Sorry Mario, but your princess is in another video game...

I’m also an unfair mom: Mary was just dying to be Princess Peach but I forced her to use Ethan’s King Kong costume from last year, adding nothing but a red tie. What little girl wants to be Donkey Kong for halloween? Not this one. But once she had this costume on she forgot all about it and instead ran around saying “I’m gonna get you, Mario!” So next year perhaps I’ll force Ethan to recycle his costume and let Mary choose hers.

Well, here’s what the ended up wearing the next year: I can’t believe I didn’t upload it till now! (I’ll need to split this so the dates are right.  and I’m no really proud of these last minute costumes!)

Monkey Man and Butterfly Girl - Halloween 2005

One more uber-cutie. This is Aren in 2006 as a ninja, in the hospital in DC.

Ninja-Aren Icon

The funny thing is my gut reaction to this stressful clip: I stayed up all night playing Zelda. I seem to only have a tendency to kill time when I have little to none in the first place. Why is that? I’d never really looked at it before, though I’ve frequently used its name to explain my own. “Like Zelda but with a V” is my response anytime someone asks, “V-who??”

But Zelda is my three year old’s current game of choice. He is embarrassingly good at video games, but he prefers to watch other people play.

So, amid cries of “Not like THAT, Momma! Press the green button!” I learned to play. It’s a very frustrating game — you go through all these crazy puzzles only to find that you have to go back and get this or that. This is probably why Ethan would rather just watch.

I spent half the night in the Forbidden Forest, promising myself to turn it off as soon as I got out. It took forever to get out, but I just couldn’t quit until I was done. The addiction is like those evil purple vines that follow you with their claws and pull you away from your goal, or the little porcupine balls that cling on and slow you down.

I can’t wait to see what’s next.