MitchRoss.com
Pastor's Husband, Geek Dad

OK, so my 4 year old's favorite toy is a stuffed animal bird, that chirps when you squeeze it. We hear that chirping noise all day, every day.

He's also really into this bird book we got that plays the calls of the pictured bird.

So he's playing with the book, and I ask him if "birdie" (the toy) is in the book. Nooo, he tells me, like that's crazy talk.

At this point there's no stopping daddy.

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To Whom It May Concern at Rock Solid Arcade,

I recently discovered your game, Robokill, via the game review site JayIsGames. I'm a fan of casual gaming, particularly those that are Flash based or otherwise don't require a download.

It's been over a year since I've bought a game- and since playing the first few levels of Robokill I decided to buy the full version.

I do have one problem with the game, though a little explanation is required.

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Last year, I and my wife decided to go on a visit to see my wife's grandmother. She lived out in the middle of Wyoming - a long flight followed by a long drive. At the time, our kids were 3 and 10 months.

Yah, good idea, hu?

Being a geek dad, I wanted to think ahead and prepare our 3 year old for his first plane trip. I spent a little time searching for images of airports & airplanes, and made a little story book. I even found some pictures of the inside of the airport we were leaving out of, for full effect.

It really was just a Word document, with 2 pictures per page - made to be cut in half and stapled into a little book. I ordered the pictures in the order they would happen in the trip. For a few days before the trip, we sat down together and I would tell him all about what was going to happen, and what special things to look for. My book was just over 11 pages (at 2 pictures per page), ending with a picture of "Great Grandma". It made for a nice long story book.

When the trip came around, it was a huge success! No big surprises for the kids, and some good naps on the plane.

Here's some miniature versions of my book pages. If you decide to do something like this for your kids, I highly recommend making your own from scratch with pictures specific to your kind of trip and the people you're going to see.

Enjoy!

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My son likes computer games. A lot. Many evenings I'll have him on my lap, and we'll play games together. I thought I'd post some of his and my favorites and share the love.

Some of these games he can play on his own, others are ones he liked to watch me play. As he gets older he's able to do more on his own, so his list of games keeps getting longer.

All of these are web games, mostly Flash based. None require a download, and all are free.

Ready? Here we go:

His Favorites:
Powder Game
Best of the "Hell of Sand" type of game I've seen


Sonic
Flash version of the old classic


Boomshine
Circles explode, try to make a chain reaction

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Today on the way home, I got a phone call. The first person on the line was my 4 year old son.

Dada? I wanna play shooting game.
(translation: he wants to play an arcade game called Assault we have in the basement)

So when I got home, we played the game. Moma had to run off to lead a Bible study, so it was guy night at home. My son plays the first few levels, then he insists that I take over.

Today, for the first time in years, I won the last level in our favorite arcade game. I'm not sure who was more excited...

After that, it was bed time. All the way he was talking about "we won!" and "we got the next level!"
At the door to his bedroom, we had a little conversation:

Dada? Am I 5?
No son, you're 4.
Dada, are you 5?
No, I'm 35.
I wanna be 35.
Why?
I wanna be like you.
[[big hug]]

It was hard not to cry.

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One last story from the recent church district event. While my wife was out with her women pastors group, I & the 2 boys were doing breakfast in the hotel lobby. We planned on hitting the pool afterward. The kids had been excited about going to the pool, so this was a good chance to go again.

Our 4 year old must have said "pool" in every other sentence for 2 days straight before we even arrived. The nursery workers at the district event told us that he kept talking about a "pool", and they weren't sure what he meant- but it must have been important!

Anyway, we were at the hotel lobby eating the hotel provided Golden Grahams in little foam bowls. The 4 year old was chomping down his bowl of cereal, and the 1 year old was in a high chair, throwing his cereal. Overhand, mostly.

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Teenager birds.
Still in the nest, not working, not flying, just sitting there.
Waiting to be fed.
And giving me the evil eye.

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The baby birds are growing, and with the gardening going on in our back yard, there's plenty of worms to eat. Today I looked up, and saw the tips of some open beaks pointing up. Little guys were hungry.

By the time I got close enough to take a picture, they had hunched down, and in the dim light (before the camera flash), it wasn't clear there was anything alive in the nest.

My my best guess, some time early next week the little ones should be taking off for bird-college and leaving our robin as an empty-nester.

Stay tuned...

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Votes: 12 - Rating: 0.00

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