"I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes."

Many of my posts are written about a single event, somewhere we've been, something we've built and sometimes something we are reviewing. Throughout the day though there are a whole bunch of things that we do aside from the boring housework to keep us entertained. Sometimes I feel a little like Hugh Grant's character from 'about a boy' thinking of the day as units of time, each unit lasting no longer than 30 minutes. "Full hours can be a little intimidating and most activities take about half an hour" (before Opeie starts losing interest anyway).

Today was one of those days crammed with mini activities, each as I said lasting no longer than 30 minutes...

Activity 1: a good old fashioned wrestle, all that pent up aggression and anger that builds up as a 2 year old unleashed on to a poor unsuspecting dad.

Activity 2: learning our alphabet. I'm quite sure I've got it down to a T but there's no harm in practising.

Activity 3: working on our creativity, Opeie informed me as soon as we had dropped Seth off that today he wanted to do some painting, which is great. Today's masterpiece was 'the cat in the hat! and the thingamajigger. Which spurred on activity 4.

Activity 4: watching an episode of 'the cat in the hat knows a lot about that', which gave us an idea for a craft activity that we will be doing tomorrow as disorganised daddy doesn't have any glue in the house (oops).

Activity 5: still feeling in a Dr Seuss mood and being quite excited about me finding one of his favourite books that had been missing for a while, Opeie asked if we could read 'Gerald Mcboing boing', while fetching his book though he spotted another of his favourite books, the one I wrote for Mrs M as part of my proposal. This then became half an hour of reading.

Activity 6: bath time, a little paint was spilled and Opeie was sweaty from the wrestling so we had a bath. The super heroes joined us and took it in turns to have their faces and bottoms washed (Opeie is a funny thing).

And all of this before lunch time, just goes to show how much you can do in a few hours. After lunch it was time to pick up Mrs M and then Seth and that brings me to now, sitting in the car waiting to walk up to the playground before starting our 30 minute units of time for this afternoon which so far looks like it is going to consist of blackberry picking, tea, possibly Lego (because we fit it in where we can) and cuddles before bed.

'You don't have to be sad to be feeling a little Blue'

After an in depth sit down talk with Opeie he has informed us that his favourite colour is blue! May seem trivial to most but I see this as quite the milestone. He's getting more grown up and independent by the day and he knows what he likes. So in honour of this new found love and your first favourite colour (which I'm sure will change soon), here's some blue things that daddy loves...

Just kidding...

 

And this one, that we're watching at the moment (and watch together pretty much every day).

I'm looking forward to hearing what your next favourite thing is, I find everything you say and do fascinating, I'm an extremely smitten daddy.

"The score never interested me, only the game."

When we are given a product to write about my mind is flooded with ideas of what I want to do, it usually tends to be a little eccentric but then that pretty much sums me up. The problem I have is that no matter how great my directional skills are,my cast of actors being 6 and 2 have more of a spontaneous approach to the job in hand (I'd be lying if I said sometimes this doesn't turn out better though). Because of this I generally have to work with whatever I have to pull together.

The Janod animal domino's from thetoadstool.co.uk are a great little set perfect for teaching the classic game (which at 2 Opeie really doesn't understand), with the added bonus of animal domino's on the reverse, which was actually a lot better for Opeie as he loved the fact he had to keep checking to see if he had the animals bum (much easier for younger players). Although I'm not going to bore you with the script and big plans for the post, which instantly went out the window when fake mustaches were applied to the boys (never under estimate the level of excitement caused by a mustache). Anyway, The Janod animal domino's...

Available at thetoadstool.co.uk

'Instructions? where were going we don't need instructions'

Seth is a Lego genius, I'm not sure that everyone see's it and maybe that's because i pay so much attention to what he is doing, being a little brick obsessed myself. But he blows me away with every little build he does and the way he is so creative no matter how small and insignificant to most people these thing are. Seth has become a huge fan of the 'Back to the future' movies over the last year but it wasn't until yesterday that he watched the third movie through. While watching the film he disappeared briefly and returned with his big box of minifigures.

I continued to clean the house while he sat and played with Opeie and within five minutes he came in to me looking very proud of himself. He proceeded to show me his custom Marty Mcfly (riding a hoverboard, of course) and Dr Emmett Brown. Its little things like this that put a smile on my face continuously through the day. Seth can make something of nothing and a lot of thought goes in to everything he does. Keep up the good work Seth I'm so proud of the mini builder you are becoming.

"The fingers must be educated, the thumb is born knowing."

