Surviving Your Hardest Parenting Days – Ep. 258

Laura

Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, What I Googled, where Shawn gets smooth while I get itchy, and we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. This is episode 258, and I want to say hello.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

I wish we had something planned to pick that up, but instead we just are going to do our usual check-ins, huh?

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah, we are.

Laura

It's OK, though, because I really do want to know what's been going on with you guys this week.

Shanna

Okay, last week's check-in was about CeCe being extremely sick with high fevers and completely dysregulated all week, right?

Laura

Poor thing, yeah. And for you, having to deal with the rejection of all types of fever-reducing medicine.

Shanna

Right, so she was sick for a really long time. But there was an event on the horizon that I was really, really hoping that she would be well for. And that event is the end-of-the-year softball party for the Purple Ponies, which is CECE&L's softball team this season. And it was being held on Tuesday evening.

Laura

OK. A traditional night for parties, yes.

Shanna

I know the weekends weren't working out because of games and if people were doing stuff. But Tuesday was like our night for practice. So we're like, let's have like a dinner together on Tuesday night at this Baja Taco place. They were the sponsor of our team. And so we're like, let's all go there and like do taco Tuesday and celebrate the purple ponies. And I planned the party of course, cause I'm the team mom and I was so excited about it. I got together goodie bags for the girls to bring. I organized thank you gifts for the coaches and I bought thank you cards for all the girls to sign to give to them. The whole thing, right? I did it last season. I did it this season too. And I was really looking forward to it. especially after this really hard week with CeCe. And I wanted her to be able to go to the party, right? You know? Well, yeah, of course. Yeah.

Laura

Oh yeah she skipped to her car seat buckled herself in and said let's go mummy just like a perfectly behaved young child. First of all it sounds like she had like an illness hangover which I totally get and she's probably been so like

Shanna

fucked up by being out of her routine for so long like of course she was a dysregulated mess yep exactly and I totally get it I understood It was just so hard to deal with oh my gosh So I tell her we need to go and she's like no and it started one of her epic meltdowns that it was just flop on the floor Completely inconsolable not one single thing I said or did was helping her And I was late for getting L. I had to go and get her. And so it resulted in me having to force CeCe into her car seat, which is never fun.

Laura

And very difficult, by the way. They're big now. You know, it's hard enough with a little, you know, 15 month old who suddenly decides they don't want the car seat. These four year olds, almost four and a half year olds, they have like weight and power behind them. It's not simple. Just like when you started saying like, oh, do you think she wanted to go? My heart was sinking because I was like, oh my God, like, how are you going to do this? Because it's tough.

Shanna

Yeah, it was much easier to do when they were like 18 months old and you had to go somewhere, but at four, almost four and a half, very difficult. I eventually got her into the seat and she screamed and cried the whole way there and crying as I like walked in to get all the chat, all that stuff. So it was a very, very difficult afternoon. She did calm down by the time we got home. Like the drive, I think kind of calmed her nerves and she was a little bit better. And when we got home, you know, she was still thinking about this party that was at five o'clock. Am I going to go to the party? Am I going to go to the party? And everything in my body said no. Everything in my body was like, Shanna, just stay home with her. Don't do this. She's not up for it. It's going to cause problems. It's going to be embarrassing. But I was second guessing myself.

Laura

Oh, baby. I know.

Shanna

I'm like, oh my goodness, this is already too much for her. So I'm starting to worry. But she's not crying or anything yet. But coach Rick comes up and he's like, hi, CECE. How are you doing? And she's like, no. No. I'm just like, oh boy. And she goes in the corner and she gets the goodie bags that we made for all of the girls and starts to get them out of the bag and Elle wants to help. And she's like, no. And gets really upset. Oh my gosh. And I get the thank you card and the gift cards for the coaches. And I'm trying to go over to the girls and like, hi girls. I'm trying to keep a happy face. Can you sign this card for the coaches and more parents and people are starting to come in and it's getting busier and busier and CeCe comes over and sits next to me and she's like, I want chips. And I'm like, okay, here's some chips. And she's like, I don't want that salsa.

