Day One with Snake, Rooster and Pig

I've decided to give my pseudo-nieces and pseudo-nephew aliases based on their Chinese zodiac signs. I have absolutely no belief in Chinese zodiac (or any other astrological, psychic mumbo-jumbo for that matter) but I liked the sound of Snake, Rooster and Pig so that's what I settled on. Coincidentally though I'm a monkey and the description is spot on; "you are a fat cranky bastard who doesn't believe in psychic mumbo-jumbo".


Before I even had my shoes off Snake wanted to play foosball, Rooster eyed me warily and Pig was having a great time grinning and absorbing his surroundings. Not that his surroundings were any different than any other day but I guess at five months there isn't a lot else to do.

I tried to get out of foosball by saying "did Auntie Ox say it's okay?" Auntie Ox (not her real name) is also known as youngest sister and mother of Pig. Auntie Ox was no help this time; "sure, there's time for foosball before breakfast." We played foosball until breakfast was ready. I won, but just barely. After breakfast Uncle Dog and I took Snake out to the park to try and burn off some of her energy. Unfortunately it started raining so we headed back and played school. Snake was going to be the teacher and I would be the student. She asked who I wanted to be. I said "Eddie" she said "you're Gordon".

During "recess" we had to play indoors because it was raining outside. We played what is possibly the most multifarious game ever invented. Arthur Goes to the Library is basically the card game Concentration with lots of Arthur propaganda surrounding it.
There are:

• 16 business card sized pieces of cardboard that look like little Arthur books
• 16 cards that match the Arthur books above
• 16 cardboard cut-outs of Arthur characters
• One spinner that has the faces of the 16 Arthur characters above
• A display stand to hold the "books"

You spin the spinner and whichever character it lands on you guess which book they are standing on. If you guess right you get to take the book out of the library. The person with the most books wins. This is actually a great game. It was able to keep Snake entertained for longer than I've ever seen.

Now it was time for lunch; Auntie Ox, Auntie Monkey (middle sister) and Snake made sushi while Rooster covered her face and hair with yogurt. After clean-up time we went over to Uncle S and Aunt L's for swimming (I got tired of animal names and while Uncle S and Aunt L are great people we only spent a few hours with them). Unfortunately it started raining during swimming and while the kids were wet anyway we were a little concerned about the possibility of a lightning strike. We watched The Incredibles inside and S&L's son gave me quite a compliment; "you're just like Mr. Incredible . . . except not strong". Thanks kid, you're just like Brad Pitt except without the looks or talent.

After dinner we returned to Uncle Dog and Auntie Ox's place, got the kids ready for bed and then I went home and passed out exhausted.