Day 5: Grandma Pearl & Mario Kart Wii

Day 5 was relaxing. It was our first day with no driving over 30 minutes! We spent the morning with Grandma Pearl (my mother's mother) who has had 2 mini-strokes in the last month, but continues to be alert and independent. I LOVE these pictures of my kids with her:

Then we went to visit "Uncle Alex" (my brother). Timothy was chomping at the bit to see him because "Uncle Alex has a Nintendo Wii" and "I want to play Mario Kart". I can't believe I haven't blogged about it yet, but my son is OBSESSED with Mario Kart. About 2 months ago, in an effort to quench his longing, I put http://www.mariokart.com/ in his favorites.

Now, he has been known to over-focus on one thing, but this is like nothing I've seen. Even to this day, he goes to the website, studies the characters (some are above), and memorizes the "tricks" that they do in the video game in order to get power or go faster. But you know none of that could compare to actually playing the game. We ended up having a great time playing. Timothy played some and watched some. He was just happy to be there-in its presence.

It wasn't until we got back that it dawned on him..."Mom, WE need to buy Nintendo Wii." I explained they cost lots of money, so we would have to save our dollars (my main goal is to put off owning a gaming system for as long as we can). He hasn't argued with us and explains to total strangers (anyone who will listen) that "Wii costs lots of money, so we will buy it when we save our dollars." However, just this morning he woke up whimpering from his sleep. Dan asked him what's wrong and Timothy said, "I only have $100 for my Nintendo Wii." Don't ask me how he decided he has $100! We have about $6 of "virtual money" saved, but we think we're going to turn it into real money. It looks like he loves this so much that it's a perfect way to show him the whole long-term savings concept. Any ideas would be welcomed!