There is a mess in this house, long and winding — a trail of places left, those to go, and the hopes and tangents along the way. To leave it is lazy and layered in dust and frustration. To clean it is to deny that the sun ever thought to shine.

All things are out of order — lost crowns are newfound treasure, and open-faced books are the windows that we all fall into. Every out of place thing is but a bookmark where words did run across the paths of adventure. Every small muddy footprint is but a footnote to home and history. So many mountains. So many molehills.

Brooms are the batons of a warm and happy brass band. Their days are spent in sweeping parades and the spreading of springtime. They spend their nights in kitchen closets telling tales of clouds and flying to mops, buckets, and all who would listen. The quiet is filled with longings always longer and the constant wonder of which straw will be the last.

The day rolls slowly over shade and shadows, and the house tells time across cobblestones and wildflowers. The stars show up better late than never.

A rare spot of uncluttered floor lends itself to the wild dance of many things, and songs grown within the moment. Our little home is warmed by little boys and their hearts are full of rumpus.

There is a mess in this house, and it will linger through the morrow.

_____________________________________

In memory of Maurice Sendak, 1928 – 2012

Illustration from In Grandpa’s House

LEGO was kind enough to send us their LEGO Master Builder Academy Level One set, created by actual Master Builders! Master Builders are the people that create all of those awesome LEGO displays you see in LEGO stores, Downtown Disney, LEGOLAND, and so forth and so on.

I could tell you all about the fun we had building the LEGO set, but this video does a better job:

If you have a budding Master Builder then check out the Master Builder Series. It’s good LEGO fun.

Thank you, LEGO!

LEGO sent us the Master Builder Academy set for purpose of this review. Obviously the opinions are our own.

The Avengers opens this week, and it is awesome. You may have seen the giveaway I’m running at the Disney Blog for some cool Avengers swag, but if you haven’t, go enter, I’ll wait.

I’ve also got something very special to give away here, and it too involves The Avengers. And Stan Lee. It’s a great power, great responsibility sort of thing, but with less spiders.

I’ve got two(2) weekend festival passes to the 2012 Catalina Film Festival, which includes a presentation by, and the honoring of, Mr. Stan Lee. Also, a special screening of Marvel’s The Avengers.

The catch? The winner needs to be in Southern California because travel to Catalina Island and other accommodations are not included in the prize.

Still, seeing Stan Lee and The Avengers is pretty cool, and Catalina Island is a great getaway. I’ve seen worse giveaways.

How to enter: If you are in SoCal and able to attend the Catalina Film Festival this coming weekend (May 4-6) then leave a comment below stating which Avenger is your favorite and why. It’s that easy!

Comments will close at 11:59 p.m. PST on Wednesday, May 2. Winner will be picked at random and contacted via email. Due to the sensitive timing of this giveaway winner must respond ASAP. If I do not hear back within 3 (three hours) I will contact another winner. I know, it’s not a lot of time, but hey, it’s my giveaway.

Excelsior!

_______________

See the video of Mark Ruffalo on his inspiration for the Hulk!

Read my review of The Avengers at DadCentric!

Photo: Disney/Marvel

The day has long grown thin, and patches of once blue sky have been pricked with golden pins to let the last of the faraway light shine in. They glow in countless wishes and the teetering twinkle of far-off diamonds rubbed dull from the sound of children whispering what it is that they shouldn’t tell. Who am I to say what might come true? I know nothing of dreams in the dark, but I can see the shade being found by fingers of the night, and tag, that is it. We are all going in, no matter how they cry.

Routine is based loosely upon the lacking of it.

A tender tooth is brushed soft with promise, its money well spent. Faces are washed, pajamas put on, and streams are crossed despite the warnings. Their beds are doorways and they want them left open. They will let sleep knock until it knocks them over. I will kiss them goodnight and once more when they don’t even know it and their room breathes light like a mason jar heavy with fireflies.

I fill the hours between their eyes closing and mine wide open with deadlines and other shapes more alive and slightly more forgiving. We all fight to stay awake and away, but my heart isn’t in it. It is in words and slow sips that linger on my tongue like the warmth of a day that seems days ago.

