Hi Ho, Mommio

Jeff had to cover a game last night, so Biscuit and I were on our own.

(Have I mentioned that I'll be glad when basketball season is over?!?)

Anyway, Biscuit and I finished dinner, and I was trying to think of something we could do together that was a little out of the ordinary. Then I remembered the games Biscuit got for his birthday.

So far, we've played with a domino set he got, as well as a couple of card games. We've played Chutes and Ladders and a dice game. But I realized we haven't played with the Hi Ho Cherry-O game he got.

Hi Ho Cherry-O was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I decided that last night would be Biscuit's introduction it.

He liked it ... he liked it A LOT!

He liked it so much that we played 13 straight games. THIRTEEN!!!

It's basically a counting game. Each player gets a tree with 10 cherries on it. You twirl the spinner and get either a number 1 through 4, a dog, a bird or an overturned bucket. If you get a number, that's how many cherries you move from your tree into your bucket. If you get a dog or a bird, you have to put two cherries back on your tree. If you get an overturned bucket, you have to put all your cherries back on your tree.

I recognized early on that Biscuit was getting it. He understood the purpose of the game, and he would get excited when he got to put cherries into his bucket.

The one thing that caused him some confusion was the way he should count. One time, he got a four on the spinner. He looked in his bucket and saw two cherries. So he reached over to his tree, grabbed two cherries and put them in his bucket.

"Biscuit, you need to put two more cherries in your bucket," I said.

"No, Mom," Biscuit said. "There are four cherries in my bucket. I got a four."

"Yeah, but you already had two cherries in the bucket," I said. "You got a four, so you need to add four cherries. You should have six cherries in your bucket."

He looked at me like I was trying to explain the theory of relativity. There are some concepts that are just flat-out hard to explain.

And to interrupt myself, one of the games he got for his birthday was a version of the card game War, where two players flip cards over and the one with the higher card gets to keep both cards. The winner is the one with the most cards at the end.

Try explaining the "higher number." As in, I have a 7, and you have a 3. Which one is the higher number and why? I made a valiant effort, but I finally just helped him through that game then suggested we played something else.

So as Biscuit and I were spinning and counting cherries, he realized that landing on a dog or a bird meant he was moving in the wrong direction. He started to get a little grumpy when he had to put his cherries back.

I figured I'd try to nip it in the bud. The next time Biscuit landed on the bird, I said, "Oh, no! That silly bird is going to eat two of your cherries!"

I created a monster. His exclamations got louder and bigger as the games went on.

"OH, NO, MOM! THAT SIWWY DOG IS GOING TO TAKE TWO OF MY CHERRIES!!"

Then came the moment when he realized that he had lost. I wasn't sure what to expect.

"Yay! All my cherries are gone," I said. "That means I won!"

Biscuit frowned and said, "But I didn't win, Mom."

"That's okay," I told him. "Maybe you'll win next time."

"Yeah, maybe I'll win next time," Biscuit said.

And he did. He won six games, and I won seven. And he was a very good sport every time he lost.

But the best part was when we were done playing. Biscuit and I had just gotten up from the table. He took off running toward the living room, then he stopped and came back. He wrapped his arms around my leg and said, "I'm glad we played the game, Mom. It was fun."