I am a veteran of online games at this point - yet the child consistently outperforms me in ToonTown online.

I think my problem is that I look at my health and level of gags and I play cautiously. I don't jump into battle with something I think will probably take my gags and send me sadly back to the playground. My daughter, on the other hand, jumps into any battle and takes her chances. She has helped reclaim a number of buildings from the cogs at this point. She fearlessly wanders the various cog HQ areas looking around.

Today she showed me that she has filled her cog gallery - she's killed at least one of every cog in the game. She's working on a cog suit now so she can go to the clubhouse and talk to the other cogs. I know this clubhouse is in one of the cog HQ areas but I couldn't find it on my own if my life depended on it.

I love listening her talk to herself while she plays ToonTown. She narrates the battles. She shouts comments to other players (which they can't hear, since she's talking at the computer). All in all, she has a great time.

My daughter just blows me away when I watch her play ToonTown. I'm the kind that has to be prepared. I plan what I'm going to do. As a consequence, my advancement is fairly slow.

My daughter is totally fearless in ToonTown. She readily jumps into groups fighting more powerful cogs. She's found all the Cog headquarters and regularly goes running around there. I don't even know how to get there - much less run around and go sightseeing. She's in a group of intrepid Toons fighting to reclaim buildings from the cogs all the time. I regularly see her in these battles, and then her picture in the lobby of the reclaimed building. She doesn't care if she's short on gags or low on health - she just goes for it. I guess it's that invincibility of youth. Whatever it is, she's a real joy to watch, and I get a kick out of listening to her muttering her plans to herself or call out (to the computer, not through chat) what she and the other Toons she's traveling with should do next.

Remember that part in Finding Nemo where Dory and Nemo's dad run into the shark meeting? The shark's are trying to give up eating other fish and their motto for the meeting is, "Fish are friends". (Yes, I'm going somewhere with this, kinda.)

For some reason, the child has decided that the Sellbot cogs are her friends. No amount of reason or discussion is helping with this odd fixation. Even though those cogs are just as happy as any other to steal her gags and send her back to the playground, she insists that they are her friends. (I know, the analogy would make more sense if it were the fish in Nemo having the meeting about the sharks, but my brain is fuzzy and that's what's sticking.)

Other than this little splash of weirdness, she continues to have a lot of fun playing ToonTown. She happily narrates what she's doing and regularly talks to the screen. There's definitely no need to wonder what she's thinking as she plays, since every thought comes out through her mouth.

I like how ToonTown really encourages the players to team up and work together to defeat the cogs. Yes, there's some competition in the mini games, but the overall theme of ToonTown seems to be teamwork. The child is currently playing Webkinz a lot too. It has some enjoyable parts, but is totally lacking any sense of working with others for a common good. I'm glad she still has ToonTown in her gaming life.

My daughter has tried any number of games. She loves DS games. She loves playing the Wii. She has quite a few educational (and not-so-educational) games on the PC. The one she keeps coming back to day in and day out is ToonTown. She has quite a busy life with her Toons. She seems to have a number of other Toons on her friends list. I take that as a sign that she's doing much better at getting along with others.

She plays ToonTown on the laptop sitting at the desk next to me. I glanced over the other day and saw her Toon's picture on the wall in one of the buildings! I asked her how that happened. She said something about cog buildings. I wish I knew where she'd been so I could get a picture to save. Unfortunately she's not very forthcoming about such things (most of the time). She has autism and back and forth communication can still be a challenge.

I love that she's doing so well with ToonTown. Since she first started playing (maybe a year ago?) she's developed some really good skills. She has a friends list now. She works cooperatively with other Toons. She's able to get Tasks and follow up with them - both completing them and turning them back in. I'm so proud of my little Toon girl.

It's been a while since I spent time in ToonTown myself - not just watching my daughter play. I have to say, it was kind of a bittersweet experience. Because we share an account, my daughter has access to my Toon when she's logged in. She didn't sell my Doodle, but she did just about everything else.

