March 6, 2011

Big week this week - mostly a big negative for my bank account, but still.

First off - our carpeting was installed!  Yay!  That means that this summer will mark the first since Spike died that the living room won't smell like cat pee all summer.  Whoopee!  Oh, and this was funny.  When Morgan got home from school the new carpeting was in and the room was completely empty, so he immediately yelled "help me help me!" and started running around the room in circles.  I have no idea where that came for, but he can run for a surprisingly long time without stopping or getting out of breath.  Of course Jocelyn and Jesse had to join in so there's a circular rut in the carpet now, but no matter.

Second, and I blame this on Uncle Jeff (aka Uncle Jebbs), we got an xbox 360 with Kinect.  It's pretty awesome!  Ok, it's made by microsoft and has the accompanying irritations, but if you can learn to just expect that part, then it's pretty awesome.  As I always say, the secret to happiness is low expectations.

The best part about the xbox is that because it doesn't need a remote, Morgan can do many of the games.  For a few I've had to stand behind him and hold his hands in the right spots to teach him, but he's mostly got the hang of it.  He's especially fond of Reflex Ridge, which is where you're on a rail going through an obstacle course.  He doesn't understand that you're supposed to AVOID the obstacles, so he hits them on purpose, but hey - exercise is exercise.

Timothy's favorite, of course, is Dance Central.  He's a bit competitive (wonder where he gets that from?!) so I catch him practicing the various songs from time to time and then he challenges me to a dance battle.  Being at least marginally smarter than the average bear, I just make sure to choose songs he hasn't practiced.  Even still, we're roughly an even match and I can mostly hold my own.  I'd like to think neither of us looks quite as comical as Jocelyn and Jesse, who are downright hysterical.

Both Morgan and Jocelyn have xbox 360 and Dance Central in their gym classes. Jocelyn says they takes turns getting to be at the front and the rest of the class stands behind and all do it together.  Jocelyn said when she got to be in front, she did Brick House, which happens to be Morgan's favorite.  Jocelyn is constantly surprised that she doesn't beat me.  I will say she tries REALLY hard and often does a fairly good job.  Jesse can't quite keep a beat.

This week at ballet class the parents got to go in and watch (usually we're in a separate waiting room).  With the exception of the warm up time when Jocelyn did a little too much chatting, she did a pretty good job of paying attention and trying to do what the teachers are doing.  She's clearly a visual learner and does much better imitating (like in Dance Central) vs. following oral instructions.  At times she can be rather graceful.  At the very least she looks really super cute in the leotard!

I was listening to Temple Grandin speak on NPR on the ride home one day this week.  I guess she would be the extreme of a visual learner, going as far as being a visual thinker.  Until I watched the movie, I didn't really realize that not everyone thinks in pictures.