If there is a bottom to the bottle I don’t want to find it.

**********

Image from Pixar’s Oscar-nominated short La Luna and the wonderful imagination of Enrico Caserosa

Insert "down the rabbit hole" reference here. Look smart.

Hello, Grantland readers! Thanks for stopping by. You found me running a clip show. How embarrassing for all of us. For those of you that aren’t readers of Grantland, you should be, especially since they used my video of Darth Vader throwing out the first pitch at last Friday’s Dodger game.

• You may recall a long time ago (see, last post) when I talked about our postponement of Easter. It happened. We thanked the rabbits accordingly. Or we may have thanked a snake. I don’t know. Someone dropped some jelly beans and I wasn’t sticking my hand in the hole to get them back, although, to be clear, I’m a firm believer in the non-hurting qualities of dirt.
• I attended the world premiere of The Avengers, and my thoughts on the movie are under embargo until May, but seeing as half the internet has ignored that nugget I’ll give you this much: The Avengers movie is freaking fantastic. Also, Sam Jackson gave me the stink eye:

• Speaking of Disney, I took a trip to Pixar Animation Studios, and it was exactly as amazing as I thought it would be. I thought it would be really amazing. I shot arrows!
• In other news, I was put on the spot by my 8-year-old when he brought up the subject of sex. I handled it okay, but visit DadCentric and let me know what you think!
• Last, but not least, I have a new post up at Babble’s Dadding, and your pageviews could send a kid to camp. Not really. However, I would greatly appreciate any traffic you could send my way. It’s cute pictures of kids, people, what’s not to click?

Tune in later this week as I’ve got some spring cleaning to do, and that means giveaways for all the readers (but mostly the winners)!

The eggs are in the icebox. They are cold and lacking color. The baskets are packed with rubbish and slowly overflowing. There are no candies, big or small, nor gifts of season’s folly. There are no heads in little beds and no bent to catch the morning. I have nothing to hide, and there is no one to hide it from.

If the boys were home the house would be loud and full of bustle, but they are not and only the sound of jazz makes its way up along the stairs. Only echoes bounce back down them.

I stood in the kitchen with coffee on my tongue and banana bread in my stomach. The paper would be in the drive and there was plenty of work to be done, but motivation and Sundays are not made to mix, so I let them dance their separate sways, two-steps and soft-shoes, breakfast with a show. I grew full on fruit and lonely, and wound up writing here.

The sunlight stirred a fly to buzzing. It has grown louder ever since.

I’ll be interviewing these guys (the cast of Disney/Marvel’s The Avengers, not the actual LEGO figures) in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Look here for a first look at the new line of Avengers LEGO bricks!

Also, the Avengers are on Twitter and Facebook for all your superhero social media needs.

You started the music. You lit the lights. Some of you even dressed up right (I’m not judging). And now you want Muppets. I get it.

You came to the right place.

I’m giving away two (2) copies of The Muppets, the hit movie from Disney, in a fancy combo pack (the Wocka Wocka Value Pack) that has DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital copies, as well as the very awesome (not counting Jefferson Starship) soundtrack. All you have to do is enter (more on that below).

Disney sent me a copy for review, which became the centerpiece of our Friday Family Movie Night. The boys had seen the film, and loved it, so they were very excited to watch the Blu-ray. They really loved the special features (listed below) and we spent a very long time watching all of them.

The combo pack has a number of bonus features (depending on which copy you are using, Blu-ray has the most), including:

Some of you may know that I really did meet the Muppets (below, I’m the one on the left), and yes, it was as cool as you think it is.

Here’s how you enter the contest: Leave a comment below stating which Muppet you would most like to meet and why (Note, this contest in no way suggests that such a meeting will ever occur, in fact, it probably won’t. Honea Express, crushing dreams since 2005!). Make sure to provide your email address in the box provided (NOT THE COMMENT BOX). Comments will close on Thursday, March 29, at 11:59 p.m. PST. I will draw two (2) winners at random from the comments left below. I will then email said winners instructing them to claim their prize (and asking for mailing addresses – no P.O. boxes). Winners will have 24 hours to respond to the email or their prize will become forfeit and another winner will be drawn. Open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. The review combo pack described above and both of the prizes mentioned in this contest are courtesy of Disney, they’re cool like that.

