UNO!

Uno-fever has swept the Mlinek house. The girls just can't get enough. We've been playing a minimum of four or five games every day for the past month or so.

The funny thing, for me, is that I am really not much of a card-playing type of person. I'm also not a big fan of board games. They've just always struck me as.....boring and pointless, to be honest. I used to smirk at the pictures on the board-game boxes depicting those smiley, well-groomed families all gathered together engaging in Family Fun, and I would thank my lucky stars that I wasn't in that kind of family. And now here I am, clearing off the dinner dishes most nights so that we can all play a few rounds of Uno. The only thing saving us from looking like a board-game family is the massive static-hair the girls have been sporting this winter.

Funny, though, how it doesn't seem boring to me at all now. I find myself really enjoying these games, especially as Claire and Abbie attempt to understand the logistics of it all. It's also an actual challenge to NOT win when luck is on your side and you have a 4 yr old who knows our "draw 4" card will devastate the player beside us and really, really wants to use it.

So, I guess I'm becoming domesticated? I don't know, but my feelings about gathering around games like this are definitely changing. I guess it's partly because.....well, it's fun to spend time with these girls. They are smart, and funny, and can occasionally throw in some wicked moves. And I like feeling all cozy and together-y. The biggest thing, though, is that they just enjoy it so much! It's hard not to catch their enthusiasm and it's nice to spend this time with them, this time that I know will be short-lived, when the best night they can conjure is one spent playing cards with Mommy and Daddy.

Just don't ask me to break out Monopoly.