At the time of writing this, it is the day after Fathers' Day 2011. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to spend some time with my daughters attending a party to celebrate their cousin's First Holy Communion.
At some point during the party (which was at the house of their cousin's grandmother and grandfather) my daughters found a small plastic game version of the old pen and paper classic 'hangman'. The rules were the same, but the game had little tiles similar to Scrabble, which were gradually revealed if guessed correctly, and a central wheel which was turned if a guess was incorrect, gradually revealing the unfortunate hanged man.
After a couple of games with my youngest daughter Lottie, my eldest daughter Erin took over and it was my turn to guess. All the way through the game she seemed to be suppressing a laugh.
"Are there any Es?" I asked.
"Yes!"
_ _ _ _ _ E _ _
"Are there any As?"
"No!" First part of the scaffold.
"Are there any Ts?"
"No!" Second part of the scaffold.
"Are there any Os?"
"Yes!"
_ O _ _ _ E _ _
"Are there any Ls?"
"Yes!"
_ O _ _ _ E L L
"Is it two words?"
"Yes!" By now Erin was hardly able to contain her laughter and it was very contagious. But I managed to carry on.
"Is there an S?"
"Yes!" Wide eyes and pursed lips.
_ O _ S _ E L L
By this time I knew what the answer was and why my wonderful daughter was laughing, but I decided to play it out.
"Is there a Y?"
"Yes!" Giggles.
Y O _ S _ E L L
"Is there a U?"
"Yes!" Bigger giggles.
Y O U S _ E L L
"Is there an M?"
"Yes!"
Y O U S M E L L
Together we laughed hard for about 5 minutes. It really doesn't get any more simple and wonderful than that.
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