The games we play.

Sometimes they're great fun, but they can be...tiring. We have, thankfully passed beyond the psychoanalysis game. We've also, again thankfully, passed through the dirty, smelly toilets game. Now we have different games.

Game number one is the dialogue game. Say we spot a butterfly on a flower. The Spawn wants to know what the butterfly is saying. And what the flower is saying. And back and forth until the conversation comes to a close, which isn't always as easy as it might seem.

Game number two is to have me or the Better Half "do" something. This means we have to provide the voice for some...thing. Sometimes we "do" a stuffed animal or puppet. Sometimes we "do" other things. Recently we went to a park and the Spawn realized she'd not brought an animal with her. We resorted to "doing" a goose feather. Today she was playing in the sprinklers and wanted me to "do" my pants, which had gotten rather damp from the water. She will often provide the voice for some animal, plant, or other herself, which can rather confuse the uninitiated.

And, of course, the eternal why. Not a game, per se, but equally fatiguing at times. Why is it a beautiful day? Why do we have to wear clothes when we go out and about? Why does that taste good/bad? Why is it cloudy? Why are you happy the blueberries are ripe? My version of "just because" has become "that's its nature" (in answer to such questions as "why does Caruso (the cat) sleep all the time?").

All sometimes fun, but sometimes I want to run gibbering into the woods for a while.