Lisa's Side on the Wii

Ezra really wants to get a Wii--EVERYONE has one, you know. Think of all we're missing!

I do not want to get a Wii. Here are my reasons:

Eleven months ago we made a drastic change in our home—no tv for the kids. No PBS Kids, no Disney Channel, no Nickelodeon. No videos from the library, no Wiggles! Only two or three times a month for family movie night do they get to sit like rotten vegetables, staring and drooling at our television.

It took two agonizing months for the “can I watch TV?” requests to go from at least twenty per day to now only once or twice a week. The new “default” activity has changed from watching TV to picking up a book or crayons. Natalie has become a voracious reader. And even though he can’t technically “read” yet, Brendan can spend hours engrossed in books. And when they are not reading books, sometimes they actually play creatively. They use their dress-up clothes, food and dishes, dolls, trucks and lots of empty boxes to head off on some sort of adventure together. Often the adventures are a re-enactment of Little House on the Prairie, a series that Natalie has been reading (they have never seen the show). Playing creatively like that was rare when TV was an option.

Now why would we want to take these two “unplugged” kids and plug them back into electronic entertainment? They aren’t even asking for it. They do not know what a Wii is. Someday (probably soon), they will play it at a friend’s house, love it, and ask for it. We can think about it then. But as for now, we have a "no video games" plan for our family. And that plan is working just fine.

Ezra and I are having a fun debate over this and figured that if we each posted our point of view, we'd be sure to get comments and advice from everyone. So . . . what do YOU think?

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Ezra's Side on the Wii

So I’m torn.

Lisa doesn’t want a video game system in the house but I’m a little more willing to try the Wii (although I have no interest in the other game systems).

I think the differences lie in how we view the system. Lisa looks at it like another mind numbing activity you play for hours on end. I view the Wii not as a video game system, but more of an activity; similar to a trampoline, pool table, or even a TV.

Her biggest concern is manageable, I think. We (including me) don’t want to become the zombies who think about beating Zelda during Sacrament meeting. The risk is manageable (again, I think) because we manage the TV very well and only turn it on for two monthly Netflix movies, Lisa’s The Office fix, and Lost.

The Advantages: The Wii looks like something I can compete with my kids on and get some activity (or wear out the kids) even when the weather outside is less than appealing. To play, the kids have to move and I won’t bet bored playing Chutes and Ladders for the thousandth time.

Things we will have to deal with:

• Brendan begging, “Can I play the Wii?” Very similar to what he does now with the computer.
• Shutting it off after the kids go to bed. I can just see myself playing until the late night hours-Just like I played Zaxxon in high school with my Dad.
• Setting limits on how much we play. We already have a limit on computer time, bed time, shower time, etc…how many more timers do we need to have? At some point these kids are going to wake up starting their stopwatch.

I guess I’m hoping for the ultimate entertainment device that Lisa can plug the kids into as she cooks dinner. The kids get all the wiggles out and sit down to a calm, peaceful dinner. Strangely, their reflexes are so much faster from the exercise that they manage to catch everything before it spills or falls on the floor. Once dinner is over, the kids exhausted from playing the Wii, complain that they are tired and want to go to bed early. We all calmly sleep the night away while the kids do math problems in their heads.

Doesn’t that sound idyllic? I don’t have any idea where the math part comes in, but if it helps me convince Lisa, I might try to justify it.

Anyone else have thoughts on the video game system vs. no video game system?

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Brendan Sleeping

Brendan insisted on sleeping with all of his stuffed animals (or at least those he could find). When we went in to check on him, he had made space for each of the animals and had no room left to sleep. He squeezed into the corner and zonked out. I think his leg is actually falling between the bed and wall.

I wonder what he'll look like at 2AM. I'll bet he climbs into the other bed....Can't disturb Dalmatian, Quacky, and the others.

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Camping During Spring Break

Because we were confined to the house during Spring Break, we decided we had to do something interesting to keep the kids entertained and make up for the loss of the missed trip to California.

So what did we do? We went camping inside. Yes, we set up the tent, made smores in the fireplace, and ate tinfoil dinners by flashlight. The tent was a tight squeeze, but it fit! We'll have to test it out during the summer!


As usual, Natalie has tied to a book and could hardly finish dinner.

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Brendan's 5th Birthday

When we are celebrating three birthdays in eleven days early in the year, Brendan feels like it is NEVER going to be his birthday. But sure enough, it came! We had a Transformer-themed party (just the five of us).

He couldn't wait to open the birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa. He thought this was a very cool birthday card.
Mater pajamas that are his favorite color! What a score!
Blow out the candles! Happy birthday, Brendan!

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Bike Riding

Brendan got a bike for his birthday. We had planned to go bike riding right after his birthday dinner (pizza and broccoli--his choice). First, he needed a little help from Dad. In this photo, Natalie is riding behind Bren and Ezra on the path.

He was very happy. The joys of a bike ride!
After about two minutes with dad, he was ready to go on his own. He even turned his head and smiled for this photo as he raced around the track.
He caught on pretty quickly.
Hey! Wait for us!
Amanda explored the t-ball field while everyone else was riding around.

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April Fool's Day Pranks

We are always up for a few pranks...

Ezra started the day finding green milk and all the cereal bags switched around to different cereal boxes. He gave up and finally opened a new box of his favorite Wheat Chex. When Natalie woke up she said, "Why is the milk colored when it isn't even April Fool's Day?" It took her a while to wake up, I guess. Brendan was delighted when Cinnamon Life poured out of the Cheerios box and refused to "fix" the cereals when it was time to clean up. "I want April Fool's tomorrow, too," he said.

