Fun times :-)

Just a warning to all you moms out there, I have the sweetest, most adorable little girl there is! (She is also probably in the running for most physically violent toward siblings and parents, and biggest grouch when she doesn't get her way :-)

This afternoon, we were "playing" hide-and-seek. Not the actual game that most of you remember from growing up. The Reghan version. This version consists of Reghan and I (yes me) hiding in her extremely small closet on the tiny toddler couch together. I am not allowed to move. At all. Occasionally she opens the doors and goes running for a blanket or a bottle for her doll, or some other necessity (ahhh, freedom & a quick stretch of my cramping legs!!). Then it's back in the closet, cover mom with a blanket, cover herself with a blanket, and pull the door shut...ripping off both blankets in the process. After about 10 minutes of this, she realizes that (oops!) the only two people involved in this game are both hiding, and NO ONE is coming to find us. So out she goes again to bang on her bedroom door and yell "Nate, Daddy, tome find me!"



Nate is a good sport, so in he comes as Reghan frantically dives back in the closet and shuts my toes in the door with a "torry mom!"
Nate calls out "Where's Reghan? Is she under the bed?" To which Reghan replies in a whisper "no!"
"Is she under the covers?"
Again, a whispered "no!"
"Is she in the closet?"
Now she's really excited, and it comes out as a bit of a cross between whisper and squeak "yes!"
By this time I am cracking up, and Nate asks "Is she laughing??"
Reghan can't contain herself this time and she replies aloud "No. Dat Mommy! I not laughing." So we are found. But miraculously, we are not "it." We don't even get to come out of our hiding place. Nate just walks out the door and Reghan tells me "dote move, otay?" as she runs and slams the door shut behind him so the game can begin again.

Replay the whole scenario up to the point where Reghan shuts my toes in the closet door...only this time she doesn't because I keep my knees tucked right under my chin and my toes curled over like they're in the womb.
Enter Nate. This time he thinks he'll try a little trickery, so he calls out "Reghan, what's your full name?" (She loves to tell us that she is "Reghan Telly Obay").
Not about to fall for his trick & divulge our secret hiding place, she opens the closet door and points at her brother. "Shut up, Nate," she says. Then pulls the door back closed and waits for him to check the usual spots before 'finding' us.
At this point my back, legs, and toes can't take it anymore, so I volunteer to be 'it' and come find her in a few minutes. I think it might be more interesting if Reghan looks for a new hiding spot, and I mention this out loud. Right. I am met with a look of total disgust and the simple, no nonsense reply "No. I hide my tloset."

Guess I'll know where to come looking... :-)


She is getting to be so imaginative and I just love it! I remember when we were young, Kyle used to play in the cupboards all the time. I think my mom had one she just left empty so he could climb in and out of it. And he just KNEW that Hudam Hussein (Saddam Hussein...he was on the news every night during that time period, so we were intimately accquainted with him and viewed him as the ultimate enemy...), lived in our kitchen cupboard. And yet, he still played in it. Maybe he was blowing him up. Who knows. Anyway...recently Reghan has discovered a mostly empty bottom shelf in my pantry cupboard. She pulls out the few items in it on an hourly basis, then climbs in, pulls the door shut on herself, then peeks back out. After making sure she has my attention (and with no prodding or lessons from Kyle) she says something like "No worries, Mom. I just going in my car. I just going tee Tanta Clause. Tee you later!" Only once did I try to force her out of the cupboard before she was done visiting with Santa, only to be met with "Mom, just tool it, otay?"

That was good enough for me...I spent the next five minutes or so reflecting on the hilarious and adorable things that come out of her mouth, and she got to spend as much time with Santa as she wanted :-)