Hide-and-Seek

Ivie and I had a stimulating game of Hide-and-Seek today. I came up with some pretty good hiding spots downstairs, considering our floor plan is pretty wide open. Not to mention that it's not too difficult to hide from a 3 year-old. We started the game with me hiding first. For the first few times when it was Ivie's turn, she predictably hid in the same spot she'd just found me. Not real creative yet... Finally, when it was her turn again, I told her to "pick a different spot, Ivie!", and went off to count.

I must admit that what followed was not one of my finer moments as a "seeker." I started off looking for her in my typical manner of announcing my every step ("Is she in the laundry room, Daddy? Nooooooooo! Is she in the pantry? Nooooooooo! Is she in the bathroom? NOOOOOOO!") But I couldn't find her, and had pretty much scanned the entire first floor.

At one point while I was looking, I thought I heard her little feet running up the stairs. So I headed upstairs. No worries, I thought to myself. It was about time for Ivie to make her whereabouts known, as she isn't very good at staying hidden and quiet for long. So any minute she was going to start laughing.

But as I went from room to room upstairs, she didn't make a sound. So in my quest to avoid being "taken" by a toddler, I changed my tactic to one a bit more hard-core; no more declaring my next move. I turned silent, tip-toeing through Macie's room, Ivie's room, guest room...

No Ivie.

Okay, seriously. Where was she?!? She'd stayed silent in her hiding spot for a good 4 minutes at this point. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even been that successful, even with all my "good" hiding spots of the day!

Heading back down the stairs, about ready to open the front door and see if she'd escaped outside somehow, I heard "Babby" (her dog on a string, see Show-and-Tell, Round 2). And I saw him moving across the floor just inside the front door. I followed the string, and there she was. Hiding behind the coat rack in the corner of the foyer. I'd walked right past her to go up the stairs.

NICE WORK, Ivie! She started laughing when I found her. I laughed, too, but only to hide my embarrassment at being beaten by someone nearly 1/11th my age. Daddy, to rub it in, said, "You've got to be smarter than the 3 year-old, Mommy!".

For the rest of the evening, even when the game was long over, Ivie continued to say, "Mommy! I HIDE... You COUNT..." It sure is fun to beat Mommy, isn't it, Iv!?! But don't get used to it. At least not for a few years...