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My Son Schooled Me At Mario Kart And All I Got Was A Lousy T-Shirt

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Yeah, I said it! In fact, I didn’t even get a T-Shirt because my son took it right off my back! Never have I been as humiliated as I was this past weekend when my 4 year old son asked if I would play Mario Kart on the Wii with him, and then he proceeded to teach me just how old I am getting.

Oddly enough, my first thought when he asked me to play was if he was old enough for me to not let him win. After all, I am very serious about my gaming, just look at the photo above. It had never occurred to me that he could possibly be in a totally different league than I was. A much, much higher league, in fact.

I should have known things weren’t going to go as planned when I couldn’t get the Wii to recognize the 2nd remote, prompting my ever so funny wife to quip, “Haha, you’re like the old guy who can’t figure out the electronics”. Very funny, dear. Now go ahead and sleep and don’t worry about why I have a bucket of warm water next to the bed…

After getting the controller issue sorted out, which was totally a Nintendo Wii issue and NOT an old man issue, I set out to let my son take an early lead in the race before I would pounce on the final lap and take him down. After all, kids need to learn about winning and losing at an early age to help them deal with it later on in life, right?

Here’s the problem with my game plan, not only did he take an early lead, but I felt like my driver was stuck in quick sand the entire race! I couldn’t make a move without hitting a banana or driving off a cliff and finished in last place in 3 of our 4 races. I am mortified to even be admitting to this, but at one point I even glanced over at my son’s remote to see what he was doing differently that I was. It was hopeless and it certainly didn’t help to hear the continuous chuckles from the peanut gallery! Ahem, Wifey!

The tipping point came when I calmly stated to my driver, Luigi, that maybe he should have spent more time training like his brother, Mario, and less time goofing around. My son then answered, “Its okay Daddy, just do the best you can”, which gave me pause and perspective on what was going on here.

I realized two things in that moment. First, that I was actually getting frustrated at a video game, which means I’m not as old as I thought I was. The second thing is that my son is actually learning from the lessons we teach him, such as “Always try your best” and “Practice makes perfect”.

It was an eye opening experience for me and a very cool moment of clarity to see your parenting lessons come full circle.

There is one more thing I’d like to point out. Just because I lost to my son, badly, on this day, it doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on the game altogether. I’ll pull all nighters if I have to but I’ll get back to the Mario Kart dominance of my early 20’s and that’s a guarantee! The next time he meets me on the battlefield basement couch, he will see a whole new attitude and a very different looking Luigi!

Watch out, son of mine, Daddy’s coming for that trophy!!!

Cheers!

It’s A Bird. It’s A Plane. No It’s Super Mario Dad!

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My son recently turned 4 years old. Okay, give me a minute….. I can’t believe 4 years went by so fast!

Anyway, we asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted and got about 6 answers, ranging from MarioKart to Angry Birds to Wolverine??? After much deliberation and convincing, we landed on MarioKart.

What a fantastic decision it was too! There’s a growing love for all things Mario and we were able to find a ton of ideas for the party. The best part is that we were able to do a lot of it on a relatively low budget!

How about a laminated Drivers License as the guests arrived:

As for games, we had a rousing go of Pin The Mustache On The Mario:

My son had a blast!! We did have one more surprise for him though. A visit from Super Mario himself!! That’s right, I pimped out my blog for a free Super Mario costume so I could surprise him on his birthday!

I was extremely warm in the suit and the mustache kept falling off but we got through Mario Says, Mario Bingo and the aforementioned Pin The Mustache On The Mario without any problems!

Have a look at my grand entrance! I decided to go with an entrance theme as if I was a WWE wrestler. That’s just how I roll!

The joy on my son’s face says it all!

I want to leave you with a final shot from the end of the party of the two happiest parents on the earth!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

Cheers!!!

Super Mario For A Day Courtesy Of Costume Discounters

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I was thrilled to be contacted by the fine people from CostumeDiscounters.com to see if I’d like to review one of their products.

Clearly, as a Dad blogger and the owner of adorably cute children, they knew that my kids would look great in any of their costumes.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know that I am also a lover of wearing costumes, so I threw them a curve ball and ordered one for myself! Here’s the proof:

I have to say, the costume showed up in record time and all in one piece. My dealings with the fine folks at Costume Discounters were nothing but spectacular and I absolutely recommend them for all your costume needs!

Back to me for a minute though….I wanted to really test out the costume so that my review reflected the product and wasn’t just lip service to a client. I decided to test it out to see how it worked in real life situations.

You know, things like pretending to drive while playing MarioKart on the Nintendo Wii:

I also put it to the ultimate test by making dinner for my family. Spaghetti, a Mario specialty! From scratch too!

