Family game night

Jan. 22, 2012

For the second year in a row Annette and I were feeling depressed that we couldn’t come up with any fun gifts for Nathan for Christmas. Our families jumped on any ideas we could give them, especially for games, which typically had his PT/OT goals in mind, but still that void of purely fun gifts lingered. Nathan never asks for anything.

There have been times we’ve travelled the toy aisle of Wal-Mart pulling items of the shelves, handing them to him, just to see if he would show any interest. If he held on as we tried to take it away, we’d take notice and if it happened again, onto the list it would go. Still, Nathan never asks for any interest in big-ticket gifts, and we don’t like spending money on things he’s not truly interested in, so he goes without.

We had the notion of taking Nathan to the Fresh Beat Band concert, when it comes in March, but after the two shows of Sesame Street Live where he screamed most of the time, and the Christmas Eve service when the junior high band played and he’d squeeze my finger not sure what was going on, we didn’t think it was worth the financial risk.

Two days before Christmas, (on Nathan’s last trip to Cincinnati) Annette and I saw the same commercial, for Nickelodeon Dance, a game for the Wii. It had songs from Dora, Diego, the Backyardigans, and even the Fresh Beat Band. The goal was to do the same moves the characters did on the screen and try to earn stars unlocking more songs. After Nathan’s attraction to the Ellen show, (which he still enjoys dancing to) we thought this may be right up his alley.

Finally we had an idea, a gift from us to him, something just for fun, and for all of us to enjoy. Then the fun began, finding it right before Christmas. We stopped at three different Wal-Marts over the next two days, even Toys-R-Us, had it sold out. Alas, another Christmas without a fun present.

A few weeks later, on a respite night for Annette and myself, cashing in on free food for my birthday, we decided to stop at Target and see if we could find it. They only had one left and it was the full retail $39.95. We waivered for a minute, but then we decided to take the risk and hope for the best.

We brought it home and handed it to him. He didn’t know what it was but it was covered in plastic wrap, so it must be good. We took the plastic off, I opened it up and for a second he was excited, but that faded not seeing anything he could grab inside. We put it away until the weekend, but then gave it a shot.

From the moment the game turned on, he started giggling. As characters came on the screen and seemed to be talking to him, he became engaged. When the call came out from Dora, “Okay, dance with me.” He clapped his hands and got all excited. It was my job to help him stand, and Annette’s to do the real dancing (someone had to collect the stars). Nathan would push the limits with his leg endurance but the smile on his face made us know that every penny was worth it.

Annette probably lasted around 6 songs, then we switched and I “danced” while she worked with him. Still the laughing (I think as much from Annette as from Nathan,) but I’m proud to say neither one of us got less than (the maximum) 3 stars on every song. The next weekend we played again, with the same result. Plenty of standing for Nathan, plenty of giggling, and some actual physical activity for Annette and myself.

We may not have made it for December 25, but I think we were still able to give Nathan a good present, and in turn, spend some quality family time together. Once my freelance projects settle a bit (the first three months are typically the busiest months of the year,) I’m hoping we can play some more, laugh some more and enjoy each other all over again. The thought that it takes all three of us to succeed, helps confirm how important being a family really is.

Back to previous postings