Last night, I met up with Todd, a friend of mine since High School.  As we parted, he gave me a box of old comic books that he was getting rid of, suggesting that Matthew (son, 11) might like them.  It was a bunch of old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (wherein they were actually bad-ass, not the all goofy like the cartoons), X-Men, Ghost Rider ( Read more... )

We're still struggling to get Matthew to read books above the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" level. Thinking along the same lines of the "Illustrated Classics Comic Books" route, I picked up a copy of the just-released Graphic Novel adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time" for Matthew.


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Last night, I took Matthew out to his Cub Scouts meeting, but no one was there. I called the Scout Leaders and both of them had forgotten about it. So there we were, out of the house, not expected back for a couple of hours ( Read more... )

Matthew is always looking for ways of getting our money. This is his latest scheme:


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Dinnertime conversation with my son, Matthew (9):

M: I'm going to open a store in my room!
C: Your room? That kind of limits your potential customers.
M: YOU guys can buy stuff! Grommy and Granddaddy and you and Mommy.
C: What kind of stuff are you selling? We already bought the Yankee Candles and ButterBraid Bread from your school fundraisers and ( Read more... )

I received Portal 2 as an Anniversary Gift from Mel and I was loving it. And Matthew really was interested when he saw me playing it, and wanted to try. Why not? It's fun, and there's even a co-op mode for 2-players.

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He needs the occasional bit of help, but in a little over 3 days, the (9 year old!) boy has surpassed my progress in the game, ( Read more... )

I've been taking Matthew to Cub Scouts since the fall, and he's really having a good time. And as incredible as it seems, part of our activities is an Overnight trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama this weekend! I've always wanted to go since I was a kid, but we never could afford it. But this Cub Scout one-night version only ran $200 for Kid ( Read more... )

On the THIRD attempted weekend, we finally got our Christmas decorations up in the yard. If you recall from last year, we actually put ours in the BACK yard, so Melissa can see them from her window.


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After getting back from DragonCon this afternoon, our son greets us, pointing out his newly-lost tooth. ("I got two bucks for it!")

Then, while I'm unpacking, he comes back in wearing a black fake mustache.
"I command that this house be sold!" he declared in a fake-important voice.

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After dinner on Friday, Matthew (8) got suddenly serious ( Read more... )