"Know your limitations & then defy them"

Over the last few weeks, since Seth has been back at school there has been a lot more chats about what Seth 'can't do'.  Now that may seem blunt, but that's not me saying that, it is what Seth says when he is discussing what's been going on at school. 

It seems that many times throughout the week the other children at school are making comments that are knocking Seth's confidence and teachers are unknowingly doing the same treating Seth slightly different than the other children. Seth is different than everyone else but that's the broad 'everyone else' and not the collective. What two people are the same? But getting this across to Seth can be difficult at times. Because of Seth's muscle condition i think it has become second nature to the teachers to try and make things easier for Seth, and the other children? Well they are just kids and will always pick out differences in other children no matter what.

Although Seth has these moments of self doubt, he is mostly a very confident child and we are so proud of how he deals with everything that goes on in his life. When he has these 'i can't do that' moments we think it is important to remind Seth of what he can do. We do this every day by embracing his intellectual and creative side with Science, Craft, building and reading etc but sometimes we really need to help him get his confidence back about his physical ability.

This weekend as something a little different we organised a family gym session with Gareth at Purity health and fitness. We thought that aside from building his confidence we could help Seth to realise just how strong he actually is plus we knew that Opeie would really be in his element playing fitness games and having an excuse to put on a pair of boxing gloves. 

The studio was packed full of fun equipment and I could see the boys faces light up as soon as we walked in. The boys didn't waste any time, taking full advantage of the time that we had there.
 
Because of Seth's muscles he can be quite uneasy on his feet at times, but thanks to Gareth with some short balancing games Seth's confidence was soon slowly creeping back. He still needed help to sturdy himself but he could see that we were also having to concentrate to stay balanced.

 Seth was eager to show of his manly strength with a bit of weight lifting and was confident lifting some of the smaller weights. Gareth explained the importance of not pushing yourself to much and taking care of your body to avoid injury, Gareth then showed Seth some of the larger weights, one was the same weight as a canon ball, and Seth said when he's older he will do these, bless him!

Opeie was just happy playing with balls. You cant beat the good old fashioned exercise equipment.

There was some agility training and games to test the boys hand eye co-ordination which they both had a lot of fun taking part with. It was good to see them both having fun in that kind of environment, they were both very confident talking to Gareth and were taking in everything that he said.

What i loved was there was no 'i can't do that' during our session, each game/activity started with Gareth explaining a technique, positions and benefits from the exercise and Seth and Opeie showing us what they could do. It was a great confidence boost for Seth. Mrs M being the pro that she is has trained with Gareth many times,  so she showed us how to do many of the exercises and Seth couldn't wait to give each activity a try.

And then it was time for a game Gareth called 'lets see how strong Daddy is'. The boys excitedly filled the bars up with weights to test me, I think they were impressed by my butchness and Mrs M swooned in the corner as I did my bit (i wish) haha.

We explained to Gareth that there are no need for weights and we showed him how we do bench presses at home.

 As i said there was no shortage of equipment and definitely no shortage of motivation from Seth, he took on every activity like a pro and was genuinely excited about getting involved.

 And then it was time to do the thing the boys had been itching to do since entering the studio. It gave us the chance to take our own gloves, Opeie doesn't have any boxing gloves at the moment so he decided to take his incredible Hulk gloves which was really cute. It was boxing time and by this point in the session Seth's confidence about his physical abilities was through the roof and it was great to watch.

Seth was feeling pumped by this point and asked if he could try the treadmill, we had one at home till a few months back and Seth loved using it even if it was for only short times. Walking is very difficult for Seth but is something he desperately wants to feel more comfortable doing and something he does try to push. A few minutes on the treadmill and Seth was feeling really good about what he had achieved.

 Opeie? well he was still happy kicking and throwing various shaped balls around the studio.

The session turned out to be one of the best things we have done as a family and was something that Seth really needed. I don't expect that it is going to make things easier in Seth's life but I hope that these confidence boosts make him realise just how strong he really is.

Thank you Gareth the Session really helped Seth appreciate a little more what he is capable of physically.

To find out more about personal training or to talk to professionals about activities suitable for you or your families needs contact the trainers at www.purityhealthandfitness.co.uk

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."

It was freezing this morning and I really didn't feel like going out. I didn't feel like doing much house work either so we got out a big stack of colourful paper, cardboard, glue, pens, scissors and Duck tape. It was time to let our creative juices run wild. The theme for Opeie's dance class next week is 'snow' and Opeie had made it quite clear exactly what he wanted to take.

Opeie loves the old frosty the snowman cartoon which auntie Lotty had bought him at Christmas and he wanted to make a mask to show off at his class. I try and leave Opeie to his creating these days unless he asks for my help as he is very independent and if you try to get to involved your greeted with "I CAN DO IT!", so I sat next to him and made a mask of my own. I'm a touch fuzzier on the face so I decided to be the abominable snowman (based on the boys Lego minifigure because it's simple yet very cute).

Opeie lovingly hacked away at his paper and covered everything in glue but he knew exactly what he was trying to do. I decided to make mine out of paper cardboard and lots of Duck tape (it's a must for any craft box as it's so strong and sticky).

It wasn't a long craft session, we were pretty much finished within 45 minutes but it kept the little one entertained and the outcome was fun. Opeie was a little upset when he realised he wasn't going to the class after we'd finished the masks but he was very excited to show mommy what we had been up to.

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"

I'm not the sort person that makes New Years resolutions. You either want to change things about yourself or you don't, being the start of the year doesn't give these things any more chance of happening. I have however told myself that this year I'm going to embrace my creative side a bit more. I'm always thinking of things I want to do and I've started a couple of things that i need to get stuck in to, but writing the blog takes up a lot of my time in the evenings. I'm going to start making more time for it though.

