Gameboy Advance SP is a Hit!

Grandma gave my son a Gameboy Advance SP unit about 2 weeks ago, and I'm pleased to say he gives the unit a thumbs up. The SP is small, compact and also very 'cool' looking. One thing that always bugged me about my son playing the other Gameboy models (and believe me, he has them all), is that the screen seemed so hard to see -- I worried about his eyesight getting damaged! The screen on the SP is fully backlighted and the quality of the display is fantastic. Don't ask me the techie stuff, but I think this has a more powerful display. Interestingly, you have to use a rechargeable battery instead of traditional batteries with this unit. I haven't decided whether that is a good thing or a bad thing yet. The charge lasts pretty long -- they claim from 10-18 hours, but it takes a full three hours to charge it up. I also understand these are currently hard to get -- if you want to really make your little gamer happy, pick up a Gameboy Advance SP for them!

High Expectations for Remote Control Airplane

This weekend, we went to the park to try out my son's Radio Control Air Surfers Plane. We've never had a remote control plane before, so the anticipation was high.

Assembly must have been pretty easy, because the kids did it themselves without asking for my help. The charger, powered by 'C' batteries, took an agonizing 25-30 minutes to fully charge the small battery for the plane. Actually, 25 minutes is pretty reasonable, but for the kids it seemed like forever.

Finally, charging finished and we made our way to the park to try it out. It took us a few attempts to figure out how to get the plane flying, but we eventually got the hang of it. The problem really was that, by the time my son started to get the hang of it -- the batteries were exhausted. This only took about 5 minutes!

It was pretty frustrating to only be able to fly for five minutes. Since we had brought the charger with it, we recharged for 25 minutes and then tried again. My son was able to fly for short distances, but always resulted in a fairly quick crash. This time the charge lasted a bit longer (maybe 7 minutes), but all in all, disappointly quickly.

To make matters worse, my son refused to let my daughter give the plane a spin until the batteries were almost exhausted, and this resulted in screaming fights between the two of them for most of the time that we were there.

Keep in mind that it's entirely possible that we just don't know what we are doing. Perhaps someone with more patience, or better yet -- skill -- could do better with this plane!

Write a book for your child - it's easy!

Looking for a way to make your child think you are cool? When my daughter was a toddler, I wrote her a personalized book. Really! Using the Illustory personalized book kit, it's easy.

You don't really have to have talent to do this -- goodness knows I didn't! I simply made up a 'story' in rhyme format that included real personal aspects from the daily aspect of my child. The kit provides blank pages and instructions for how to layout the pages. I then created a very simplistic character that kind of looked like my daughter, and went to town with magic markers.

You send the pages and the accompanying text, via mail to Illustory, and they typset and bind the book and send it back to you! My daughter absolutely loved her book, which was called 'Alex's Busy Day'. She loves swimming, so here's an excerpt....

Good morning, Alex!
It's time to play.
It's a bright and sunny
day today!

Alex went swimming
and saw some fish.
They said, "Splish, Splash,
Blurb, Blurb, Swish, Swish!"

Mattel says “ello” Empowers Girls

Interesting info from Mattel,

"Get ready to deconstruct the building toys of the past, and get ready to say, “hello” to “ello™.” ello is the first creation system for girls that inspires them to design and create whatever sparks their imagination....from people to places to jewelry, the possibilities are endless. The ello creation system extends beyond the linear play patterns historically associated with boys’ building toys and engages girls in a way relevant to them by incorporating social play with creativity and crafts. Unlike anything else on the market, ello not only provides the tools and inspiration for girls to build elaborate fantastical environments, but also includes pieces to create characters and decorative accessories."

My take on "ello" -- my daughter is 11 and it is tough to find 'toys' that she will play with anymore. She's a typical 'tween' and she focuses more on clothes, computer, and crafts than on toys. She got ello for Christmas and has played with it briefly once or twice. Interestingly, she's having a few girls sleep over tonight and told me that she was going to get out ello to play with them. I think ello has a certain 'cool' factor because of its funky, fun style.

Spongebob is a drip

My kids have two goldfish that Santa brought them two years ago. I honestly never imagined that goldfish could live this long (especially with as little attention as they receive). Of course, *I* am responsible for their health and welfare -- feeding, cleaning, etc. Every morning the larger of the two seems to 'SCREAM' out of his tank at me -- shaking his body violently and desperately demanding to be fed.

Long story short, about a month ago their tank was so dirty I decided to just go out and buy a new tank instead of going through the torture of cleaning it. Um, yes, a pretty lazy move. Which brings me (finally) around to the point of this post -- the Spongebob Squarepants Aquarium.

It's definitely a cute item and a hit with my kids. However, it irks me because the stupid fish keep knocking over the Spongebob figure so he is constantly just laying face down on the aquarium floor. In addition, a few days ago it started dripping, slowly, from the lid area. Now I have a kitchen towel under the tank to soak up the drips.

Maybe I should have just cleaned the original tank in the first place.