Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'

I had so much housework to do yesterday as I was a lazy bugger the night before after snuggling on the sofa with Mrs M all evening. Opeie usually doesn't mind playing alone for short amounts of time while I get things done, I try to do the jobs in short bursts broke up by playing with him. Yesterday though Opeie wanted all the batman figures out and kept coming in and saying 'daddy play!'. Needless to say those big brown eyes have some serious power over me and surprise surprise I didn't get much done.

Opeie looked so cute surrounded by batman toys. and we quickly got in to an epic game fighting the villains in Gotham's underworld.

After an hour or so of playing the game came to an end when our friendly neighbourhood Spider-man decided to take over the Batcave.

After lunch we had to drop the boss at work, the sun was out and although it was a little nippy it was to good a day to be stuck I doors. We headed over to see auntie Lotty as we hadn't seen her for a few weeks. After a nice cuppa, a chat and plenty of cuddles for Opeie we headed to the park for a little picnic as Opeie hadn't long been awake and hadn't eaten.

After the picnic and a play on the park Opeie made it clear that he wanted to take part in his new favourite past time, feeding the ducks. Thanks to Mrs M always being prepared there was a loaf of bread already on the back seat of the car so we jumped in and headed over to the lake. Opeie always looks so happy when he's feeding the ducks, I love taking him and so probably do Warburtons. I think all the MD's will be getting a nice Christmas bonus this year because of us.

Once the loaf of bread had gone Opeie instantly lost interest in being at the lake and walking, so he sat on my shoulders until he saw some steps. I don't know what it is about steps/stairs but he loves them. He counted as he was going up, well up to 14 and then started again, cute. On the way down the steps the other side he said sorry on every step??? Strange boy.

We got back to the car and I gave Opeie a list of places to go next and he said 'castle' so I drove to the abbey ruins that are not to far from us for more walking about. I was hoping I could wear him out so that Mrs M might have an easier night with him. The sun was still bright and it had got a lot warmer by this point and as we pulled up a heard of cows came to meet us at the gate which Opeie loved.

And that filled our time up to going to pick Mrs M up from work. It was such a lovely afternoon and I'm hoping the sun is going to stay out for a while now so that we can get out and about more.

Daily bathroom duties and the dirty side of parenting

Within the first few weeks of meeting Seth I was faced with the 'I need a pooh scenario' while alone with him. It's funny when I think about it now as I found the whole thing a little daunting. I had never had to deal with children's bathroom activities before and I found myself at a quandary. What is the protocol for this kind of situation? 'Right I need to just get on with it' I thought so I took him by the hand and attempted to lead him to the bathroom but Seth stood firm looked up and said 'on the potty', so now I was faced with having to wipe someone else's bottom for the first time (which was scary enough) but had the added extra of transporting it through the house too like some sort of dirty courier. Needless to say it all went fine and thus began my ongoing bathroom duties as a dad.

As a parent you end up going through all manner of (what would seem to most people) gross situations. It may just be me being clumsy but I can guarantee that at least every other day I poke a finger into the contents of Opeie's nappy while changing him. Yesterday while me and Opeie were in the bath together I was having a lovely relaxing time when I saw a bath toy I've never seen before float past me, delightful. But again it didn't bother me in the slightest. It got me wondering when did i become so relaxed about dealing with this sort of thing?

Apologies for there not being any photo's in this short post but under the circumstances... 

"There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting."

I guess this is the start of how things are going to be from now on. I should have really seen this coming, when opting to be the stay at home parent it was inevitable that some sort of 'To Do List' would appear around the house. Before leaving for work yesterday morning Mrs M wrote post it notes of what needs doing around the house and stuck them on the wall in the hall, a list of chores for me and the boy. To keep us out of trouble I imagine. I wasn't sure whether it was to aid my apparent loss of memory at 33 or just Mrs M being her usual dominant self but either way i don't mind.

Luckily as the boys know very well I am super dad, guardian of the house and defender of the little ones and i think i have a broad understanding of what needs doing around the house. After completing all of my tasks and right before we headed out to get our glorious leader from work I made a little list of my own. And it was all packed in to 4 hours, so Ner!!!  

