I'm a favorite of the niece because I have a high tolerance for repetitive behavior, and two and a half year olds have OCD.
Her parents are her parents, and spend too much time with her not to have solid boundaries that prevent her from, for example, rolling them across the floor and back for 20 minutes straight. The wife is good for five minutes of the same activity before she needs to change the channel. Grandma (a bit of a two year old herself) wants to do what she wants to do, niece be damned. I'm usually good for 30 minutes of whatever repetitive antics she cooks up, which is (usually) 10 minutes longer than her attention span.
So I win.
And what's the prize, you ask?
Well...here are some of our games.
Last night was "roll across the bed", a variation on "roll across the floor".
Better, because a mattress has it all over a carpet for cushioning, and a bed is a lot smaller than a room.
I introduced a popular new wrinkle by getting stuck once I reached the wall, necessitating rescue.
"Are you tuck?"
"Oh, oh I'm stuck...help me!"
"Ok!"
A game we used to play that has fallen from favor is "I hide, and you come find me".
She has a pretty loose understanding of the rules...when I'd pretend to be befuddled and say "now, where could the Fiend be hiding?" she'd say "I'm over here!" and come running out of concealment.
Another one is "run around the store and laugh", where she runs around the store and laughs, and I follow her. I'm not sure what part exactly I play in this drama, but if I don't follow her she doubles back and says "you follow me, okay?"
The Gap seems to be her favorite for this one. She crawls under the sale rack, circles through the men's department, touches the promo sign by the side door, then hides by the pants in the children's section. Rinse and repeat.
The other night she had a great time making the footrest on my chair go up and down during my brother-in-law's 4,000th screening of Withnail & I. My astonishment at her incredible strength was a required element, otherwise I'd get her 'mean face', which is pretty intimidating considering she's maybe three feet tall in her ruby slippers.
When we were all up at the cabin this summer we played "I knock and you come open the door", which was a thriller. She's go out on the living room deck, then knock and I'd open the door. I had to cut this one short because I was cooking, a sore disappointment for her. She made do with sitting at the counter and making "pretend eggs" while I worked, pausing to taste them and compliment her delicate touch with the seasonings every so often.
I doubt my showing her that pushing men around is her birthright will do me much good when the time comes to renew my membership in the He Man Woman Haters Club.
Oh well!
We have our fun.
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