Wii love it!

I can't believe how much Wii has been played in this house in the last month.

Between me, Owen and Kyle, we've probably clocked about four hours daily since Kyle brought it home in November.

Owen has reached the professional level in Wii Sports bowling, I have finished about half of Twilight Princess, and Kyle, having successfully carved up patients in the simulated surgery game Trauma Center: Second Opinion, is now considering medical school.

No, not really.

But the Wii has truly furnished great entertainment for our whole family this holiday season. Owen loves to explore old games like Super Mario 64, and Sonic the Hedgehog, because they're all new to him.

Stewart adores Disney's Cars game because he can play as all of his favorite characters in the movie. Usually, though, he just likes to watch someone else play. He loves cheering us on ("Good job Owie, you stomped that bad guy!"), and takes the plots of all games quite seriously. He was truly anxious about Princess Peach in Mario 64. He didn't even want Kyle to quit the game- he was like "No, we need to save the Princess first!" Whenever Bowser laughs, he gets scared and runs to hide in the other room.

It's no surprise that classic kid's games like Mario Brothers would be a hit with Owen and Stewart, but I'm surprised at how much they like role playing games like The Legend of Zelda.

Owen likes playing the initial pieces of the Zelda games, when you get to explore the home village and gather your equipment, but once he encounters his first monster, he always screams "Ah! Bad guys!" and hands the controller to Kyle or I.

This suits Kyle and I perfectly, as we get to play hours of the video games we love, and the boys actually enjoy watching and aren't bothering us by begging for a turn or asking for snacks.

I'm playing through Windwaker again to entertain the boys, and through Twilight Princess for myself, and the boys enjoy watching both games.

They make up their own hilarious names for enemies- like the Choos from Windwaker are "jelly booms" (actually a better name than Choos, if you ask me), and all of the water is "applesauce" (as in, "Mommy, you fell in that applesauce!").

They get so excited when I open a new chest- they like when it's red or purple "money" (rupees), but they like it even better when it's "the key!" They get frustrated when I can't figure out the puzzles, just like I do.

It's almost as much fun to watch the boys interact with the Wii as to play it myself. But not quite.