Will has been doing a great job lately of keeping his undies clean and dry; it’s been awhile since his last accident (not including when he sleeps, which is why he still wears a diaper at night). His reward for doing so well has been and continues to be the privilege of playing video games.

I’ve mentioned numerous times that Will has become completely obsessed with Star Wars. Malin and I decided to ween him from it. I was a huge fan of Star Wars, too. But his interests are obsessive and cause way more tantrums and head-aches than they should. Our approach for reducing his Lego Star Wars play was to divert his attention to other things. When the weather is nice, we play soccer outside or walk to the nearest public playground to play on slides. We’ve been trying to get him to play other video games more – like the Webkinz arcade games. We also bought a game – more for Malin and me than Will since it’s a bit complicated for him, but he enjoys watching: Crazy Machines. The demo consists of ten free levels and was fun. Whatever you do, do not purchase the game online from the site that hosts its home page. Go to Best Buy and pick it up for ten bucks instead. I’ve done both and told the online site that I’ll be disputing the charges when I get my statement because they failed to send me a serial number for the game (you download the game immediately, but can’t play until you enter a serial number). After waiting several days with absolutely no word from them (not even an order confirmation, and after I’d sent a couple of e-mails complaining), I sent them a final e-mail telling them it was too late and that I was off to buy another copy (which I did). And just this morning, they’ve sent me the serial number… I will still be disputing the charge…

Malin had a bridal shower to attend on Saturday, so it was just Will and I that day. The weather was nice, so we drive around town with the top down. He enjoyed that. We went to Best Buy to pick up the Crazy Machines game, ate pizza at Mellow Mushroom, and then returned home and walked to the playground with slides. It was a fun day.

This weekend we decided to cut Will off of “Lego Man” – cold turkey. We knew it would be difficult. We didn’t want him to think we were punishing him because we’re not. So we “disabled” the XBox. Saturday morning he discovered that it wouldn’t work, and he was so distraught. I explained to him that it appeared to have died because it won’t work, and he was very upset. He even handed me the remote control (which does not operate the XBox) and said, “Try this!”

So after a little distress, we were able to get his mind on other things. We ate breakfast at Waffle House and then went to Toys’R’Us to pick up a Wii. We figured the Wii Sports would be fun for him and would divert his obsession. To help tide him over until we got home (we also drove up to IKEA to pick up some stuff, so it was awhile before Will would play the Wii), Malin was nice enough to feed his addiction with one last high: a Boba Fett action figure. He didn’t understand at first (this would be his first action figure toy), but after awhile he started zooming him around making “sound effects” with his mouth. Note to all our family and friends, please do not purchase Star Wars action figures for Will. This one was more of a peace offering than a gift. Maybe he’ll be ready to receive more (5? we’ll see)

We finally got home and hooked up the Wii. The first game we put in was Wii Play (it is effectively only ten dollars when you buy a second controller). We were a little disappointed. Every game requires quite a bit of fine motor control in order to aim the cursor on the screen. Will was not up for this and did not seem very interested in the new toy.

Then we put in Wii Sports, the title that is included with the Wii. This was more like it. Will quickly got hooked, and we all had lots of fun. Will’s favorite is golf. He doesn’t even try to get it into the hole. “I want to hit it into the water!” “I want to hit it into the forest!” So he strikes a few out-of-bounds and into the water hazards, and then cracks up laughing upon doing so.

And now, today, is his first day back at school from Spring break. We’ll see this afternoon how everything goes – he didn’t want to go this morning. But we’re sure he’ll get right back in the swing of things quickly. And if he’s good today, we can play bowling and baseball tonight…