After watching an episode of Smallville last night, Rebecca and I held a LAN party and played Battlefront II with our four boys. She and I played defense as the boys played offense in various rounds of capture the flag. We made it a rule that everyone had to be on the same team and a victory for one was a victory for all, similar to life in the real world.
Rebecca and I are living the middle-class dream steeped with all the things that made us feel weak, odd and insignificant in our youths. We want our children to embrace their differences and not view them as handicaps; to recognize family as something to retreat to, not from. We want them to see themselves as we see them; to grow up and say, “Fuck the world. I’m not a mistake.”
But, of course, we’re teaching them this in a PG setting ;)
I’m very proud of the life Rebecca and I have built together and I couldn’t have done it without her. To me, she’s everything wonderful and it shows.
Shawn writes:
This is one of those truths you learn the hard way :(
Gratuitous Self-Promotion
Shawn writes:
This is a pic of Rebecca and me with the rest of the fam taken in Florida last Summer. My brother and his crew are to the left, our parents are to the right, and the Rebecca/Shawn spawn are the four boys in front of us.
Shawn writes:
Finally finished these in time for Christmas. Rebecca and I plan to give them to our kids as gifts then hang them in our front foyer.
I think the best part of the pics are the little bits of reality within each of them. For instance, Rebecca and I wear those Supergirl and Superman tees, our oldest covets his Superboy shirt, our second oldest actually owns a cloak while our two youngest dressed like Green Lantern and Captain America for Halloween.
All in all our children are pretty amazing and I wanted to illustrate that in a medium we all appreciate :) Comics and superheroes and sci-fi flicks and video games… it’s a language we speak that brings us closer as a family.
This is our view of parenting and adulthood. Lately Rebecca and I have been playing Battlefield 2 and DC Universe Online with the boys. It’s our reinvention of “Family Game Night”. Our rules are:
1) Everyone is on the same team 2) No one is better than another 3) Everyone makes mistakes 4) Everyone shares resources 5) No one steals kills 6) No one is left behind
We also tell the boys to mute their mics when they sneeze, but that’s pretty much a given :P
The rules are to encourage the boys to play as a team, a clan, a guild, a family, to teach them good sportsmanship and to be considerate of each other’s needs.
One day Rebecca and I won’t be around and we’re hoping gaming in a virtual world will strengthen the children’s bond, giving them newfound respect for family so that they’ll always remain a family even when our influence is gone.
Oh, and for those of you who’re wondering, each of the kids has a WinXP, P4 dual core rig with 2GB of ram, wireless-N LAN access, respective Radeon/NVidia video cards, and gaming headsets with access to Ventrilo. All the rigs were originally used and purchased through Craigslist with upgrades purchased from Amazon.com.
So yesterday evening our youngest son goes to the sink to wash his hands before dinner. After a few moments I catch him playing with the faucet and I say, “You know, every drop of water you let go down the drain is one drop of water taken from the ocean. If enough water is taken from the ocean then fishes like those in Finding Nemo won’t have a place to live and they’d have to close Disney World. You don’t want to close Disney World, do you?”
Our son thought for a moment and when he realized nothing I said made sense he laughed and exclaimed, “Daaaad!!!”
I laughed along with him and replied, “I’m just kidding. They closed Disney World because you don’t eat your vegetables.”
Shawn writes:
Done.
Video Number Two - Preparing for the Wedding
Shawn writes:
This is the video Rebecca and I made after the fact. We’d hired this epic photographer from the area who spent the day filming us as we prepped for the wedding.
The guest list was small by Kim Kardashian standards (some 55 people, give or take) but we preferred it that way. We didn’t want friends of coworkers or cousins twice-removed from prison attending our special day, so we limited our list to those people we felt the closest to. This also helped as many of these people helped us decorate the grounds for the ceremony which was awesome because it turned our wedding into a real family affair. Everyone felt included, invested and something that was once about us turned into something about them, too.
(Special thanks go to all the crafty people on Etsy who shipped us things from as far away as Australia and Hawaii. If you’re looking for unique ideas for your wedding, give Etsy a try)
Rebecca writes:
O hai! Shawn mentioned I was working on a “special project” to explain my complete lack of Tumbling activity lately…
Well, here’s my so-called “special project”. For months, I have been occupied with all things baby instead of my usual preoccupation with all things geek.
The top image is the actual ultrasound of our newest little miracle…due end of 2012 (proof that we will live to see 2013).
The bottom image is what we’re hoping the baby comes out dressed as. :P
“We’re expecting a baby… but it could be a Superhero.”
