Family Bonding

I've been neglectful of my mii on Wii Fit. Evidently they fall asleep if you don't make them faux sweat on a regular basis.

I like Wii Fit. Really, I do. But who has the time?

I think I've hurt Bruce's feelings that I've not played with my birthday present more often. When he brought it up last time, I said, "Well, what do you want me to do? Play on the Wii when I should be painting or doing laundry? Am I supposed to play it when I'm home alone?"

And he said, "That's the idea."

Duly noted.

But no action was taken.

Until yesterday, when my kids poked fun at my mii, sleepyhead that she is.

So I said, "Okay, let me play. Daddy has been on my case about playing."

I played for eight minutes. It felt longer.

I hula-hooped, I head-butted soccer balls, and I walked a tightrope. Then I ran after some girl who kept turning to wave at me until she got on my nerves. My kids egged me on to pass her, so I did. And then I was running behind a puppy. (This gained the approval of my kids, who insisted the puppy was cuter.)

I learned a few lessons.

You should not do the body test right after eating a bowl of chips 'n dip as a substitute for a missed lunch. Moreover, you should not do the body test in front of small children. They will taunt you for gaining two pounds. It's not cute. Not the two pounds on me, and not the taunting from them.

You should not try your hardest twice in a row to balance on the tightrope and then decide on the third attempt to leap off after walking only two yards. As funny as it seems to you, the kids won't like it. They'll look at you as if you kicked a kitty.

You should not run hard, in place, after washing down chips 'n dip with a very tall glass of iced tea. Your kids will make fun of you for taking a pit stop. And they'll wonder, out loud, if you peed in your pants.

Hula-hooping should be outlawed after you crest the age of 35. Especially if you've had babies and kept a few pounds around for cushioning the blow of growing older. Parts of your body will continue hula-hooping for several minutes after you stop. That's not cute either.

And finally, you should not take offense when your children laugh at your mii as she gets whacked in the head (time and time again) by shoes and the head of a Koala bear, which she is supposed to avoid, while trying to head-butt all soccer balls whizzing by. Yes, it's degrading that your little ones can play better than you. But you'll get over it. Laughter, even at your expense, is good for family bonding.

On that note, I'll mention a couple more family moments we shared yesterday.

While I was making supper (a bit late), the kids were outside playing. One of the times that we peeped on them, both Bruce and I ended up laughing. I asked him to run for the camera to record them.

I tried to download the video here, but I've waited for nine hours now. I think it's safe to assume that it's not working correctly.

Spencer and Clay had climbed the pitiful looking Dogwood tree in our front yard. (This tree has not always been pitiful looking. My children have climbed this tree vigorously in the past few years, and each year a few more branches are broken. Soon, very soon, I'm having Bruce saw the tree down. To put it out of its misery. I'm going to replace it, but I'm not sure what's going in its place yet.)

The boys were up in the tree, standing on branches, while gripping another branch with their hands. They were jumping on the branches beneath their feet and shaking the branches in their hands.

Meanwhile, Allison was on the ground, rake in hand, doing her best to make a pile of leaves. This went on for several minutes before Bruce and I went outside.

"What are you guys doing," Bruce asked.

"We're trying to get off the leaves," Spencer said. "Because we're too excited for winter."

“Yeah, we want every tree bare,” Clay said. “Except the evergreens, or the conifers.”

Allison then pointed at our Pine trees and said, “Except those little pokey kinds.”

“Yeah, those are conifers,” Clay said.

More tree shaking. More leaf raking.

“So, you think that if you get all the leaves out of the trees, it’ll snow faster?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Spencer said.

“Oh.”

So that’s how Mother Nature works. She needs help. Just like all the rest of us mothers.

Finally, after supper last night, we watched this movie:



I really liked the movie. We all did. The animals were cool. I loved Jodie Foster's character; she cracked us up. The only drawback was that "d***" was said twice. It went over my kids' heads, but not ours. I have no appreciation for gratuitous bad language in a movie geared toward kids.

Still, the movie was more of a hit than the one we watched last week, "The Last Mimzy," which had all my kids acting a bit clingy after a scene at the end made them think the main character was going to be taken from her family.

We have a slow weekend planned ahead. And we are all thrilled about that.