I Spy

You are familiar with the game "I Spy," right? It's the one where one person says, "I spy, with my little eye something ... blue!" (or some other color) and everyone else tries to guess what that person is looking at.

This is a very popular game with Miranda and Xavier. Miranda is an avid player, especially when we are on long car trips. Unfortunately, either her "I spy's" are incredibly predictable ("I spy something ... green!" "Could it be ... grass?" "Yes!") or she picks something in the backseat that I can't see because I am driving (then it becomes a memory game!)

Xavier enjoys it, too, but I don't think he quite has the hang of it. For one thing, I'm not sure that he gets the gist of the game, because either you get it on your first guess (ie, "I spy with my little eye something ... blue!" "Is it the sky?" "Yes!") or he decides later that you did indeed get it on your first guess after all ("Is it the sky?" "No!" "Is it the sign?" "No!" "Is it the car?" "No!" "I give up -- what is it?" "It's the sky!"). I think to him, the point of the game is to find something with a color; guessing is just icing on the cake.

Today as we were sitting down to dinner, Xavier suggested that we play "I Spy." I agreed reluctantly because he really is more than capable of distracting himself into an hour-long supper without the additional burden of a game.

He started off: "I spy, with something in my eye ..."