TechyDad, Author at TechyDad

Aloha Friday: Waking Dreams

February 3, 2012 TechyDad Dreams, JSL, Sick, Sleep

JSL has been sick the last few days. He had a fever, was lethargic, and didn’t want to eat. What little he did eat… well, let’s just say that it didn’t always stay in him long. At one point, B called me at work after he woke up from a nap. He was crying asking for his mommy. He recognized that B was his mother, but kept asking for his "real mommy."

Later on, after dinner, I got NHL to bed. JSL, previously, had fallen asleep on the couch. Suddenly, he sat up and began crying for his daddy. I picked him up and he said "Daddy? I want my daddy!" I asked him who I was and he answered that I was his dad. I asked him what room we were in and he said the living room. I asked him my first name was and he knew that. I even asked him how many fingers I was holding up and he answered correctly. But after all that, he kept repeating "Daddy? I want my daddy!" This went on for about 10 minutes while we decided whether we were going to need to go to the hospital (and, if so, what to do about the sleeping NHL in the other room).

Slowly, JSL came out of it. He began to realize just was going on and calmed down. He even had some fun with what just happened by saying he wanted his daddy one more time and then smiling before hugging me. I asked him if he was having a nightmare. He told me that he was and that he was scared of losing us. (As he’s never lost anyone he knows to death, I think he meant "losing us" in the sense of not knowing where we are.)

In the end, we think this was the combination of some sort of waking dream and low blood sugar. After we got him to eat some crackers, he perked up a lot. The next day, he stayed home and went to the doctor. The doctor didn’t find anything wrong. No ear infection, strep, etc. His temperature was staying down without medicine and he was eating (and acting) better.

He’s not alone in these nighttime behaviors. NHL has had night terrors and has even been known to sleepwalk from time to time. My parents told me about some times when I’ve walked in my sleep, talked with them, turned around, headed back to bed with no memory of the events. One time growing up, I got out of bed, thought I was in a different room, and couldn’t exit the room. My mother finally heard my cries and turned on the light. In that instance, I snapped out of the waking-dream and realized just what was happening. (I had ended up in the closet instead of the room’s door.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever experienced an incident like this yourself or that your kids did?

Don’t forget to enter my $25 EdenFantasys giveaway!

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #124

Disclaimer: The "Emoticons: Sleeping face" clipart above is from OpenClipArt.org.

Your Shape Fitness Evolved: Week 1 Diary and Giveaway

February 2, 2012 TechyDad Fitness, Games, Giveaway, Health, Video Games

I’m always looking for ways to burn calories. (Running after kids only gets you so many burnt calories.) Going to the gym may be for some people, but I just can’t take the time to drive there and back often enough. Any workout I do needs to be able to be able to be done from the home. Preferably during down time when the kids are asleep or otherwise occupied. For this reason, I love the latest generation of workout video games. Don’t let the "video game" name confuse you: these suckers can really make you feel the burn.

During the next five weeks, I’ll be posting my progress with Ubisoft’s Your Shape Fitness Evolved for the XBox 360. My goal will be to workout 3 times a week and burn at least 150 calories per session.

For my first workout, I began with some warm up activities. First, I did Hu-La-La, where you wiggle your hips as if you are playing with a hula hoop. This was very intense and I really felt the effects of this exercise in my stomach. This burned 8 calories. Next up, I selected Run the World: New York Times Square. Running burned 70 calories. I could have burned more, but I had some trouble with the Kinect losing me while I was running in place. (This isn’t a fault of Your Shape Fitness Evolved, but seems to be an issue relating to the small size of my room. After this, I repositioned the Kinect and it seems to be better.)

After this, I tried Stack ‘Em Up: Hard, a balance game where you need to hold up a platform to catch falling blocks, to burn 4 calories. Then, I played Jump Rope: Easy (exactly what it sounds like) for 19 calories. Next, Wall Breaker: Medium (where you punch/kick to break bricks hovering in front of you). This one really helped me work up a sweat and scored 23 calories. After this was Juggle It which is kind of like a virtual hacky sack game (only with a ball). This surprised me and burned 15 calories. I didn’t think it would burn that many. Finally, I played Stomp It: Easy (where you need to stomp panels "in front" of you to the music) for 10 calories and Wall Breaker: Easy for 7.

Total calories burned in this session: 152.

