The Games We Play

The "PNG X-Games" and the Olympics aren't the only games we see around our house. The boys are pretty creative, inventing their own games all the time. Here are a few of our favorites:

"Fire"
Not too many parents would want their two- and four-year-olds playing "Fire", but this one is harmless. It probably evolved from watching so many of the boys' peers collecting firewood for their chores. According to Aden, the instructions are written on a leaf. It is unfortunate if you play in the morning when the leaves are still wet, because then no one wants to pick them up to read the directions. Usually the boys will gather lots of sticks into a pile under a tree in our front yard. When they have a big enough pile they set chairs around the tree and choose one stick as the match. As Aden explains, "You match it to the tree and make the fire." Matching basically means hitting the tree with the stick. You can then sit and enjoy the fire. When you are done, you match the tree again and put out the fire before you go.

"Wake Up, Jesus!"
We heard this one evening as we were cleaning up in the kitchen while the boys were in the bath. There was suddenly lots of noise and commotion coming from down the hall. As we got closer to the bathroom, we were able to hear more clearly, "Wake up, Jesus!" We have since seen the whole game in action. One of the boys plays the part of Jesus and pretends to sleep, while the other kicks and splashes, making lots of waves in the tub, and shouting, "Wake up, Jesus!" When Jesus wakes up, he calms the waves, and the tub grows quiet again, and the storm (and the game) is over, usually to be played again with the roles reversed.

"Pizza Truck"
Aden and Wiley discovered this game in the storeroom last week. While Mommy was talking with Aunt Judy, and Noah was quietly watching from his stroller, the other two boys found the storeroom cart and began delivering pizzas. When they found the brooms, the pizza truck turned into the cleaning truck. This game will probably resurface on our next trip to the storeroom, since Aunt Judy generously gave each boy a bit of compensation for their work, to save in their piggy banks.

"Fishing"
This game is not an original for little boys, but has been a good alternative to splashing through tempting mud puddles. Instead of walking through the puddles, Aden and Wiley find a stick and go fishing. Wiley usually wins when he hooks a nice leaf.

"Go Hide and Go Seek"
We've played this around the house some, but recently have played it while we walk. It is particularly helpful when Aden and Wiley are running low on energy and have a hard time making it home, often providing just enough motivation to make it the last few hundred yards uphill, back to the house. Thankfully, they aren't too hard on Mommy and are hiding in plain sight, just covering their eyes. Though sometimes, as in this photo, Aden helps them find a less conspicuous hiding place.

"Steal the Bacon"
Not to be left out, Noah's new favorite game is a twist on an old elementary P.E. favorite. He seems to enjoy doing an army crawl to reach the boys' toys, and then laughing when he is found out. I'm sure this game will only lead to more trouble as he becomes more and more mobile.

Going Hunting, and other Adventures

It's been a while since we've blogged, so I decided to include a few random tales in one post. The first one is from today - hunting.

I was feeding Noah when Wiley needed help in the bathroom (he is doing very well using his potty these days). I set Noah on the floor, and when I came back, there was a wet spot on the living room floor. But Aden quickly explained how he had everything under control. Noah had spit up, so Aden had found a burp rag, put it on the floor where the spit up was to mark the spot, found another rag for the floor, went to the kitchen sink and got it wet, and mopped up the spit. He was so proud of being Mommy's big helper that he offered to clean up all of Noah's spit up for the rest of the day, and then announced to Wiley that he was going on a "spit up hunt." Wiley joined him of course (who could refuse such an adventure?), but since Noah was in the living room they came back with no success. Well, apparently they had created their own success. When they got back to the living room, Noah had (amazingly) not yet spit up again, so Wiley spit on the floor, then wiped up his own mess.

Just after Easter, we celebrated the Seder meal with the Radcliffes and the Schmelzenbachs. The boys learned all about Passover, and we were proud of how well they seemed to understand the Easter story. A few days after our special Passover meal, Aden and Wiley pulled out their food set and Aden told me they were having a "Passover Potluck." (I guess for them a potluck is any meal where you sit on a mat on the ground, as we often do at missionary potlucks.) Then he explained further, "It's called Passover because if someone needs something, you just pass it over."

Wiley seems to be at an age of saying lots of funny things, and he is just a cute two year old. One of my favorites of his in recent days has been a couple of new features on his head. He points to his forehead and says, "This is my hooray." Then he pointed to his temples, sort of making horns, and said, "And these are my askidents (accidents)." I just laughed. The next time he showed me his accidents and hooray, I asked where he got that. "Um, I think Aunt Marsha" came his reply.

Finally, I often overhear one-liners like this one . . . Aden (looking at his wrist): "Wiley I have one minute to play go hide and go seek and then I'm gonna play football."

There is never a dull moment around our house with these boys. Which is probably why we don't blog more often, though somewhat unfortunate that we haven't documented more of our adventures along the way.