Wocka, wocka!

CLOSED: Congrats to Cody & Erica. The movie is in the mail (or other delivery service)!

The boys are home sick today. One is legit. One is an opportunist. The sick one is actually feeling much better (UPDATED: Now the fever has turned into a bunch of snot and a hacking cough, which is awesome), but the school won’t allow him to return until he goes 24 hours without a fever (Pringle lovers excluded). The opportunist played the right card at the right time, and seeing as the dealer was fighting his own fits of fever, he took the hand. I’m the dealer in this scenario (see, fever-induced ramblings). Stay off drugs, kids.

Basically, we’re going into extended weekend mode, indoor version. Put Flood on repeat. Release the Legos.

An aside — This literally just happened as the song Istanbul was ending:

Z: If they leave why can’t they go back?

A: Because Istanbul changed its name.

Z: To what?

A: I don’t know. New York maybe.

Stay in school, kids!

When I was at the Dad 2.0 Summit in Austin (my recap, DadCentric recap, and the one where I was quoted) I had the rare opportunity to meet a LEGO Master Builder named Chris, a second-generation Master Builder no less (there are only seven people holding that rank). He told me about his passion for building with Legos when he was a kid and, I’m totally paraphrasing here, how his dad was so supportive that he went out and became a Master Builder himself (Chris followed when he was older). That is so much more refreshing than the stereotypical parent response about being practical and the confines of reality. It was downright inspiring.

He told me about a new Lego website called Build Together which has all kinds of activities for parents and children to do together. And then we did them. Apparently Chris has Jedi-like powers.

Our favorite part of BuildTogether.com is that it gives instructions on additional items that can be built from existing sets. That is, if you own a LEGO set that builds A, they give you instructions on how that same set can also build B. My only suggestion to LEGO is that they list items by set required than additional items created as we kept clicking on things that looked cool only to realize that we didn’t have the set needed. If we could click on the sets we know we have and then see the additional items that would save a lot of apologies and heavy sighs.

I do like that LEGO is featuring fathers in a non-doofus role, which is something of a hot topic these days, rightfully so. However, I feel that I must go on record as saying that my wife does a lot more of the actual LEGO building than I do. That is, she’s more of an analytical type and helps the boys with items straight from the box. I’m more of a “hey, let’s make random stuff out of whatever bricks happen to be in front of me” kind of guy. It takes all kinds.

And we’re the kind that build together. Which is a good place to stop writing and get back to the fun.

Disclosure: Would you believe this post is not paid for or sponsored by LEGO? Sure, I told them I would write about BuildTogether.com, and we do have some very awesome things planned together, but this post was all me — and the kids. True story.

There are waking hours on the couch and the meeting of needs. Start the movie. Stir the soup. More fluids. Thermometers. Medicine. Tissue. Blankets. The movie is over. Start the movie. There are other things that I must do, and they are all ignored in equal fashion.

He escapes through sleep to sweet relief. This is when I should attend to matters that should be done, but I do not. I clean the room. I play soft music. I dump the tissues and restock accordingly. I hit reset and then I lean against the doorway and watch him breathe.

They say don’t get too close. They say that germs are best kept at bay. But I am a parent. I cannot sit on the dock armed with life preservers and gentle whistles. I wade chest-deep and let him float against me. His burn becomes my burn and I try to take it all. I want nothing more than to soak it all in and open my arms to a bay gone dry. I want to watch him run across rocks and starfish and so many sponges, free of fever and free of pain. The only sounds should be waves retreating and the lingerings of health and laughter.

But there is a difference between giving and sharing, and fevers read the fine print. I fear we will float out to sea upon a brown pleather raft, a foolish father and his somber son, with rosy red brushstrokes like stains on our faces.

The music is soft and the dance in the distance.