Despite our cruel intervention, Jaden is still in high spirits.  He hasn’t mentioned the binky (to me, anyway) so perhaps I was wrongly assuming the outcome.  We’re still “best buds” and it’s great.  I took yesterday off from work (it was our 15th wedding anniversary, go us!  Yes, I took a break from blogging too…) and Jaden and I played a LOT. 

Yesterday it was mostly Destruction Derby Arenas (DDA) on Playstation 2, and a little bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender on the Nintendo Wii. 

DDA, as you can surmise, is mainly set up as crash-em-up cars and fast races and unlocking characters and new tracks.  It satisfies the young energetic boy in me, and Jaden and I have a fantastic time.  Jaden has finally matured to the point where he doesn’t HAVE to win all the time to have a good time.  Now he will frequently say “dad, it’s ok for you to win. I will be happy if you win. If you win, you get the trophy.”  The Avatar game is a little more mental in nature, but he still gets the gist of moving the characters around, exploring, fighting enemies, opening boxes, asking questions, etc.  He’s so flipping smart. 

And talented.  I’ve put some of his recent artwork here to share, click to enlarge.

The suave gentleman on the left is me.  You can tell from the huge smile and the perfectly coiffed hair.  Jaden said as he finished it “dad, I’m sorry I can’t draw your big tummy.”  (sniff).  I can tell you, I’m not sorry.  I hope to approach that level of thinnosity at some point.  It’s still pretty cute how he writes his name.  He almost always doesn’t leave room for the “N”, so he writes the J, and the A, and the D, and the E and then wraps down to the next line and does a huge “N”.  And if you’re wondering, the text to the right of the huge “N” is “DAD”. 

Aww, kids artwork.  This should warm  your day up a little