Peekaboo! June 29, 2009
Posted by philangelus in family, kiddos.trackback
At 15 months, the baby is very much into playing peekaboo. I’m not sure if the books say that’s the right age to play peekaboo, but he can’t read, so he’s initiating the games with us. He’ll cover his eyes or say “Bah!” and then we have to play it with him.
I know there are many variants of Peekaboo. In our variant, you cover the baby’s eyes or your own eyes with something (a blanket, a cloth diaper, the tail of the sling) and say “Peekaboo!” and then quickly uncover them while saying “Bah!” The baby then giggles.
I wonder if peekaboo is a human thing. I wonder if Mary played peekaboo with Jesus.
And because we’re a house full of wiseacres, my Patient Husband said, “Peekaboo: the board game by Hasbro.”
I replied, “Peekaboo: The Deluxe Edition.”
Him: Peekaboo: The Travel Edition.
Me: Peekaboo: The Collectible Card Game.
Him: That would be Peekaboo: The Gathering.
Me: Peekaboo: The Party Pack.
Him: Classic Peekaboo.
Me: Peekaboo Junior.
Him: Peekaboo expansion sets
Me: Peekaboo, Hunters and Gatherers.
Him: City and college variants of Peekaboo.
We managed to go on for quite a while in this vein. Which is why we’re married to each other, in order to keep the geekiness confined to one household.
But because I’m silly in addition to geeky, this is how he’d write up the session report on his own blog:
This morning we had a game of Peekaboo for me, my wife and Kiddo#4. We’ve modified the tournament-standard rules for in-house use, saying ‘Peekaboo!’ during the hiding phase and substituting ‘Bah!’ during the reveal phase. We find this keeps Kiddo#4 involved throughout play rather than waiting for his turn. We utilized various implements for the hide phase, experimenting to find which worked best. My wife initiated with the cloth diaper gambit, whereas I opted for the more versatile crib blanket. Kiddo#4 used either his hands or the bed sheet. Next time, I plan to use a handkerchief because it’s more sheer and will whip away easier. Kiddo#4 scored high on every round, anticipating the “Bah!” and clapping or giggling between turns.
Let me know when Peekaboo becomes an Olympic sport, because we’re going for the gold.
Being a reader of PH’s blog…I am rolling. Nice way to laugh this morning.
Glad you liked it!
It’s funny how I can sound just like him, but to be fair, sometime I should do an imitation of myself just to spread the joy around. 
I’m mostly a lurker, but you always make me laugh.
“Which is why we’re married to each other, in order to keep the geekiness confined to one household.”
This is how we feel. Well, my husband is more of a geek, I’m more just socially awkward (yet an extrovert! how is that fair?). This was nice for a while, until we realized we were passing on all kinds of DNA made of social fail. Our poor kids.
(also inevitable, given our genetics: huge feet and hands, gangly limbs, and enormous heads! huzzah!)
When I read the Kiersley book on the Myers-Briggs personality types, something stood out. He said that N-types(who are the dreamers and the geek) make up only a small percentage of the total population.
And yet, he said, when interviewing married couples, he was stunned to see how often NT and NF types found each other and married. That we kind of have a radar sense of locating others who are of similar Geekitude and pairing up with them.
Personally, I think I’d drive an S-type crazy.
Ahem. I did not mean to imply that YOUR household will be made of social fail. Just ours.
My kids have inherited much SocialFail from me, trust me.
Actually, I love the fact that the auto-generated links actually include one to my blog. Even WordPress thinks you sound like me.
Wow, I didn’t even realize that! That’s hilarious.
By the way, thank you for making me lunch.
My “baby” is almost 8 years old. Enjoy those peekaboo moments.