Bartholomew Littlebear

Hey Kids,
Did you know that you don’t need a thing to play some really cool games?

Gizmo and I like playing Thumb War. We use our thumbs as fighting men. The winner is the one who pins the other one’s thumb to a count of three.

Here’s what we do. Gizmo and I face each other and each of us holds up our right hand with our thumbs pointing up. We link our hands together with our other fingers. Then we both say together, “One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war”. While we are saying this, we dance our thumbs around each others. Then we try to pin each other’s thumb. Sometimes one of us “plays possum” to confuse the other or we might aim for a knuckle instead of pinning the nail.

Another fun game is Rock-paper-scissors. In this game the hand of each player is made to look like one of the three items. A closed fist is the rock which beats the scissors made by holding out two fingers open like scissors and holding the others with the thumb.

Scissors beats paper which is made by holding the hand out flat with fingers together over the floor. Paper beats rock. Gizmo and I play this when we have to decide who is going to go first sometimes and sometimes we just play it for fun.

We each start with our hands in a fist and we say, “Rock, Paper, Scissors” while we swing our fist down on each word. After the word “scissors”, we each make one of the three gestures. Then we see who has what gesture and the one that beats the other is the winner. “Rock breaks scissors. Scissors cut paper. Paper covers rock.” If we both choose the same gesture, the game is tied and we throw again.

Have fun.
Bart

Hi Kidz,

Bart here with some fun things I just learned about.

My little sister Honey and I were visiting our Granny. She has this big old attic way upstairs in her house and she never lets anyone in there. She says it’s full of so much fun that a person could go up there and never ever come down. Granny says that’s not a good idea because there are lots of things that are not in the attic that a person would miss if he never came down. Things like bubble gum ice cream, swimming in the pond or going to the fair.

So sometimes when we go visit Granny we find out that she got something for us to look at from the attic.

Honey had brought her Barbie Dolls, which I think are kind of lame, but then Granny brought out some of her Barbie Dolls and I thought I was going to go outside. Granny said she had some things to show me and that I might want to stick around.

First we looked at the difference between Granny’s Barbie and Honey’s Barbie. They didn’t even look like they were related. Granny’s doll came from 1959 and was called “The Original Teenage Fashion Model Barbie Doll. Honey’s doll is “Barbie Beach Barbie Doll-Pink Swimsuit.”

Granny’s doll had dark blonde curly hair, eyebrows that had a sharp point in the middle, squinty eyes with lots of eyeliner on top and a small closed mouth in bright red.

Honey’s doll had light blonde long straight hair, curved eyebrows, opened eyes with eyelashes and eyeliner on the top and bottom, and an opened smiling mouth with pink lips and white teeth.

Granny said that the differences had to do with what was considered beautiful then and now. If I had to say anything, I’d say the now one was better looking.

Then Granny brought out a G.I. Joe from the 1970s. Wow. I thought the2009 movie “G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra” was based on the comic books, not action figures from the dark ages. Both of our Joes were 12 inches high. I have the G.I. Joe Army Paratrouper. I love to throw him high in the air and watch him come down with his parachute.

I played with both Joes while Granny and Honey played dress-up with the dolls. One of these days I am going to sneak up into the attic and see what else Granny has hiding up there.

More later,

Bart

Hey Kidz,

I’m Bart.

I hope it isn’t fall yet. I try real hard to stay awake, but I start to hibernate in the fall anyway. Maybe the spring time honey this year will be more powerful and I can stay awake longer.

I took a nap awhile ago and something woke me up. There was this little kid, jumping up and down and yelling “Yay!” I thought at first he was just a dream; but when I opened my eyes, there he was. He had an iPhone in his hand and he must have just won a game or something.

I ambled over slowly since I wasn’t sure I was really awake yet to see what he was doing. Before I got there I saw him flick his finger at the phone screen. What in the world, I asked myself.

Then I asked him, “What in the world?” He showed me a game he was playing by PlayScreen called Bocce-Ball. I remembered that Grand-pop used to play a game with that funny name. He’d hang out with a bunch of men in the park and throw big balls close to a little one.

The game the kid was playing looked like what Grand-pop used to play, but without the real balls. I could tell that the kid wasn’t as good at it as Grand-pop and his friends, and I guess I was a little rude. The kid told me that people get better at the computer game just like they get better at the real game. And then I remembered I wasn’t very good when I played with Grand-pop. So I said I was sorry.

Then I watched and it looked like fun. He let me play a little and it was fun. Now I want this game and I hear that it’s free. Whoopee. When I get more awake, I am going to get it on my iPhone and download it.

More later,

Bart