Sara received the game Othello for her birthday. She spent the weekend trouncing me. The kid has an evil streak and a very strategic mind - a deadly combination. During one particularly easy game, she asked Paul to play with her so "she could work on evil strategies". Lest you think she is completely amoral, you can rest easy. She is a gracious, if a little condescending, winner. She also promised to take it easy on Grumpy when he visits because "he is old and probably hasn't played this game in a long time".
She has added game playing to her extremely long itinerary for his visit next month. He will put her to bed each night so they can have "talk time" and she can stay up past her bedtime. Talk time consists of her picking a topic, grilling my Dad on it then babbling at him until one of them collapses from exhaustion. The next morning, she will pace back and forth in front of the guest bedroom trying to determine if he is awake. Then they will make pancakes. This process mostly consists of my dad slaving over the griddle while Sara sings, dances and eats the blueberries while occasionally stirring a few into the batter. They will go on a nature walk to hunt for various birds. Then they will go out for lunch. He will order soup which they will share. She will graze off his plate then stick him with the bill. After lunch, they will play various board games and she will gloat over her many wins. At some point, Christian will demand "boppy time" and a fight will ensue. My dad will sit patiently until they are both out of time out and the "winner" gets to play with him. Christian's time will mostly be him handing books to my dad and telling him "more book, please". My dad will then read every book in our extensive collection to him 2-3 times. Sunday, he will get to see Sara sing in the church choir. When he leaves, both kids will do their best to make sure he feels as guilty as possible for departing. Their tactics include but are not limited to crying, refusing to kiss him so he cannot leave (Christian's tactic), making sad faces in the window as he drives away, then sending letters about how much he is missed (Sara's trick). Pack your bags, Grumpy. Your full schedule of weekend events awaits you.
Othello has been played at our house this past week, too. But Nick is not so nice a winner or loser. He loved turning all of my chips over when he was winning, but then, was not so gracious in the falling behind part. We're going to wait awhile to play it again.
ReplyDelete