I love Minesweeper!

So it seems like one of the big things for kids today is a little stuffed animal called a Webkinz. But it's not just a stuffed toy--it's a key to a whole online world. The premise is that you buy this thing and then play with it in a virtual world--you need to earn $ to buy food and furniture to keep the pet happy, and you do that by playing games and working jobs. You need to play with the pet and take it to the vet as necessary. H has been bugging me for one, so at last, I succumbed. She got the darn thing yesterday and promptly spent the next 2 hours online. She would have been on the computer longer, if I hadn't kicked her off. No, not because it was bedtime or because she needed to spend time doing something more productive. I kicked her off because one of the games on the site was like Minesweeper! Yes, that Minesweeper that used to come installed on all new PCs (along with Solitaire). I used to play those so much in law school that I developed fungal infections on my thumb. Nice. Anyway, the Minesweeper version for Webkinz is sweeping for skunks, and yesterday, you were able to earn bonus points on the game. So of course I altruistically offered to earn as many points (which translate to Webkinz $) for H by playing the game. It's harder than I remembered, and whereas in the original Minesweeper, you could clear whole swaths with one button, this game generally cleared one by one, which was maddeningly slow. I had to pry myself away from the computer. H decided it was a good game to learn math, though I think it's really more logic and problem solving, and I think it's a little out of her reach for now. T loves Webkinz too, but since he just got loaded with birthday junk, he'll have to wait a bit. Oh wait, H has been loaded with pre-birthday junk, so maybe it's only fair that I get him one soon. Have we already had the "Mommy = Chump" post?