O & X

We’ve been playing noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) for a while now.

Her auntie gave her a little wooden board with pleasing red circles and solid black X’s on little wooden squares to slot in … we play differently most times … sometimes we build a tower of alternate colours, other times just race to see who can put their colour on the board fastest and other times we take turns and if a line comes it’s exciting but fairly random.

Today we played it properly … and she won.

I sat and explained the rules, showed her the way the lines work and we talked about diagonal lines.

Then we started … she watched, thought about it and then put down her pieces. The first time I won, she was thoughtful for a while, “we play again Mama”, and that was it … next 4 games she wiped the floor with me. I didn’t try to lose, I played to win and she walloped me!!

“Ok Mama, you must practise I think! We have breakfast now … tomorrow we play again and you can have the goodness and I’ll have the naughtiness” … then I realised I’d referred to the game as noughts and crosses for the first time rather than circles and crosses … and this was her spin on that, “Mama if I have the naughtiness for you then maybe you win next time”.

I love this small person… and she’s right, I must practise!

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