Laura

Uh-oh.

Shanna

God, here we go. And I tried to get her in her seat and she's fighting and kicking like just like she was earlier. And Steve's like, I got to get back in the restaurant. Elle's still in there. And I'm like, OK, you go. I'll just take her home. And we were in that parking lot for a solid 30 minutes while she was breaking down, crying. I was crying. She was trying to break through my arms to run back into the restaurant through the parking lot. And I was like, don't run in the parking lot. Like there's cars coming in. There's people walking by, other parents from the team are walking by. I was so embarrassed, but I was heartbroken because she just kept saying, I want to be in the party. I don't want to miss out. Give me another chance. And I was wavering, Laura. I was like, well, maybe I should. Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing. like maybe I can give her one more chance.

Laura

I feel like, first of all, I can feel all this viscerally in my body. And Augie, he's not as intense as CeCe is, but he has his moments, right? And I definitely had my moments with him where I am physically holding him back from doing something. Interestingly, I kind of turned into anger mode instead of crying mode and that sort of thing. When you said, oh, I lost it in there, I thought you would have snapped at her because I think that's what I would have done. I would have probably been like... Fucking stop, you know, or something like I would have just done that. But yeah, like I totally I get that feeling. And I feel like even more so, it's tied up in something you were anticipating, right? Like, yeah. You know how I talk about how disappointment is one of my, like, parenting, you know, weak spots that I hate disappointment? Yes. I feel like it works also for yourself, right?

Shanna

Right. We are no longer there.

Laura

I'm at home now. This podcast coming to you from the Taco Places parking lot.

Shanna

I couldn't handle it anymore and I texted Steve and I was like, I need you out here now. And he came out and he brought Elle with him this time. And that was a complicated thing too. I mean, Elle has seen Cece breakdown so many times, right? We're all kind of used to it and used to handling her and everything. But she's not used to seeing me crying and upset. So she came out too and I like, like sniffed hard and was like, hi honey, you know, smiling towards her and everything while still crying on the inside. And I was like, we just got to get out of this parking lot because I am just too embarrassed that people are going to think I'm hurting her. So we need to get out of here. And I cannot get her in this seat. And so I sat in the driver's seat and did not watch while Steve got her into her car seat. while she was very, very upset.

Laura

But also, she probably knew that she was back in a safe space, right? As hard as it was, I think she needed it, you know?

Shanna

You know, it's interesting how you say that your go-to would have been anger in that situation, right? And I think that a past version of myself also would have done that, but I was reflecting on this day and this particular situation and I was like, How did I have so much patience through it? I was sobbing, but there was this deep patience just under all of it. I just wished that the bystanders and the neighbors and the people in the parking lot knew that despite how dramatic it sounded, I was approaching her with the ultimate patience and kindness. I think that having a child with so many ups and downs and kind of like the tricky meltdowns that she has and stuff has taught me how to bring that kind of patience to this situation. And it's only because I've been training for years with her that I think I could do that. I don't think that that comes naturally to me.

Laura

Yeah, for sure. And what you said about having the bystanders nearby and how that amplified it and made it harder. That was the hard part, kind of more than anything. I feel that. I feel like anytime there's observation of my parenting is when I start to get really self-conscious about it. When it's just me and Corey at home with the kids, I feel pretty confident in what I'm doing. for the most part, but any time like it's whether it's my mom or, you know, a friend of ours or something, just anyone, even if they are there with like all approval, right? If they're sitting there being like, maybe they're thinking like, wow, they're such good parents. Like all I can think about is like the act of observation, like changing how I'm behaving and how I, you know what I mean? Like it's just, it's tricky.

