Happy Seventh Birthday To JSL

JSL-lightsaberSeven years ago today, we welcomed JSL into the world.  B, NHL, and I all fell in love instantly with the little bundle.  Over the following years, we’ve watched him grow into a wonderful little boy.  Actually, I should correct myself here.  A wonderful big boy.

Though JSL will always be my baby to me, he’s growing up so quickly.  He’s already finishing up the first grade and getting ready to move into the second grade.  He’s a wonderful little brother.  For every moment that JSL and his brother are at each others’ throats, there are a couple of moments when they are playing video games together, reading together, or just playing together.

I’ve also watched as JSL has grown as a geek-in-training.  Last year, I introduced him to Doctor Who and he quickly fell in love.  He mourned the loss of Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, the loss of David Tennant’s Doctor, and recently saw Matt Smith’s Doctor remove his bow tie for the last time.  He wanted a sonic screwdriver of his own and insisted that I make him a fez.  (Because fezes are cool.)

JSL also recently completed watching the Star Wars trilogies.  He loved the whole thing.  He even liked Jar Jar Binks.  (What can I say, the character might disgust me, but it is the perfect mix of silly and potty humor for kids.  Out of place in Star Wars, definitely, but perfect for kids.)  He now has a line of Jedi Force figures that he plays with constantly and foam lightsabers to battle with outside.

That’s the other thing I’m proud of with him.  His imagination.  He is constantly inventing games that his Lego minifigs and/or action figures play.  With just the refrigerator and an odd assortment of magnets, he can create vast stories and characters.  If we go to a diner, he will insist on turning his paper placemat over so he can write a detailed story about what happened during his day.  (Yes, I believe we’ve got a blogger-in-the-making.)

While JSL can be agreeable and selfless, he can also be forceful and determined.  When I told him about a tabletop game idea I had, he told me that I was not to work on it at all unless he was involved.  When I took the training wheels off his bike, he was insistent on learning to ride.  (His current record is 14 seconds pedaling on his own.  Pretty good considering he’s two been practicing for two days.)

He’s my little helper, my little geek, and my sweet little boy.  He might not be my six year old anymore, but I can’t wait to see what seven brings.

Happy birthday, JSL!

Happy Mother’s Day To My Beautiful Angel

Dear B,

Thank you for being such a wonderful wife to me and mother to our boys.  Whether you are fighting to make sure our sons’ education needs are met, cheering our boys on as they accomplish new milestones, or getting between NHL and I when our "Aspie Natures" collide, you’re always hard at work to help us be the best we can possibly be.  Without you, this family would fall to pieces.  (I still don’t know how you remember every single name of every medicine the boys have ever taken without writing it down.)  Even if the hectic nature of day-to-day life makes us forget to say it, you are loved and valued.  When you go away to conferences or events, we miss you terribly.  Every day when I got to work, I look forward to coming home to see you.  (Work is nice, but not as fun as you are. ;-)  )

I love you B.  Happy Mother’s Day!

Make Games

make_gamesI’ve been a fan of playing games for quite some time and have introduced my boys to the joys of gameplay.  I’m also a big fan of Wil Wheaton’s web series Tabletop where he and a few guests play various games from Munchkin to Qwirkle.  I showed my boys part of the Qwirkle episode and they were hooked.  Not on the series as much as the game itself.  They don’t want to watch people play games, they want to play the games themselves!

What could be better than this?  What about making a game?

A week ago, I happened to look down on the floor and noticed that the tiles were shaped the same as the tiles from Settlers of Catan.  I’m not sure how my mind put it all together, but suddenly those simple floor tiles were sparking an imagination.  I pulled out my smartphone, jotted down some ideas and did some research on making my own game.

As I fleshed out the gameplay, I realized I’d need a board, cards (to represent armor, spells, weapons, etc), some kind of token to represent hearts, dice, and figures to move across the board.  Luckily, I had many of these already.  From a previous game effort.

(Awhile back, I attempted to make a card game with NHL. We decided that the game should help him learn math so there was a lot of adding and subtracting involved. The only problem was that NHL’s math skills proceeded quicker than we could make the game. In the end, we abandoned the effort, but I kept all of the pieces just in case.)

