Hide N Seek

We play games with Diana all the time - Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Connect 4 (sorta). They're fun and she's good at strategy for the most part (she gets that from Matt).
All of a sudden on Sunday (after an hour of swimming) she decided she wanted to play Hide N Seek. Well, first of all, I didn't even know she knew how to play Hide N Seek; Second, I was a little tired from swimming/playing all morning, etc. It was 15 minutes until nap time and I was getting into chill out mode. When I told Diana that maybe we could play another day, she threw herself into the fetal position on the ground and started crying. Whoa! Whoa! I didn't realize it was going to cause all that drama. Again, I didn't even know she knew how to play.
She went over and asked Matt if he wanted to play and he said sure. All right, if this is a family game, I am up for it.
I am so glad I gave in to the tantrum! Have you ever played Hide N Seek with a four-year-old for the first time? OMG! Oh the giggling that ensues!
I counted and Diana and Matt hid. We played several times so I am not going to recap the entire game. But for the first few times that I was "it", Diana either proceeded to tell me where she was going to hide or giggled the entire time she was hiding and then while she was in her hiding place. Matt and I just laughed hysterically.
While she counted and I hid, it took her all of two minutes to look for me and then she gave up and asked Matt for help. He helped at first, but what good is that going to do. I hid in a different spot each time, with each hiding spot getting more difficult as the game wore on. The last hiding spot was in her bathtub and I just couldn't keep my laughter in as I heard her run up and down the stairs and around the upstairs frantically searching for me. She yelled down to Matt and he yelled back some places where I might be. It was so hard not to just bust up laughing at her poor little lost self. She eventually found me and we laughed.
The very last time before naptime, I was "it". I counted to 20, heard her little feet pitter patter into the foyer and run up the stairs and into her bathtub. I "searched" all around the house yelling "Diana, where are you?" She didn't answer as she had previously in the game and I didn't hear so much as a squeak come out of her mouth. (she was getting pretty good at this game).
I finally checked her bathtub and there she was, peeking around the shower curtain. We laughed.
Hide N Seek is going to be a new weekend ritual at the Borchert house!