Shanna

Yeah, it brings a self-awareness to it that otherwise wouldn't be there. So yes, it was it was quite a day and it was it was very hard. But I survived, Cece survived. And she's doing better now. Like now that it's all kind of past and she's back in her routine of being at school and stuff, she's showing more regulation and a lot more happiness. And like it's OK. It was just a storm we had to weather.

Laura

Yeah, yeah. You know, they tell you parenting is going to be hard and you're like, how hard could it be?

Shanna

Yep, I've truly had that thought in my life before. Silly me.

Laura

Well, I'm proud of you and I'm sorry you missed your party that you organized. That sucks.

Shanna

Yeah. And Steve came home with gifts from the team for me. They were giving me team mom gifts like I got a basket and a really nice note. from the coach and his wife and I was like, I was out of tears, honestly, but if I hadn't been out of tears, I would have sobbed at that at how sweet and thoughtful that was, you know, because it was a really hard season for me overall. And so it was nice to get that recognition. You deserve it. Thank you. All right, so that's my check in for the week. What's going on with you?

Laura

Okay, so thankfully my week was a little less dramatic than yours. Oh, good. But we did have a kind of fun weekend I want to talk about. Okay. Which was, if you recall, last week I talked about how Sebastian is showing signs of potty readiness, but I am resistant because we had trips planned. That's right. Well, one of those trips happened this weekend. It was a trip to Pismo Beach, which is a beach, like a little sleepy beach town on the central coast of California. And we went there because we were sort of triangulating where to meet with Corey's brother and his partner and my mother-in-law for her big milestone birthday. I won't say which one it is, but it was a big one and so we all- 21. Yes, 21. You only turn 21 once, you know? So we went to Pismo Beach and Sherry, it was really sweet of her.

Shanna

Smart.

Laura

so that they would nap on the drive, which worked out a little bit. I mean, Aki, his kid just doesn't nap. Like, I really thought he would be super tired and just the rolling hills of the San Andes Valley, which is where we pass through, would lull him to sleep. No, no, not. That's not going to happen. But I gotta say that they were troopers. We stopped for Starbucks on the way up so we could go pee and stuff, but I realized later that that was not enough of a pit stop for a two and a four year old. They got out of their car seats and walked around a little bit, but they were getting really stir crazy by the time we were approaching Pismo. Of course, it was like there's only 15 minutes left, but they're losing their shit like 15 minutes out. You're like, we're not stopping now. Like we're so close, guys, we're so close. But all in all, they did pretty well.

Shanna

That sounds so fun. And that kind of sounds like that would be my favorite thing in the world, too. Like, I want to go to an RV campsite with all that infrastructure and barbecue.

Laura

Yeah, it was cool. I had never really like I don't have an RV and I've never had an RV so I didn't know about this like whole essentially like subculture right of RV life like. It's a whole thing and people have their setups and they know how to do it, right? Like they show up and they have their fire pits in their tables and they have like, there's just so much stuff. It was really interesting to me to see. I do wanna share one thing that we did on the drive home that really made the trip better, which was instead of just stopping at like a random Starbucks and stretching our legs, I made sure to search for a park. That was like halfway on the way home. That was near a McDonald's. So we went and picked up McDonald's and then went to a park with the playground to eat the McDonald's. And that was huge. That just made all the difference.

Shanna

That's great. Well, that sounds super fun. Like you guys had a very successful trip and it makes me want to go to Pismo Beach.

Laura

It's a cute little town, but yeah, that's it for me. Non-dramatic check-in. I thought that's a good balance. I think so.

Shanna

I'm glad.

Laura

So on that note, would you like to move on to our special segment? I would.

Shanna

We're back, and this week's special segment is What I Googled This Week, where we admit the things we have asked the internet lately about parenting. Laura, you're up first, and I want to know what you Googled recently.

Laura

Okay, so I Googled, can fleas live in grass? Question mark?

Shanna

Uh-oh. Okay. No, right? Because they have to live on a host.

