Aimee: Your new bedtime is 6 pm.

When I decided to stay at home, we knew that we were immediately going to give up a few things; vacations to the carribbean, bi-monthly manicures and pedicures for me, nice phones. It's totally worth it. I love being home with the babies, but every now and then, there is something that makes me wistful for those days when we indulged because we didn't have to worry about buying formula and diapers. I'm talking about the Nintendo Wii.

We usually try to avoid things that we can't afford. What's the point? But this Wii "contraption" has been hard to avoid because it really and truly is- all the rage. Still, we knew that we'd never have one because, well, we try to be responsible people. And responsible people don't spend money they don't have on things they don't really *need*.

Then my mother in law called me. "I've decided that I'm going to get us a Wii". I almost choked on my coffee. A WHAT? "And I'm getting some games too". She told me that I didn't have to tell Brian if I didn't want to, that we could surpise him. So I kept the information to myself and after having dreamed about it all night, I decided that the excitment of waiting for it was really part of the fun, so I called Brian at work and told him to call him mom because she got something for us.

Brian and I immediately decided that our kid's bedtime is now 6pm, our daily dinner will consist of take out and fast food, and that we are basically going to pretend that we are 14 again. We got the Wii last night and played well past our bedtime. The thing that is so exceptional about the Wii is that most games are very physical. The wireless remote and sensor that you place on the TV allow the games to be lifelike and physically challenging. So, if you are playing bowling, you actually have to go through all of the motions of bowling. The speed of the ball depends on the force that you put into swinging your arm. Wii really is more high tech and fancy schmancy than I thought. So last night we spent hours playing boogie and Dance Dance Revolution. We really felt like we were 14 again....except that this morning, reality hit me when I woke up unable to move because of the soreness in my muscles. I'm 31.

What makes this gift even more fun and meaningful is that it was totally a huge surprise and unexpected and undeserved. I have a feeling that our family parties won't be the same. Now excuse me while I take an ibuprophen and put my kids down for a nap.