hide and seek

A couple of weeks ago I watched one of my friend's little girls, Jillian. She's four, and taught Rachel how to play hide and seek. Except Rachel didn't really understand it and kept talking so Jillian didn't have any trouble finding her, and consequently gave up and didn't want to play anymore.

Rachel, however, had a ball, and asks every couple of days for Mommy to go hide so she can come find me. I can't make it too hard because she gets really scared when she can't find me after a minute or two! Once I hid in the bathroom, behind the door, but with the door still part way open. I thought it was a pretty obvious spot, but she came in the bathroom, didn't see me, and left. So she didn't try the bathroom again, and then almost was in tears because she couldn't find me. So now I make it a little more obvious. It's easy to be obvious because you never know what she's going to count to--sometimes it's 10, but sometimes it's two, so I really don't have much time to hide!!

I try to get her to take a turn hiding, too. Except she usually doesn't leave my sight--she'll go to the couch next to me and cover her eyes, so she thinks I can't see her!! Or sometimes she'll venture out to sit on the stairs...five turns in a row so I'll know exactly where she is. She doesn't understand the concept of finding a new hiding place yet.

But it's a fun indoor pasttime which gets us both laughing, even if she has a lot to learn about the fine art of playing the game.