"A Pirates life for me"

Why would anyone not like role play?, It's fun to not be yourself every now and again and when the boys are in the mood for dressing up and acting out whatever crazy scenario's they can come up with i like to think i fully embrace it. Ive opened the door to the postman in all manner of outfits. Opeie is really starting to get into it more and wants to be involed in what ever his big brother is doing. Seth's been going through his 'i want to be a Goonie' phase at the moment and it came to my attention that you cant have Goonies without pirates, we were definitely short of any Pirate attire so after finding out about The Toadstool a few weeks back we put in an order for their Haba Captain Charlie Pirate Hat and Beard and Captain Charlie Pirate Sword.

The postman knocked today and Opeie jumped up and ran to the door and when i saw the stickers on the package i knew it was his new dress up items. When we opened the package Opeie shouted 'Pirate' and 'arrrggghhhh'. This was going to be a fun afternoon.

The beard is really soft, detailed and beautifully made, you can tell just by looking at it that it is a well made and safe product which i loved as it meant it was comfortable for Opeie to wear and there was no itching. The beard could be unattached from the hat and moved around by velcro which is great for getting the positioning of your face right. The sword is also soft and flexible too which is great for those overly energetic role players that get carried away in battle (there will be no tears on our ship). What i love most about Haba toys is the fact that they are eco friendly and have a great ethos which is really important to us as a family as we like to do our part when it comes to being green. Opeie was one happy little pirate and after running about wielding his sword for a while we decided to get down to some pirate themed craft, still wearing his hat of course.

It then came to my attention that when Seth came home from school he was going to want to be a pirate too so after reading a facebook status update from The Toadstool earlier in the day about their 'Earth day competition' and keeping in with the Haba ethos we used the packaging that the items came with to make another pirate hat and Sword. Genius if i do say so myself. two hats and swords for the price of one and two very smiley boys.

Well it turns out that Captain Seth was having big problems with his crew. Everytime his back was turned they were all after his bottle of rum. Boldhead blackbeard (that would be me) especially likes a tipple (helps with the scurvy) and he was doing the best he could to remove it from his possession with the help of his helper Jollypinkboots (Opeie)...

Captain Seth was having none of it and things soon became heated...

Luckily i invoked the the right of parlay! According to the Code of the Brethren and the fighting was over and we all became friends and sat down to a glass off rum...

*Giftsfromthepirates in no way encourages underage pirate drinking!!!

Turns out Captain Seth can't handle the strong stuff so in no time at all we were brawling again...

Seth has informed us tonight that as soon as he is back from school tomorrow we are having a pirate battle again (can i make a cardboard pirate ship in that time?). Its got me thinking of other role playing items we need so i went mooching on thetoadstool.co.uk again and found some great items including the Haba Knights Helmet and all its medieval counterparts and a great looking Doctor's Suitcase.

Haba Captain Charlie Pirate Hat and beard for ages 3 - 33

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

Yesterday was the first of many Goonies style adventures and it turned out more of an adventure than Seth could have hoped for, although Mrs M will strongly disagree on that one. After speaking to one of her colleagues at work this week Mrs M came home and told us about a possible spot to fill our Saturday, somewhere where there was walking, places to investigate and somewhere quiet where we could have a nice relaxing afternoon (how wrong could Mrs M be!!). After Seth's Tae kwon do class was out the way we headed home, Mrs M prepared a picnic and we loaded up the car and headed out. Seth's physio and Occupational therapist have always stressed the importance of exercise so over the Easter holiday we have tried to be as active as we could.

We were heading to Hawkstone Park follies and as i found out pretty quick, if you have a child with Mobility issues, a partner who has a fear of heights and a 2 year old that is in to everything, as beautiful as the place is you really should researched the area. Apparently all spontaneity does is stress your loved ones out. We arrived at lunch time and as it was feeling a bit nippy we decided to have one of our famous car picnics, the words of Mrs M being "well this lovely picnic has gone down like a lead balloon" (always the optimist). I also got told off for taking a picture or the part of the food that wasn't healthy so had to snap away again after this salad was introduced into frame.

After eating we headed to the main entrance to pay and get our maps. Opeie miraculously got back a few extra months of his life as under 2's get free admission (come on you've all done it). The woman on the desk was lovely but seemed to make it quite clear that with two young boys we probably wouldn't last the distance and if we didn't make it all the way round then they would stamp the ticket so we could come again, which i thought was lovely, although this is when we started to realise that maybe we had made a bad decision.

The first part of the adventure was pretty flat, beautiful scenery and with myself and three other smiley faces it was shaping up to be a perfect family day out. Spirits were high and there was plenty of mucking about. We even got to put Mrs M in some stocks that were randomly in a field. Its amazing though how quickly a situation and pleasant moods can change...

