A Game of Checkers

Yesterday the girls and I went to a wonderful little birthday party. There was face painting (done by the kids), a blow-up bouncy water slide, and some excellent cake. We had such a nice time. This is the second really nice birthday party we have been to in the last month. It is making me rethink my little parties...

At the party, I was telling another mom about my blogging. How much fun I had rereading stories I had written a few years ago. There were so many cute, funny, and sweet things my girls had done I really thought there was NO way I would forget them. I have. Life gets moving full steam and there are new stories about new children and some of those stories get lost in the shuffle. I think it happens to all moms. My point in blogging is to have a good read years from now. I want my kids to be reminded of some of the things they did and to know how much I loved and treasured every minute with them, even some of the not so pretty moments. OK, I have digressed from where I was going with all this...

At the party, I was reminded of another of those stories I don't want to forget:

This last school year I thought it would be fun to teach Banana to play checkers. I think learning how to strategize and think through consequences can concretely be taught by playing games. After a ridiculously long round of checkers I told Banana she would just need a little more practice. Actually, what I said was, "If you practice and get a little better, you will be able to beat your dad. If you practice really hard you may eventually get good enough to beat your mom." Dh is of course in the study and hears none of this. Banana thinks about what I said and responds, "So you can beat Dad at checkers?" My response, naturally, is "Of course I can. I can beat the pants off your dad."

Banana and Bear find this really funny for some reason. They run into the study to Dad who is oblivious to all that has transpired. Banana then blurts out "Dad! Mom says she can take your pants off!"

Imagine trying to explain that one...