The boys are always being given nice things by family members and friends, it's lovely to know that people are thinking about them when they are out and about and spot things they might like. Our friend Michelle had found a very cute gift that made her think of the boys and when Chris came down to see us on Monday he brought it with him. I'm a little disappointed with myself for not thinking of this simple yet very fun idea myself.

The set is a thumb print card making kit and yesterday afternoon we decided to have a craft session and give them a try. It was a great set for all of us and opeie loved getting his fingers dirty and making a mess.

Seth really got into the card making which was great as it gave us something nice to sit down and do together. Innevitably as with all craft activities Opeie lost interest after about 20 minutes but I'm sure as he gets older he will get in to designing things a little more.

After making the most of the cards and the stickers provided we decided to freestyle our own cards and while Opeie's recent new hobby is to copy everything his big brother does, Seths is still to copy me (which i think is adorable). Its very cliche for me i know but i decided to use my thumb prints to make the Avengers...

In great Seth style though he out shone me all the way with his amazing drawings. I'll never get bored of seeing the little characters that he creates. An excellent mini craft session and a great way to spend an hour or so, thanks Michelle. xx

"Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!"

We had been looking forward to the August bank holiday for quite sometime, we didn't have anything huge planned but the fact that Mrs M was off for a three day weekend was reason enough to be excited. Sadly Friday came and due to unforeseen circumstances Mrs M ended up quite ill and basically sofa bound. Obviously she was well looked after with no shortage of foot rubs, i made sure her nails were painted and eyebrows were plucked as i know this is the best way to get her relaxed. (I know how to treat my girl like the princess she is).

We had arranged to see our friend Chris (gingerjamphoto.com) on bank holiday Monday and Seth had picked somewhere fun for us all to go, but Mrs M still wasn't feeling great and the thought of a long car journey really wasn't appealing, so we decided to venture somewhere a little more local. Unfortunately after driving most of the way there we had to turn round and find a different route due to a serious road accident.

Some bad navigating from the back seat and a couple of bad turns and our journey ended up a two hour stretch, not what Mrs M had hoped for being wedged between two car seats. Chris kept us occupied though with a barrage of terrible jokes that I can only describe as awful 'dad humour' (god help any children he may have in the future).

After our epic journey we finally arrived at our destination, desperate to get out and stretch our legs. The temperature had risen substantially since the morning so I was a sweaty mess. Seth was desperate to show Chris the dry sledging and Chris proved to us once more that he's as big a kid as all of us. The new gym mat/sledge has certainly been getting some use since being given to us by our friend Gareth (he's yet to come and join In the fun though). We all had a great time apart from a few near misses with the gravel at the bottom of the hill.

After a good few rides of the valley we headed back to the car to get the boys wellies on and go splashing. I don't know what it is about splashing in streams but Seth loves it.

Spending time with Chris is always a lot of fun and the boys love him to bits. Being a photographer he comes with the added bonus of taking great photos of the four of us together. Although we're always out together visiting nice places, one of us is always behind the camera so we actually don't have that many of us all together.

It was soon moving towards tea time and I think tummies were beginning to rumble so we decided to head home. It was a great afternoon, topped off with some yummy food, cups of tea and a few games of countdown on the boys blackboard courtesy of Seth Vorderman. All in all a great bank holiday Monday was had by all. Thanks Chris, for the photographs, TERRIBLE jokes and of course the great company.

“To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul”

I don't think this picture needs an introduction or an explanation, this is Opeie at his best, adorable and slightly unhinged just like that beautiful mother of his. Enjoy the randomness...

"Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!"

It takes a very creative person to see something interesting in nothing. Yesterday while Opeie was playing with his toys on the floor in the lounge he suddenly got very excited and began to repeat the word 'Christmas'. Not having a clue what he was going on about and thinking it was part of some game he was playing i briefly left him to it. The 'Christmas's' got louder and it was soon clear that i needed to get on the floor and see what had got my boy so excited.

Opeie was pointing under the dining table, 'Christmas, Christmas', but there was nothing under the table? could he mean the legs look like candy canes? did the nuts and bolts under the chairs remind him of sparkly Christmas lights? I had no idea and felt really guilty as Opeie was adamant that 'Christmas' was underneath our dining room table. "Am i going mad? what am i missing?".

Its situations like this that make me realise how differently we view things than our children. Out of pure frustration of daddy clearly being so slow Opeie crawled under the table and pointed at exactly what he was trying to get across. On the wall under the table there was a piece of plaster missing off the wall and what did it look like? what was it that daddy and his lack of imagination couldn't see without being told by his creative two year old boy? Clear as day there was father Christmas staring back at us. A simple thing of insignificance, A Defect and Opeie made it beautiful. Children are amazing and I'm so jealous of his innocence, i don't ever want him to grow up.

