Avatar comes to life

Yesterday we ran about “kicking some Fire Nation butt”. After a rainy week spent indoors playing barbies with Effie, Ferg took control of things for a sunny, outdoor Avatar battle. Smellerbee (Dad) and Longshot (Eff) played the roles of henchman and minion to Jet (Ferg) and his elaborate plans. In Avatar, Jet is a sword-wielding vigilante and leader of the Freedom Fighters, a group of kids who are out to seek revenge for the horrors that the Fire Nation has brought against them and their families. I had to look this up. Here’s Fergus channelling Aang, The Avatar, prior to battle:


First Jet drew the four symbols of fire, water, air and earth in the fresh sand as well as some sort of map of the route we were to take (The sandbox was filled with fresh sand recently and just before Fergus informed me that he no longer played in sandboxes but that it could still be used by younger, visiting kids!).


After the plans were drawn, we all had to hide and wait for his various complex hand signals to tell us what to do. I admit to not paying full attention as I once attacked when I had in fact been ordered to retreat. Major faux pas there but luckily we all were given more than one life. I was also limited by my inability to ride my mode of transport (skateboard) on the grass and not being able to fit into the attack launcher (swing). But apparently it is not all about me and a fun and bloody time was had by all.





We are all things Avatar lately - even Grandpa’s birthday present wrapping paper got the Avatar treatment. Ferg and I have been engaged in an exciting Avatar Wii game for about a month. It is pretty nifty how these two-person games teach you cooperative strategies. And by “you” I mean “me” and I am a slow learner and an inpatient and frustrated gamer. Ferg has meditative qualities about him when playing and has no problems being cooperative. He is teaching me a lot and as he always says “you know what they say Dad, try, try again”.