Checkers

Rion likes to play games on the Internet, but when he finds a new game he sometimes needs help reading the instructions. Usually he just figures it out on his own, but sometimes he calls me for help. A few days ago he came across a checkers game and he didn't understand it so I helped him out. It was a lot of fun so I kept playing it. The next day I was checking email and since he wasn't bugging me to get off the computer I decided to play a little checkers as well. Then Rion wanted on the computer and got mad when I wouldn't stop playing. "I'm not showing you anything ever again," he told me as he stomped off.

Here's the link:
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/fosters/bigshotcheckers/index.html

It's not like regular checkers, there's a little twist to it. I like to play the hardest level and get beat all the time.

Let's pretend

Fred has Torii hooked on video games. It's actually amazing how well Torii does on the Playstation. But the kid has gotten addicted to it. He plays one game where he fights aliens. He knows how to get his player to missions, add people to his team, switch weapons, and all kinds of other things. When he's not actually playing he likes to pretend he is in the game.
"Who do you want to be in my game mommy," he asks.
"I'll be Karen," I say. I only know two of the people in the game and Karen is one.
"No," Torii whines, "I'm playing story mode. Karen is in character mode."
I have no idea what he is talking about. "Then you pick for me," I say. He picks a character for me and now we are pretending we are in his video game.
"You have to kill the monster," he says. So I swing my pretend sword and tell him I got it.
"No. You have a gun." So I aim my gun and unload a couple of rounds on the monster.
"That was an Ageeta," Torii informs me. Once again I am lost.
Torii continues to tell me about his game and what we're pretending to do, but I do everything wrong as I have no idea what he is talking about. What ever happened to Matchbox cars and Thomas the train?

A good read

Last weekend I went to some rummage sales, which I really love to do. I found some clothes for the kids and a good book. I picked up "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I had read his book "Into Thin Air" which was really good so I had to pick this one up as well. I had no intentions of starting a book right now, I just don't have the time, but I started to read the first couple of pages and now I can't put it down. It is so good. I'm already about half way through, but at the expense of my family and chores. I should have been catching up on chores on Sunday, but could not put the book down. The boys got to play video games and watch TV just so I could finish one more chapter. Which of course became one more chapter. And then one more chapter. I love to read, but when I've got a really good book, I don't want to do anything else but continue reading. Maybe it's not so bad. You're suppose to read in front of your children so maybe they will also pick up on the love of reading. That's what I keep telling myself. "Torii, mommy can't play right now because I want to show you how fun reading is." He's not buying it.

Summer rules

The weather was beautiful this weekend. We spent much of yesterday outside and Cordelia got to enjoy her first campfire. It wasn't until Friday that I got my summer clothes out. I was pregnant last summer so I didn't even take them out last year. When I opened up the box it was like Christmas. I had forgotten about some of the things I had. And some things were brand new that I bought on clearance in the fall before I got pregnant. Of course some things no longer fit. A third pregnancy will do that. At first I was a little depressed, but then I was ok with it because that means I just get to buy new clothes. So the old clothes went into the rummage sale pile and I went to Target.

I also have not bought any sandals for the boys yet which I need to do. I was folding laundry today, which is another chore I absolutely hate. Especially doing socks. Once the boys have sandals I won't have to worry about socks for a few months. It will be so nice. I love summer.

Get it!

Yesterday I had to vacuum, which I really hate. Usually I don't do this when Cordelia is around, but I just couldn't wait any longer to vacuum. So I was prepared for her to holler and cry as soon as the vacuum turned on. But she just looked at it and then took off. She chased it all around the dining room. Then I stopped to use one of the attachments so she caught up and was really interested in the light. Then I had to finish the rest of the room and again she chased me wherever I went. She is still not crawling up on her hands and knees, but that isn't stopping her.

Like her brother

Cordelia likes her thumb just like her big brother Rion. She also likes the feel of tags and I wonder if she will latch on to a favorite lovey or blankie like Rion.

Rion latched onto a blankie quite early. I want to say he was only a few months old. He liked how one particular receiving blanket felt and he would rub it with his fingers. There were two of these receiving blankets. Rion had one while the other was in the laundry. He carried it everywhere so I always had to rotate them. Then one day we lost one in Menards. I called later to see if anyone had turned it in, but whoever found it probably just threw the rag away.

I had to wash the blankie so often that it began to shred. Soon he had multiple little blankies. He would carry a strand everywhere we went. If I took a picture of Rion the blankie would also be in the picture. Rion also went through a phase where he liked to hide things, especially his blankie. Part of our bedtime routine was to find a blankie strand. When we finally had discovered all of his hiding spots, he would find another one. Many nights I ran around the house frantically searching for the blankie. When we found blankie Rion would curl up, thumb in his mouth, and run the blankie through his fingers until he fell asleep.

After many washings, his blankie was nothing more than a few small strands and it "disappeared." Rion was devastated and it made me heartbroken. I couldn't wait to get rid of the darn thing, but my heart was breaking for the lost of my son's blankie. He loved it so much. I put the last few strands of blankie in his hope chest so they will be reunited again some day. For months after blankie had gone away I still would come across a strand hidden by Rion. These strands ended up in a keepsake box of my own as I reminder when my growing too fast boy fit in my arms. Not too long ago Rion saw a picture of himself with blankie in his hands. "I miss my blankie," he said. "I know," I told him, "I do too."

Tell me a story

Last year I bought Rion a program for the computer with preschool lessons on it. I think it was too easy for him because he never really paid much attention to it. Now Torii has discovered it and has been playing it a lot. Today he was playing with the Art section of the program. On it kids can create their own books with different backgrounds and stickers. There is a place to write text and I told him I would write whatever he wanted me to on it. Torii likes to tell stories so he had no problem coming up with a story. I could barely type as fast as he was talking. I had to keep telling him to stop so we could select another page because we had run out of space on the current page.

Rion liked that so he also wanted to write a story. Rion thought about his story more. He would tell me to write something and a few times told me to erase part of it and he changed it up a little. Once he told me to erase something and he basically told me the same thing, but worded it differently. Both boys are good storytellers, but the way Rion thought about his story and the wording was encouraging to me. I hope I have a writer in the family!

I printed out the stories each boy wrote and we read them again. I let Rion read his and I helped with some words. He had the word "mysterious" in his story so I don't think he was going to figure that one out. He did really good and read a few complete sentances. He is doing so good with reading.