Then as Natalie scrambled for the bus, she found all the coats (we have a lot!) separately packed in grocery bags and thrown in a pile on the floor. She screeched and worried show would be late for the bus. After a few minutes of calming down, she dug through the pile and ran out the door.

Then for dinner, we all sat down to eat with unusual utensils and plates. Brendan struggled to keep things separate in his salad bowl, but he ate everything without complaint so maybe we'll try that again tonight. Natalie ate with salad tongs off a muffin tin. Ezra did well with his spatula and Lisa really liked eating off the cookie sheet because it was hard to spill--Everyone agrees that Natalie should use the cookie sheet every night. Amanda did just fine with her fingers, as she does every night.

Happy April 1!!!

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What we are Playing At Our House

The adults and kids can play and neither gets bored.

Anyone else played it? Any other good recommendations for fun family games?

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A Hit!

Can I just say the trampoline has been a hit with our kids. Nothing like telling them to go burn off some energy outside before dinner. I can't wait for summer!

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Amanda's back . . . and she's discovered candy

We are happy to report that Amanda has almost fully recovered from some complications of pneumonia that prevented our Spring Break trip to California. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and help with meals and watching the big kids while we spent most of last week at the doctor's office, x-ray lab, and hospital.

Of course, Amanda doesn't realize what she has been through. But on Easter morning, she made a wonderful discovery. She learned that the colorful plastic eggs hidden throughout the house can be opened with a good squeeze. And then she learned what CANDY is and where to put it (straight into her mouth). She became quite the scavenger over the next couple of days, finding lost jelly beans and an occasional missed Easter egg. We are so glad to have our happy and busy little girl back!
Happy Easter, everyone!

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Backyard Progress

We finally finished the planters for our garden. Now we just need to set them in the ground and fill them with good planting soil.


The kids already have stuff picked out to plant...Broccoli, corn, pears, apples, and bananas. Lisa and I hope for tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, carrots, and lettuce. Maybe we'll just tell the kids the seed is a from a banana ...but something weird happened so it came out as a tomato.

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The Science Project

Since we couldn't go to California, I thought I would post a few quick pictures of things we've done over the past several weeks.

This one is of Natalie's Science Project. She did a great job!


Just a quick, funny story. She did all the typing in MS Word and of course there were a few misspellings. At one point, she asked me what the green squiggly line underneath many of the words meant. I told her it was a grammar error. I then started explaining that the red line meant a spelling error, but she quickly stopped me by saying with a smile "oh, I already knew that!" She also figured out that if she forgot to capitalize a word after a period, the computer would do if for her. Pretty soon she just started letting the computer do all the capitalizations.

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Dr. Pope Would be Proud

The Rock Score:

Natalie: 5 buckets
Brendan: 1 bucket

The kids raced outside this morning in the pouring rain and each filled a bucket. When the rain stopped, Natalie went back out with a vengeance and was still working when I came home. She even had another bucket that was almost full, but she was too tired and hungry to finish it.

Some interesting observations...

1) Brendan started fast and furious but petered out quickly. I don't think he really understands the value of a dollar yet. He doesn't really have a toy that he is drooling over (or should I say he just wants every toy?), so he really isn't yet motivated by a few extra green papers in his wallet.

2) Natalie was thinking about all the money she was earning the entire time. When I came home from work and asked her about what she was going to buy, she said a CD player, a Hanna Montana CD, and stuff for my room. So she must realize that with money you can buy cool stuff and that to get money all it takes is a little work. One of the neatest things to see was that Lisa didn't have to bug Natalie to do the work....she just went out and did it.

3) The kids quickly learned that if you used the rake, you could fill the bucket much faster. They apparently also learned that if extra leaves and dirt were put into the bucket, the bucket filled up even faster. We weren't sticklers on the amount of dirt and leaves in the bucket, but the kids found a flaw in the payment process and took advantage of it. Good for them! But next time I'm going to set a stricter rule.

Just so you know, we don't pay the kids for every job they do. They have a very long list of regular chores that have to be done or they can't do certain activities. We only pay for money jobs that are above and beyond the normal call of duty...or Lisa and I just don't want to do them.

Either way, I'm very proud of Natalie. She did a great job and worked very hard. Now if I can just find the right incentive for Brendan... Any suggestions about what works with boys?

BTW: Dr. Pope was my Econ 110 Professor...I loved that guy.

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Lava Rocks and the Value of a Buck

Much to our chagrin, the previous owners of our house filled the flower beds up with lava rocks. Of course the rocks are grenades, lawn mower missiles, and flower killers so they had to go. Unfortunately, quite a few still hide in the bushes and in the mud.

Anyone remember Econ 110? I loved it because I think all people are motivated by self interest--even irrational 5 and 7 year olds. So I ran an experiment (don't tell the social workers) using my ki..., I mean guinea pigs.

On Monday, I offered $2.50 per bucket of rocks that the kids found. It worked pretty well. Brendan was the first to fill a bucket and then Natalie persisted and filled two buckets. Of course, we heaped the praises on them and gave them the money as soon as possible.

Now I know for a fact that there are still quite a few rocks out there...so I offered them this.



It is supposed to rain tomorrow but Thursday and Friday we have other plans... I guess we'll see how much Natalie wants that Hanna Montana CD and how much Brendan wants another transformer.

I'll post their earnings tomorrow.

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Our Backyard Fun

We followed everyone's advice and picked up the trampoline. Ezra is totally bummed that his nice, new, green grass is covered. Of course it was a family project to put the whole thing together. This is just a quick video of us putting it together.



The rules are strict:
1) Your parents have to agree before you jump
2) Only 2 people of similar age at a time
3) No toys or flips on the tramp
4) No fighting, pushing, or wrestling (at least no wrestling without dad)

There are a whole bunch more. What rules do you use?

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