Card Guppies

I've mentioned before that Keira, our budding senior citizen, keeps begging my grandma to teach her how to play bridge.  I'm not a big fan of card games myself--or any games, really--which is probably because I have nary a competitive bone in my body and therefore couldn't really care less whether I win or lose...so what's the point? 

Now that I think of it, I did like to play poker with my great-uncle Don when I was, like, 8 years old.  We'd play for pennies, and he'd get mad if I put in any bent or black ones, so I'd do it on purpose and then he'd tell me, "You could get shot for that in Vegas!" (which is, of course, a totally appropriate thing to say to an 8-year-old).  And once I grew up, my family used to have weekly poker nights and then watch "LOST" together, which was totally fun until Bear and I had Keira...and then those nights consisted of me nursing the fussy baby all night while everyone else played.  No one could hear the show or each other over her crying, anyway, so we called it quits.  (It's okay, Kiwi.  You were worth it, a thousand times over!)  Since then, though, there hasn't been a lot of card-playing for us Bears.

My grandma, on the other hand, LOVES to play games, and has taught the girls how to play Go Fish, Slapjack, Old Maid, and probably a bunch of other games I don't even know about.  They're going to be some serious card sharks when they grow up!  Here they are, playing memory with Uncle Nicholas and Aunt Jane:


















Bear and I play cards with them from time to time, too, but as soon as we walk through the door at my grandma's house, Ellie is ready to bust out the cards, and game time is ON!  Her favorite game is Slapjack (or Slap Queen, or Slap 8, or whatever she decides she feels like slapping that day), which sends my grandparents' dog, Joey, running in fear of the table-smacking loudness...but our favorite game to watch her play is Old Maid, because

1) she totally cheats--when she has to draw a card from someone's hand, she pulls down the corner until she can see whether it's the Old Maid or not, and

2)  half the time, she talks my grandma into leaving out the Old Maids because she doesn't like them, which I think is hilarious.

When Aunt Jane and Uncle Rich were at my grandparents' house visiting back in March, the girls played cards so much that, one time, Bear asked Keira a question in the car and instead of answering no, she said, "Go fish."  It took her a minute to realize it, and then we all cracked up and decided that "Go fish" really is a nicer way of saying no, anyway.  Bear and I should totally use it with our students/employees:

Kid [on the way in from recess] "Can I go to the bathroom?"
Me: "Go fish."

Kid: "Are we having P.E. today?"
Me:  "Go fish."

Employee:  "Can I go home early to watch the game?"
Bear:  "Go fish."

See?  I like it.

Here's a video of the girls playing together.  There's nothing terribly exciting about it, but I don't take enough video of them and I'm trying to be better about it, so we can remember how stinking cute they were together once they're teenagers and locking each other out of their rooms:

Could they BE any more precious?  Go fish!