The hearts were from our previous game-creation effort.  They were index cards which we cut into squares and which NHL drew hearts on.  The dice were a purchase from our local comic book store (under $1 each) and the figures were Lego minifigs pulled from a large collection we have.

To create the board, I first looked at purchasing hexagonal pieces, but then I got a better idea.  I remembered a website that ThinkGeek had tweeted about a website that lets you print your own grid paper.  This seemed like an essentially-free option to begin with.  (We could always upgrade the game to use tiles.)  As for the cards, we could use normal, blank index cards.

At this point, I revealed my plan to my boys.  They were both excited about it.  JSL, in particular, has forbade me from doing any work on the game unless he’s involved.

No, this game won’t appear in stores to purchase.  (Though I might post the game once it is done.)  The rules are sure to be extremely simple to the point that people who make actual games would scoff at them.  And the the cards won’t have fancy artwork.  In fact, the entire thing will scream "homemade." Still, this will be awesome because I’ll be making this with my boys.

Scenes From A GeekEnd

This past weekend was cause to geek out.

First, the boys and I went to Free Comic Book Day.  We all exited having obtained some cool comics and having met Black Widow and The Joker.

Black_WidowJoker

The guy who was dressed as the Joker was completely into his role.  He consented to photos with my boys with their Spider-Man and Perry The Platypus hoods up so long as they didn’t take him back to the asylum.  Then, as we left, he followed two girls back to their car so they could get their phone and take photos with him.  At one point, he grabbed their phone and ran off giving a perfect Joker cackle.  (He did give it back, but the laugh was eerily perfect.)

Next came Star Wars Day.  We first went to the library to look for some Star Wars cooking books.  (Star Wars Cookbook: Wookie Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes and Star Wars Cookbook II: Darth Malt and Other Galactic Recipes.)  We were also hunting for The Simpsons, Season 2.  The boys are now hooked on the adventures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and company.  We own season 1, but buying every season would be cost prohibitive.  After all, The Simpsons are already in season 25!  While the library didn’t have that, they were able to put in a request for it for me.  While there, we found some other books and games to take out – including a Clone Wars Lightsaber Duel game for the Wii.

That night, JSL wanted to eat dinner with his grandparents, so we took NHL out and then stopped by some stores to  buy some gifts for Star Wars Day – including used copies of three Star Wars games for the Wii.

The next day, after Hebrew School, we ate a quick lunch out, made a grocery store run, and then headed home.  The boys got some of their Star Wars toys and had fun with them and the games.  Thankfully, the weather held out and we were able to play outside with the boys’ foam lightsabers as well.

lightsaber

In addition to the usual battle to the death (followed by – in a bit of Doctor Who-Star Wars crossover – our characters regenerating and joining the battle again), I took out a bubble making machine and let JSL slash at the bubbles with his lightsaber.  This turned out to be quite the brilliant activity to let him get all of his energy out without me getting exhausted.

force-bubbles

Of course, for dinner, we had Boba Fett-uccini and That’s No Meatballs.  (Veggie meatballs.)  We closed out Star Wars day with a Jedi Smoothie.  I was originally going to call this "blue milk" but it came out more purple than blue.  Perfect for Mace Windu’s lightsaber, though.

star-wars-meal

All in all, this was quite the successful geek-filled weekend!

Geek Weekend – Free Comic Book Day and May The Fourth

lightsaber-battleThis weekend is going to be a very big couple of days for geeks all over.

Free Comic Book Day

Tomorrow begins the celebrations with Free Comic Book Day.  Every year, on the first Saturday in May, comic book shops around the globe give away comic books.  I’ve written before about our previous free comic book day trips.  I hope to go with the boys again this year.  I’m not sure if our local comic book store will have people dressed in costume like they’ve had last year, but it’s always fun to see what comic books interest the boys.

May The Fourth

Sunday is May the 4th.  Star Wars fans, noticing the similarity between the day’s name and the Star Wars quote "May the Force be with you" have adopted this day as "Star Wars Day."  We already have our foam lightsabers ready to go.  (We might take them with us to Free Comic Book Day as well.)  Unfortunately, the weather doesn’t look like it will hold out to allow us to conduct some lightsaber battles outside.  We might need a raincheck for that.

Will you be attending Free Comic Book Day?  How will you celebrate May the Fourth?

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