Stare

Yesterday, Julia not only attended an acting class with a few friends from school, but she slept over one of the friend's houses in the evening, so it was a one-on-one day with Madeleine.  I got to do a LOT of exciting things with her!  For instance, she gave me the news that I landed one of the starring roles in her new movie that she's producing (AND acting in), and we got to run LOTS of scenes together, despite the fact that most of the other actors were unavailable to join us.  In the evening, Ethan also offered to have a Mommy-Daddy-Madeleine dinner date out at a restaurant of Madeleine's choice, which was a lot of fun for her:

When we got home from dinner, Ethan let Madeleine choose one last activity for the three of us before she had to get ready for bed.  She opted to have a game of "Stare," the newest game she received at Christmas (thanks, Yiayia!)

If you are unfamiliar with the game, here's how it works: each player chooses an illustrated card and gets 30 seconds to study every detail of the illustration.  When the timer is up, the player rolls a dice, to get a number between 1 and 6.  The number rolled not only equals the particular number of the multiple questions he or she is asked about one of the details of the card, but also the number of spaces he or she gets to move on the board if the question is answered correctly.  Ethan and I did equally well in the game - in fact, he got one answer wrong, while I got everything correct - but his rolls were consistently better than mine, so he reached the finish line first.  Madeleine was a good ways behind us, but we let her play out the game until she finally reached the finish.  I started to wonder what went through her head as she studied each card, because some of her answers indicated a complete lack of attention.

For example:

QUESTION: What is the father reading in the background of the picture?  A newspaper, a book, or a magazine?
MADELEINE: Uhhhh....I *forgot* to look!  I don't know!!  I didn't LOOK at that part!

QUESTION: Is the cat lying on the rug or on the pink floor?
MADELEINE: Uhhhh...the pink floor???

QUESTION: What is the elephant standing on?
MADELEINE: Uhhhhh...a stool???


I happened to lean over to give Madeleine a kiss during one of her thirty-second study periods, and I overheard her quietly talking aloud to herself about her card.  Things became clear to me upon hearing what she was taking note of:

MADELEINE: (under her breath) Okay, so...they *definitely* look like they're from colonial times...


Okay, if those are the kinds of details she's paying attention to, then no wonder she didn't know the elephant was standing on books!  Luckily, she was a good sport about coming in third place, and enjoyed her chance to complete her journey around the board, no matter how long it took!