an extension of myself. They love the things that i love and they want to be showing that off as much as i love showing them off. I am a doting father after all, that's what we do. I could think of much worse things that people put their kids in but that just boils down to a matter of taste. Their boys, they should be in tops covered in Super Heroes.

I was hanging the washing out last week and i realised that much of the space on the line had been monopolised by super hero attire so with this in mind and the spurring on of Mrs M's comment i decided to write this post.

If your local and see me out and about then you will know that most days i will also be wearing a Captain America top or something else childish and nerdy. I am a big kid that loves colourful clothing. The boys love it and sometimes we wear matching character tops, its cute.

 

Now Opeie has got a little older and is starting to understand things if he see's a top lying about that he fancies wearing he will let us know about it by holding it above his head. this will usually be one of his many Spider-Man tops or more recently his T-shirt to his Hulk PJ's. But also if hes wearing a top that he likes and he gets food down it or makes a mess he will do everything he can to stop us from taking it off him. He's wearing his Spider-Man PJ's at the moment, he would happily keep them on all the time.

 

Despite Mrs M's earlier comment, she mentioned to me today that she wishes she had brought a female spider-man T-Shirt that we had seen at universal studios when we had been away earlier in the year. so shes obviously not that bothered about all the super hero clothing, i think secretly she's just desperate to join in, and who could blame her were the cool kids, as Seth says.

Well the boys will continue to be covered in Super hero print but i will do my best to even it out a bit...honest. Today though everything is clean and fresh off the line so i have my pick of the fun T-shirts so it would be rude not to take advantage of that. Which do you think he should wear?

*Update*

After visiting Chris and Michelle last weekend Opeie came away with another two great super hero T-shirts. He wore the Ironman one for the first time yesterday and it looked great on him, hes a proper little crime fighter. The Spider-Man T-shirt is for when hes a little older even though he's desperate to wear it now. Thank you so much guys we really appreciate your lovely gifts.

*UPDATE* - "I did it! I finally killed Batman! In front of a bunch of vulnerable, disabled kids!!! Now get me Santa Claus!"

Just a quick update tonight about last nights post. Seth came home earlier and was really excited about the Fun house and all the characters i had made for him which put a big smile on my face. While we were playing with it he said he wished he had a Mr Freeze mini figure so i got out the mini figure box to see what i could pull together. Ive had seth in stitches most of the night because this is what i came up with...

Seth thought it was hilarious and was playing with it right up until he went to bed. While we were playing tonight i thought i would try something different and take photo's of what was going on and turn it into a mini comic strip.

during our play Opeie was shot with Mr Freeze's ice gun (naughty Mr Freeze), Opeie was then frozen which im quite sure he wasn't very happy about. He then tried to freeze Seth but luckily Seth was well prepared and was carrying a mirror which he pulled out deflecting the ice beam, thus freezing the frosty villain himself. Seth then took his brothers frozen body and placed him next to a fire to thaw him out. Then they had a little cuddle.

Worked out quite well i thought.

The End.