Zoombinis is still available on various platforms! I googled and found a bunch of items. TERC is the company that made the original and they still appear to be involved with it. My older S got into Zoombinis in kindergarten. Can’t tell you how important it was to his emotional health and ultimately, his career. We still have it loaded on the desktop my sons used in HS (yes, it’s REALLY old).
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Thanks, @abasket and @CountingDown. I’ll check into those. My S still raves about those old edutainment games. CountingDown, I love that Zoombinis provided such help to your S.
Magic School Bus had a bunch of games on CD (as an adjunct to the original series), but it looks like those haven’t been upgraded to current platforms. Both my kids liked those, too. Some retro game sites might have them and other favorites, but I’d be wary of spam and viruses.
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DD’s BF treated us to Texas Roadhouse a few days ago - we happened to be by there, and they have some 4 pm - 5 pm specials. They had a lot of people eating when we got there (we were seated by 5 pm), and BF said that was the best meal he has eaten at TR. He orders the same thing every time. Our meal was excellent. I wonder if some of it is having the cooks/staff being ‘fresh’ at the beginning of the shift, cuts of meat ready, etc.
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Thank you for the lead on Zoombinis - I looked it up on Amazon, and they give details on it.
GD1 is going on 6, and I am having her parents preview this item. Grandpa has her interested in Chess, and she is IMHO too young yet, but GD1 and GS1 (4 1/2) are learning checkers.
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It’s been quiet here lately; what is up with all the littles? My local 4 1/2 year old GD is spending the night with me tonight as her parents are having a date night. Since they moved here a few months ago, I have only stayed with her a couple of times; my D and SIL don’t go out a ton. I asked that she stay here so they could have a morning to themselves tomorrow. I may regret that when she gets up at her usually 6:30am! 
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Already a grandparent- but expecting a new grandchild this year!!
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I am usually up at 5:30, so D1 loves to have me stay over. GD usually gets up at 7:30. We have breakfast together and some play time before her parents get up.
GD (3 yr old) is skiing with her dad this weekend. They just sent me a video of her. She was going a bunny hill by herself. She even knew how to close her feet to go fast and open her feet to slow down.
She is staying with me for a long weekend in February. I think we will need to go to the toy store again.
This is the year of dragon. I told D1 it would be a great year to have a baby…not biting yet.
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I’m either a negligent or too-busy poster lately. Grandbaby # 3 arrived on Tuesday (planned induction). It is another boy for S & DIL. Big brother will be 2 in March. H & I went to their place 2 hours away last Sunday and stayed until Thursday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday were very long and emotional days. We took big brother to the hospital on Wednesday. He was pretty confused and we didn’t stay long. Mom, Dad, and the baby came home Thursday around noon - 37 hours after she gave birth. She looked exhausted and son looked overwhelmed. Other grandparents were there from Wednesday until today. As my son said today “now we’re swimming in the deep end”.
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H and I had a date (babysat) our 5 week old GD tonight…Goskid and her hubby had their first dinner out alone. They warned us of the bewitching hour–joke’s on them–never happened!
And we’ve seen her howl during diaper changes–didn’t happen tonight! She was on her best behavior–our perfect little princess! Our hearts are full!
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Littlest addition to the Bunsen clan is a happy sunflower 
! She can stand up from her crawling position and stay upright for a bit now but has not tried walking yet. She is 9 months old… let’s see if she will start walking earlier than her mom who started walking at around 10 1/2 months! 
Baby B. is also very vocal… she makes a few very happy noises
that sound like “wrrrrrr!” and “ayeeia!” But no words yet.
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Youngest gs did a FaceTime with us ,
Pointed to the screen, and said “nana” and “papa”. Made our hearts sing. S had sent a video of the little guy pointing to a picture of me in a book they made and saying “nana”. So sweet.
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GD who turned 3 in December went underwater with goggles for the first time–her Dad takes her swimming twice a week. He worked summers as a lifeguard on Long Island and also taught swimming when he was in college. GD wanted to FaceTime and tell me, but when SIL called I wasn’t there!! GD was not happy. I called her when I got home and she told me all about it.
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Congratulations, @Mansfield! Welcome to your new grandson!
Love, love, love all the stories about everyone’s grandchildren. Sweet!
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I spent three days last week with my son’s three (4,2,10 months). I watched them while my son and his wife worked. I did the mini-van thing dropping the 4 year old off at TK and the 2 year old off at preschool. The youngest just started taking steps.
I watch my daughter’s 20 month old on Fridays. He has made the transition from baby to little person. My daughter is due with a boy in July. When he comes, over the last six years we added three spouses and 5 grandkids!!
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Our granddaughter turned 11 months yesterday! Both DS and DIL work from home so we don’t get to babysit as often as we would like but we see her every weekend. She has 6 teeth now and is standing well with support.
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GD turned 3 at the end of the year. She didn’t talk in the fall, so her daycare suggested that they ask for a speech consult from their school district. They weren’t worried about her, but they said that since it’s free & you never know if there might be an issue, it made sense to do it. The evaluators said that everything was good. Just a few months later, the child talks nonstop and has an amazing vocabulary. I love how her personality just shines through. Gosh, being a grandparent is wonderful!
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I am on day 7 of coughing and fever from something caught from the little darlings. When you are lying down for nap next to the sweet ones, and they raise their little heads and cough directly in your face… there is no coming back from that!! DGS is 4, DGD just turned 2, and is giving up naps…
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It’s inevitable.
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My daughter was in Speech Therapy as she was not talking at 2 and change. The same happened here and not long after she was non stop talking and is still to this day at 37! We have always joked when she chats too much that it is all our fault and we paid good money. When she was around 10, a friend’s husband would joke she was going to be a DJ as she loved to hear herself talk. She majored in Communications and Business! 
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