Bricks And Logs

Tonight, we had some friends over for dinner and the Spurs/Mavericks game. We never really get interested in basketball until the play-offs. Last year, this family had been a lot of fun to watch the games with, and it had been 9 months since our two families connected. It was a long overdue reunion and a good time for all to have them here for the evening.

Two has fun with their 5 year old girl and 7 year old boy. There is a lot of squealing and giggling in their play.

One and their same-aged boy have the sweetest times together; very innocent, goofy, laughing and almost always ending with a wonderfully equally-matched board game. Tonight it was Monopoly Jr. The two of them look like they just walked out of a 1950s era Little Golden Book.

There was a moment when I thought Three and their 7-year old boy also looked like a couple of kids out of the sweet little stories from our parent's youth. I got up to track the 7 children in the house and found that most were in the playroom. Only young ones were out-of-doors, so I looked outside to be sure they were not up to any mischief. See, earlier we caught Three chasing this boy around the yard with a crochet mallet poised above head. And no, that is not acceptable or practiced behavior around here, but children are people that way sometimes.

So, I was delighted to find Three and their 7-year-old playing together in the treehouse. Their boy was poised to come down the slide while my Three was climbing up the ramp on the left. How sweet! They're climbing and sliding together. My cockles are warmed.

Then, suddenly, everything changed. Just as he pushed off, she reached the top of her climb. What I saw next was so funny, and yet not funny at all, really. I couldn't see it before she turned around, but she had hauled a 30-inch long, 5-inch diameter log (not stick, mind you -- LOG!) up that ramp and without any hesitation she hurled it down the slide after her friend! I gasped and rushed out to stop what had already begun, but when I went to open my mouth to reprimand, I looked at her and she was as delighted as she has ever been, watching her friend scramble at the bottom of the slide to save his life!

I knew I was going to burst out laughing, and that that was the wrong reaction in this potentially seriously dangerous moment. His mother also saw what happened and was laughing, so that was good. She had slightly more composure than I when we came back into the living room, so she simply told Husband something like, "You must go out there and be very stern with her. Nevermind that you don't know what happened -- just go out there and be stern." She's so funny.

Oh yeah, and the Spurs broke our hearts by giving up the game -- and the series -- scores of times throughout the night, including the time it counted most -- overtime. They were shooting bricks all night long.