i want my DSi …

…or maybe I need to call in CSI!

because this morning (after last night’s amazing midnight launch party at Universal City Walk) I discovered someone has taken my new Nintendo DSi. The evidence is strewn across our kitchen table: an empty box, some plastic bags and a soft foamy envelope-like packet which originally contained the matte black-colored unit.

I’ve done the preliminary forensics and all signs lead me to conclude that my son, Coleman, is the culprit:

1) the haphazard way all packaging still remains undiscarded despite a garbage pail only a few feet away (and the ideal place to hide anything incriminating)
2) Coleman’s schoolwork has been tossed aside and a slight crumb build-up means the pages have been sitting awhile
3) an untouched glass of orange juice and bowl of cereal stare at me as hunger pains begin to erupt in my stomach
4) the cat is missing and suspicious early morning sounds of movement and muffled giggling emanate from behind my son’s closed bedroom door

I dash down the hallway, knock briefly before entering with a frenzied, “It’s Mom,” warning and there on the bed sit Coleman and the cat.  He with DSi in hand, and the cat, now the subject of his attention, calmly waiting to be fed.  “So,” I surmise, “at last I know the truth.” Clearly Coleman’s been using my DSi to take silly photographs of our family pet with the DSi distortion feature.  I want to lecture him about taking something without my permission, but when he pats the bed and throws me the sweetest smile, I join him, immediately disarmed.

In no time at all we are both howling with laughter at some of the funniest photos I have ever seen because one of the coolest things about the new DSi is its camera and ten interactive ‘special effects’ lenses. Coleman and I hug. He plays a riotous recording of our cat meowing because the DSi also has some neat sound applications such as voice alteration.  He snaps a zany picture of me.  We giggle again. All is forgiven. Case closed.

To learn more about the new DSi and the downloadable games now available, please see editor Carolyn Graham’s  March 31 and April 5 “I Don’t Have Time for This” blog posts at http://losangeles.parenthood.com/busy_parents_blog.php  or visit the official Nintendo DSi website at http://www.nintendodsi.com/