We play a lot of games at our house; mostly, the heavy stuff gets played after my two-and-a-half year old son Ben's bedtime, but he usually pops out at least once to see what's on the table. (He requested Ticket to Ride by name recently, having seen it played once... so far, he hasn't requested Die Macher.)

I play a lot of games with him: Gulo Gulo, Russelbande, Snail's Pace Race, a variation of Heroscape where he tells the monsters to go to bed, and then rolls a special d6 with beds on them, etc. (Bonus: the game gets put away as you play).

Recently I let him play with (i.e., eat, cut, fold, stack) a bunch of worthless old baseball cards. He now carries a multilated stack around him most of the time, and asks me to look at the stats on the back to see if they're good players.

So, the other day, my wife was sitting on the couch when Ben runs up with a handful of baseball cards. He says, "Let's play" and carefully lays the cards down in two rows, one in front of each of them. Mom asks, "Do I pick up a card?", and Ben says, "No, you have to roll the dice first". He runs to my study, come back with a d6, d 10, and d20. He rolls, checks the numbers, carefully checks the stats on the card, and picks one up. Now it's Mom's turn; she rolls, Ben checks her cards, and tells her to pick one up.

Sure, we have no idea what his criteria are for picking up a card; yes, he only recognizes the first ten numbers sporadically, and can't read. But he is definately designing a game of some sort.

I think it's a hybrid Agricola/CCG, and he will grow up to be the next Richard Garfield and rule the world. But maybe that's just parental pride.

Great story! It does make you wonder what's going on inside that growing head of theirs doesn't it.

Great to read, thank you for sharing!

Great story! In contrast, when my son was 2, he stuck a Magic card in his diaper and ran around the room yelling "Pee pee!"

I'm still proud, though.

Kudos to your son for designing a game!

But as importantly, kudos to you for not designing it out from under him. I think it takes more effort for a parent to restrain projecting their own ideas into the actions and thoughts of the child. By letting him develop and define the game, you've ensured he keeps that creative gate open and gives him a good shot at being the next great designer. At least I think so.

Oh, and nothing wrong with some well deserved parental pride.

And, so...when does the game P500!!??

Congrats!

I should mention that earlier in the week, he unleashed what is now known as the Great Poopocalypse of '08, in which he managed to poop on his own shoulder while fully dressed (and at the playground). While in the decontamination chamber (i.e., bathtub), he said, "I won't poop on my shoulders any more. But if my penis was on my head, I would poop on my head."

He made a complex conditional statement! Sure, it involved penises and pooping on his own head, but I was so proud...

Yeah, but I'm worried that the Barry Bonds/Wade Boggs combo is broken. He will need to issue an errata soon, I think...

When my son was 2 he molested Rachel Ray at a book signing.

My wife and son LOVE to watch Rachel Ray on TV (My son has the biggest crush on her). One day we went to Borders and we were practicting the whole 'Verbal Leash' thing. My wife set him down as we walked into the store. He looked around and saw Rachel Ray. He got this HUGE smile on his face and took off at a run towards her. I was holding the door for an elderly couple and could not chase after him My wife was a bit slow in chasing him. Rachel had turned away and could not see my 2 year old sun charging her, just before he gets to her she bends over to take another book out of a box of them on the floor. My son doesn't even slow down, he just reaches out as he runs by and smacks her on the ass. She jumps, spins around to end up face to face with my wife who is chasing our son (Who is now about 10 steps and gaining on the other side of her). My wife, bright red, stutters a few times, points at our son and then chases after him again. I almost died laughing.

I am also still proud of my son.

Sammual

How? How is that possible? Even I can't manage that.

I'm not entirely sure myself, but one moment he was clean and cute, and the next he had sticky poop dripping onto his shoes and all the way up his back.



I'm sure you can make it if you really work at it...

I now realize that I've managed to hijack my own thread and perverted it into a discussion of poop.

Thereby elevating it from one of the better threads I've read today to potential all-time greatness status.

Our daughters were always tidy poopers. But one day we babysat for friends, and let's just say that poop ended up on the ceiling and leave out the exact mechanism involved. Since then, I don't doubt any toddler poop stories.

For about a year after, my 2 year old would sometimes point at the ceiling and say, "That's where Evan pooped!"