The costume passed all other tests it was given and is still in tip top shape and ready for my son’s Mario party next weekend. Seriously, I’m using it to entertain all the children at my son’s birthday party. Don’t worry, I’ll post videos!

In all seriousness, everything at CostumeDiscounters.com is of the highest quality and I dare you to find a place to get your costumes for a cheaper price (making your own doesn’t count!). For real, if you find an identical costume for less on the net, they will match the price AND give you an additional 20% off!!

Make sure to check out their Facebook Page for more great deals and information.

Thanks to the staff at CostumeDiscounters.com for providing me with the costume in order to facilitate this review.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a long day of plumbing ahead of me and I’m out of here! (I think that’s still Mario’s profession…)

Cheers!!

Not Even Spider-Man Can Stop My Kid

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I’m not even sure where to start this one because it’s a bit emotional and funny all in one event.

My son’s birthday party is going to be in a couple of weeks. I can remember last year, we threw him an Ernie birthday party and he loved it. I asked him what kind of party he wanted this year and he immediately answered “MarioKart!” with joy.

What?!?! How do you go from Ernie to MarioKart in less than a year?

On one hand it’s cool because I get to goof around with a bunch of video game stuff. On the other, I want my little boy back!!!

That brings me to our most recent event.

My son was just invited to his first “drop off your kid and leave” birthday party. He is 3 years old but soon to be 4.

You can forget about the fact that the party was just across the street at a neighbor’s house because it could have been on the moon for all I cared. The point is that my little man is growing up, and quickly!

The neighbor’s kid was turning 5 and was having a Spider-Man themed party, with a special visit from Spider-Man himself (very popular right now, the character shows up and runs games and stuff).

My son does NOT like people in costumes, so upon hearing this, I feared the worst.

Sure enough, I got a phone call from the neighbor about 30 minutes in, asking if I could come over and comfort my son, who was freaked out by Spider-Man. After some calming words to my delirious concerned wife, I ran over to hang out.

I tried to explain to my son that it was just a guy in a costume and that he had nothing to be scared of. Obviously that didn’t work, so we came to the agreement that if I went home and got his Spider-Man costume, he would stay at the party and take part in the games.

Excited to feel needed again, I raced across the street, Spidey suit in hand. Daddy saves the day!!

It took a few minutes for him to rejoin the party and he clung to me for another 10 like a shirt that had gone through the dryer without a Bounce sheet (you know what I mean, shut it).

Eventually I felt comfortable enough to leave him but figured he wouldn’t take part in anything until Spidey was gone.

Well don’t you know it, sometimes when left to fend for themselves, kids rise above the odds and make you the proudest parents in the world.

Here’s the photo I got from the neighbors, 15 minutes after I had left.

Very proud Dad upon seeing this picture. Almost as if I had said or done something to ease his mind about being at the party. Now if he would please stop growing for a couple years, I would very much appreciate it!!

Is there a moment you realized that you were losing your toddler to boy/girlhood? Share it with me in the comments so I can feel better about losing mine 🙂

Cheers!!

Sh*t My Kids Say #4 – Kids Don’t Listen

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Kids are funny people. They really have no concept of right or wrong, they don’t know not to call people fat or stupid and they have no idea how hilarious their imaginary stories are to adults.

That has led me to create a section here at Canadian Dad called “Sh*t My Kids Say”. I know, I know, it’s a semi dirty word but this is my blog and I’ll swear if I want to, LOL.

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I took my son to a place called Funhaven today but before we left, I witnessed first hand just how easy it is for kids to not pay attention to anything you are saying. Here’s our conversation from earlier today.

D: “C’mon buddy, let’s get going”

L: “Where are we going Daddy?”

D: “To a new place called Funhaven!”

L: “Do they have toys?”

D: “I don’t think so”

L: “Can I play MarioKart later?”

D: “Ummm, I guess so but that has nothing to do with Funhaven”

L: “Oh okay, are we going to Daniel’s house?”

D: “Why would we go to Daniel’s house?”

L: **Blank Expression**

D: “We’re going to Funhaven, it’s like a giant indoor park”

L: “Dora? What about Boots?”

D: “Huh? I said inDOOR, not Dora!”

L: “Do they have toys? Can I bring my new coloring book?”

D: “Just get in the car!”
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I’m guessing had I continued to humour him, that this conversation could have gone on for the whole day! It’s funny because it’s not like he was watching TV or anything, he just straight up wasn’t paying attention to anything I was saying. Frustrating times for sure, LOL!

In case you’re interested, here’s my Review of our FunHaven experience from today.

Cheers!!