Pinball Tour

I had a blog post title ready.  I came downstairs to the computer to write up something I’d already planned out in my mind.   But I have a much, much better topic to write about now, just fifteen minutes later after listening to my husband and daughter in the next room.

They’re playing the “One Thing to Know” game.   We (or rather my husband) has several pinball machines.   My daughter knows you pull the plunger and bang on the buttons until someone tells you you lost your ball.   Other than sound and vibration, what happens inside the box?

My husband took the glass off and pulled up a stool for my daughter.   He gave her the pinball to feel—it’s bigger and heavier than you might think.   He let her feel the different paths for the ball and then place the ball in different locations on the field to see what would happen.

He answered her questions and told her about multiball.   He knew I was in the next room and called me in to show me something.   My husband had the settings mode on.   He pressed a button and all the lights on the board turned green.   My daughter said, “green!” and smiled.   She got blue and red and white correct too.   I wasn’t sure she could tell colors at all anymore.   She got tripped up by green being blue on the next go round, but corrected herself when the next color was blue.

She is having a very good time playing an interactive version of pinball.   My husband loves pinball; he’s having probably just as much fun as she is.   This has to be the best, “One Thing to Know” yet.  I just heard my daughter say, “yes, it does make sense” while her father showed her how the bumpers work when the ball hits them.   It’s hard to top pinball.

The Big Boy Update:  My son spent some time with my parents today.   I’m not going to go into it, but he got up on the wrong side of the figurative bed and would not, could not, refused to be anything other than obstinate, insulting, screaming and hateful at both my husband and me this morning.   He had consequences.   He was mad.   He was disregulated.   My husband and I were frazzled but resolved he was going with my parents when they arrived at ten o’clock and we wouldn’t say a thing about how the morning had gone.   They arrived and my son left without a complaint.   He loved the museum and had a good time the whole day with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I just heard my husband say, “do you want to feel the zombie in The Walking Dead?”  (pinball machine) “Of course!” my daughter said with clear excitement in her voice—she’s not scared of zombies.