The Evolution of Hide n Seek

It's been about 6 months since we moved into this home. I can remember coming to walk through it a couple of times before we moved in. Each time, Elsie played the same game...she'd run through the house, closing herself behind closet doors and climbing into the bathtubs. There were few words that followed her wherever she went, "Come find me!" Of course, we did. We'd search from room to room, calling out to her and asking, "Is Elsie in the kitchen?" She'd ALWAYS respond, "NO-OO!" At times, she'd get impatient and tell us where she was, "I'm in the bathroom!" When we found her, she'd burst into a fit of giggles and could barely count at all while we took our turn to hide.

Yesterday, Claira woke up from her nap, and I joined her in the bedroom. The way I was sitting must've been shielding her from Elsie's view at our doorway because she walked in the room asking, "Where's Claira hiding?" I told her she wasn't hiding at all but told her she could count to ten, and I'd help Claira hide. Elsie began counting as I slipped out of our bedroom holding Claira in my arms. I grabbed a book to keep her quiet and situated us on the floor behind the recliner. "Not ready, I'm coming!" wafted down the hallway seconds later followed by Elsie's footsteps. She entered the room and circled it before spotting us and announcing, "I found you!" errupting into her usual fit of giggles. As Claira and I left our spot behind the recliner, Elsie declared her turn to hide, taking our spot. That's her current phase of hide-n-seek. She hides exactly where I was just hidden, and I get to watch her hide there. She also sits quietly and doesn't make a sound while I search for her.

I don't know if she means to do it, but I find it interesting that in both cases, we know just where she is. If we didn't see where she hid, she'd tell us, and now that she's stopped telling us where she'd hidden, she hides while we're watching.

Earlier this week, Claira played alone happily on the floor while Elsie and I snuggled in the recliner. Of course, she fell asleep after about 5 minutes, but I couldn't stop thinking about how big she is. She's growing, learning, changing, and amazing me everyday. One of these days, I know I'll be longing for a simple afternoon of hide-n-seek, and I'm glad I'll find it here.