>Why we have kids

>You wanna go hide?  my son asks.  {Note:  he has his pronouns reversed, so when he says ‘you’ he means himself and ‘I’ usually means me, the mama.}

Ok, go hide, I tell him.  He runs off to the other side of the backyard.

One, two, three… I begin counting.

Four, five!  I hear the small voice say.  Then, You better not, here I come!

Ready or not, here I come, I agree.  Where is Sebastian?  Is he under the water table?  No…  Is he behind the blue slide?

No... comes the small voice.  My mom and I look at each other and start laughing.

Is he… on the patio?  Yes, there he is!!

I found you!  he giggles, then gives me a hug.  You wanna go hide again?  You go hide behind Gramma’s chair!  he shouts as he dashes away to the hiding spot he has just named.

Laughing, I begin counting again.

As my mom says, it’s certainly not for toilet training, temper tantrums, or massive sleep deprivation that we have kids.  It’s for moments like these, when that little voice says the unexpected and makes us laugh so hard we have to pause in our game.  It’s for that giggle and that hug and that sweet smile we get when we’re doing something right.

And so we can keep playing hide-and-seek even after we grow up.