Uncanny Valley

My morning started with Richie, who wanted breakfast.  Unfamiliar with what might be available. I found a cookie for him.

Fortunately, Papa Ben joined us.  He brought corn flakes and milk to the table and made us breakfast.

Richie could not get enough of Papa Ben this morning.

At some point, he began asking for mo.  I didn't know what mo was, but Papa Ben did.  "He wants Elmo."  Once I knew the problem, I knew the solution.  I streamed an Elmo show and Richie was delighted.

Jonathan joined us.  He is the most easy-going baby on the planet, and he adores Papa Ben.

Papa laid on the floor and called to Jonathan so I could be impressed with how well Jonathan crawls.  Nothing was moving this kid until Ben offered him his cell phone.  Then he crawled to Papa in 4 nanoseconds.

Jonathan likes Richie more than he likes Papa Ben. This became evident when Richie joined us on the floor.

Papa offered to feed Jonathan.  This was Richie's successful attempt to communicate very clearly that he wanted what Jonathan was having.

In no time, Richie had his own seat, his own spoon, and he fed himself mush and bananas.  Everyone was happy.

A few hours later, Papa and I found ourselves at Dave's house!

There is always someone new to meet in the tank.

Nate asked if he could watch the episode with Captain Picard and the alien.  I told him he needed to be a little more specific.

Julie accepted my invitation to play Go Fish!

Matt did not survive the first round.

I actually creamed them both.

Melanie joined us

She explained the concept of Uncanny Valley.  I now understand why the Creepy Doll is creepy.

We tied our next game of Go Fish!

We three girls then tied at Memory.  So fun.

I remembered I had brought beads.

Mel and Julia made lizards.  We loved this.  If we find a way to get more beads, we'll make more.

Mom and Dad came home with BBQ for dinner.

Nate likes sausage.

This was my dinner.  It was spectacular!

All of a sudden, in the middle of everything, Matt coached Julia on the finer points of chin-ups.  Maybe I should make that singular, because she could only do one.

Then we played Bananagrams.  I was really pleased that I won the first game until I looked at this picture.

Fortunately, the next game was Mexican Train.  Papa won the first round.

We laughed a lot.

It was well after 8 before it was cool enough to walk around the block.  Matt, Mel and I talked about escape rooms, with Uncle Steve engaged via text, sharing links of locks with us.

When we got home, Nate got booted off the computer so Matt and Mel could read Aunt Janet's posts about escape rooms.  Somehow, somewhere, we need to do this!

However, as soon as Dave offered me Blue Bell Ice Cream Cone ice cream, escaping was forgotten.

Why not try out a new cookie recipe at 9 pm?  I chopped the orange-chocolate.

The recipe made 10 cookies.

Our team analyzed them.

Yes, they were pretty good.  I will confess that there is just a little more going on here than a cookie-analysis.  I was on the floor laughing.

Any why not, at 10 pm, teach Dewey how to play a new game?  I already can't wait for tomorrow, which is almost here.