Instant Addiction, Instant Cure

Ready for action Jacob!

At breakfast the other day, Mommy asked one of her typical questions, "What are you guys going to do today?"

Jacob immediately piped up, "I want to play the puzzle game that's hard to play."

Mommy's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Which game could he be referring to? I also was momentarily wondering what he could mean. Then I remembered when he woke up the night before at 10:30 p.m. He came all the way downstairs to the family room where I was playing Portal 2 on the Xbox. He asked what I was doing and I played it straight with him. I said, "I'm playing this game called Portal 2. It's a game full of puzzles, but they are kinda hard to do." He seemed satisfied. After a visit to the potty he was back in bed.

I mentioned this at breakfast and Jacob said, "Yes, Portal 2, I want to play that." Mommy was a little concerned but the game is really inoffensive. There's no zombies (alas!) or monsters or gore or such. There is some mild language. And a robot that's attached to a potato battery.

Instead of watching a morning video, Jacob, Lucy, and I played a little bit of Portal 2. I kept it to five minutes. We made one fantastic jump (which didn't really solve the puzzle but was exhilarating none the less) and I said we were done. Jacob seemed satisfied.

Until the afternoon. After nap time, we had a snack and the subject came up again. We played another little bit. Jacob helped out with the controls this time. His job was to push the X button (which performs special actions like opening closed doors or pushing buttons or throwing switches). He enjoyed that. He asked about the potato-powered robot and imitated her voice a little bit. I laughed the first time he did it so it became a regular routine for him. He always wants to say something funny.

This all happened three days ago. Jacob has lost interest already. More birthday presents are trickling in which provide more distractions. I'm a little bummed out because (1) it was nice to have my little man as my wing man and (2) it seemed more likely I would finish the game before the end of time. Playing for half an hour every two or three weeks doesn't allow for much progress. I have too many hobbies!