Interesting afternoon of Candyland

One afternoon this week Drew and I were playing board games after school. We started out with Chutes and Ladders, but after we both hit multiple chutes and the game was really dragging, Drew started to pack up the game in favor of Candyland. As I folded a bit of laundry while Drew cleaned up Chutes & Ladders and then started turning the Candyland cards over, he asked whether Curious George might want to play. I said "Sure, why not." Then he ran off into his room and came back with one of his little monkeys claiming that he wanted to play too.

And so it began. Definitely the most interesting games of Candyland I've ever played. Drew spun and moved the gingerbread men for himself and both of the monkeys, but clearly placed the monkey's cards in their own piles separate from his. As the game went on, Mommy had an unfortunate incident with the candy cane card and the little monkey luckily uncovered the ice cream cone. It became apparent that neither Drew nor Mommy was going to win this game. Similar events occurred in the second game as the monkeys went 2-0 and Drew & Mommy went 0-2.

Drew does seem to be a pretty good sport. When I got the gumdrop card to take a lead early in the game, Drew said "Good job Mama." Then, as both the little monkey and Curious George managed to "win" the games we played, Drew seemed as excited about his monkeys winning as he usually is to win himself, though he did request to play another game "So I can win."

After Candyland I needed to get dinner started so I had to say "Later" to Drew's request to play the Monkeys Jumping on the Bed game. His reply? "That's okay Mommy. I will just play with George and little monkey." A few minutes later I turned around to see him "helping" George spin the spinner and put monkeys on the bed.

Never thought I'd say I lost a game of Candyland to a stuffed monkey...

Game Time

For Christmas this past year Drew got a couple of board games: the classic Candyland and Sesame Street Chutes & Ladders. We didn't anticipate they would interest him right away, but thought after a few months maybe they would. When Drew started showing an increased interest in numbers we thought we'd give Chutes & Ladders a try. When we open up the board now he says "Look all ladders. See big ladder Mommy." He enjoys spinning the spinner and pointing out the numbers on the spinner, but has a hard time restricting himself to just one spin at a time. He still doesn't quite grasp the idea of moving up the board, but is picking up on the turn-taking.

Candyland we were a little more hesitant with, because of the possibility of Drew being colorblind. It is genetic through your maternal grandfather and my dad is colorblind. Anyway, after enough experiences with books about colors and crayons to confirm that Drew did not in fact inherit my dad's colorblindness, we decided to give CandyLand a try. Drew enjoyed pointing out all the colors on the board and absolutely loves picking up the cards to see what color he gets. Again, he finds it very restricting that he only is allowed to pick up one card at a time. For a little while he would say "Play cards," which meant he wanted to open Candyland just to go through the colors on the cards like flashcards. Now he is more interested in turn-taking and moving along the path of the board. Mommy & Daddy still usually have to move the game pieces though, because while Drew will find a space with his card color on it it's pretty much guaranteed that it's not going to be the next space of that color. He often selects the matching color spaces closest to King Kandy...the cheater!

So now both games typically come out of the cupboard together and we "play game" for as long as Drew will pay attention. Then in typical toddler fashion he seems to enjoy picking up and putting the games away just as much as playing them. (When do they stop enjoying helping? Please say not soon...) Anyhow, at school and at home when it is time for picking up we sing the "Clean Up" song:

Clean up, Clean up.
Everybody everywhere.
Clean up, Clean up.
Everybody do your share.

Drew, despite his fantastic memory, has not translated that into being able to remember song lyrics. Mommy sings the Elmo's World song every day when we watch Sesame Street, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat and Happy Birthday during swim lessons, and the ABC's in the car. And while Drew loves to hear me sing now (he used to say "Stop it. No sing Mommy."), he hasn't joined in on the fun.

Anyhow, due to the apparently forgettable lyrics of the Clean Up Song, while Drew is picking up his games we hear over and over...Clean up Clean up Clean up Clean up. I would have taken video of his little ditty and other game time antics but it's highly frowned upon to get up in the middle of game time.

Would love to hear from you other toddler mommies of what games hold your kiddies' attention best.