Tiger catch a fish

Last weekend, CJ and Aaron spent a great deal of time tinkering with an old computer that a neighbor gave to them. We were so impressed because they managed to fix it!
We dug out all of the old computer games that they played when they were younger, (but won't work on our newer computers) thinking that Max would really enjoy playing them.

I suppose he would have enjoyed playing them if he had been allowed to play them.

After a while, he got tired of watching his siblings play the games so he took matters into his own hands. He took three pieces of paper and drew a keyboard and a mouse on one, a monitor on another, and a pair of speakers on the third.
On the back side of the monitor drawing, he drew the "inside" of the computer which looked amazingly similar to the inside of the CPU that his brothers had been working on earlier in the day.
He laid the drawings next to each other on the table then drew "cables" between them.

"Hey guys!" he said excitedly "Look! I've made my own comprewter!"

We all took a look at his creation and told him how great his computer looked.

Next he sat down at the table and began typing on his keyboard and clicking his mouse. Every once in a while he would say things like "Oh no!" or "Yay!"
I asked him what he was doing.
"I'm playing a game on my comprewter, it's a game called Tiger catch a fish! It's a really fun game!" then he continued to type on his paper keyboard and click on his paper mouse.

He played this game all weekend.

Seriously, he sat at the table and pretended to play this game for 30 minutes straight.


Yesterday, he asked me to get a few games out of the closet. A while later he yelled "Mom! Come and see what I did!"
I went into the living room to see that he had set up a game board. One side of the board had 18 pieces set up on it and the other had 6 pieces.
"Mom! Will you play the game with me?"
"OK, I said, noticing the mismatched pieces, "But what are we playing?"
"Tiger catch a fish!"
"Oh, so it's not just a computer game?"
"No, it's a two person game. Will you play it with me?"

He sat down on the side of the board with fewer pieces. He spun the spinner from the Hi Ho Cherry-O game and moved one of his pieces two spots.

I spun the spinner and landed on 4. I moved forward two spots, then sideways two spots.

"Is it OK if I move sideways?" I ask.
"Yes" He answered, "But when you move sideways, then you get to take one of my pieces.

So after that, I moved sideways on every move and he handed me one of his pieces.

When He got down to one piece, I asked him "How do you win this game anyway?"

He giggled and said "The first one to have all their pieces get gone is the winner!"

Sneaky kid.

I guess it's easier to win if you make up all the rules as you go along.