Treasure Hunt

My husband had to go to the office yesterday to do some work.   He was rushing (something he does rarely) because, he told me, he had promised my daughter he would do, “special time” with her.

Special Time is fifteen minutes of time doing whatever the child wants with you.   My son usually wants my husband to do some sort of Minecraft mod of late.   With me he wants me to play Minecraft with him.   I let him tell me what to do and ask questions and I actually do need help because he’s played a lot more Minecraft and he likes to put me in strange and unusual worlds, run away from me and then tell me to come find him somewhere so he can show me something, “cool”.

My daughter’s Special Time requests are somewhat more physical in nature.   So yesterday I heard my husband coming downstairs from the second floor on the carpeted stairs.   He was going slowly down the stairs.   When he got to the bottom I didn’t see him, but I heard a plastic, “tick, tick” sound I couldn’t figure out.

He rounded the corner into the kitchen, still bent over, with a stack of Zingo tiles in his hand.   He was walking backwards and placing one about every six inches, slowly making his way to the pantry. My daughter yelled out from upstairs, “Are you ready yet?”  A minute later he called back that she could start.

This is a treasure hunt game they came up with together.   It’s a breadcrumb game she can do without seeing anything.   The game yesterday before dad left for the office was specifically for a, “something to eat” treasure.  

As my daughter followed the trail, picking up the tiles and effectively cleaning up the game as she went, she met dad part way.   He told her it was a food treasure and when she found the bag of goldfish crackers at the end she agreed it was a good treasure.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was not listening the other day.   I had to come up with a consequence and fast.   I looked at him in the eye and said, “I’ll remove all of your Minecraft shirts”.   His eyes bulged, realizing I was serious and ran off to comply.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter wanted to send dad a text message on my laptop today.   She told me I could type and she would tell me what to say.    The message was, “hi daddy, or if you prefer, Chris.”