Hide Seek

Hide and seek has become an obsession in our household. Known to my son as "Hide Seek" it has evolved (devolved?) into a complicated game with no set rules.

All of the basic tenants of the game are in place. Someone hides, someone counts, someone finds. Luke seems to be so thrilled with all aspects of the game, that he cares not as to which order they are performed in. First off, he orders one of us to hide "DADA HIDE!" with squeals of utter delight. Nate goes and hides. I tell Luke to close his eyes. Luke proceeds to do this (which is hilarious in and of itself, kids just don't know how to do certain things, and somehow closing his eyes voluntarily leads to some sort of a looking into the sun impersonation, a squinty blinking little wrestle between boy and eyelids). He then counts. In his excitement over the prospect of "seeking" and the challenge of closing his eyes, his counting skills devolve into some mess that frequently goes something like

"un, two, fibe, seben, eightnineTEN!!!! Ten!!! Ten!!!!"

He then proceeds to squeal, and run (have I mentioned that this hideseek game usually takes place after he has used his potty, so he is naked?) into whatever room he saw his Dad disappear into. He then stands in the middle of the room, and whistles. Now, Luke cant actually whistle. His whistling skills (as they are) have emerged from his job of letting the dog in and out. His whistle is the cutest little high pitched squeak I have ever heard. He takes this whistle (and this job) quite seriously. Somehow, Nate and I started using the whistle to alert Luke to our position while playing hide and seek. He then deduced that the whistle was part of the game. We hear his "whistle" and we whistle back. He eventually finds us, but even before he has taken a moment to appreciate his seeking victory, he is shouting "Mama hide". And so we begin again. Fluttery squinty closed eyes, hopped up counting to ten, and the naked boy whistling in the middle of every room.

His hiding is a mystery. Sometimes he hides in the middle of the room, grinning and pretty much trembling with anticipation of someone "finding" him. Its hard to continue to play "Where's Luke?" when a naked beaming whistling boy is standing in the middle of the kitchen, but we try to go along with the game. Lately he has actually hidden a few times. Always in the same place, and always with complete unfettered glee. He literally points his little toes and SHIVERS with delight when we are in the office saying "Where IS Luke? Luuuuuuuuuke?" The first pic above is his hiding spot. Those little legs are quaking with joy and excitement, and the look on his face when we "find" him makes us crack up every.single.time.