She spent all of my jellybeans on piles of useless furniture - furniture she jammed on top of each other in one room.

She deleted all of my clothes but the clothes on my back.

She let my gag trees wither.

Sigh.....

I decided to make the best of things. I rearranged the furniture so it actually looks like a house again. I did a fair amount of fishing to at least replenish my gags. I watered all of the trees and flowers. I got my Doodle happy again.

I did a few Trolly Games to try to raise money. Apparently I'm not particularly good at a lot of these games. I'm better at fishing so I switched to that. While my fishing aim came back fairly quickly, there were a few challenges still. There was a group of four or five Toons that seemed to take great delight in running through the fishing pond and across the fish bubbles. I also had fish swim directly across my bobber several times without me getting a bite. I don't know if I was having a game lag issue or something, but that was a bit frustrating given it takes 2 jellybeans per cast with the rod I have.

While I was fishing in ToonTown Central, a cog invasion of spin doctors was announced. I decided to run out and join in. This is the first invasion I actually joined. Usually I figure I don't have enough skills to make a difference - forgetting that this isn't as much a factor in ToonTown as other games. I had fun. I even got Yammie to successfully 'Play Dead' and heal us Toons once. Ultimately, I got sent sadly back to the playground, but it was nice to have participated.

My daughter has been playing ToonTown more lately. As I watch her play, it really is a kick. I keep wondering why she does the things she does.

My nephew was over yesterday so we showed him ToonTown and let him run around with one of her characters. He learned how to fish (and really liked it) and then we took him out to her estate to see the houses and the Doodles.

My daughter has made some interesting design decisions in some of her houses. I keep seeing either all of the furnishings up in the attic, or everything crammed randomly into one room in the house. I swear she had a chair sitting on top of a fireplace mantle!

My toon, Poppy, had all of her furniture in one room, and there seemed to be a lot more furniture than I remembered buying - and I seem to be broke. I suspect the two are related.

The poor Doodles were all begging for attention and it doesn't look like she's watered any of the flowers or gag trees lately. Sigh.....

When she's playing on her own and 'in the zone' she usually has a running monolog with the screen. She's got some sort of back story she's playing out in her head and I'll hear her yelling orders at the screen or just narrating her stories to herself.

I still have hopes of hooking my nephew into playing so she'll have someone else I know to adventure with. He's only about two months older than her, but he's a typical kid (she has autism) and tries to look out for her. I did mention casually (yeah, right) that I had mentioned the game to his mommy because I thought he might enjoy it, and that he could always ask her about it....

My daughter has been a bit more social lately when she plays ToonTown. She will still decline if people ask her to go help with a task. I'm not sure that she really understands what they're asking. She has gotten really sociable when it comes to Trolley Rides though. I've seen her play game after game with the same few 'Toons. She gets really excited as she completes each game too. She jumps up and down and tells me how many jelly beans she just won. She's finally spending more time playing ToonTown in my office again. It's good to see her having so much fun with the game.

I got an interesting email that told me that Toontown was offering free accounts! So I headed over to check out the game. From what I can tell no credit card is required, and there's no time limit for playing!

The info in the email said:

Check Out the New Toontown Online!

Disney's Toontown Online, the first multiplayer online game designed just for kids and families, has a brand new way to play! Now you can jump into the most exciting game in the Tooniverse with a Free Account!

Create an account and you'll be able to play in one of the Toontown neighborhoods -- when you want, for as long as you want! Check out some of these exciting Free Account features:

• Create up to two (2) Toon characters
• Explore Toontown Central and take on ToonTasks
• Earn gags and defeat evil robot Cogs
• Play Trolley games or go fishing to earn jellybeans
• Race go karts on Goofy Speedway
• Adopt your own pet Doodle

Now, I don't know what a Doodle is, but I'm gonna go find out! Join me in game!