The week before Christmas I started hitting the charity shops and used book shops looking for and loading up on all the Dr. Seuss books I could find for an idea I had for a long drawn out craft session that I'm yet to start. Everywhere we have been recently I've made sure to go into every local charity shop I can find. It's been about three weeks and I've not done to bad, plenty of books for me to destroy in the name of art and even a couple I didn't own for our own personal collection. I've managed to find all these during my outings.

Stay tuned! If it comes out even half as good as I'm expecting it will make for an interesting piece and fun blog post.

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."

Yesterday was one of the rare days where me and Opeie didn't need to be anywhere to pick the troops up in the afternoon. Seth was off to his friend Williams for tea and Mrs M had a business meeting so we took full advantage and drove to Wolverhampton. I fancied pottering around some new charity shops and Opeie wanted to go to the art gallery so we wrapped up warm and ventured out.

We mooched through the charity shops when we got there and I found a few books I'm going to use for a craft idea we're going to be starting soon, then we made our way towards the gallery. We went a few months back to see the Ron Mueck exhibition and I was hoping there was something interesting on. Opeie made a bee line for his favourite spot as soon as we got there and sat down ready to create.

Opeie loves the 'build your own magnetic sculpture' and anything that you can look through or listen to. He's very enthusiastic and wants to give everything a try and he loves investigating.

The Ron Mueck exhibition had been replaced by a photography exhibition which wasn't really my thing but it was great seeing all the old fashioned cameras and old photos. Opeie started blowing a raspberry everytime I got the camera out which was funny.

Opeie was soon off and eager to look for some more headphones.

Once he had managed to listen to every hearing device he could find he wanted to dress up. Even though the boys have tried on the clothes many many times they still get as excited (I'd love to be in their shoes for the day)

We had planned to have lunch at the cafe there but the staff in there were so rude that we decided to leave. Sadly when you mention gluton, dairy free in some places they seem to panic. The woman in the cafe offered us a plain potato? And then bluntly said 'we can't help you'. So we headed over to Costa Coffee for a drink, Mrs M had filled my bag up with things for Opeie so he was sorted. We sat upstairs in the coffee shop and had an hour of people watching while we read the books we had bought.

I love just hanging out with Opeie, he is the best company and  really makes me laugh. After a while he started to look tired so we made our way back to the car and set off for home. A lovely few hours spent with one of my three favourite people.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Earlier in the year we had a great weekend away with another blogging family who had chosen us to go along with them as they had become Centre Parcs bloggers. It was an amazing weekend and because of it we have become great friends with the Beesley family. To read about our weekend Click Here. A week ago The Beesley Buzz published a post about meeting us and i was genuinely touched by the kind words written. A lot of time and effort had obviously gone in to the writing of it and it was so nice to hear that the weekend away meant as much to them as it did to us.

The post was also titled with one of my favourite quotes from the good Doctor. 
Click below to read their lovely post.

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” ― Dr. Seuss

 

Thank you Rebecca for your very sweet words, we're really looking forward to seeing you all very soon xx

"Jerry Jordan's Jelly Jar and Jam begin that way"

Our friend Lea recently recommended a children's music class in our area called Clatterbugs which we decided to give a try today. I had told Opeie about it but he didn't seem to fussed at the idea. I feel quite bad because I've not taken Opeie to many children's classes / toddler groups, mainly because we have so much fun at home and he's always learning when we play and create. It's a little selfish I know but I've been keeping my best friend all to myself. I let Lea know we were coming an hour or so before the class and she messaged back saying today's theme is the letter 'J'. After the very brief mini panic at what we could take in I got thinking. My initial thought was making Jerry Jordan's jelly jar from one of Opeie's favourite books the Dr. Seuss ABC.

But as I drove home from dropping Mrs M and Seth off, Opeie said 'I want a fight' (he loves a good wrestle) an then I knew what we were going to do to entertain us before the class and prepare Opeie for the letter 'J'.

While we had been on the way to Mrs M's work Opeie had asked if he could watch despicable me when we got home so when we got back I sorted out the craft things we needed for our little activity and put the film on in The background. It couldn't have been a better film choice, as soon as he saw the little girls go to their dance class he was itching to get out the door, but first we needed to create.

All we needed was a cardboard tube, a humous pot and most importantly a roll of red and a roll of white Duck tape.

We wrapped the tube in red and white duck tape so it looked like a candy cane 

And then cut a hole in the humous pot to push the candy cane roll through securing it as I did. We then wrapped the humous pot in the white duck tape and voila, our quick craft session was complete. I remembered there was an mini plastic egg type container in the bathroom bin from some hair dye rubber gloves, so we attached that to the end to make it look tidyer. With the help of Seth's wooden shield we had a very happy Jausting knight.

The start of the class was a little awkward because Opeie was very clingy and didn't want to get involved, it made me realise just how much I need to get him mingling. Thanks to one of the nice moms handing him a bee puppet he started to relax and by the time the musical instruments came out Opeie was marching around happy banging a drum with maracas. We didn't know many of the songs so quietly joined in where we could but when we heard the okey cokey we knew it was our time to shine.

By the end of the class which was lots of fun and very welcoming Opeie was desperate for more. It can sometimes be a little daunting coming to these sort of things as a stay at home dad and usually the only male, but there was what I can only describe as a super grandad taking part which put me at ease. After the class we had a chat with Julie the class leader to arrange coming again and to let her know what a great time we had had. She was a bubbly character who was very friendy and Opeie was comfortable chatting to her.

Thanks Clatterbugs and thanks Lea for the recommendation. Next weeks theme is 'Snow' so we better get our thinking caps on.