While Nathan was sleeping yesterday and today, Katherine and I had some much needed one on one time with each other and we played the game Candy Land. It's such a simple game, but she's learned some important life lessons so far.
To name a couple: how to take turns and how to follow rules.
She won both games yesterday and the first one today. Winning the first 3 games certainly lead to a little over-confidence in Little Miss, so when I was one card-to-be-drawn away from winning game 4, the bottom fell out.
Her head hung down, her shoulders were heavy, the tears started and she limply fell into my lap sobbing. I did the best I could to hold back the laughter and just held her for a minute. Then, while wiping her tear-streaked cheeks, I explained to her that she's not always going to win.
I also threw in all those things Moms are supposed to say but hated when our own mothers said it to us, like: being a good sport whether you win or lose, and how you can be proud of yourself even though you didn't win, and how you can be proud of the winner even if it's not you and the all-time favorite of it's just a game.
She reluctantly dried up her tears, won the next game and all was well.
When I was talking to her daddy later on, I filled him in on the game and her reaction. He said, "Well, I tried to run away when my dad won the first checkers game we played together."
I'll take a couple tears for sure.
Can I confess that I use to cheat at candy land? I would put all of the "go back to the beginning" cards towards the top of the deck, so that the game would not last too long. I didn't cheat to win, just to avoid a 3 hour game. (shame on me)
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