Variations on a Theme

Those of you familiar with our home know that we have a "traffic circle" of sorts running through the middle of the first floor. You can start in the living room, walk into the hallway and then the kitchen, and then pass through the dining room right back to where you started.

It's not all that novel, really, but when seen through the eyes of a child, it's something special. I can always tell the moment that its significance registers with a toddler visiting our house for the first time. A tiny tot will walk the circuit once or twice, and then suddenly, her eyes will light up with the realization that she's just made a circle--and that she can do it again and again and again and...

Anyway, this is a feature of our home that our kids have exploited for years now. Particularly during these first weeks of cold weather when we spend less time outdoors, the "track" gets a lot of use. (I should put up a sign like at the gym: 150 laps = 1 mile.)

Yesterday as I prepared lunch, I noticed the kids were tooling around and futzing with a tiny straw hat meant to be worn by a decorative rabbit who just moved into our house. This stylish creature possesses smashing outfits for each of the major holidays. Currently, she's wearing a fetching pilgrim hat and somber black pinafore with white bloomers; the straw hat was on hiatus until sunnier days. The children had been warned to be gentle with the bunny's wardrobe. I suppose this semi-careful play was as close as they could get to heeding that admonition.

I was about to intercept the hat when a game of which it was the centerpiece took shape. The two of them were running around the "track," taking turns holding the hat atop their heads, and shrieking with delight. It took a couple of their passes through the kitchen, where I stood making chicken salad, for me to understand what they were saying as they trotted by:

Child #1: Now I'M the cowBOY! (wild laughter and squealing)

Then a fling of the hat to the other sibling, a change of direction, and...

Child #2: Now I'M the cowGIRL! (more crazed giggles)

And so on.

As they scurried by, I shouted after our eldest, "If you're the cowboy, then what's your sister?"

They responded in unison, "THE COW!!!"


Today, the lap running took on a new form created by our son. Taunting his little sister, he took off ahead of her hollering, "You'll never catch ME!"

She took the bait and shuffled after him. Then suddenly, he stopped and changed course, heading from whence he had just come. She, of course, turned around, too, and ran off ahead of him, chiming in with the common refrain, "You'll never catch ME!"

And so went the exchange. That it was never clear who was chasing whom illustrated that this was not about true competition but was purely a way of burning off pent-up energy.

I could take them outside, I suppose, but it's so much more fun seeing what they'll dream up next...