Fun and Games

Eliana recently started taking long afternoon naps.  It has been wonderful, for her to get some good rest and for the rest of us to be able to hang out together-particularly Christian and myself. 

I am able to get her to sleep before he is home from school.  Once he's here, he often has a snack and then we play games.  Since I packed all of the board games that we have (because we are moving one day), we are a little limited...but we have card games a-plenty.  We've played a lot of cards; we've played Go Fish, Crazy 8's, War, Crazy Aces, Old Maid, Crazy Jacks (you get the picture...).  He's creative in every aspect of his life and this area is no different.

Another game we've played involves several decks (sets?) of flash cards we have.  They have a word on one side and then on the other side the word again with a picture.  Very basic flash cards.  What he likes to do is hide the cards from me, give me a clue about the one on top, and then let me guess the word.  It is quite fun, and he comes up with really clever hints.  For example, yesterday we were on the couch (and ironically Eliana had taken a 45 minute nap and was already awake, but still sleepy enough just to sit on my lap so that we could still play this game for a bit) and he gave me the clue:  "Eliana is holding one."  Can you guess what it was?  Probably not.  But I looked at Eliana and started giggling, and I said,"A hammer?"   For some reason, she was holding the plastic hammer out of Christian's play tool box.  He started laughing and said,"Yeah!"  It was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, but seriously, it was funny.  We laughed pretty hard about that. 

Let's see if I can remember some of his other hints...The rain falls on it (umbrella); it's at the beach, in the sand, and in the ocean (shell); it's in the bathroom and the kitchen (sink).  Oh, I wish I could remember a couple of the very funny ones, but my memory...

We did have another good laugh because of these cards.  He discovered that two of the sets (different brands) had identical pictures for their words (for example, the lamps on the "lamp" card were exactly the same; there were several others he found that were this way).   We had never noticed this before, and I said (oh, this is really telling one on me...),"Hey, we could play a matching game with these cards."  My thought was that we could turn the cards over and then flip them, "Memory" style, and match the pairs.  Um, then I burst out laughing because I realized that, well, it would be the easiest game of "Memory" ever.  The printed word without the picture is on the flip side of each card.  They both thought it was very funny that I had such a crazy idea.  Eliana laughed just for the heck of it.

Back to the guessing game...I love this activity.  It is good for his reading (he doesn't always look at the picture side), and he has to come up with a way to talk about the object without naming the object.  He's quick, too.  He likes being "in charge", the one giving the clues, the one who knows the answer (wait, isn't he always the one who knows the answer...?).   I occasionally throw in the wrong object, like when he said,"You clean the floor with it," and I said,"A toothbrush!"  It makes him laugh (and Michaela, too, who was listening in while reading).  Next I said,"A broom."  He shook his head.  "A mop."  That was the right one.

I like to spend this time with him each day; I can see in a vivid way that he still wants to be with me and do fun things together, sit in my lap, be close.  There are moments most days when things are a little harder, and the times when we can laugh and snuggle help to remind me that what he needs most is love.  That may sound funny, that I would need that reminder.  I guess what I mean is that when he's pushing buttons, or pitching a good one about not getting his way, I can think of the goodness of that together time, how obvious it is that he is cherishing those moments, take a deep breath, and try to help him through the rough spot.  And really, at the end of the day, when he still wants me to lie down with him for a while, the snuggle moments rocket into first place, and boot those stinker-y moments out the door. 

And just for fun, here's a word he coined tonight.  I think it's brilliant-camoflaser (a laser that blends in to its surroundings?).  He is a funny boy.