Me and Mrs M knew as soon as we arrived there that with Seth's muscle condition and his limited mobility we were going to find the walk difficult and probably wouldn't get to far but Seth being the independent child that he is he knew what he wanted and neither of us were going to hold him back. I was prepared for that, we both were but what i wasn't prepared for was the storm of emotions that was heading or way and was going to hit us at great speed.

Ive always known that Mrs M didn't like heights but as we had never been anywhere where we were going to be high up i had no idea to what extent, today was the day we were all going to find out. We made it to our first minestone, a small cave in the side of the hill and Seth and Opeie were very excited. Mrs M honestly looked like she was going to pass out and i decided that we should head back. Mrs M is an extremely strong character though, what i love about her the most is although she was clearly very uncomfortable with the situation, shes not afraid to catapult herself further in for the love of her boys, she knew how much Seth wanted to carry on and for him (and Opeie and me) she would do ANYTHING. (how could i not be completely smitten by this woman?).

We made our way up the side of the hill slowly, muddy tracks and uneven stone steps were real obstacles for both Seth and Mrs M but with me taking it in turns carrying the boys on my shoulders and Mrs M walking hunched over and trying not to look down we made it higher and higher up the hill passing each one of the maps statues and buildings stopping every five minutes for a rest. It was clearly going to be a long day and Mrs M's mood was slowly deteriorating.

Thinking about it now i feel quite bad as at the time i did find Mrs M's mood a little amusing, not the being scared of  climbing the edge of the hill but the very grumpy face that was complimenting her mood. She didn't want to be there but was doing everything she could to mask her emotions for Seth. Opeie seemed to be having an amazing time and apart from being worried about both Seth and Mrs M i was enjoying the fresh air and being out walking. Opeie obviously didn't understand how Mrs M was feeling so when Mrs M spotted this sign and was filled with dread...

...how did Opeie feel about the overwhelming stress brewing?

Seth had packed an 'Adventure kit' that me and Mrs M have been adding to over the last few weeks, i was going to photograph it for the post but i thought i would hang on and write a post just about that. About half of the way to our destination Seth found his first chance to Use his torch in a small cobbled hut and Opeie was obviously feeling the tiredness of being carried everywhere and stopped for a feed.

After more walking, carrying and almost getting lost with more sit down rests than you can imagine we finally reached our destination and Seth was one very happy little boy it was a shame that the same could not be said about one of the other members of our party who looked like she was going to cry. We were very VERY high up and the thought of it was causing Mrs M some serious discomfort.

The caves were very exciting and Seth said he felt like Indiana Jones. I didn't take any photos while i was in there as it was dark and i was holding on to the boys hands. Mrs M really didn't want to go in so she sat outside which i thought was really brave of her as we were so high up looking over the rest of the follies. Outside of the caves Seth broke out his Adventure kit again and did some dusting for fossils (with a paint brush) and pretend digging at rock with his fold out trowel. He also blew his emergency whistle to try and get help for mommy haha.

There was a sigh of relief that we had reached our destination but as they say 'what goes up must come down' and i think this thought was filling us all with dread, well all except Opeie. Seth had had enough of walking at this point so between me having him on my shoulders and Mrs M carrying him on her back we began our mission back to the car.

About 10 minutes into the journey back is started to rain and things got progressively worse from there. Mrs M's fear of heights and anxiety had now turned in to anger and frustration, we had not seen anyone else for quite some time (probably had more sense than us to be out, and because it had taken us 4 hours to do the hour walk, due to Myself and Mrs M carrying Seth and having to stop a lot) and it was starting to feel like we were in an episode of lost. We had no idea which was the quickest way back, then a quarter of the way into our journey back there was a glimmer of hope when Mrs M spotted a 4x4 parked up and two park workers, Mrs M rushed over (literally ran the fastest I've seen her run- and she's speedy !!) to find out which way we should head back and came back with a huge smile and a look of relief i wish i had captured on camera. The two chaps had offered to drive us back to the car.( Mrs M had a huge grin when she came back, saying she'd hitched us a ride) So we loaded the boys in and headed off (not before getting a picture of our heroes though) and just like the end of the Goonies we were saved.

As stressful as it was at the end, i had had a great day but when we lay in bed last night, right before she went to sleep Mrs M said "i hated every minute of that".