Parenting Isn't for Pansies: Come On, Baby! Let's Do The Twist-er

Friday Night Family Night has its ups and downs. Periodically, the boys have something planned or the kids head over to Mom and Dads for the night or we just are all wiped out making the night a low key one with not much happening beyond the hope that we'll find a good movie to watch while we all die quietly on The People Magnet. Other nights find us with a board game or card game out, trying to figure out how to keep Laura involved and still play a good game before she heads to bed. And then there are nights like last week...

Laura and Jonathan had ventured to the basement playroom storage to find a new supply of games earlier in the week. They had returned with Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Guess Who, Candy land and Twister. Quite the combo, wasn't it? Laura instantly fell in love with Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Jonathan tried his best to teach her the logic of Guess Who even though she's only four. Candy land is okay but as you may already know, it can take forever to play one game and her attention span isn't that long. And then there's Twister. As the week progressed, any time seemed a good time to pull out the game and try to talk someone in to playing with you. Laura learned how to spin and call out the color and the relatively correct appendage and we all learned how to change it on the fly to accommodate her lacking leg span and arm width.

As Friday approached, Jonathan began lobbying for a 'game night' where we'd play until we dropped. He wanted to play Narnia, agreed to some Hi-Ho Cherry-o to make Laura happy and wanted to play some group rounds of Twister. His mistake was starting there. :) Matthew quickly became quite competitive with Don to see who might reign supreme. Laura learned that getting under anyones body could be hazardous when the mat is that full, and Jonathan decided that playing with Mom and Laura was a lot different than competing with his testosterone laiden older brother and Dad. We played many rounds. It was fun. Don and Matthew worked up a sweat while I learned how to foil one or both with a well-placed push. By the end of that game we called it quits for the evening. Don and Matthew were done in and I was just done. We headed upstairs, put Laura to bed, gathered on The People Magnet and promptly fell asleep.

Here are a few highlights from the evening:

At first Laura was involved and very interested. Even though she'd get pushed out or fall, she'd jump back in to the fray midgame and continue.