Absence...

**Please note this entry has lots of geeky game playing things. I do get to the Nate type stuff further down , I promise...

So far so fail in terms of keeping this Blog up to date. I have to admit that my absence has been due to playing Mass Effect 2 (or should I say re-playing, I did have it on the 360 when it was first released) and not having had my laptop out of its bag since I put it in there on Saturday afternoon.

Just so you are all up to speed, Mass Effect 2 is a freaking awesome RPG developed by Bioware. An action packed space romp of the highest gaming standards which I thoroughly recommend to any and all gamers dumb enough to have not ventured onto the Normandy yet. I am playing the standard male Shepard this time, he has the most insane eyes I have ever seen, they are all sorts of rapey. They do a sort of bizarre dramatic gopher (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kyi0WNg40) type glare almost all of the time and it is hilariously awful but keeps me amused, especially as Chris keeps on copying it.

I don't fancy Shephard. Not even a little bit. It is ALL about Garrus who is a bad ass Turian sniper who I am very much in game love with.

Yes, yes, yes I know - he is a freaky alien and I am all wrong in the mind but fret not, Bioware won't let my male Shepard have naughty times with him. My female Shepard I played when I used the 360 was fine though, she could have all the mixed species/lesbian type relationships she wanted. Male Shepard can only kiss the pretty human and alien girls. There are no insect faced beauties for him (well, we don't know what is under the mask of Tali)

I have probably lost half of my audience by this point, but I shall go on.

Now I won't bother explaining my reasons for loving Garrus, of course I don't find him attractive really, nor is it actual real love love (duh) he is just ace. I have a habit of falling in game love with game people. Not usually ones that are as weird...

Nathan Drake (normal and entirely awe-sexy in that Nathan Fillion/ Indiana Jones way of his)

Sephiroth - pure evil, 100% awesome.

Even Alistair from Dragon Age but only because he was the only attractive boy and he was such a prude I was hell bent on ruining him (I gather this is also why women like rubbish boys like Joe Jonas )

Oh and Spock. Not a game character I know but just to prove that Garrus is not an exclusive Alien crush.

Anyway, yes. I am a bit odd and have been gaming my brain to oblivion instead of doing, well, anything else this week when Nate is in bed. Mass Effect 2 is fantastic and I am excited about the next instalment, if it makes it out this year is another thing altogether.

Anyhoo, getting to Nate, he is going through a 'NO!' phase. He says 'NO!' to everything. EVERYTHING. Which is not helping in my quest to make him bloody well eat but it is definitely amusing. He won't consider what I am saying before getting all defiant, and watching his little face light up with amusement right after he does it can't achieve much beyond make me chuckle to myself at his hilarious little attitude. He is well aware that he is being cheeky, he is clearly trying to see what he can get away with and trying to push my buttons and set his boundaries but I just laugh at him, or imitate him, or tickle him. Although it can sometimes frustrate me, it is mostly brilliant. I like observing his personality develop, seeing him figure out his place in the toddler world and listening to him putting his foot down by shaking his head and flapping his arms in a dramatic fashion when I offer him a grape.

The Wall-e/Toy Story/Sackboy obsession also continues. He asks for all of these things to go on everyday. Considering he has never seen either of us playing LBP I am unsure where the latter really comes from beyond him seeing the box which I guess looks the same as the boxes the films he watches come from. He bloody loves Sackboy, he takes his big plush Sackboy everywhere and calls him 'boyboy'. he also has a little Irish and little Afro Sackboys who he must find the moment he gets up in the morning or so help me...

It is sweet, but I can guarantee that these three things have been the source, in one way or another, or most of his tiny tantrums. He is destined to be a movie geek and a gamer and I, as both of these things, don't have any issue with that, you know, as long as he becomes the next Prof Brian Cox while he does this or at the very least work at Pixar! I MEAN IT NATE! *overbearing mother*

Nate and I went to see Tangled at the cinema this week. We lasted thirty minutes. it was too loud and too dark and for some reason the other two people who were there kept going in and out and it was freaking him out. All of these things combined together to make him all freaked out and skittish and he decided in the end to shove him face into me and keep it there. I thought he was asleep, but no, after a few minutes of 'cuddles' I moved him back to a more comfortable spot and realised he was clinging to me and refusing to move his face from me and when I managed to pry him off he broke down and we had to go. The film started of very well and I am a bit gutted I did not get to see it all. I do love me a Disney flick and it seemed to have been brought band up to date (finally) with both the tone and the look, we shall see if I still think this when I see the film in its entirety. Nevertheless, Nate was fine within seconds of leaving and we went to Pizza Express for lunch with Chris (Nate ate nothing, possibly not helped by the chocolate he had at the cinema, I am a terrible mother, I tried to bribe him into calming down with chocolate before the clingy hugging commenced).

I will try taking him to the showings put on especially for little ones next time so it is not as dark or loud. Lesson learned.

Time for sleep.