Pirate Beer Pong and Other Games of Skill for Children

I had posted recently about Samantha's affinity for playing the video (virtual) drinking game, Chug Monkey when we've gone to pick Steve up over at the local pub from time to time.  The object of that game is to keep the monkey on her bar stool as she chugs beer after beer, cocktail after cocktail.  And, I will admit, Samantha's only objective with that game is to make the monkey fall off of her stool.  

Well, a few new games have taken Chug Monkey's place.  Games that actually require a steady hand and no small amount of blind luck  intense skill.  Games that certainly show off her fine motor skills coupled with deductive reasoning.  Games like Skee Ball, Pirate Beer Pong and Monkey Bash.

I mean, seriously, what could be more intellectually stimulating than a game where a clown uses a baseball bat to clock the monkey jumping on a trampoline, whacking him clear up into the air, across screen after screen until he finally crashes into a barrel on the ground?  And in response, the monkey just shakes himself off, grins sheepishly and gives a thumbs up to let you know he's okay.  Just in case you were worried...

Personally, I think the best part of watching Samantha play the games on that machine in the bar is watching her type her name into the high-score screen using the touch-screen keyboard (they wipe the machine's memory every few days, so high scores aren't hard to come by).  If her finger slips off of one of the letters, she hits the backspace like an old pro, and starts again.  S - A - M - M - I she writes.  Love it.

Steve and I bought Droids a few weeks ago.  The deal we got from Verizon was pretty sweet...buy one get one free, a $50 credit on my account because we were renewing the contracts with them that we've had for, like, forever, and a $100 rebate if we send one of our old phones back in.  That added up to...get this...two Droids for $50.  You seriously can't do much better than that, I think.  And we love them.  And I received, as a result, some very, very valuable education:

I now know what an App is. 

As a devoutly anti "i" anything (phone, pad, mac, whatever) couple, these Droids are seriously freaking cool.  The battery life sucks beyond belief, but being able to download free educational apps that Samantha can play with and learn from is worth every minute of racing against the clock, daring it to just shut down, defying each angry, urgent little warning beep.

We've officially graduated from phones of average intelligence to real, live smart phones!  And, as usual, we justify every foray into technological advancement by saying it'll benefit Samantha.  Yep, that's right.  And I'm going to prove it.  :-)

By the way, I'm writing this while watching the premiere the X Factor.  Not bad.  But I'm about to hit the hay, as I have a 5am date with a treadmill at the gym.  See you all again in a few days!