February 24, 2011- “Go Fish” Standbys!

     In a short while, my youngest son will take off to the states with his dad for cataract surgery. My oldest son will stay here with me and continue his usual school and after school extracurricular activities. I’ll have three full weeks of one on one time with my first born, and that’s a rarity. I had a taste of what this was like when my baby had to go to Hawaii for a week to have the doctors diagnose the cataract, but at that time, I never would have dreamed he would have to go away again for 7 weeks in order to have it taken care of. I look forward to the time I’ll have with my 9 year old, but I hate not being able to be there for a little one when he goes into and comes out of the actual surgery. The other negative is that I don’t get to spend that same one on one time with my baby because when I leave for the states to be with him, my oldest is coming with me. 
     Tonight, I had a chance to make up for some of the lost time I’ll have with my little bit because big brother went to play with a friend after school and then had Boy Scouts in the evening.  Immediately, when little brother found out he would be home without big brother, he asked, “What are we going to do?”  He is so used to having a built in playmate at all times that he almost panics when he’s not around.  I responded, “Well, we could play a game.”  “What games do you have?”  “Hmmm...there’s always ‘Go Fish’ or ‘Old Maid,’” These two “been around forever” card games have been our standby for years in the terminal on Kwaj, waiting around for the Roi plane, on the airplane on the way back to the states, in the rooms on Roi when they were bored with their usual activities, and even in the snack bar, waiting for our food, where my fiancé joked around with friends that he’s never had the experience of playing “Go Fish” in a bar before (the snack bar on Roi doubles as the adult bar later in the evening).  Much to my surprise, my son enthusiastically responded to my suggestion with “Yeah, I haven’t played that in a long time.”  Thinking back, I guess we haven’t.
     So, as soon as we got home, the questioning began, “when are we going to play, mom?” “Where are the cards, mom?” “We need to have dinner first and after your brother goes to boy scouts, we’ll play.”  Finally, the time came, and I took the cards out, went upstairs, and we relaxed on the bed to play.  After several games of “Go Fish” and mom losing, we switched to “Old Maid,” and after only a couple of rounds of that, we went to “Uno.”  I finally cut us off after over an hour of play.  It was almost time for big brother to come home.  What amazes me is how these games never seem to get old for the boys.  They are always up for playing them and can do so over and over and over again without tiring of them. And what I find most fascinating about this “phenomenon” is that these are the same simple, non-electronic or technical forms of entertainment that I enjoyed as a child. Hmmm....I guess certain aspects of being a kid don’t change that much after all, and sometimes that’s what brings adults and their children together. I may not be as good at operating a game console and playing “Megamind” or “Star Wars” with the boys because I never really did that as a kid, but there’s plenty of other ways to relate if we take a moment to remember what we enjoyed as a child and share it with our kids. After all, we’ll always have those old “Go Fish” standbys to enjoy life together, no matter how old or how young we are.