Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas and the days following with Nabi

Snapshots of the girls over the course of the weekend with their Nabi's. Grace was REALLY into a show she was watching in the picture on the far left (using Netflix- and connecting to my mom's network was a breeze! Easier actually than setting up my iPhone on her network!). In the middle is Clara who is a ham for the camera (in case that wasn't obvious) and is IN LOVE WITH the drawing app! And on the far right I was bugging Gracie to let me take her photo and she appeased me :)


Christmas morning my girls, Gracie and Clara, came racing out of their rooms like kids all around the world, eager to see if Santa had arrived. I have to admit that I might have been as excited as them, if not more so to see them open the Nabi's.

Stockings were the first casualty of the morning and the girls tore into theirs like they were on some game show called "who can fling the most stuff and shriek the loudest in the shortest amount of time at ungodly early hours of the morning". Clara took the prize for flinging (out of glee) items from the stocking while Gracie once again took home the prize for highest pitch squeal.

We moved on from stockings to gifts, and eager with excitement I propped the Nabi's, wrapped carefully, in front of each of them. The girls tore the paper off and the video we took (which unfortunately shows me struggling to turn Gracie's on-- after a quick reset it turned on fine!) shows them stunned/dazed a bit not entirely sure what to make of the Nabi. I think that I had spent so long earlier this Fall trying to gently convince them that Santa could not bring iPad's to them that they weren't altogether sure whether to believe that they had their own tablets! When asked what she thought it was, Gracie first said "a tv?" and then "an iPad" (and proceeded to call it that until I showed her the butterfly on the start up screen and explained that Nabi meant butterfly and she was sold on calling it Nabi.

I won't lie-- the allure of the wrapped gifts under the tree drew the girls away from the Nabi at first and I worried that my certainty that they'd fall in love as I had with the Nabi's might not happen. They were excited, don't get me wrong-- but they weren't initially (as in the first 5 min after opening it) as wild as I wanted them to be for it.

I shouldn't have worried...

Once the wrapping that had moments before been so beautifully fitted to each gift and now filled my living room from wall to wall, and I went stumbling at 6:30 am (yes, gifts were all unwrapped by 6:30 if that gives a hint at how early my kids arise) for coffee, the girls were shouting to me to come help show them how to use the Nabi's and for the past 2 days have played with their Nabi's eagerly!

As is tradition on Christmas morning, once it reaches a reasonable hour, the girls and I head to my mom's to gather with my siblings (I am the oldest of 6-- god bless my mother!) and their families to celebrate Christmas. I asked the girls what gifts they wanted to bring. Their responses? "NABI!" and their cheap "real" make up that I broke down and bought them this year to play with when they play dress up... More about that later... Suffice to say that before Christmas was over, Clara and Gracie had decked themselves out in eyeshadow from forehead to chin and they both looked a bit like William Wallace in Braveheart before I wrestled them to the bathtub...

So, the Nabi at my mom's... The girls have just one older cousin (yeah, I am one of 6 and only my sister and I have kids and she has just one son-- what's with that?!) who is nearly 10 and both my girls look up to him and follow him around like puppies when they are all together. Well, enter Nabi. Their cousin was quietly envious but I could see him watching, patiently, longlingly as the girls navigated Fruit Ninja, Need for Speed, Netflix shows, Drawing apps and taking their own photos and videos. Gracie was more than happy to share and her cousin was ecstatic. He has a Nintendo DS and regularly plays with his mom's iPhone and for the past 2 days the ONLY device he wanted to play with was the Nabi.

One of the things I love about the Nabi is that it is something that can be used for a short period of time and provide a great amount of amusement in that period. My girls didn't ever sit for hours on end with the Nabi this weekend. They used it for 5 minutes here, 20 minutes there, carried it around and danced to the music that was pre-installed (and got their uncles in on the dance action too!)... Then they'd put it down, play outside, have a snack, do their LaLaLoopsy's hair and return to the Nabi and find something new to explore on it.

My kids, like most their ages, have pretty short attention spans. The Nabi is perfect for them (and clearly also perfect for the 10 yr old plus age set if my nephew is any indication) because it provides them instant educational (or not so educational which is fine too in limited doses) entertainment, doesn't require lengthy set up to use and can be picked up and used and then put back to rest at ease.

I was concerned at first that my nearly 4 year old Clara might struggle with the touch screen, and she did initially. As the weekend went on she got the hang of it and informed both myself and my mother that she could "do it all by myself"; and when Clara says that we know to let her be! :)


My girls had a great Christmas and spent a wonderful weekend with family and their Nabi's were a part of it from start to finish!

Merry Christmas to all!


1 comment: