What to do? What to do?

Do you ever notice that some parents seem to really not enjoy being parents?

We had to get Jerusha's birth certificate last week.  As  you can imagine, it was impossibly long and drawn out. The people though.  Good grief.  Moms (mostly moms) were telling their kids to sit down and shut up.  Yes, those exact words.  And lots of other words I'm too delicate to repeat. (What?  I AM.)

Maybe what we all need is some tips on how to have fun with our kids while we are waiting in line at Vital Records for hours and hours while other people yell and scream at their kids and never smile or laugh or have two seconds of fun because they are too busy being mean to their sweet little dumplings who by the way aren't really much sweeter than their parents because they are bored and tired of being yelled out.

So....try this:

Two of our favorite waiting games are Fortunately/Unfortunately and What if.

Someone starts out by saying something we are fortunate about.  It usually involves where we are or what we are doing.  The person next them says something about that statement that is unfortunate.  It usually ends with all of us cracking up.  It goes like this:

Fortunately I'm having rest time.

Unfortunately Jerusha is still awake.

Fortunately as soon as I'm done typing my blog post I'm going to rock her.

Unfortunately my rocker squeaks so loud you can't hear dog eating your leg offa .

Fortunately I have some episodes of Lost to watch.

Unfortunately I won't be able to hear it.

See?  Fun. If you continue on with a four year old child they will inevitably talk about pee or poo and hilarity will ensue.  AND they get the opportunity to complain about things in a light-hearted way.  We get lots of complaints but also lots of thankfulness.

What if is played with someone starting a scenario about a crazy happening.  The person next to them answers their question and then asks the next what if question.

Like this:

What if I suddenly stopped typing my blog and just left this sentence incomplete?

I would have to stop reading your blog because it wouldn't be there for me to read.

What if Jerusha doesn't take a nap today and you don't get to watch Lost?

I will scream and cry and throw a fit.

What if you get a spanking?

Then someone's in mighty big trouble, and it ain't me.

Get it?  The neat thing about this game is that they can actually talk about stuff they worry about and we can actually answer it in such a way that they can be put at ease.  At the same time we can have fun with crazy scenarios that could never happen.  And crazy answers.

P.S.  That picture of Asa has nothing to do with this (other than the fact that he was with us at birth certificate hell basement).  But when I was taking pictures Sunday he asked me to take a picture of him eating dirt. So I did. Don't have nearly enough pictures of Asa eating dirt.