A blog tutorial!

One Sunday at church, I had to change Margot's diaper and she absolutely wouldn't let me leave her in nursery. So I stayed with her, and watched the kids play while she clung to me. All the kids were restless at the end of the day, and after "Ring Around the Rosy" they started playing one of their favorites, "Sleepy Bear." I started watching with interest as one or two boys (Theo and his friend in the lead) lay on the ground, pretending to be asleep. Then the rest of the crowd of kids come creeping toward them, yelling "wake up, sleepy bear!" until the "bears" spring up, growling and awake. Everyone squealed and ran away. They were having a lot of fun and had obviously played this before. At least, I knew I had--no one else in the room knew that I made this game up.

My method for making up kid's games is simple. Try to think of anything you can do to pretend to be asleep. "Sleepy Bear" started when Theo wanted me to get out of bed in the morning, and I was much too tired and comfortable to even think about moving, so I made staying in my bed the more fun option. I would pretend to be asleep, closing my eyes and snuggling in my comforter, and Theo would call out, "wake up, sleepy bear!" Then I open my eyes, make a weak "roar!" Then we play another round, not moving at all from my warm cave. Win!

Other renditions--"Sleepy Monster," (pretend to be asleep in bed while the other person rides up to you from the hallway on a scooter--our master bedroom is at the end of our hallway so it works well) Hide and Seek (play hide and seek, but your only options to hide are somewhere under the covers), and my personal favorite "Mommy needs energy to take you to the park later so I'm going to give you the iPad and you're going to let me take a nap."