My daughter Maisie makes up some interesting games so I thought I should document a few of them. These games involve some fairly interminable repetition but I’m sure it won’t be long at all before I look back and really miss playing them.
Each game will be varied at some point by Maisie saying “I’m daddy and you’re Maisie”. She means that in order to swap our roles in the game we must swap our actual identities – it’s quite confusing and seems perhaps a little excessive the first time it happens.
The Ladies
This game involves a couple of barbie dolls. They mainly take turns cooking some food, getting distracted by something while the other one eats the prepared food (see ‘the cooking game’). They also sometimes either act as shopkeepers (a butcher’s shop that sells variety of things including shoes) or as customers.
The Cooking Game
This game is played outside. One of us pretends to prepare some food which then has to be left to cool down. While the food cools down, the other player eats all of that food. The first player then returns and is disappointed so has to cook more food.
The ‘What’s that?’ game
This is a cool game. First you throw the doona on the floor. Then get all pillows and cushions in the house and put them on the bed. You then lie down. Maisie will then bring things and put them on the bed. Your only responsibility is to ask “What’s that?” as each new thing arrives. The main challenge with the game is that you may fall asleep. Sometimes Maisie gets distracted, forgets that you’re on the bed and stops bringing new things.
The Doll’s house
The game is played with pretty much anything at all and a dolls house. Maisie says “what’s she gonna do” and you need to pick something interesting for the character to do. Most often, she’ll just say “no” (ie. not interesting enough). Other times, she’ll say “no” and her character will start doing it (ie. too interesting). Occasionally your character will get to act out the suggestion.
The Tricky Game
This game involves running from one end of the house to a bedroom, diving under the covers of the bed but leaving your legs sticking out. The other player then enters the room, pretends to look around for a while before eventually admitting that they know where you’re hiding. When I’m hiding Maisie will find me first and then hide with me (having yelled out for Terese to come and find us).
The Babushkis
Unsurprisingly, this game involves some russian dolls. The game revolves around them finding their bottom halves or just ‘bottoms’. They try each of the unsuitable bottom halves saying things like “no, that’s much too big”, “no, that’s much too small”, “no, that’s got wee in it” or “that’s got poo in it”. Not sure if this is obvious but the advent of this game coincides with the start of toilet training.
The Jungle Game
This game again involes the russian dolls. This time they go exploring caves and encounted various sorts of ’scary things’. The scary things as usual include ghosts, monsters, leopards, kittens, heaters, giraffes and hippopotamuses.