Birthday time! Let’s do this thing!

On this day five years ago, my life changed. I had a brand new, huge responsibility. These days, I have a huge responsibility, a gaming buddy, a Star Wars-watching buddy, a music-listening buddy, a reading buddy, and just the best kiddo in the world.

I’ve mentioned before that my mom used to make my birthdays a blowout extravaganza of stuff. I can’t really afford to work on the sheer scale of present-procuring awesomeness that she used to, but here’s the thing: I know the boy’s interests, they’re pretty close to my interests, and I know… well… everyone else in the world who collects this stuff. That helped in swelling the ranks of his game collection a bit.

Since a lot of this stuff was “loose,” I bundled stuff together with related items that I’d picked up for him. So there’s a bit of a “character bundle” thing going on. (Call me Bundlefly.)

Little E already picked up a stuffed Tails sometime back, so Sonic was inevitable (in fact, he’s been asking for it pretty much since getting Tails). Sonic’s bringing his A game too. And his B game. And his C game.

Little E is also a Blue Toad fan. Blue Toad is a recent invention (Super Mario Wii), so he doesn’t show up in any GBA games. But I picked a couple of games that have a load of the Toad that we already know(-ed?).

Funny story here: I ordered the Super Mario toys from… well, let’s say an establishment in the Far East, via eBay. I paid for Wario and Blue Toad. I got Donkey Kong and Blue Toad. Which is okay. DK costs a few bucks more than any of the other figures because of his size. Not gonna complain – and at any rate, I have DK games to bundle up with DK. Win! (Apparently DK decked Matt Smith in the background. Poor Matt.)

New droid + a book about droids. Look at that book – it’s the perfect size to fit right behind the backing card of the figure. You think that publisher doesn’t know what’s up?

I’ve been trying to get Little E interested in board games, but we have precious few around the house that are suited to a five-year-old. I picked up the Mario Checkers/Tic-Tac-Toe board at Glitchcon in a friendly swap between vendors, and the tin of dominoes was surprisingly inexpensive. He already likes tic-tac-toe and dominoes, but man, I need a checkers buddy. Well, other than Al Miller’s 2600 cartridge.

And one last gaming selection for Little E’s well-used GBA (he’s put more miles on that thing than I ever did in all the years I owned it): a boxed Legend of Zelda with Link’s Awakening DX added in for good measure. The box rattles delightfully with those cartridges sliding around in there. It will drive him absolutely mad trying to figure out what it is until he gets it open.

He’s covered on clothes and books; Daddy reserves the right to get the boy some Fun Stuff too.

Stay tuned, there shall be unwrapping pictures.

Into your sacks, everybody. It’s almost time!

Oh… relax everybody. Apparently the boy’s gonna coast into the big oh-five asleep at the wheel. 😆