Video Games
From a very young age (about 3 years old) Juliette has been able to play on the computer. Her mouse control was lacking at first but encouraged by familiar characters like Barbie, Bob the Builder and Sagwa she persisted until her fine motor skills were fine tuned enough to get all the items required for that perfect Barbie beach party. I've included some of her favorite websites in the link section. We then exposed her to a bunch of free CD ROM games from cereal boxes. The best by far has been Candyland. On Saturday she accomplished a milestone. I've played a few video games in my day so I've dreamt of a day that I could play against/with my kids at a game that I could enjoy. On Saturday we played Gauntlet on the XBox together (rated G). The game involves walking around picking up treasure and shooting monsters. She loved the picking up treasure part and killed a few monsters on the way. During the game you could often hear lines like "Follow daddy Juliette / This way", "Daddy help me!", "I'm greedy Daddy" and of course "Daddy that's my diamond". Now I just have to hope she still remembers how to play outside.
Soccer
Juliette will be starting soccer soon. I brought her outside this weekend and ran around the yard telling her to take the ball away from me. I told her she would have to run faster than the other kids if she wanted to win. I also told her not to cry when/if she lost to which she responded "I won't cry daddy", but I have my doubts. This will be her first exposure to organized sports (if you can call a bunch a 4 year olds running around a field kicking the same ball at the same time organized). I am little worried, being the first born, she's been a little bit of a wimp. Unlike Nicholas, she hasn't had a bigger child that she must fight off to get what she wants. So more often than not if things don't go her way she pouts and/or cries. Whatever happens it will be damn cute and I'll be sure to have my camera close by.