Can Wii Stop Time?

I haven't posted for a while - mostly due to a very hectic travel schedule, including two weeks in Asia on business. It was a great trip both from a business perspective and because it was my first time to that part of the world, but it was a long time to be away from my family. I haven't been away from them for that long, ever, and I was struck by just how much they have changed - not that they grew so much in two weeks, but that the two-week separation from them showed me how quickly they are growing up. When I see them every day, getting dressed, getting ready for school, playing and participating in various activities, it becomes a seamless stream of events, so I rarely notice their aging. It is only upon a noteworthy event, such as a graduation or birthday that I stop to think how quickly it is going by. Being away for two weeks qualifies as such a noteworthy event because when you're a half a world away, two weeks seems like two months.

I bought the girls China dolls in, well, China, and the dolls are based on an actual queen, empress, and princess from ancient China. The girls were very excited to get them and we were talking about how they were queens and princesses, etc. and I said, "just like the Disney princesses". To which my oldest said, "I don't really like Disney processes anymore." And she said it not in a mean way, but in a matter of fact, 'that's kids' stuff' kind of way - and she may as well have hit me in the face with a baseball bat. My princess grew out of princesses? How can that be?? It was only two years ago that we were in Disney World and she was so awestruck by Cinderella that she would barely go near her for a picture! And now, two years later, no princesses? I was crushed. Who replaced my baby with an adolescent while I wasn't looking? And right after she said it I had to catch myself from screaming, "You do too still like princesses! You have to!" But, she doesn't have to, and Disney has been replaced by American Girl dolls, and computer games, and Hannah Montana concerts. And I can only look at those pictures from our trip to Disney World and wonder how two years can feel like a lifetime.

Speaking of computer games (and Hannah Montana), several of her friends now have the Wii video games system, which for the uninitiated (for example, me, until about two months ago), Wii is an interactive video game system where you actually perform the action that happens on the screen. If, for example, you are playing Wii Tennis, you swing an electronic stick as if you were swinging a real racket. And I have to tell you, this is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. I played tennis, golf, bowling, and baseball, but there are also things like Hannah Montana Dance - where you have to keep up with on-screen dancers, and Guitar Hero where you have to play the notes of songs on a fake guitar as the notes on the screen come down faster and faster. The technology is amazing - I think we're going to have to get it for the girls, but I'm holding out for Wii natural childbirth and Wii colonoscopy - anyone can play tennis.