Playing together

The kids have been playing together a lot lately. Either Jack's reached an age he's willing to play with Kate, or she's reached an age where he likes playing with her; either way, they've invented a whole bunch of games which they readily play at random moments in the morning, afternoon or evening.

Castle. As best I can figure it, this game consists of pulling all the pillows, blankets, and stuffed toys off their beds and building a Stonehenge-like structure in the center of the living room. They also evidently need to wear costumes; Kate puts on one of her princess costumes, while Jack has been an astronaut, The Flash, and Captain Rex from what I've seen. (Regardless of costume, Kate refers to him as either "Knight" or "Prince.") Oh yeah, he also wears a Jets football helmet, which looks pretty interesting with The Flash costume, which he wore for Halloween. Three years ago. It's a little snug. Once the castle is built, they generally abandon it and go do something else, but for that 15 minutes of assembly, they play together quite nicely.

Lions. As the name suggests, they go around on their hands and knees roaring and growling. Sometimes it's a quick trip from "Castle" to "Lions," introduced to me by one of my children sinking their teeth into my ankle through my sock. This game typically takes less time to play than "Castle," probably because crawling around roaring and growling isn't as much fun as dragging half of their bedrooms down and building a tent in the living room.

Baby. I don't think I fully understand this game, since I'm not sure either one actually pretends to be a baby at this point. I've heard Kate ask to play "Baby" and I've heard Jack say OK, but the next thing I know someone is biting my ankle or clawing at me again and I know they're revisiting "Lions."

Spies. I think this is Jack's favorite game to play (well, next to "Castle"), but he knows not to ask Kate too often or she'll stick out her lip and go play with her dollies or something. I think the gist of this game is that they sneak around the house with weapons they've made out of cardboard (a sword, a spear, a frightening-looking raygun...actually, the spear is the most frightening-looking because it's an awfully jagged shard of cardboard) trying to follow me without being seen, as I apparently am Bad Guy. Sometimes this happens when I'm in the kitchen making pasta or something, and I turn around and they're there brandishing weapons at me, then when I turn and see them they say, "Run! Bad Guy sees us!" and scurry for the next room, bumping into each other and stuff. I am not, incidentally, supposed to actually engage the enemy or anything. You know, because they're not supposed to be seen. Because they're spies.