September 30, 2006
Radio Silence
It's pushing two weeks since I've had a posting. There are a few factors. First, last week had a rainy weekend. Of course, the weekdays prior were gorgeous, but as soon as I had the weekend off from work, it rained. *grumble* Second, sniffles and coughs from a cold have been working their way through the house. But overall it's been just business as usual: eat, sleep, pray, exercise, work, study, etc.
Timothy - Lately it seems that Timothy has become a puppy dog around me. It seems that there are times when Michael and Daniel shut him out of what they're doing. He gets more irritable as this continues. When I come home from work, I talk to him, involve him in what I'm doing, play games with him, and he just opens up. He reminds me of Chris at that age working with dad in the garden. The good thing about it is it usually encourages him with attempts at talking. He parrots a lot of the things I say, even if they might be a bit garbled.
He had a hearing checkup yesterday. They want to keep a watch on his hearing with tests every six months. Yesterday went much better than the previous visit. He cooperated with the test and they got some decent measurements. He seems to be hearing at a reasonable level with a good frequency range.
Girls - The girls are back into their routine of weekly gymnastics. Their class this year is shortly after school. Michelle has a real driving challenge on that day. She has to pick the twins up at their school, race to the other side of town to pick up Claire, Abigail, and their friend Shannon. From there they head over to Gymnastics Village, usually just in time for the class to start. The upside of this arrangement is that Shannon's mom brings the girls home so Michelle gets at least one break from her role as super taxi mom.
Besides Claire's weekly private piano lessons, the school's band director has asked her if she'd like to play keyboard with the band this year. She knew Claire did not want to continue playing the clarinet this year. Claire found the keyboard took a bit getting used to because the keys are so light compared to the piano. Still, I'm glad she still gets to be involved with the band in some capacity.
If you've been tracking our DVD rentals, you know that we've been going through the old Wonder Woman series with Lynda Carter. The girls love that show. For Michelle and I it brings back memories of when we were their age. The girls love the twirl sequences where she changes into costume and when she deflects bullets with her magic bracelets. Michelle and I enjoy making fun of the 70's era stuff that's in a series that supposedly portrays war time 1940's.
Meanwhile Abigail and I are slowly working our way together through the levels of Super Mario Brothers for the Ninetendo DS. Currently we're at world 6. I tackle any world she finds too challenging or "scary" and she handles the rest and earning extra lives. Next week Amazon is supposed to ship us Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. She and I have played the previous version last year on the Gameboy and had many evenings of fun.
Games - Alas soon winter will be here and we'll need to find some more ways to have fun when we're suffering from cabin fever. There are only so many times you can build snowmen and go sledding in the back yard. One winter Michelle completed every level of Mario Kart (with assist from the girls). And of course we have all the Gamecube versions of MarioParty which are always a blast when the girls have friends over.
I've contemplated the new sequel to the Gamecube, the Nintendo Wii, but it's launch price is around $250. While it's a bargain compared to an Xbox360 or the upcoming PS3, if it's like a lot of consoles, you'll probably have to add another 50% to get it to a usable configuration. Perhaps someone on our west coast ATI office has an inside way to get one? I do like that because of its new controller design, it encourages you to get off your duff and interact with the game more physically, much like the Dance Dance Revolution series. I'm sure we'll get one eventually, but it doesn't look it'll be during this holiday season.