I made a four year old cry today. I am not really proud of that. Here is what happened.
Michael, Betty, Alice and I were sitting at the Lego table. Michael asked if I would like to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons there. I was pleased for I had come over in the evening afraid that the hour was too late and that the children would already be in bed. All were still up. Only their father was ready for bed.
I sat on a low stool and said to Richard, “I think this is the last time I will be able to sit at a low stool near the Lego table. There is no way I am going to be able to get off of this low stool when the time comes for me to get up.”
I had already planned a way to go down on my knees and then roll over a bit to where I could lean on something and get up. Richard pre-empted my plan by coming over and giving me a hand up and onto a regular chair.
So the children and I went back to planning our game. Michael was to be our dungeon master and Alice, Betty and I divided the table up into thirds so that we would each have a place to play. Our space was limited, and Betty’s animal, Foxy, wanted to sit on the table and kept getting in our way. I told Betty that no animals could be on the table – only pieces of lego. I shooed Foxy off of the table but he came back up to sit on it again. For the second time, I told Foxy to get off again and he didn’t move. For the third time I initiated Foxy’s departure and still Foxy stayed under and then on the table. So I grabbed Foxy out of Betty’s hand and with sleight of hand put him underneath me while seeming to throw him right through the plate glass window and out of the house.
Betty searched under my arms, in my pockets and behind my back, and not finding him each time was casting her gaze to the window, really worrying if the stuffed fox was now outside somewhere.
I gave a lecture to all of the children telling them that Dungeons and Dragons is a communal game with a space in it for all (well, excepting Foxy), underlining we have to keep some rules, and so the play began, Michael acting as the dungeon master and Alice and I going from room to room.
He did a grand job.
At one point he asked me what my race was.
I told him Caucasian.
He said no, he meant elvish, gnomish, etc so I changed to one of the options he gave me.
Behind me I could hear Betty negotiating with her mother, trying to get Foxy back, as though Miranda could help her, but what other recourse did Betty have.
I could hear Miranda saying, “If Foxy comes back, you will have to take him downstairs and go to bed with him.” I didn’t know what else was going on back behind me but after a while I thought it was time to make the sound of a fox howling at the moon and soon, beside me was Betty.
I looked down at her. By now I had Foxy out from under my thigh and was putting him in Betty’s hand. A small drop of clear mucous was coming out of one of her nostrils and a drop of water was rolling out of her tear duct and down the cheek on the opposite side of her face.
As I said, I made a four year old cry tonight and I am not proud of it.
Arta
Michael, Betty, Alice and I were sitting at the Lego table. Michael asked if I would like to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons there. I was pleased for I had come over in the evening afraid that the hour was too late and that the children would already be in bed. All were still up. Only their father was ready for bed.
I sat on a low stool and said to Richard, “I think this is the last time I will be able to sit at a low stool near the Lego table. There is no way I am going to be able to get off of this low stool when the time comes for me to get up.”
I had already planned a way to go down on my knees and then roll over a bit to where I could lean on something and get up. Richard pre-empted my plan by coming over and giving me a hand up and onto a regular chair.
So the children and I went back to planning our game. Michael was to be our dungeon master and Alice, Betty and I divided the table up into thirds so that we would each have a place to play. Our space was limited, and Betty’s animal, Foxy, wanted to sit on the table and kept getting in our way. I told Betty that no animals could be on the table – only pieces of lego. I shooed Foxy off of the table but he came back up to sit on it again. For the second time, I told Foxy to get off again and he didn’t move. For the third time I initiated Foxy’s departure and still Foxy stayed under and then on the table. So I grabbed Foxy out of Betty’s hand and with sleight of hand put him underneath me while seeming to throw him right through the plate glass window and out of the house.
Betty searched under my arms, in my pockets and behind my back, and not finding him each time was casting her gaze to the window, really worrying if the stuffed fox was now outside somewhere.
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| Betty and Alice in happier times playing Retail Business Alice has a store full of My Little Ponies stuffies. Betty has come to buy some of them. Her blue purse (lower left) is full of money with which to make the transactions. |
He did a grand job.
At one point he asked me what my race was.
I told him Caucasian.
He said no, he meant elvish, gnomish, etc so I changed to one of the options he gave me.
Behind me I could hear Betty negotiating with her mother, trying to get Foxy back, as though Miranda could help her, but what other recourse did Betty have.
I could hear Miranda saying, “If Foxy comes back, you will have to take him downstairs and go to bed with him.” I didn’t know what else was going on back behind me but after a while I thought it was time to make the sound of a fox howling at the moon and soon, beside me was Betty.
I looked down at her. By now I had Foxy out from under my thigh and was putting him in Betty’s hand. A small drop of clear mucous was coming out of one of her nostrils and a drop of water was rolling out of her tear duct and down the cheek on the opposite side of her face.
As I said, I made a four year old cry tonight and I am not proud of it.
Arta
Best grandma ever!!!! You facilitated a DnD night with 3 children under age 9. Wow. About the tears...DnD can lead to big emotions at any age. I hope Foxy and Betty have recovered and are ready for the next DnD session.
ReplyDeleteI went over to their house this afternoon, which would be the house of Alice, Michael and Betty. Lego land was happening on their dining room table. I just put my hands on the big box of Lego and Betty made sure I got them off right away. I told her I was only resting my hands on the box, not going to do anything with the Lego in the box. I had come over to their house to invite them out to their back porch where we could eat ice cream bars and watch the workmen on the roof of the house just down the street, as they put the plywood up with their electric nail guns. Betty was OK with that. Michael was trying to put a D&D Lego figure into my hand, but going outside trumped the game so I have yet to play part 2 of the game.
ReplyDeleteAs to Foxy? Well, Betty has a pet stuffy dog named Corgi, now as well, so I have 2 stuffies that might be hard for me to negotiate space and time with in the next D&D game.