Hide and seek!

(Brad writing)

After a very long day of chasing two very young girls around, the time had almost finally come for them to go to bed. They had already gone up to their room to play and we decided it might be fun to play with them a little before they went to sleep. Since I’d had an enjoyable time playing hide and seek the night before I decided to do so again. I hid in our bedroom behind the door. Holly told the girls to come look for me. They both checked very extensively (at least if you define looking extensively as stepping into the doorway, not seeing the person hiding and then saying “no, not here”). So Holly gave them other places to check, under the bed, around the side of the bed, in the bathroom. Many times they came in the room and turned right around where they should have been able to see me clearly, but they were so caught up in the game that they didn’t get it. Abby even leapt swan-dive style onto a pile of fresh laundered clothes at the foot of our bed that had fallen out of their basket. Finally when instructed to check the closet Hannah came to within six inches of me, and still couldn’t find me. Had I been able to contain my laughter I might still be hiding behind that bedroom door.

What followed was a half-hour of some of the most light-hearted fun I’ve ever had with my two little girls. Holly hid in the girl’s closet (which is the one place I had hid the night before). The girls would run in to the room, not see anyone and insist that mommy had gone downstairs. Abby even began down to go look before I called them back. I knew where she was, but wanted to help them understand the concept of hiding. We checked many false leads, such as under our bed, behind the shower curtain. Each time the suspense built and Hannah was sure mommy would pop out of the next place we were checking. Finally after checking, all of the mommy sized hiding places, Holly rang the little doorbell on the doorway playhouse that sits on the door jamb of their closet. At first the girls were too loud. After a while they realized what the sound was, and finally checked their closet, but only after I had assured them that the doorbell sound was not emanating from the main house doorbell.

Holly and I then took turns hiding and leading the girls in the seeking. We would both send them out, and laugh about their inability to check properly. Abby always seemed to have an uncanny ability to find the hider, but we were never sure if she had actually found us or not. I hid behind the shower curtain, Holly climbed on top of the washer. I hid in plain sight with some of that laundry thrown over me.

(Holly writing now)

During our game, we let Hannah hide sometimes too.
She is not a very good hider!
"Ok Hannah, go hide. We will come find you in a minute, we will count to ten"
"I'm going to go hide in the bathroom!"
"Don't tell us where you are going to hide. Ok, we are counting now. One, two, three..."
"One, two, free..."
"No, dount count with us, then we can hear you and we know where you are"

She'd finally go hide and we'd know exactly where she was but pretend we didn't and we'd check every other place first.
"Hmm, is Hannah in the hamper?"
"No, I'm in the Closet!"
"Hmm, is Hannah in the bathtub?"
"NO! I'm in the CLOSET!!"
"Hmm, is Hannah in Mommy and Daddy's room?"
"NOOO I'M IN THE CLOSET!"
She will get it some day, and she'll probably be a good hide and seeker then.
Right now it's just a lot of fun to play with them. They really enjoy when we really get on the floor and play with them, and we enjoy it too!