Laura

That's what I thought. So here's why I Googled that. Sebastian was outside playing with Cory, he was out in our backyard, which we have neglected to mow. And we fired our gardeners a while back because I've been redoing the front lawn, redoing it into a California native garden. And I'm like, we can just mow the backyard. We can. We have the ability. But do we do it regularly? Not so much. And also, like, Augie was really into the high grass. Like, our grass had kind of bolted, right? And was kind of like waist height at some places for him. What? I mean, it's not thick, right? But some, you know, there's some like straggly strands that had gotten really tall. Yeah. And I was saying something the other day. I was like, oh, we got to mow this lawn in Augie. He was like, no, I like it tall because, you know, it helps with his imagination, his imaginary play.

Shanna

Yuck. Cece got fleas on her once from Sasha because we're like terrible at keeping up with her flea medication. And she had so many bites on her neck. Like it was just like chilling to see. So yeah, I get that visceral reaction when I hear about fleas on children.

Laura

Bugs in my air.

Shanna

Bugs in my air.

Laura

All right. That is the first thing I googled. Shanna, how about you?

Shanna

I recently googled, what is a silky mom?

Laura

What is a silky mom? Ooh, is this chicken related? It's not, but where did your brain go with that? There's like a type of chickens, like silkies.

Shanna

They're like a fancy chicken. Oh, the ones that look like they're wearing like fur boots. Let me see.

Laura

Let's Google it. Oh, do the best. I'm going to send you a picture.

Shanna

OK. Yes. This is the one I was thinking of. I love these kinds of chickens. OK. Well, this chicken can be the mascot for silky moms.

Laura

OK? OK. OK. A big puffball of a chicken can be the mascot. So wait. What are silky moms then?

Shanna

So you know what crunchy moms are, right? Everyone knows that the crunchy mom is like an organic earth mama.

Laura

No red food dye, homeschooling probably has their own chickens. They probably has their own silky chickens.

Shanna

Yeah. So I think maybe this is where the term silky mom comes from as in it's the opposite of a crunchy mom. So a silky mom I learned, this is from The Bump, Silky moms are typically seen as moms who ascribe to Western medicine. Okay. Check for me. Use disposable diapers. Check. Don't see anything wrong with iPads. Check. Fast food and other modern conveniences. So I think silky mom is just basically us, Laura.

Laura

Oh my God, do we need to rebrand as the Silky Mom podcast? It sounds like it.

Shanna

I think we do. And we need to take some more professional photos, but holding those silky chickens.

Laura

I mean, I think that what you described, I checked all those boxes, but I do also like weave my own cloth and, you know, I would probably put a hen house in my backyard if Corey would let us. So, yeah.

Shanna

Well, never you fear, my friend, there is a term for you. Okay, I've also, going down this rabbit hole, learned that if you feel like you're somewhere in between the two, you're a scrunchy mom.

Laura

Okay, sure. I'll take it. Yes, I'm a scrunchy mom. I mean, I used to wear a lot of scrunchies. I hear scrunchies are back. Well, I think it's more of a combination of crunchy and silky, but yeah. It sounds like a scrunchie mom might make their own scrunchies, but out of polyester.

Shanna

Ah, there you go. There you go.

Laura

So where do you, do you think you're a silky mom or a scrunchie mom?

Shanna

I think I'm a silky mom. I don't have much scrunch left to me anymore. I am all about the modern conveniences.

Laura

You're as silky smooth as the grease stained cover of the iPad that your children have been using. And greasy it is.

Shanna

All right, Laura, what is your next What I Googled?

Laura

Okay, what I Googled is the WUG test. The what test? The WUG test.

Shanna

WUG, like rug, but with a W?

Laura

Correct.

Shanna

Okay.

Laura

Do you not know the word WUG, Shanna?

Shanna

No, Laura. I don't know. Wug.

