You may have noticed my (complete) lack of blogs lately.  That is because I have been very, very lazy busy lately.  I do have a house to run and five children plus one husband to corral, clothe and feed on a regular basis.  And the Fall season of sports and activities has already revved up to max Q.  But that’s not why I didn’t write during the past week.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  Plus I had very important business.  Donkey Kong Country Returns business on the Wii, to be specific.  And those eight magical orbs are NOT going to find themselves, you know.

Last week was an off week for Kid E.  He had two weeks of camp that coincided with the others starting public school but his first day of preschool isn’t actually until tomorrow.  In the meantime, we have been just hanging out doing not much of anything together.  We have had a blast.  We went to Target a couple of times and did some birthday wish list browsing (I swear the kid headed straight for the Nerf guns and the Thor pointy helmet every time!) and we have played endless hours of Legos, Batman, Mom-Always-Said-Don’t-Play-Ball-in-the-House, and – of course – video games.

It all started with the Atari 2600...

Kid E loves to watch me play video games.  I don’t mean to brag, but I am exceedingly good at them.  I have been playing basically my whole life, at least since 1982 when they got a Q*bert at the Wawa near my house.  I can play for hours at a time too.  It drives Sheepdog nuts.  Especially when I play instead of write.  Or make dinner.  Or talk to him.  But especially instead of writing.  That drives him a special kind of crazy.  Heh heh.  Little does he know that I am so late in posting today because Kid E and I have played no less than an hour and a half of DKCR and Super Mario Bros.  I have all 3 star coins on seven of the eight levels on World 9… those last two star coins for the total 9-7 win are just so darned elusive!!!

Now, I only play the kid-friendly games.  I have never gotten into Halo or Grand Theft Auto or any of the other blood and guts and breaking of the seven deadly sins-type video games.  I guess I want to defend myself by clarifying that I am not sitting in my basement donning a headset, connected to the internet, living in the same clothes for five days at a time, all while siting in a pile of Cheetos dust.  I just play a little Wii Fit Plus now and again.  And some Wii tennis, baseball and bowling.  And some Harry Potter Years 1 – 4.  And some Lego Star Wars.

I know that playing these video games is completely unproductive and I’m probably giving myself ADD or ADHD, but I do enjoy the mindless entertainment of it all every now and again.  And the Wii Fit games get everybody up and moving.  Not as much as the real thing, but it is a great alternative for the times when it is crazy hot or raining outside.  My thinking is that it is better than television, at least, because video games develop hand-eye coordination and sharp reflexes.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

So tomorrow I will send my baby off to preschool and things will get back to normal and I will start acting more mom-like on a regular basis.  You’ll probably see more weekday posts from me then.  And I’ll go back to making real dinners and conversing with Sheepdog and throwing a football in the yard with my kids.

But you shouldn’t be totally surprised if one day you see somebody with the handle “FiveBabyMama” online tearing it up on some video game.

Wish me luck for tomorrow…