December 26th

December 26th, 2009

In the spirit of honesty this picture was taken yesterday, and even though I do have some pictures from today... I just can't pass this one up.

For Christmas Jonathan started out wanting a printer (see the post earlier this fall about how his brother peed on the printer that was hooked up to the computer he can use). Then he realized that it would be much cooler if he had his own computer and his own printer in his room.

Under normal circumstances I would just not be supportive of purchasing a computer to put in my 6 almost 7 year old's room. But, You see I had this laptop that was days away from being out of warranty and that was having some issues. Its most recent issue involved me accidentally dropping the power cord in my soup while studying for my stats test at the end of the semester. So, my computer was dead, had a glitchy screen and was nearly out of warranty. I went to the apple store. They fixed it up as good as new without a question. They also explained to me that although a laptop is made to be portable, as it gets older it starts to be a bit more fragile, and the problems were generally being caused by my carrying it around with me everywhere. For the remaining days of the warranty they would fix it, but once that warranty expired it would be expensive to maintain.

So I got a new computer. I find that I am completely dependent on having a laptop with me everywhere I go. It is keeping me sane as I manage being a student, a TA, a researcher, a wife, a mother, etc... And we gave him my old laptop to Jonathan, since he has no plans to carry it around with him, and so it should continue working for a long time for him.

He is one lucky kid. Technically his computer cost more than mine when we bought it years ago (not counting inflation...!)... I got a pretty bottom of the line model this time since it is just to carry around. His screen is even two inches bigger than mine! He thinks that is pretty cool.

So about the picture. We put some pretty strong parental controls on it. He needs me to put in a password to install new software. He can only visit websites that I authorize, he can only email people who I have approved, and he can only video chat with people I put on his list.

On Christmas morning his inbox was filled with emails from his aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and mom and dad. He was thrilled. And last night he got to chat with his Uncle David. Which is what you see in the picture. The best part is that when he was chatting with his uncle, they were taking about what else he got for Christmas, and his little brother gave him a new game for his DS. So he was playing the game on his DS with the screen facing the camera, while his uncle watched. It was priceless!