winners

"We're winners, aren't we, Daddy?"  This is A.'s new phrase; it's usually followed by a dramatic and somewhat annoying high 5.  She also see's pictures of the 2 of them together and says, "Look Daddy.  It's the winners."  I guess it all started when he was helping her get into the pool during swimming lessons and said something to the tune of, "you can do it, you are a winner."  That innocent little comment has become a constant in our house now.

"I took my dishes over, I'm a winner."
"I ran for so long, I'm a winner.
 "I pooped on the potty again, I'm such a winner."
My personal favorite:  "I got dressed by myself, I'm a winner. Daddy is always a winner because he wears pants." (Really, since when do pants qualify winning.)  

I guess it's ok b/c she hasn't branched over to calling people losers.  But, there are only so many things a person can and should win in one day.

Then there is the problem of actually losing.  We had the annual egg roll on Easter where the oldest and youngest roll their hard boiled eggs towards each other.  Remarkably, only one cracks.  The person with the cracked egg is the loser and the winner advances to the next round.  K. went against Oma, he won (to be fair, he touched his egg then I rolled it).  A. went against Papa, she lost.  We told her she had to sit on the side and I could see the build up begin.  "But, I'm a winner"  cue sobbing.  Oma tried to console her by saying she was out too, it didn't work.  At first, I tried to make a very little deal out of it and keep going with the game.  Daddy rolled against Gramps and Daddy won.  Gramps tried to console by encouraging her to eat her egg with him.  It didn't work.  Granny J. and I rolled against each other.  I won by default because she rolled hers into the piano.  That little bit of hilarity didn't even work.  So, we went out for a chat.  Turns out, winning wasn't necessarily the problem, not winning the chocolate bunny prize was the problem.  We chatted about other games where there a winners and losers.  Nothing really worked.  I defaulted to Daddy since, I'm not a part of the winners group anyway.  I"m not sure exactly how B. solved the problem except that he won the game after having to chuck his egg at K. while K. was running around holding his egg hostage in his hand.  And, no one has eaten the prize.        

The winners together at the Easter Egg hunt.