Life is But a Game

I don't know about you, but around here our evenings can get pretty... hectic. To say the least! I'm sure it's the same at your place, (if you have kids that is), hubby comes home from work, exhausted and needs to sit down. You're making dinner and have tried to distract both kids by turning on some obnoxious show but, instead of actually watching whatever it is, both kids have decided to fight over the same toy and/or have a complete simultaneous meltdown and cling to your legs bawling while you try to finish making a nutritious and delicious dinner to the discordant sounds of yowling and some high-pitched voice singing at you from the TV. Then once you finally "sit down" to dinner, (if you all make it to the dinner table that is), you've somehow managed to forget to give one kid a fork and as soon as you sit down from grabbing that, the other kid has already gulped down all their milk and is dying of thirst. One kid is whining about how they don't like whatever it is you've chosen to serve, and the baby has decided it's fun to throw their food on the floor and scream at the top of their lungs, which, naturally, your preschooler finds dang amusing and decides to screech with jarring laughter and follow suit... Of course, after dinner both kids are messy from head to toe and need a bath, which they love, but get very excited about and end up splashing enough water out of the tub to water your garden all next spring. Then it's time to comb their hair and put them into PJ's, the latter of which is often like trying to wrestle an indignant octopus. And just when you think "Thank God, it's close to bedtime!" they have their nightly pre-bedtime hyperactivity and though you only remember having two kids, it seems like a gang of them have invaded.

Or, maybe it's just at my house?

Well, anyway, to try and combat this rather headache inducing, exhausting and patience-trying cycle we're in we've decided to try and play a game each night. Not only does it help us all spend time together in a more relaxed and fun way, but it usually requires some sitting down on the kids' part. (Whew!) Of course, playing games with a 1 yr old and a 4 yr old can be pretty interesting. First of all, they cheat! They make up rules willy nilly and break the ones they don't like. And you can forget about taking turns. It's always their turn! Although, if you can handle that kind of thing then it's also good for some laughs as well...

The game Perfection was a big hit with both kids. It's that one where you have to put all the shapes in the correct place before the time runs out. Otherwise, the buzzer goes off and the whole board pops up. We decided to play it family style and all four of us would try to get the pieces in as fast as we could. It was funny because Noah even got in on it, and even got quite a few in the right spot! (Not sure if that was pure luck or if the kid's just a genius!) I also found it kind of amusing because every time the buzzer went off, Bree would jump and scream. At first, Noah just stared at her. But after a few rounds he decided that was one of the best things about the game and was screaming along with her or clapping when we made it in time.

Another game involving a buzzer is Operation. Classic. We pulled this one out the other night and, like before, Bree would jump and yelp whenever she made the buzzer go off. Noah, on the other hand, found it very interesting to watch the light in the nose go off when the buzzer sounded. So, when it was his turn he would purposely shove the tweezers against the metal and just buzzzzzzzzz until someone (Bree) finally got tired of hearing it and grabbed them from him. Plus, during other people's turns Noah started anticipating the buzzer and was even going "bzzz" at people.

But the best was the night we played Twister. Noah just stared at us all for awhile trying to understand what the game was all about. Then he decided that he wanted to be the one spinning the wheel. Problem being, he wanted to both spin the wheel and play at the same time. So he would spin the wheel and then throw himself on the mat. After awhile, he decided he didn't need the spinner after all, and instead he was spinning himself. Round and round and falling down on the dots, then getting up, screaming, and running across the mat. Then spinning again. Then running. It was so entertaining, and so impossible to play that way, the rest of us just gave up and watched Noah put on a show. It was the most active, loud, and unusual game of Twister I've seen!