Wheeeeee!!

We now are a Wii family. Having met some financial goals earlier this fall (thank you, adoption tax credit), and seeing how it was Andy's birthday, I surprised him with a Wii.

Niranjana loves it. Andy and I rarely get to play with it — unless we are playing with her.

Niranjana is amazing at the thing, especially considering that she's only 4.5 years old. She can throw strikes in bowling, hit home runs in baseball, and serve an ace in tennis. She also sometimes proves an annoying opponent or partner by not pointing the remote at the TV, blowing herself up in the Tanks game, or "accidentally" hitting the continue/start over/quit button right when you're about to take a crucial shot.

As we currently have just three games — Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit — and the games aren't cheap, we have rented a few to try them out. Talk about an obsessed little girl. Diego or the Disney Princesses occupy her every waking moment (that we will allow). So we're not in the market for a lot of games at this time. Santa will bring one, but it's another sports-based one that generally gets us out of our chairs.

The Wii definitely is building Niranjana's hand-eye coordination. We usually play together, so it is an interactive activity has mostly taken the place of TV/DVDs. She's learning the rules of sports that are especially important in our families ("It's in the hole!" and "It could be, it might be, a home run!"), and we're emphasizing sportsmanship whether she wins or loses.

And since our friends have been able to test our Wii with their preschoolers, it appears we've set off a mini-economic uptick.

"Wii" are all happy with our investment.