Late February Update

“He’s On Fire!”

When I was in college, one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis was NBA Jam. It was great. You could crank out a game in 15 minutes, everybody could play, and best of all, most of the time, I would win. A couple of weekends ago I got nostalgic. Ethan has all sorts of time to play all these complicated games. I want nothing more than to do that, but have other priorities than an 11 year old boy does (getting old sucks). I figured, though, that I could still play NBA Jam - it fits into my schedule, it’s family friendly, and it is cheap.

http://www.ea.com/nba-jam-on-fire/videos/exclusive-nba-jam-on-fire-edition-1st-look

So I bought it - for the family. I have a hard time determining whether it was a good decision or a bad one. On the bright side, Quin and I play at least 2 games a day. He is all over it! He loves the San Antonio Spurs, has a number of special moves that I only marvel at, and really gets into it. I like to think it’s teaching him to read large numbers as well. Often times when he’s playing himself, he will call out and ask if he’s winning. I’ll ask what the scores are, and he’ll say “I have a four and a two and they have a three and a seven.” He also loves to get “on fire” - whenever he does so, he implores me to “feed him all the rock.” On the dark side, however, he is a little too attached to it sometimes. Whenever he and Ethan play, fighting ensues. Also, if he wants to play and we make him stop, there is a meltdown of epic proportions. In the end, it’s something that the boys and I can do together, even if it is rotting all of our brains…

Getting Older

Jenny and I had a cold dose of reality about a week or two ago when we realized that we were no longer the ones with the best sense of pop-culture in the house. In fact, we have become squares (I think it’s probably square to say that, even)! It really hit home when we were in the car going to the grocery store. Jenny was in the store getting something and the kids and I were sitting in the car waiting for her, listening to the radio. A song I had not heard came on, and after listening to a few seconds Ethan told me to crank it - which I did. It’s a new, somewhat inappropriate song by a guy called Macklemore called Thrift Shop.

It’s a song that’s been out for a long time, and I had never heard of it. Ethan found out about it from a guy at school. I have to say, I think it’s pretty catchy. We all sing it now, even though I’m sure it’s already run its course on the “cool scene.”

Another thing the kids have shown me that is cool is our new family friendly obsession, The Aquabats Supershow. This is one just for the boys and I. It’s a Saturday morning cartoon style show about a rock band that goes around saving the world, but they do it somewhat poorly and often by mistake. Ethan and Quin found it on Netflix and proceeded to watch all 13 episodes at least twice, many of them three or more times! It touched my heart when both Ethan and Quin got really excited when Weird Al Yankovic made a cameo appearance in two of the episodes!

Naughty Word Cold

Lastly, I’m going to try to coin a new phrase. It’s really Quin’s phrase, but I’m going to try to socialize it around and see if it catches on, because it’s a good phrase. The other night we were leaving the YMCA after swimming lessons and it was windy and cold. I shivered and stated, “wow, it’s stupid cold out here, isn’t it?” Well, Quin likes nothing better than when Jenny or I say something deemed as a naughty word, and generally repeats it incessantly for awhile. This was no different, but he quickly went through the progression of, “yeah, it is stupid cold. It’s idiot cold! It’s all the naughty words cold, isn’t it dad!!!”