We took a little hike after work one day last week. It wasn't as horribly hot as it has been, but it was warm and sunny and the air was full of allergens.
Boo started complaining before we'd gone a full mile. We persuaded her to the one-mile mark, then decided that turning back was the better part of valor.
Then the whining really started.
I took my hat off, and Lee took it. Folded it in half. And started wriggling it.
"Boo! Boo, what is in Baba's hat?"
Pout. "Nothing."
"Boo, it's really wriggly. Can you please look and tell me what it is? I can't see, it's too fast."
Intrigued, she looks. Lee very briefly opened it up and returned to wriggling it.
"I think it's a squirrel, Boo, did you see the squirrel?"
Now she's engaging. Lee offers increasingly more excited and wriggly peeks at the "squirrel". Boo gets more excited, even keeping up with our stroll, and then announces that it has run away into the trees.
"Whew, now Baba can have her hat back. Wait, what's in there now?"
"Meow!" Boo plays along, hooked.
They pulled out several kittens, some puppies, a snake, an elephant, all sorts of farm animals. Each time Lee started to give my hat back, Boo announced that it was full of another creature.
While they were playing and I was sweating, I found an unblemished green walnut. When the hat game was coming to an end (Boo being less excited each time), I dropped it to my feet and kicked it up the trail. Not a huge kick, just dribbling it along, like I did with rocks in the gutters when I was a kid. (That makes my childhood sound much different than it was...)
Finally Boo noticed. And commented. And finally, ran ahead of me to kick the walnut before I did.
And that took us to the trail head.
What games do you lay to keep your kids (or yourself) going when they start to get bored?
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