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I feel quite honored that Kylie chose me to play hide and seek with today. Maybe it was just because I was the only other person on the patio at John and Suzanne’s house, after our Easter brunch and before our naps. At first I was a passive spectator as she drove her little police car from one end of the patio (“home”) to the other (“my house”).
At each destination she had a little ritual. At her “house,” she would take the soft ball (not a softball, but a soft round ball which she insisted on calling a “football”) out of the back of the police car, throw it halfway across the lawn, run and get it, and then put it back in the back of the car.
As she took off across the patio in the police car, she would call out, “Have a nice day!” And when she got “home,” she gave a cheery “Hello!” (Or rather, “Hewwo!” She can say “hello,” but chooses not to, just as she chooses to call her drink a “doink,” even though she can say “drink” perfectly plainly. On the other hand, she goes potty all by herself, so it all balances out.)
I’m not sure how we ended up playing hide and seek, but she had some pretty strict rules. (I was the seeker, obviously.) She told me, “Count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10. Then say, ‘Ready or not here I come.’” I did that, but I added the nine for my own benefit. She always hid in the same place, behind my chair, but I had to look for her in the playhouse, and then under the table, and then in her police car, with Kylie giggling madly all the while. Only after I’d exhausted all the possibilities was I allowed to be surprised to find her behind the chair. Then we had to do it again, and again. |
