Dec 22 2008
Manic Monday: Tree
prompt from Mo at Manic Monday
First an update on our tree situation: It is still standing and well! There’s been some sort of Christmas miracle! Several of our keepsake ornaments have been dismembered, but a little glue has saved most of those. Gus seems to have lost interest in redecorating the tree. I’d attribute this to either being distracted by gifts and things under the tree, or perhaps he just finally got it just the way he wanted it. One string of lights bit the dust, but they’re so fragile, I didn’t even give it a second thought. So our tree drama seems to be over and so far things have been peaceful.
And now on to a tree post of a different sort. If you’ve been following, you’ll know that Gus has a little obsession with Pokemon. Last Christmas we gave him the Pokemon DVD board game. I give it high points for replay value - they had me playing this morning even before breakfast. I got to play the character Brock who starts with a Pokemon named Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo evolves from Bonsly - a baby bonsai tree - into a small human sized, walking tree. Why is he a rock type? Even Gus, guru of all things Pokemon, has not been able to explain that to me.
Of course, he won the game and had to help MM and me with most of our trivia questions. I often question the wisdom in letting him have his obsession - is it smart to encourage it? I think, at least in this case, it probably is. I think Pokemon has been a vehicle for his to work on social skills. It’s one of the few board games he’ll actually play, although we do have to work on the inappropriate or insensitive things he says when someone doesn’t know an answer or when someone else is losing and upset about it (like his sister). He’s getting the Pokemon card game this year, along with a Pokedex, and a Pokemon encyclopedia covering all 3 regions. The boy will be in hog heaven as they say. And if I can sneak a peek at that encyclopedia, I may just beat him at the game one of these days.
