Archive for August, 2010

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Why I won’t be hiring Besh as a game designer just yet

August 23, 2010

Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t be happier that he’s making up games. But given that his first game appears to be “Mommy Wins!” I’m just not his target audience.

Last night after dinner, Besh walked over to his chalkboard, picked up a piece of chalk and started doodling on the board.

Besh: “Daddy, can you guess what this is?”

Me: “It’s a drawing. With chalk. Green chalk.”

“No. For real.”

“Oh, for real. Well, it’s a drawing of Greece. No, Italy.”

“No, you’re wrong. You’re out of the game. Mommy?”

Mommy: “That’s a drawing of a man riding a horse.” (It was probably something else, but it didn’t really matter)

Besh: “That’s right, you’re the winner Mommy!”

While I protested, because it really looked more like Italy, Besh erased the board and drew something else.

Besh: “Okay, Daddy, pick a number and a color.”

Me: “The number is four and the color is red.”

Besh: “No, you’re wrong. You’re out of the game. Sorry. Mommy?”

Mommy: “3,487.560,394.3″ (Yes, it started in the billions and went to one decimal place.) “And the color is blue.”

“That’s right, Mommy! You’re the winner!”

I protested again. This game is hard. Besh agreed to give me one more chance. Again I had to pick a number and color.

I did a number that started in the trillions and went to three decimal places. And picked blue.

Besh: “Nope. Sorry.”

“WHAT?! Then what was the number?”

“Twenty-four thousand fifteen hundred.”

At least I got the color right.

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“I comed up with it all by myself!”

August 3, 2010

Today’s post is a straight copy from Sara’s email (with one addition of mine later):

I just had to share this one. Mornings are rough around here. It is hard to get Besh motivated in the mornings. This morning, I told Besh he could do things in whatever order he wanted as long as he was ready to go by the time the clock said 8:20. I gave him some tips on when to do things but ultimately left it up to him. Though we were out the door in time, there was a major scurry at the end. We got in the car and I said, “ok, everybody take a deep breath.” As we pulled out of the driveway, this is the conversation I had with Besh:

Besh: “Mommy, I am sorry I gave you a rough morning.”

Mommy: “Besh, Thank you but you didn’t really give me a rough morning. We just had to hurry at the end. I really want to be able to let you choose the order you do things in the morning. But we just need to figure out the timing so that we aren’t rushing at the end.”

“I have a good idea. Do you want to hear it?”

“I would love to hear it. I think you have great ideas.”

“Why don’t we set the timer in the kitchen? That way, when it beeps, I will know to go pee pee, brush my teeth and get dressed. Then, I can relax and watch tv before it beeps.” (The timer he mentions is the one on the oven, we use it to measure his daily hour of wearing an eye patch to address an eye issue.)

“Besh, that is not a good idea. That is a spectacular idea! I love it.”

“Yeah. I’m a smart kid.”

We then called Ryan to tell him. After I told him the story, Besh said, “was that a good idea, Daddy?” Then a pause [During that pause Daddy said "That's a FANTASTIC idea!"] and then,

“Yeah. I comed up with it all by myself.”

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