Lick-Or-Lish

Joe has been into puzzles for a while, but he has now embraced in earnest the board game . Our working let's-make-life-a-little-easier "rule," is that puzzles and board games are to be played only when Clara is in the bath or asleep. Joe's go-to game is High-Ho Cheerio which, for those who have never played, features lots of tiny plastic cherries (read: choking hazards). Joe is pretty good at a puzzle, and a game, due in no small measure to his ability to be pretty focused considering his age. Still, he is three and so things do sometimes run off the rails. With Joe, this means he starts acting too clever by a half and quite deliberately begins miscounting how many places to move, or moving in the wrong direction, or the like. Friday night, the boys were playing an inaugural round of Candyland on the porch while Julie read Clara stories and put her down for the night. Julie walked on to the porch right as things began to dissolve. Joe was having rather a lot of fun saying licorice ("lick-or-lish") over and over, and endeavoring to try and land on the lick-or-lish square--which sets a player back a turn, so it's more fun to say than actually land on. Our Hero is clearly too clever by half, but not wholly up on the subtleties of wily game masters at Milton Bradley.