Chutes and Ladders

If you know us at all you know we love games.

And we have a small boy who also loves games.

Nature or nurture you ask?

We'll never know.



So all five of us sat down one day to play a game on his level.

Or so we thought.



A necessary lesson in spinning and we began.



Or we began after a thorough purusing of the rules by my G.M. (Game Monitor).

I'm gonna get him a tee-shirt that says that.



And I'll get one for this G.M. in training, also.



Here's me.

Aren't I youthful and bubbly?

And pink is such a good color on me.



This is my Asian mother and the African Poppi/H team piece. We're a very international family.

And we are sure excited to be climbing ladders and sliding down chutes!



This is my husband. Curly hair. Very appropriate. And he seems much 'cooler' about the game than the other players, don't you think?



Now this game has a clever new componenent that wasn't there in the version I played.

See that girlie carrying a tall stack of dishes?

Well, she should have known better.



Cause she dropped them all and now she's sad. Boo. Looks like she lost spaces and went backwards in the game.



And this clever girl ate her vegetables and now she's growing tall! Yay for her! She gets to gain spaces cause she is such a good girl.



Another example is this boy who kindly took out the trash. And now he gets to enjoy an ice cream sundae as big as his head, naturally.

Wait. What are we teaching our children?!

Oh well.



My boy spent every turn spinning the spinner and then putting his piece on this very spot.



Every time.



Here he goes...



Yup. Back again.



Uh huh.

What do you suppose it was about that spot?

Apparently it was the only desirable spot on the whole board.

And no, I don't think he really grasped the concept of the game. In case you were wondering.



After a really loooooooong time



The game ended.

Glory Hallelujah.

It was fun, but MAN that game goes on a long time. Have you played it lately?

Monopoly

My men love games.

They've recently been playing Sorry. And this evening they suddenly dragged out Monopoly.

Now this seems a bit early to me. I mean... where are the Chutes and Ladders? Candy Land? Mousetrap?

Monopoly. Really? The kid isn't three yet! I say let him live in game innocence a bit longer.

Unfortunately, these are the opinions of only half of the parenting committee. And the other half of the parenting committee thought it was time.



Oh my.

I won't go into my thoughts about playing Monopoly with my husband. I mean I won't actually SAY my thoughts. But I think you might just happen to get a feel for them. If you really use your intuition and read between the lines you might be able to figure it out.

All I will say is that if my son wants to go there... more power to him. Literally. Maybe the only one who will be able to rise above his father's Monopoly ways is the very boy he will teach the game to.

At least that is what I'm hoping.

So...



It started with a dice rolling lesson. "Hold them like this. Now tip 'em over. Be gentle. Keep 'em on the table. Don't mess up the pieces."

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.



My boy is a quick learner.



The game was all well and good. Counting spaces. Buying properties. Paying money.



Until this happened. Can you see the scheming in his eyes? I tell you I've seen that look before...

My husband played on my sweet, dear, innocent boy's love of 'ta-wains' and tempted him with two railroads in his possession. The trade could have been for Boardwalk and Park Place and my boy would have handed them over with his chubby little toddler hands and eagerly received the two railroads.

"You wanna give me wai-woads?"

He thought his Daddy was giving him the world...

There was no stopping them.



My boy took the bait and this trading injustice took place.



H was thrilled with his new cards. He did what any proud deed holder of four railroads would do.



He surveyed them. Counted them. Looked 'em over for authenticity...



... and then tucked them in the waist of his Wall-E undies, naturally.



And the rest of his properties (you know... the valuable ones) lay forgotten on the coffee table.

The problem with this trade - as you could have guessed - is that it gave Mikey a monopoly on light blue.



And Mikey having a monopoly on anything is never good.

Never.

Ever.

Ever.

