A little while ago, we decided that The Sprite was ready for the next big test in his growth as a media consumer. He successfully graduated from Baby Einstein, to The Wiggles, to Sesame Street, to every Pixar DVD available. Now he was ready for the Big Screen. A semi-local movie theatre has $1 movies on Sunday mornings, so we figured we would test The Sprite's ability to sit through a feature length with little financial risk. The latest Pixar gem Ratatouille was screening, so this was a no brainer to get him into. And although this was least kid-friendly movie Pixar has made to date, G did very well, sitting still throughout the show. The story was more grown-up and the characters less cuddly than previous Pixar creations, but there was planty of slapstick to keep us all giggling. After the movie was over, The Sprite needed to burn off 2 hours of couped-up, coke-fueled energy. So we headed across the street to the park for a walk and some fun on the big slide at the playground.

On a chill but pleasent spring morning, our little Sprite finds many an amusement in the back garden wonderland of fallen leaves, puddles, dirt and all manner of things to get himself filthy dirty and soaking wet. Oh well, boys will be boys. Anyhow, it keeps him busy and occupied for a time. Even if it means we have to rake up the leaves again after the G-Express ploughed through them for the umpteenth time.

A rare occasion when the whole family is up on time and ready to go early on a weekday. Being up and ready early made me ponder how I could maximize my productive time, without neglecting sleep, and still getting out of the door quick enough to get me to work on time.Sadly, on this particular morning, I spent too long videoblogging to get myself ready and out of the door early enough.

The Sprite enjoys another 15 minutes of fame with his PlayDoh kit. Listen along as he spells out the rules for everyone to understand. He is very specific, he is a lad who knows what he wants.

Sometimes it's just fun to step back and let the camera roll and watch The Sprite go off on one of his tangents. In this case, he seems to want to hide. It's hard to tell if he was expecting us all to hide together, or if he wanted me to just get lost and take the camera out of his face. Obviously we did neither. But the little lad did make a pretty good impression of a seal whilst climbiing and rolling over the furniture. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

It was way back in the pleasant days of October that we held the auspicious celebration to mark the third birthday of our little Sprite. He jumped. He sprang. He danced and spun. But ultimately, he ate cake and opened a Royal Arseload of colorful wrapped goodies. Note: It is only now I am getting to edit and upload these clips. But I thought as most of my family never even saw this it still worthwhile putting it up here. It is 20mins long so save for when you have some time to kill and glass of Petite Syrah pleading to be drank.

It was a balmy night in western Arizona. The family headed out to the Mohave Valley Raceway near Bullhead City for a night of dirt track racing. Other than some speedway motorcycle racing back in England, I have never witnessed dirt track racing. My motor sports experiences have been purely tarmac-based. Until this night. The night was a series of heats and a final of lower class vehicles, and the showcase class Modifieds. If I remember correctly, my father-in-law was telling me these monsters run on alchohol, which makes them the bad-ass mo-fo's of the paddock. Watching these loud and ugly Mad Max machines round the 1/3 mile oval almost entirely sideways was a sight to behold. Amazing control, driving on the ragged edge. And did I mention they were loud. Music: Gasoline by Audioslave, I Am The Highway by Audioslave http://www.audioslave.com/

It was to my great joy, upon returning home from work some weeks ago, The Sprite had not only asked for some computer time, he had managed to power the iBook up, find his Nemo game in the Dock and start playing. Brought a tear to my eye, made me so proud. Unfortunately the radiation or something got to him after a while and caused a freak out of Sean Penn proportions.

aving been couped up most of the day in the car, or dragged around hot tourist traps, The Sprite was finally alowed to stretch and show his funky b-boy style. Once he got going there was no stopping him, to the amazement of all around, to all the local passerby who witnessed a crazed toddler spazzing out on the sidewalk.