Everett was bored this morning and I asked him if he wanted to play a game.  He liked that idea and returned a few minutes later with Herd Your Horses.  It’s a fun game, and one we haven’t played in a long time, so I was more than willing to play with him.  Tegan wanted to play too, and she came to join us as we were getting everything set up.   The problem with playing a board game with a three year old is that while she’s definitely old enough to really want to play, she’s often not quite old enough to really get it.   And that’s fine…. we don’t ask her to adhere to the same rules, and we don’t expect that she’s going to do everything “correctly”.  We wing it, and we have fun, and we keep it light.

Except….

The seven year old takes games very seriously, and he doesn’t like bending the rules.  He also (understandably) doesn’t like it when his sister tries to take his cards or move his piece or tell him what to do – none of which are ever out of the realm of possibility.   Sometimes we figure it all out and we meet a happy compromise.

Sometimes, like today, it goes more like this:

E:  Tegan, that’s a six, not a five.

T:  Stop helping me!  Mommy, he HELPED me!!

E:  I’m sorry, I’ll stop helping you.  Give me back my card!

T:  Who’s winning??

E:  That’s my piece, not yours.

T:  YOU SAID YOU’D STOP HELPING ME!!!

E:  Why are you yelling?

T:  Because this game is STUPID if Everett keeps helping me, and He. Keeps.  Helping. Me.

E:  I won’t help you anymore.

T:  Am I winning??

E:  Oooo, eeee, ooo, ah ah.  Ching Chang….

T:  Stop singing!

E:  Why?

T:  It’s annoying me.  You sound like a monkey.  I’M WINNING!!!

T:  Heh heh heh, I’m going to steal Everett’s horse.

E:  Tegan.  You can’t steal a horse unless you land on me.

T:  Are you still helping me???

E:  Yes!  A six!  I win!

T:  I win too!!!  That was SO FUN.  Let’s play another game!!

So we did.  But I poured another cup of coffee first.