Today we introduced the kids to hide and seek, undoubtedly a mainstay of childhood games since the times of cavemen. (How else do you think they ended up in caves?)
While playing hide and seek, their differences in age and personality are apparent. Norah is very sneaky, clever, and quiet. She picks some very unexpected hiding places, that after several minutes of searching leave Heather and I wondering if we are looking for her in the right house. She can hold very still and remains quiet, grinning from ear to ear as she listens for the search party. Justin excitedly cries out for her, trying to draw her out and gives up after looking through a room or two. She may crouch behind a chair or underneath laundry INSIDE the hamper for several minutes. Eventually even Norah gets bored and shouts out clues about her position, but even then she's hard to detect.
Justin is very sneaky and clever as well. However, subtlety, stillness, and quiet are not Justin's strong suit. He doesn't care if you are impressed with his hiding prowess, in fact he WANTS to be found and craves the moment of his capture and impending tickling. I tried hiding with him in an attempt to teach him the finer point of camouflage, stillness, and stealth. However it proved impossible to convince him that the goal of hiding is disappearing and remaining undetected. We made 3 consecutive attempts to hide, all of which concluded within 30 seconds as he manically screamed out "CAN'T FIND ME NORAH!", "COME GET ME!" or simply sprung out from hiding to chase and pounce on the seekers. In one last attempt, barely able to stifle my own urge to laugh I clasped a hand over his mouth and quietly and repeatedly whispered for him to shush, but he simply couldn't help himself. He stomped his feet in place and broke into uncontrollable, body-shaking giggles of anticipation. We were found almost immediately. It was like hiding with Roger Rabbit.
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