The next session, I tried Pump It (where you flap your arms and bend your knees to inflate and then pop a ball) for 26 calories, Kick It (a soccer goal shooting game) for 19 calories, Hurricane (where you roll your arms around in circles to levitate some balls) for 19 calories, Stack It: Medium for 4 calories, Wall Breaker: Hard for 23 calories and Run the World: New York 5th Avenue for 70 calories. Total calories burned: 161.

I was going to have a third session, but life intervened. And by life, I mean JSL got sick and I had to tend to him instead of working out. I do plan on doing three workouts for next weeks’ installment.

Giveaway

You could win a copy of Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Simply post a comment to this blog post. When my five week series is finished, one commenter from across the five posts will win a copy of the game from Ubisoft.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Your Shape Fitness Evolved by Ubisoft and financially compensated for this Clever Girls Collective, Inc. campaign. In addition, I was loaned an XBox 360 and Kinect for the duration of the campaign. The opinions expressed above, however, are my own.

Wordless Wednesday: A Celebratory Announcement

February 1, 2012 TechyDad Disney, DisneySMMoms, Photos, Wordless Wednesday

Review: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5 – 7 DS

January 31, 2012 TechyDad Nintendo DS, Review, Video Games

Yesterday, I went over the boys’ addiction with Legos. Today, I need to confess my own addiction. It began awhile back when I needed something to do while sitting with the boys as they went to bed on Friday nights. I stay off the computer these nights, so that option was out. Reading wouldn’t work after the lights were turned out. Then, I saw the DS.

I had previously played Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the DS and was a big fan of the series. They take everything that is great about the fictional world and place their own fun spin on it.

I was interested to see how they would handle Years 5 – 7. Anyone who has read the books or watched the movies knows that this is when things turn really, really dark. Harry can’t just be a kid anymore. Voldemort is back and will go to any lengths to kill all who oppose him. People die. People Harry cares about.

The previous DS game took an easy route out of the main non-villain death. When Cedric Diggory dies in the game, he breaks into pieces. His grieving dad weeps over his boy’s pile of parts until is handed a blueprint for a Lego minifig. The implication is that all Amos Diggory needs to do is plus Cedric pieces back into place and he’ll be ok.

This DS game picks up with Year 5, aka The Order of the Phoenix. The Ministry of Magic, not believing that Voldemort is back and suspicious of Dumbledore, installs Delores Umbridge into Hogwarts. While the movie focused on Umbridge’s efforts to instill her brand of order, the game uses Order of the Phoenix as an introduction to the various spells and concepts that you will be employing in later games.

As you progress, you’ll use Reducto, Expecto Patronum, Aguamenti, Wingardium Leviosa, Lumos, and more to battle bad guys, avoid obstacles, and collect studs. For those who are not familiar, those little bumps on Legos that allow them to interlock are called studs. Studs are used like money to buy new characters and abilities.

Of course, given that nearly everything in the world is made from Legos, you can destroy many of the items that constitute the scenery. Flowers, rocks, tables, and chairs can all be destroyed for studs. Sometimes, in fact, destroying these unlocks something special.

All in all, this is a fantastic game. The humor and gameplay are perfect for kids and adults.

Disclaimer: We purchased this game with our own money and the opinions expressed above are my own.

Lego Addicts

January 30, 2012 TechyDad Fun, Photos, Play, Toys

Lately, the kids have been victims of an addiction. I’m not talking about their usual addictions to chocolate, pizza or macaroni and cheese. No, this addiction is of the Lego kind. The boys just love taking out the bricks and minifigs and coming up with some creations. Then, they will either give their creations elaborate stories…. or just smash them.

Of course, mix in a couple of their other obsessions, like Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, or Toy Story and the kids take their Lego addiction to a whole new level. For example, here is Buzz Lightyear riding his "flying car" (which he apparently made partially out of Winnie the Pooh’s canoe):

Also for your consideration, a re-enactment of a lost scene of Harry Potter where Harry fights Voldemort while riding on the blades of a helicopter:

I hear test audiences experienced extreme nausea from all of the spinning around.

Finally, here is the flying car of the future, today! Complete with built-in landing pad.

There are still some bugs to work out. Like how to actually drive the car when the landing pad doesn’t retract. Those can be worked on in a future version of the flying car of the future.

Tomorrow, I’ll go over my recently acquired Lego addiction of the computer game kind!

Do your kids enjoy playing with Legos or other building toys?

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