Back in the day, when I actually would play this game with my husband, it was at this point I should have learned just to cover my eyes, plug my ears, mutter something about the popcorn burning, nudge all my money across the table with my elbow and make a run for it. I might have lost Marvin's Garden's and a bit of dignity, but I could have at least salvaged my marriage.

He he.

You know I'm kidding. At least sorta. But it's funny, right? I mean I'm laughing...

Aaaaaanyway...



I knew what it was coming.

Before H's 'ta-wain' deeds had even a chance to soak up sweat from inside his underwear, Mikey has already broken ground and had built three hotels on his new properties. I could even hear the neighbors complaining about the noise and how their view of the Atlantic was blocked. No one was happy about this. No one.

The game continued for about 2.5 more rounds when my boy ran out of money. Mikey gallantly offered to take Park Place off his hands to cover the ten dollar debt. My son refused. At that my point my heart swelled with pride for the way H stood up to that meanie tycoon Daddy.

"You wanna quit and call it a tie?" Mikey asked him.

"Yeah." my boy replied.

"But you know I really won, but we'll just call it a tie, right?"

Mikey wanted a little acknowledgment from someone that he had actually won the game. But he never got it cause my boy was already climbing over the back of the couch and you know all he was getting from me were two rolling eyeballs...

Game over.



Someday this sweet boy will learn of the injustice done to him.

Someday, he'll fight back.

I hope I'm there to see it.

He's One of Us

It was one of those afternoons. When I had things to do and H wanted to do them ALL right alongside me. So, when we went downstairs to do laundry and he didn't come back up with me... I asked no questions. Can you blame me really? He was playing alone! (and, I did know that there was nothing that could harm him down there!)

A little while later, the silence was killing me (and giving me LIFE all at the same time) and I decided I should investigate.

This is what I found.





Yes folks. My son is certainly is one of us. He's totally 'into' games as much as his Mommy and Daddy!

And, I'll have you know... I took this picture and then made no effort to stop his playing. Yes, I had a big mess to clean up later... but I think it was totally worth it! Not only for my peace and quiet but also so he could begin to formulate his Risk strategy.

:)

Emirates - The Airline

It's official. We are coming home to deliver the baby. And it just so happened that the cheapest tickets are on one of the nicest airlines ever!! Emirates is based out of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf. We've flown with them before and it was like a dream...

Anyway, once the tickets were booked, Mike started doing some research on the airline. Well, mostly on the airline's award winning entertainment system. (Number one in the world in 2006). Each seat has it's own screen with billions of channels (seems like), and even video games and trivia vs. the other passengers!

So, he quickly plopped on the bed, face to my expanding tummy, and proceeded to tell our son all about the fun he'll have on the plane. He paused, and then said "Well, you won't have so much fun on the flight on the way there, cause you'll still be hanging out in the belly... but on the way back you and I can stay up all night watching movies and playing video games..."

Can't wait to see my husband playing video games with our 4 week old son on a 14 hour trans-continental flight...

he he

My Kind of Game

Mike likes games. All kinds of games. Lately he's been spending some free time seeing what kind of free 'flash' games he can play on the internet. Last night he decided to find a game that I would like to play. For awhile we sold lemonade at a 'lemonade stand' and then we came across one that is JUST my kind of game.

The goal is to cut a certain amount of cookies out of a sheet of cookie dough! The head-baker-man tells you on each level how many you must cut, and how many times you are allowed to re-roll the dough.

I hate to admit that we took turns cutting virtual cookies out of virtual cookie dough for probably an hour. But I did pretty well and we had a really good time! I have about 20 years of baking experience to thank for my high score... I had a few things to teach Michael about proper cutter rotation and maximum dough usage. And some people say that 'home-economics' is of no value...
he he

That reminds me... I wanted to make some cookies today! I should go thaw out that dough!

If you're not too ashamed, you can go to this site to try the game out for yourself. No one will have to know...
http://www.addictinggames.com/cookiecuttertwisted.html

warning: it's slightly addictive (and makes you crave cookies too!)