Laura

Am I not cool enough? What is Wug? If I had one Wug, and then I added another Wug, I would have two... Wugs. Wow, Shanna! Yay! You passed the Wug test. Yay, me! What do I win? What does this say about me? You win a child's language processing capacity. Okay, so the WUG test was created by a psycholinguistics professor Gene Berko Gleason in 1958 as a tool for testing how well children had learned the so-called morphemes associated with making nouns plural or verbs past tense. So I gave you the basic WUG test. Basically you're trying to test if a kid knows that two one WUG plus one WUG equals two WUGs by adding that sound, right? And then there's a couple different versions of it, right? So it's harder to pluralize certain sounds, right? It's hard if things end with a ch sound to make it plural. So it's harder to say two hutches instead of

Shanna

Well, it's interesting that they choose a word that sounds like rug the way like a three-year-old would say it. Like it seems like an actual word to me.

Laura

Yeah. Wug. It's just a wug. It's the thing I lie down on.

Shanna

Yeah, exactly.

Laura

So I honestly don't remember why I googled this probably because of some TikTok I saw, right? But it did inspire me to try to give Augie the Wug test, and I recorded it. Shall we take a listen? OK. If this is a wug, and this is a wug, I have two... Wugs! Wugs, that's right. Now let's see, I'm here.

Speaker 1

So if that was a hug, and this was a hug, I will have one hug.

Laura

That's right. Okay, here's the next question. This is a person who zips. They are currently zipping. What would you call this person who zips? A zipper. A zipper, wonderful. Okay, what else? Let me one more thing.

Speaker 1

What does a zipper mean?

Laura

It doesn't mean anything. It's just, it's just a mean nothing. It's to see how you know language. Okay, ready? Let's say this is, you know this is a ball, but let's say this is a gutch and this is also a gutch.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Laura

You would have two. Guts. Two Guts?

Laura

Okay. I have two like that. Oh, I'm just pointing to the two.

Speaker 1

Oh.

Laura

Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1

So, if this was a hut, and this was a hut, I will have two... Say it.

Shanna

Hutches. Yeah. All right, sounds like he did pretty, pretty well on that test.

Laura

Yeah. So he didn't get the gutch thing, but that is to be expected, I guess, from a developmental point of view. So it was just kind of fun to see. And I think it would be fun to kind of track your kids and see, like, when they get it and when they don't, you know, just from a brain development point of view.

Shanna

Yeah. Did you try it on Sebastian?

Laura

No, he's too busy talking about the bugs in his hair.

Shanna

Ah, oh great. Well, at least he knows how to say bugs.

Laura

That's true. If you have one bug in your hair and you have another bug in your hair, what would you have?

Shanna

Bugs in my hair. Bugs in my hair.

Laura

Anyway, so that was it for me. Shanna, do you have another what I googled for us?

Shanna

I do, but let's take a break and come back with it. Oh, good idea.

Laura

Okay, we are back and Shanna has another What I Googled for us. Shanna, what did you Google?

Shanna

Well, it is very interesting that your second Googled was a test of sorts, and so is mine.

Laura

Ooh, is yours the guck test?

Shanna

No, no. What I Googled is, good enough, draw a man test.

Shanna

Have you heard of this?

Laura

No, but I am intrigued.

Shanna

OK, tell me. I came across this test because what I originally googled was four-year-old drawing regression because Cece has done some pretty great drawings in her day. Like she's drawn people, animals, like cat faces, dog faces, to the point where I'm like, who drew this? Like convinced it wasn't her, right? But not recently. Like they. They have gone down the shitter and I don't know what's going on.

Laura

Well, maybe she's just hit her impressionist phase. I mean...

Shanna

Yeah, yeah, I think that's what it is in her abstract expressionism phase. Honestly, that's kind of what it feels like because where she was drawing like detailed like cat faces and stuff, now it's just straight up like gripping the crayon or marker like it's a dagger slamming it on the paper and just like scribbling hard and she'll be like, this is a tree.

