Last night, before bedtime, I told Madeline and Oliver that they HAD to take a shower before we returned them to their parents. You see, sometimes these two children convince me otherwise by saying, "But Nana, we're NOT dirty." Thus, I let the bath slide. But not this time at a sleepover with me and Granddaddy.
Well, of course, my precious grandchildren tried to convince me otherwise and then I had a brilliant idea. Short straw!
I told Maddie and Oliver that whomever drew the short straw would make the decision about baths tonight or tomorrow morning.
"Short straw?" they asked. "What's a short straw?"
I told them and then hurried to the back porch for a broom with straws. I near about paniced when I thought, "Does my broom even have straws? Maybe they are plastic straws.
Finally, I proudly waved two straws in my hands with Madeline and Oliver watching me with huge, wide eyes.
Truett volunteered to snap one straw shorter and the game began.
Each child drew a straw and Madeline drew the short straw.
"Bath tonight!" she exclaimed.
Well, Oliver threw a hissy fit. "NO! No bath tonight!"
Now here's where I get real creative and I probably did so I wouldn't have to deal with baths tonight. After all, I was tired.
So I suggested One Potato.. .and this is for real.
"One potato?" Madeline shrieked. "What's that?"
And then I explained the rules. My grandchildren held out their hands and I counted, "One potato, two potato, three potato - four."
I'm telling you, the children loved this each and every time a hand went behind their backs.
Yea! Oliver won so that meant there would be no baths that night Yea, for tired Nana.
But Madeline, being her consciencious self, said, "Well, I want my bath now."
And Oliver. . . he just whined, "No bath tonight!" as he stripped off his clothes.
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I thought the whole short straw and one potato was an ingenious idea, so I told their mother and father about the whole episode today.
Sam's response: "We play rock, paper, scissors" for things like that.
Duh!