Five Schocks ~ Occasional updates and thoughts: December 2009

Amazing feats of a one-year-old

If you've ever been around our kids, you know that they excel in the area of physical development. They may lack in speech and other areas early in life, but that is because they are putting all of their energy and brain cells into trying to overcome gravity and pushing their little bodies to the limits. Here is a fine example. Megan, climbing up the bunk bed ladder at less than a year of age. She was quite proud of herself and her amazing feat. For the record, she walked at 9 months, climbed a slide all the way up at 10 months, and basically never sits for more than one second at a time. Diaper changes are like wrestling an octopus.

She does have a black eye in this picture... the day before this was taken she was toddling along and fell head first into a drawer knob. Poor thing! And she LOVES necklaces as you can see in the picture. She is always finding them around the house and putting them on.

Do "Wii" have a problem??

Our boy is obsessed with the Wii. There. Now it is out in the open. He would play Wii all day long if we let him. The first thing he asks for in the morning is the Wii. The last thing he says before nap is, "I play Wii after nap?" When he isn't "playing" the Wii, he is doing one of the following things:

Asking to play it (actually it is more like whining to play it)
Carrying around a Wiimote cover/glove everywhere he goes
Studying a Wii game manual intently.
Searching for pictures of Wiis and Wii games in the Sunday paper ads and saying "Look mama - Wii!" (always followed by #1 above)
Watching Papa and Mr. Johnson play the Wii.
Trying to convince us to let him play the Wii by picking up toys.
Referring to his sister as "player 1" or "player 2" while playing
Sleeping or eating

The thing is, he is actually pretty good. In fact, he can beat some adults at golf, sword fighting and bowling (they will remain nameless to protect their pride). His favorite games are bowling, bicycling in resort sports, and most recently Wii Fit plus. Awhile ago I bought the kids a Jumpstart game for the Wii that is made just for preschoolers. He refuses to play it. *sigh* I guess his tastes are just more mature! After seeing the picture above, you may be wondering if Megan is a Wii-lover as well. The picture is deceiving. She appears to be in a stance to bowl or something amazing. Rest assured, at this point she just enjoys chewing on the nun-chuck controller knob. (And throwing them into the toilet)

Halloween 2009!

The kids were very excited for Halloween this year! Well, Grace was. Nathaniel wasn't so sure about the costume part of it, but I found some Superman pjs that met with his approval. Auntie April and Uncle Jeff were up visiting for the weekend and so we had an expert face painter on hand. Thanks Auntie April!! As you can see, Grace was a cute white bunny, Nathaniel was Superman, and Megan was a ladybug. We first went to the Harvest festival at Lake City Church. They had a ton of carnival games, a bouncy house, cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, pictures, and more. Grandma Dodge was also visiting that weekend, so she, April and I took Grace and Nathaniel to the carnival. John and Jeff stayed home with Megan. After we got home we took the three kids to a few neighbors for trick or treating. They got the hang of it really quick. Megan even scored some candy which I grudgingly consumed on her behalf : )