Laura

So her abstract expressionism tree has made you wonder if there's such a thing as a regression.

Shanna

Yes, I found out no information about this. So I don't think drawing regression is a thing. I think she's probably just mimicking what other kids are doing at school or trying new styles or whatever. It's fine. But what did come up quite a bit was this thing called the good enough draw man test. And I'm like, what is good enough draw a man test? So of course I had to Google that. And I was like, it's a test to see if they draw good enough, right? Like that's got to be it. No. Sounds like it. Okay, no. Good enough, first of all, is one word. It's not two separate words. It's one word. Good enough. Okay. And it's the name of the person who invented the test in 1926. Wait, the person's name was good enough?

Laura

Okay, first of all, I love that. Like, I want that to be my name. You know the concept of the good enough mother, right?

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, Mr. or Ms. Goodenough invented this test?

Shanna

Okay. The draw man test was conceived by Dr. Florence Goodenough in 1926. And it's a skill test to measure a child's mental age through a figure drawing task. Nowadays, people call it the draw a person test. Of course, that was my first umbrage with this. I was like, draw a man. You instruct your child to draw a person as good as they can. and like that's basically it just draw a person and it's not really time you can kind of give them as much time as they need and then when they're done with drawing the person there's this huge scoring chart of everything that could possibly be included in the drawing and you get a point for all of those things like does it include a head does it include a body legs arms and neck shoulders like more complicated things than a four-year-old would include, right?

Laura

Okay. I know that, you know, Augie's scribbling would barely wouldn't even pass the test. He probably gets zero points. So I can tell you that it definitely doesn't have any correlation with intelligence because yeah, it's multiple intelligences, right?

Shanna

Absolutely. And it's got limitations, too, because if a child has had drawing classes, they're going to score better. So middle-class children will score better than working-class children who have fewer opportunities. So it definitely has its limitations. So she got a point for head present, legs present, arms present. The next thing is trunk present. She doesn't draw a trunk, right? She just draws like the legs coming straight out of the head. So she doesn't get a point for that. And then shoulders. No, no, no. So there's a lot of things she doesn't get points for. There's no neck. But then we get to the face. There's eyes, yes. Nose, yes. Mouth, yes. Nostrils, no. Hair, yes. Then there's a lot of more things like clothing, et cetera. And then her final point was for fingers. Like she drew fingers, but she doesn't get a point because she doesn't draw the right number of fingers, right?

Laura

I mean, maybe she's just practicing to be like a cartoonist because they never draw the right number of fingers either.

Shanna

Oh, I know. And my kids always point that out in like cartoon shows. They're like, why do they only have four fingers? Oh, that's just the thing that cartoonists do.

Laura

I think it's just because it's easier to draw.

Shanna

It fits better on the little hand. Yeah. So out of a total of, I think, like 47 points, she got eight. And according to this chart, that puts her at a mental age of five. So, yeah. Yeah. She's four.

Laura

Yeah, that sounds right. But yeah, I mean, that shows that she's also advanced as far as the drawing goes. Maybe. Maybe. I think so. I don't know.

Shanna

But what she's drawing now would definitely be a zero. I don't know what she would do if I asked her to draw a person. I'm curious. I'm going to see, maybe later today, I'll ask her to do it and see what she comes up with. If you're interested in using an old fashioned rubric to figure out your child's intelligence, go ahead and try the good enough draw a person test.

Laura

All right. I'm definitely going to try this.

Shanna

All right. Well, that's all for me, and I think that's it for our segment. Should we move on to our BFPs and BFNs?

Laura

Yes, we should.

