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7:45 PM, Tuesday, June 26th, 2018:   PARTAYYYYY TIME!!!!!      I actively try to avoid influencing my children to like whatever I liked. That's a strange pet-peeve of mine. And when I got the Nintendo Switch last summer, part of me wanted my kids to understand how videogames work, etc. but part of me knew they'd probably never have the bug like I did back in the day. I was alive during the entire evolution. I had pong.   Yeah, I brought out my NES and showed them everything leading up to the Switch but I knew, deep down, it wasn't gonna be the same.   For Cam? It worked. I mean - the dude beat Mario Odyssey before his 4th birthday with ZERO help from me. If you spend any time with children 5 and under you know that sentence is insane. He routinely wins matches on 150cc in Mario Kart - his brain just gets it. It's spooky.   He's also genuinely mario-NUTS. The entire universe, knows all the characters - makes us all choose our favorites and while I have some reticence for him just buying into something soooooooo commercial, I have to admit? It's interactive. That means something to me. This isn't Disney, the reason he likes the Mario Universe? He's lived it. He actively explores it. He FOUND Toad. Like, the first time he saw Toad was searching Mario Odyssey and he found him. He's now excited there's a Toad game coming out next month because of what HE DID. That's special to me. That's different.   Vienna is indifferent and until Mario Tennis (which for whatever reason she's just awesome at) she could care less. And I'm TOTALLY cool with that and she and I do other cool stuff. Making an animated cartoon together!!!! NEXT MONTH!!! But me and Cam? We play videogames and we have a bond over them. It's wonderful. I never dreamed he'd be this in tune with it at 4 1/2.   So yes, we had a Mario birthday party and we both dressed up. He actually wanted a Mario Kart Party so he could show everyone his moves. (sigh) A couple weeks ago I showed him competitive gaming. He saw the stage, all the people watching... now he wants his own show and wants to be ON that stage to show people his moves. While all of this is adorable and to be supported? Not at 4 man. If we handed other 4 year olds controllers and proceeded to destroy them and get all agro on them... not a good scene. He is so far beyond kids his age I need to tamp down his expectations a bit. I've seen other 4, 5 and 6 year old play... nothing is really there until 7. So I don't want to set-up some toddler BEAT DOWN to stroke his ego. At this point my biggest goal is training Talya so SHE can beat him and remind him he's still 4 and to stop talking so much shit. LMFAO.   Anyway, it was a great party. Yet again, a new dad saw the Time Machine and his jaw just kind of dropped which was a beautiful sight for sure. Friends for life now. LOL. It's alwways so much prepr for these things and it's over in 2 hours but we knocked this out.   So again, happy birthday man. Cannot believe we're at 4.5. We were at 2.5 like 2 months ago.   Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?   Adam