10 points for baby

For the past two days, I've been babysitting a friend's children while she was at a family reunion and her husband was at work. They have three children: boy, 5, girl, 3, and boy, 2. They are very well-behaved and we had a great time. We made and painted salt dough, painted pictures, colored, played board games, played video games, went to a park, went miniature golfing (at a free course at the park), and made cookies. But when everything else failed to please-- either they were bored of an activity, or I was tired of running and screaming, a main staple to many of their made-up games-- we played hide-and-seek.

This is how we played: I would sit on the couch and rest, counting to 20 or 30 really slowly while they would all run and hide. Then, I'd pretend to look for them in ridiculous places like the microwave, an easter basket, or inside a book while they giggled until I "found" them. If I wasn't fast enough, the 2-year-old would come out and yell, "You found us!" with his arms up in the air. Then, one of them would count, while I would hide and the other kids would follow me to my hiding spot.

Inevitably, after a round or two, the oldest would start assigning points once everyone was found. He'd get a few points if he found you quickly, and others would get points if he thought their hiding place was clever enough (this is where the majority of my points came from). Once, yesterday, he said, "I get two points, Sister Cosby gets one point, and Sister Cosby's baby gets one point." "Awesome," I said, "my baby loves points."

We'd talked a lot about my baby that day. They'd painted her pictures and asked if she would wear pink, and wanted to know if they could see her when she was big enough to start growing outside my tummy. The next day, when we were driving the oldest to pre-school, he asked, "Sister Cosby, how do you know what your baby likes?" I didn't really understand him since he sitting at the back of the mini-van, so he repeated his question.

"You mean, how do I know if she's tired or hungry or something?" I replied.

"Well, yeah, that too," he said, and then, quieter, "but also that she likes points?"

"Well," I said, trying to keep from laughing, "everybody likes points, so don't you think she would too?"

He didn't say anything else for a while, and seemed to have forgotten about it. But then, in the afternoon, after he and his sister had argued about how to play "Jenkers" a made-up robot game, we started hide-and-seek again. And this time, nobody got more points than "Sister Cosby's baby."