I kick *ASS* at Hungry, Hungry Hippos!
Last night I was babysitting my girls.
And boy, oh boy, did I whup their three-year-old and five-year-old respective butts. Well, not literally – just the figurative ass-whuppin’. I never had Hungry, Hungry, Hippos as a kid – I don’t think it came out until I was probably 11 or so. I remember thinking wistfully it looked rather fun if I weren’t so mature – so intellectually advanced for my tender pre-teen age.
The good news is that now, approaching 40, it turns out I’m not so mature.
I
KICKED
ASS!
L, the five-year-old, knew all the rules and seemed adamant that we followed them.
C, the three-year-old, didn’t care about the rules, she just loved the chaos and the ensuing squealing.
Me? I was in it for the old-fashioned smack-down.
The cute thing was that when I arrived at their house, L & C’s Moms explained that the girls were wildly impatient to play Hungry, Hungry Hippos. L and C were growing frustrated with me because I wasn’t at the house yet. Both Moms had offered to play a few games while they were awaited my arrival, but the girls refused, insisting they were ‘saving the game for Unca Ted.’ Adorable, huh?
The girls almost wouldn’t let me greet their Moms hello, both kiddies taking a hand and pulling me to the little table where the game sat. In fact, we were playing the first round of Hippos before their Moms had even left the house. Poor cute tykes did not know I had brought two surprises: a power thumb and an insatiable hippo-hunger for eating those little white marbles.
Oh, and BTW…L was totally cheating. She was scooping the white marbles out of my Hippo tray and putting them in her own and shyly proclaiming herself the winner. Huh. Is that how it works, girl? “Unca Ted” don’t think so…
(Serious aside: I did struggle here briefly. Do I talk to her about cheating? Let it slide? Is this a phase she’s in or a character-defining moment? Her Moms know about this – they mentioned once that she likes to cheat at games. I don’t know that I handled it well. I said, “Really? You won already? How can you have won four marbles when we’ve only gone two rounds?” She lost interest in playing shortly after that. Still not sure how I should have handled this or what I should do next time this occurs.)
I think though, L & C actually “won” when I evaluate the big-picture of the evening.
After Hungry, Hungry Hippos we worked a puzzle and played crazy 8s, then ballroom dancing followed by ice cream with chocolate sauce, then followed by high-energy activities like playing meat-eating dinosaurs (lots of chasing me around the house), then I was “horsie,” then we played a computer game, then meat-and-bone-eating dinosaurs (more chasing), then we played doctor (my illness was such that I required a number of shots directly to my eyeball and I had to take a lot of “ucky” medicine, which made them giggle when I made retching sounds), then we read a book, then we jumped on beds (I watched and held their hands), then there were owies and crying and then more jumping, then we played house and I was the Daddy, then we watched My Little Pony’s Meet the Pegasus Ponies, then we ate peanut butter sandwiches, then we played Hungry, Hungry, Hippos more (during which I taught them to bellow, “HUNGRY, HUNGRY, HIPPOS” just as things got extra chaotic and noisy), then there was jumping on the couch.
I kid you not.
No writer’s embellishment. That’s how we spent the evening. I practically crawled to my car when the Moms got home. My last glance was C energetically jumping on the couch.
I have a new layer of respect for all my friends who are parents.
