"Christmas is, of course, the time to be home - in heart as well as body."

Since taking Opeie out of nursery last year , he has refered to our afternoons together while Mrs M is at work and Seth is at school as 'Daddy nursery', which i love. Ive noticed over the last few months though when Opeie has mentioned the term, Seth has looked a little down, almost like he feels he is missing out on some of the fun that we have. A few days back i could hear the boys in their room and Seth was asking Opeie what we do at Daddy nursery. After Opeie excitedly listed off some of the activities we have done recently, Seth came downstairs and asked "can we do a Daddy nursery activity today please?".

Well i wasn't going to say no was I!! Plus the weather wasn't great and doing things at home during the Christmas break is great. There was a fun activity i have wanted to do for some time but just hadn't got round to it, probably because i couldn't find our big roll of paper. Moving house though had unearthed all manner of fun things we had previously misplaced. We started our activity with Opeie lying down on the paper so that we could draw round him...

I thought it would be interesting to get the boys to draw internal body parts. I wanted to see what shape they thought the parts were and the size using Opeie's body outline. Most importantly though i wanted to see where they thought these body parts were located and what they thought their purpose was. I knew that Seth knew this but i was using it as a 'Seth teaches Opeie' activity without him realising as Opeie really takes in everything his big brother tells him.

Seth was very much 'this is what it looks like and this is what it does!' obviously the things he has been learning at school have stuck. As expected his drawings were excellent and it was interesting to learn from Seth. He thought we had one very large lung for the "good stuff we breath in" and a small lung for the "bad stuff we breath out". Also the large and small intestine are virtually the same size. He had no idea what shape the kidneys were but based his drawing around kidney beans which was awesome. Seth also showed an interest in drawing testicles??, which looked like grapes on a thin string, not bad i thought.

Opeie, having very little knowledge of internal body parts was a little more creative with his drawings and descriptions. The stomach (i was informed) has eyes and a mouth, it smiles when it eats nice things like Broccoli and Chocolate but it has a sad face when it eats meat (I'm sure that will make Mrs M smile when she reads this). I also found out that we in fact have three lungs that are all stuck together, kidneys look like donuts and both intestines look like spears. It was cute to see that the heart was 'heart shaped' to Opeie but Seth had drawn a more detailed version of our very important muscular organ.

There were other parts i wanted us to go through but the boys were eager to put their sketches on Opeie's drawn outline out in the hall. We placed the brains on first and when Opeie put his just above where the stomach should be i knew it was going to be interesting.

The human stomach is usually located in the head! or so Opeie says. Seems a long way down for evacuation after your food has been processed in the torso area and sent back up. This may have been placed here though because of the smiley face (it did look cute).

Polly as always came to get involved and was happy plonking herself down in the middle of what we were doing (i wonder if we could do a similar activity with a cat shape?). Intestines in the legs and kidneys in the hips and wrists, it was turning out to be a very fun activity. They both knew exactly where the testicles were located (no surprise there though, remember the planetarium post?).

The activity is a two parter, the next part being me drawing the correct shape/size of the parts and showing where they are located. Seth did an excellent job of explaining to Opeie the purpose of each part drawn, all except the kidneys as he wasn't sure.

Seth wants us to draw around him next so I'm thinking we do a similar activity to talk about bones as Opeie is always talking about skeletons and skulls. Our afternoon of learning gave me a great idea for Opeie's home teaching and something that Seth can be involved with regularly too. A fun afternoon was had by all at Daddy Nursery and clearly Seth loved being a part of it and of course we loved him being there.

"A fox is a wolf who sends flowers."

 I uploaded the photos to this post about a month ago and its crazy to think how many other fox photos we have taken since then. I cant believe what started as an occasional fox spotting almost 2 years ago has now turned in to this family game wherever we go. I can only hope this goes on in to the boys teens as it really has been a lot of fun. My favourite was the fox sticker we spotted on the back of a lamp post in Covent garden and a book about pooh that we spotted in the Tate the same day (including, yes you guessed it! Fox pooh).

Enjoy....

I thought id finish the post with the ultimate fox, i randomly typed in LEGO fox in to eBay and this Chima fox popped up, how did i let this minifigure slip my attention!! Anyway until next time, happy hunting.

"Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going."

having two young children, me and Mrs M never get to do anything together. We have not been out in almost 5 years which is a little crazy when I think about it. Over the last month or so though the boys have been taken out a few times by Laura's folks and sister and they have had so much fun, making me and Mrs M realise we need to occasionally do things for ourselves. It is important to do things as a couple every now and again. I feel lucky that our relationship is so solid. Had it not have been i can imagine the stresses of not having that 'us time' could become quite a strain.

While we were at auntie Lottie's cottage on boxing day I was asked whether I was interested in going clay pigeon shooting, having never fired a gun I jumped at the chance and Mrs M seemed game too so a few days later Lottie and Opeie hung out while me and Mrs M donned some Harris Tweed and went on a mission up to their friends farm to meet up with Lottie's chap Aaron and our friend Aub.

Mrs M didn't like the look or sound of the gun but eventually intrigue got the better of her and she was soon shooting at the sky. Her face was priceless when she hit one of the disks.

I'm not much of a mans man and was convinced I was going to miss them all and expected everyone to have a chuckle at me but i managed to hit a few and the boys were great in showing us how to use the guns etc. We were only out for an hour or so but it was lots of fun and was really lovely doing something with Mrs M and not having to worry about the boys. Saying that though Seth would have loved to sit and watch from a safe spot, maybe next time.

Me and Mrs M have got a few plans for some things to do together and we are lucky to have some great family and friends to spend time with the boys so we can fully embrace our 'us time'.

"Christmas... is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart."

I feel like it's been months since I last wrote on here. So much has been going on that it just made sense to go quiet for a while until things were a little more calm. Christmas can be a stressful time of year for a lot of families but for us this year it wasn't the festive preparations and gift buying that was piling the pressure on but the fact that not only was Mrs M starting her new job, we also moved Gifts from the Pirates HQ two weeks ago. (If you can avoid it, moving house this close to Christmas is a crazy idea).

That being said though, we are now in and slowly getting settled. There are boxes in every spot that isn't used regularly and trying to find specific things amongst items still packed has been quite testing. Despite this and the fact we are living without Internet at the moment (it's like being back in the 80s), it's great to be in our new home, which so far has been quiet and very relaxing.

We didn't get to put our Christmas tree up till the 16th of December which was a little grim, being the big Christmas fans that we are, but being able to find a new space for the decorations and even have the extra space for a second tree (thank you Gary and Ruth) was awesome. We filled the house with festive cheer which put a smile on everyone's face and took our minds off the piles of boxes scattered around each room.

As expected it was made quite clear early on that the styling and design of the boys room was going to be my remit. But that's where my creative flair ended and the remainder of the house belonged to Mrs M. Suits me fine though as most of my time in the house is spent playing with the boys in their room. Their room was the first to be organised the weekend we moved in (sorting a place for the LEGO was most important). It was great to unbox all of their books too as they took up a lot of boxes. I'm loving the library/LEGO area they've got now and I'm looking forward to getting some photos and art work up over the next few weeks.

We still don't have internet and probably wont have for a couple of weeks but having my trusty phone means that i can get back in to the swing of writing and play catch up over the next few days. 

I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year.