A Good Old Fashioned Game of Put and Get

We love to entertain, but since the arrival of our kidlets the entertaining has been somewhat limited. We now pretty much just host family-friendly events, and this past Christmas we invited everyone over for a Kids' Christmas Party.

The little man is usually very outgoing with adults, but put another kid (other than the little miss) within 50 feet of him and I develop a 2.5 foot tall shadow for at least the first half hour. He's happier sitting on my lap watching the other kids play with his toys than to venture into the fray.

I feel bad for my friend's son, as he and the little man are the two oldest kids in our crowd and all the others are babies. He desperately wants to play with our little fraidy-cat, and at the tender age of three doesn't really understand why his "friend" won't play. I can sense his frustration, but he has found a way to work with what he's got. Once the little man has warmed up a bit and ventured off my lap, my friend's son will gently take him by the hand and amazingly, they'll go off to the little man's room to play cars, trains, or, as they did at the Christmas party, a game of hide and seek.

The hitch is, the little man had never played, nor fully understood the rules of hide and seek. What ensued was the little man being placed in a hiding spot, his friend leaving to go and count, and then returning to "find" him. It was their own special version of the game and they were having a great time.

And there you have the now famous game of Put and Get. Not sure it will really catch on in wider circles, but it works wonders in our house.