Pete’s Dragon and Exploding Kittens

bottom to top: Betty, Alice and Michael

Miranda and Richard left the kids with me Saturday evening while they went to an event out with his old high school friends.

The children and I sat our chairs in front of the TV and watched Pete’s Dragon, a Disney musical that I had never seen before.

There was a mix of wonder and terror, excitement and calm – part of the time Betty yelling out to the TV giving the dragon directions that might get him out of trouble.

I love that part of watching children’s childhoods. Michael’s excitement was demonstrated in fast, repetitive jumps, up and down, up and down in one place, or gradually creeping his chair nearer and nearer to the TV.

Alice hasn’t been feeling that well. Half way through the movie Michael and Betty announced that Alice had barfed just at the doorway to the living room. I didn’t think there was really a choice as to whether to clean it up or not (though when Richard got home he was horrified that I had cleaned it up), so I got busy making the room smell better.

I had hardly finished when Michael showed me that she had also heaved in the hall by the bathroom, so that kept me busy for a while as well. I haven’t done that for a long time. Poor little thing, her. I tried to get her to rinse out her mouth but she had taken care of the problem with some sips of ginger ale that was in the fridge. Though it was meant for Alice, I let all of the kids have some in a cup. After all, I have learned now that I am older, that if I somehow break the rules of the parents about who should be drinking what, it really doesn’t matter. The parents are equally interested in keeping me alive, so I am always in the right as far as they let me know.

When the movie was over we played 2 games. I tried to play 2 games together – keeping Betty busy with one game to my left, and the two others busy with another game, Exploding Kittens, to my right. Betty is easy to play games with. We just roll dice and move game pieces all over the board, not in any pattern that conforms to rules really. She just is thrilled to have so many rolls and yells out the numbers or letters on the die with glee, though she did close the game down early. When I asked her why she was packing it up she said because it isn’t any fun to play alone. I must have been paying too much attention to the other kids and not enough to her.

2 minutes to learn, 15 minutes to play

... my kind of game....

The game, Exploding Kitten, is new to me. The fairies brought it to them last night, and their mom taught them how to play it today. I make jokes to the children that if their own cat, Dash, watches too long, she too will explode. This isn’t the kind of humour they like. But they do like to deal the cards and have the fun of seeing who it is who eventually gets the card that puts them out of the game: making them an exploding kitten. Usually this would make someone this age cry, but Alice was a good sport, and just took over playing my hand when her kitten was demised. This lack of sorrow over being put out of the game might have been partially a function of not getting able to keep down solid food for a few days. She has been sick. I let her sip her ginger ale beside me and I slipped her a few small squares of Swiss chocolate. After all, I hardly count that as solid food.

Arta