Bejeweled

Zach and I share a new pasttime. It's an internet game called Bejeweled.. Actually Bejeweled 2. And Zach calls it Bejewels. I know, the last thing a mom wants is a six year old getting hooked on video games. That will come soon enough. But I can justify it... ummm... he's learning to match up his patterns! You have to get at least 3 gems in a row to get points and have more jewels cascade down. And I could say that it's fostering our relationship. Whatever. The fun thing is that we'll play it together. It's not a game that two people can play at once, but we'll sit side by side, one watching the other play. Sometimes, the player will get in a hard spot, and the one watching will help out with hints or point to some gems that could be moved to be three in a row. One day, I had both Asia and Zach trying to help me. Asia would say, move the green one and the white one. There's lots of green and white ones, Asia, which ones in particular? Or they'd both be pointing to the screen so that I couldn't even see what I was playing. But again, I was treasuring sharing something with my two kids. I figure each moment counts because when they're teenagers, they probably won't want to share anything with their outdated mom.

Another thing we share is loving to go to the mall. Of course, I'd love to actually go to the mall to shop for stuff for me, but the kids usually can't stand waiting for me to try on clothes or something. I took Zach once to buy a coat for him and some other things, and when we were going through the women's section, he kept asking, "Mom, why do we keep stopping?" He didn't get why I stopped at practically every aisle. He tried to be patient, but he was the one pushing the shopping cart and wasn't appreciating not getting too far. Anyway, today we went to the mall. The goal was to get a birthday present for Zach's friend, Steven. The other goal was just to kill some time without exhausting myself.

A few days ago, Zach had the stomach flu - hit him around 11 PM. So that night was sleepless for John and myself. Luckily it was something like a 6 hour flu. Zach was fine in the morning. Asia slept through the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep to the sounds of the person in the bunkbed above me, puking away every 1/2 hour.

The mall here has a great little play area for young kids. It has all these rubber slides. Rubber! So they're really slippery yet if you fall, you won't get hurt. So all these little kids are running around them. Asia and Zach love playing chase, catching each other and pulling each other down the slide. I try not to watch in case they accidentally roll over some little one year old or younger who's crawling around the play area. We also always do two things when we're at the mall. Stop at the food court for ice cream or frozen yogurt and stop by the toy store - in this case, Kaybee toy store which supposedly is moving out of the mall. So today everything was 20% off. And after visiting the Disney store and coming out of there without purchasing anything, I thought KB toys was very cheap. So Zach and I haggled over a few things til we both agreed on some toys for Steven. Then I told Zach to choose one thing under 5 dollars. A nice young worker there pointed out that everything was on sale, so he could get something nice. So Zach learned how to read price tags as well as picked out a nice sword and shield. Asia picked out a fairy doll that was actually over five dollars originally, but I think with the sale, it neared five dollars. There was no use reasoning with her, I took what I could get. She was eyeing all these other dolls that were 20 dollars and up. So when she found one that was something like seven dollars, I took it. She really liked this Dora toy that you push the buttons and she reads them off, but she already has something similar at home. Luckily she didn't put up much of a fuss when I said we weren't going to get it. I had let her play with it at the store for at least 20 minutes while Zach was trying to figure out what he wanted to get. Again, I am so lucky that Zach is so reasonable. Both my kids could have laid on the ground and cried and made a fuss. I worry that I spoil them because I can afford the things they want. I feel like they have way more toys than I ever had. But then I wonder if that's true. I had my Barbie dolls. I might not have had the Barbie Corvette or Barbie's horse, but I did have my dolls - at least 2 or 3 of them. I remember my brother had a Nintendo system that he then upgraded to a Sega system. So again, it's not like we didn't have toys. I don't know how my parents did it. I never felt poor, but looking back, I don't think we were ever financially strong. I guess John and I both have our parents to thank as to why we raise our children to be the same - to not be spoiled, selfish, thankless and instead to be grateful for what we have or what we get. At least we try.

CandyLand

One of Asia's favorite games is Candyland - her version, so maybe it should be called AsiaLand. She picks the cards for you and moves you to where she thinks you go. And she always gets Queen Frostine. Sometimes you get the Queen Frostine card too, but only after she got the card and is much farther ahead. Sometimes you get the Goose, which means you get stuck in the Gooseberry swamp or something. You lose a turn. Most times I get sent back to the beginning, but I always say that way I get more gumdrops. Plus the game lasts only a few minutes because after Asia gets Queen Frostine, she only needs maybe 3 more cards and the game is over.

Winter Cometh

It is now officially winter.