Alas, I did get to make the night up to them. After eating and things, I allowed Jake to play some video games while I helped Benjamin in the bathtub. That was not as exciting as I had intended. The bubble wand was missing from the bubbles, and so I couldn't surprise him and blow bubbles all around while he bathed. This is one of our favorite games, until I get too dizzy and nearly pass out from exhaling... Strike One.
But at least Jake had enjoyed his video game time, except that his timer, set to alert him when his time was finished, went off about 2 minutes before he finished his game. And, I had intended to actually let him finish the game, but he was quicker than I was, and abruptly turned the game off without complaint, though I knew he was quite upset. I applauded his efforts as he turned the games off without contest, and I rewarded him by letting him know that I would let him play a full half hour of his choice of video games tomorrow, above whatever time his father allowed him during the day. He was still upset, because children at this age are always looking for the more instantaneous gratification, so... Strike 2. I was getting behind in the count.
While Jake continued on to his shower, I decided to play some games with Ben. I told him we were going to play "Puppy Bingo", which is a game we haven't touched since he was a little over 2 years old and learning colors and shapes... but, I couldn't really think of anything else. To my surprise, Ben was super excited at the news, and ran and set the game up on his floor (sort of) while I fetched a clean towel for Jacob.
Finally I was getting somewhere. Ben was very upset though, because he could only find one puppy, (and really to be fair, these puppies do not actually influence the game in any way, and I remembered that he insisted that the missing puppy needed to go in his Little People farm years ago...) so I feared I would take the strike out and be done for the night. But I was going to go down fighting! So, I remedied the situation by using Mario as my game piece, rather than the puppy. Ben thought that was really silly, but he allowed it, and I was working towards my even count at bat.
my game card and "Puppy"
Ben's card and Puppy
The way the game plays, you take turns drawing cards. Each card has either a color, a pattern or a shape on it. Your objective is to match one of those aspects to one of the houses on your card, and when you do, you put a dog bingo chip into the house. When you finally get enough dogs in the houses to form a conventional BINGO, you win! Ben did such a great job this time playing, whereas when he was younger, he'd be silly and just try to cheat. This time, he won fair and square!
Ben's winning card... and yeah, he's only got a pull up on, because he loves to be naked...
So, after a few games, I decided to try my luck with our Yahtzee Jr. Game. This is a game I wait for Ryan to leave before I play, so with him being gone to disc golf, it seemed the perfect night to play. I was excited that Ben and I would be able to play a game and then we'd be able to play a new game when Jake joined us when he finished with his shower. This game is fairly fun, even for me an adult to play. Essentially, you have five dice to roll, and you try to get as many matches on the face of the rolled dice as you can, and you do your best to get as many matches with each individual character. You get points for the amount of matches, and the most points win. You can use each character only one time. When you roll a Zurg, your die is no longer in play for that turn. When you roll Woody, he is wild and you can use him as any other character you need. (This is a really lame explanation, but... it's the best I can do. It's complicated enough that I'm surprised that my kids and I can actually play without Ryan's patient guidance...)
I got ready to take my first turn. I placed all five of the dice into the plastic cup, and shook them wildly around for effect, saying funny things, trying to mimic the sounds of a craps table.
"Come on, mama needs a pair of shoes! 5 Annies! No Zurgs! 5 Annies!"
Darn it all though! I only got 1 Woody and 2 Annies. The other two dice didn't match anything and so they were useless at that point.
Ben was very excited to take his turn. He picked up all five dice, put them in the cup, and shook them as crazy as I had. He started in on the craps table type comments also.
"I need 4 Buzzes. I need 5 Woody's. I need Woody's and Buzz's! Buzz's and Woody's! Big roll.. big roll..." (And imagine that buzzes and woodies make Ryan and I giggle when we play this together, so now you know why we don't always play this game while we're together.)
And it was if Mother Nature had provided the sound effects for Ben's roll. As his dice crashed to the floor, Thunder roared loudly and all you could hear was the house being engulfed in a torrential downpour. Jake came into the bedroom from his shower scared, and so we left our game and headed out to the television to monitor the storm which had stolen my own thunder. (Strike 3... )
From that point, we spent the night cuddling together on the couch, watching a Charlie Brown special on television, which was interrupted only by weather forecasts and accounts of tornadoes locally. I feared we might never leave the couch or shut our eyes for the night. I turned the television off when the worst of the storm had passed, read the remainer of a Junie B. First Grader book we'd been working on, and cuddled up with the kiddos.
Ryan came home shortly after the book was finished, and he convinced the boys to sleep in our bed. He had them to sleep within moments, playing the role of the hero once again. And I sat down to blog, only slightly disappointed that my game had got rained out!
