Castle Panic

Bohdin set up a large Playmobil scenario that spans the width of the basement. I've been stepping over it for over one week. I was hoping taking a picture of it would entice him to finally take it apart but he claims he is still not done with it. Unfortunately for him, I am quite done with it.

Bohdin watched a lot of tv over Christmas break and it was difficult to wean him back to normal levels. Last Tuesday I threatened to cancel cable and disconnected it while I thought it through. Bohdin was really sad. He cried about it for over an hour while Nyla and I were outside playing soccer. When she came back in though they started playing something new together. It was bomb which sounds a bit worse than it actually was. I still haven't reconnected the cable downstairs yet. He's been watching videos but he can't do that to the extent of tv watching. He's not allowed to play computer until Buddy is home. Keeping computer use in check is the next obstacle. He has watched some tv over the past week. I think we'll get the whole house DVR when it comes out so I can record his shows. Then not having the tv on until Buddy is home won't keep him from watching all of his shows.



Bohdin received a cooperative board game for Christmas. I'm already tired of playing it. Nyla took my place last night for the first time. I was surprised by how much she had picked up by listening to us play. She had really great special effects when she shot the monsters. I had to come back in toward the end. She didn't have the stamina for the whole game. In the last week Bohdin and I have also played Carcassonne and Battle Line. The rules of Battle Line are simple enough but the strategy is way beyond Bohdin right now. He did okay on Carcassonne. He likes me to play on easy level which means I play just under his ability. He understands that I'm letting him win. I hope I'm not screwing this up. The goal is to develop a love of games and the ability to lose gracefully. Right now we're just focusing on the former.



The kids and I stopped at the bookstore yesterday in hopes of finding some cheap Max and Ruby books for Nyla. Bohdin found a few books but I accidentally reshelved them. It took me 30 minutes to find them again. I had put them on the bottom shelf as I was getting up. Cora had become fussy and we needed to go. When I was searching for them Cora made it really difficult. We went to Costco afterward and had to really rush. I sent Bohdin with some money to buy a slice of pizza while I waited in the unusually long lines. He had no trouble doing it. I was proud of him but he thought it wasn't a big deal. He wasn't able to do something like that last year so I do think it was a big deal.