Ho Ho Ho!

"Knox in box. Fox in socks. Knox on fox in socks in box"

Do you remember the time when things were this simple?

Being able to chose whatever vehicle you wished to travel in and jetting off to whatever secluded and glamorous location you liked, not even been confined to this planet. Long distance travel wasn't an issue because you could go in to hyper speed or even teleport if you wanted to. There was no need to moan about the price of fuel going up because your transport ran off Orange squash, or Lego and as you can see from the photo above accessorising your outfit to go with your ride was a breeze (its like a cardboard fast and the furious).

Its amazing how much entertainment the boys can get out of cardboard. We've been attempting to de-clutter again so have been listing our unwanted items on eBay and filling up our local charity shops. Mrs M kindly brought home some boxes for packaging up but as i expected most of them didn't make it that far because big boxes in our house are like gold dust and on sight the boys are all over them.

The boys spent most of the afternoon playing in their new cardboard creations, one minute they were in rockets, then a motorbike with a side car. With the help of a coat hanger being attached to the front Seth's became a racing car and right before we left to pick Mrs M up from work they were on a boat that had hit an iceberg and they were desperately trying to rescue all of their toys from the dangerous currents of a violent sea. I couldn't help but think 'i wish we had a boat big enough for me.'

As the boxes had become flavour of the day and the sun was out we asked the boys if they wanted to take their new custom vehicles outdoor racing down some hills, I'm quite sure you can guess what their response was...

It was a lovely evening so we took a slow drive down to somewhere hilly to make the most of the cardboard super cars. On the way Seth reminded us of a snowman hedge that he had spotted the last time we had passed through so Mrs M jumped out to take a picture.

Sadly on arrival the boxes barely even got a look in as Mrs M's PT Gareth donated a very slippy Gym mat to the cause and it soon became the favoured hill sliding companion. As soon as the boys got on it the boxes were a thing of the past. It was early evening when we headed out so it was quiet and we made the most of our dry slope sledging activity. Even Mrs M got in on the action.

 

We left our sledging escapades in high spirits and were all having a great chuckle on the way home so just before getting back to ours i drove to somewhere that had made me laugh the day before. A house we had driven past a few times had given their already tacky lions at the end of their path a touch up. Orange and Red? really? i honestly don't know what possessed them but Mrs M found it equally as funny.

It was another great mini adventure for me and the troops and ive really enjoyed the making the most of our time after Mrs M being at work. Its been a great de-stresser for her too. I feel so lucky to have a great family and with next week being the last full week that Seth has off for the holiday we have a lot of cramming of fun stuff to do.

Writing from the drivers seat - killing time with a sleepy child in the backseat

It's been a while since writing one of my life from the drivers seat posts, Opeie hasn't done much napping in the car recently and with Seth being off school we couldn't really be sitting around for hours anyhow, it wouldn't be fair on him. Today though after dropping Mrs M off at work, the plan was to pop over to nanny and grandads so they could see the boys. Opeie was exhausted and soon dropped off so when we got there Seth went in to entertain the excited grandparents and auntie Lotty, and me? well I have this quiet half an hour to blog away.

I cant believe that there's only a week or so of the summer holiday left, i don't know where the time has gone. Seth has Informed me that he doesn't feel ready to go back to school yet and also that he would prefer it if he had the weekdays off and the weekends for school. I'm not sure the government and education board would go for that but you never know it may be worth putting in writing. 

The school years go by so much quicker as a parent than I remember them going as a child. I don't remember all that much of infant and junior school, i have really hazy memory around that time apart from dressing up like a tea pot, Morris dancing in the playground, and marrying my girlfriend from age 8-11 in front of the school for our leavers assembly while parents sobbed. (it was a bizarre way to leave school at 11), that pretty much sums up my school life ages 5-11. It's no secret that I hated secondary school, I did the work but I never felt comfortable apart from when I was in my art class, it wasn't a great time for me. That being said I did have some fun friends and time outside of school was always filled with adventure.

It would be amazing being a child again and I always say how i'd love to see things through the boys eyes for just one day. I don't envy them having to go through school though and as a parent that has been through a crappy time at school i do worry that they will have a rough time too. If our situation had been different we would be home schooling the boys but sadly that's not an option.

It will be interesting to see how the boys turn out, they are having a great start and are kind well rounded children with parents that will back them up with anything they decide to do so i think they will be just fine.