Shanna

I have a BFP. Yay. Yay. So after all of the difficult week of CECE being sick and then my very hard day of the party and the breakdown and all of that, Mother's Day was approaching. And Steve was like, what do you want for Mother's Day? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't care. I don't feel like a good mom. Nothing. It was basically how I felt. And he was like, no, no, that's not what we're doing. And I was like, you know, a couple of times before I've done the thing where I go and get a hotel room by myself and just relax and don't put kids to bed and don't wake up in the morning with kids and just sit by the pool and be alone. He's like, do you want to do that again? And I was like, you know, after this last week, yeah, I do. That sounds really, really great. So he booked me a hotel and I went down there early before check-in and just sat by the pool like the weather was perfect.

Laura

Oh, I'm so glad you're able to do that too.

Shanna

That sounds. Really nice. Well, if you ever get the chance to go away alone for a night, it sure is fun. I know it's not the right choice for everybody. I couldn't do it when the girls were younger, of course. They're really at the right age now, where it's easy enough for me to be like, go with daddy, and I'll see you. And they were fine with it. I was shocked, especially after how clingy Cici had been all week. I was scared to leave. And she was just like, bye. And I was like, OK, see you. And he said they did great, so.

Laura

Oh, that's good. I can see like I could leave Augie easily with Corey. Sebastian, not so much. The dude, the dude is clingy. The dude likes to nurse in the middle of the night again. Like we're just constantly back and forth on this middle of the night wake up thing. And yeah, I don't see me leaving overnight without him anytime soon.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

I have a BFP too. Okay. And you had told us about your mom when of finding the bouncy balls in the arcade last week. Yes. Well, My BFP this week is just the existence of arcades in general. I've always liked an arcade, but this week my children discovered that arcades exist and it has blown their minds.

Shanna

What does Augie like to play?

Laura

He was really into the motorcycle driving game where you sit on top of the motorcycle that like tilts, you know? We had to play it with him. But what I will say is that in addition to like arcades, which are super cool, this week, he's also really gotten into playing a video game on his iPad, which I wanted to mention as a bonus BFP. This is a game that I bought for me years ago. It's actually two games because there was a sequel called Monument Valley. Have you ever heard of it? No. It's an iPad game. It's kind of like a logic puzzle game where there's no words, which is part of the reason it's great for him. And it's kind of like MC Escher like, like it takes these 3D structures, but when you turn them, they can like Connect with each other in ways that they didn't if they were straightforward.

Shanna

I bet. Do you have a game console at your house?

Laura

Cory has a PlayStation 4, which I think would be too advanced for Augie, but he also has a Switch that he's buried away and hasn't been using lately. But I think he's going to get the Switch out and see if Augie can learn to play it. So that's a TBD.

Shanna

All right. Well, we have a PlayStation and Cece plays it. Oh, really? Yeah.

Laura

What games does she play?

Shanna

The games she can play are Donut County. She loves Donut County. The Untitled Goose game is really fun. She likes that a lot. And then like the other game that Al plays called Astro's Playroom. Cece tries to play, but that one's too hard for her.

Laura

Gotcha. Okay. Well, I'm going to look into those games because I think Corey would love to play PlayStation.

Shanna

Yeah, give it a try. It's like they pick stuff up so quickly like I was like Like I didn't think she would figure out how to use the controller, right? There's so many buttons and stuff But it's just like boop boop boop and then just get it right away and then I'll be like How do you turn this thing off and she'll point the button out to me and like it's this one mom and like oh my gosh I'm old

Laura

Well, I look forward to some gaming in our future, but for our present, I think that's the end of the episode.

Shanna

I think it is. Listeners, if you have any what I Googled that you want to share with us, we would love to hear them. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We're on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook at BFP Podcast. We have a website, BigBatPositivePodcast.com. And if you want to send us a voice memo or just a regular email, send it to contact at BigBatPositivePodcast.com. And if you want to join the coolest group of people on the internet, just search BFP Community on Facebook. It's a private group. So just request to join, answer those two membership questions, and then you'll be sent straight through to the wonderful, amazing, insightful conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Have a great week, everyone. Bye. Bye.