Sorry Dad and No Little Sisters

A favorite family game we like to play is called Sorry Dad, or as some prefer to call it, Uno. We like it because it lasts for hours and the obvious imminent winner changes back and forth a kazillion times, building hopes, crushing dreams, and making at least one member of our family cry at least once per game.

The name Sorry Dad comes from the first time we allowed Wanda to “play” with us. Dan doesn’t love card games so it’s my diabolical plan to hook all 3 of my children on games early and therefore always have a full table for Rook when I have the hankering. Oh, and I get to hankering sometimes, as many a Southern Alberta Mormon is wont to do.

In this first game of Wanda-involved Uno, I would hand her a card and let her lay it down on the deck. Well, the first time I played a Draw-Two on Dan, I handed her the card and whispered, “Put this card down and say, ‘Sorry, Dad.’”

She laid the card on the discard pile and with one raised eyebrow, AH HOW I ENVY HER EYEBROW MOTOR SKILLS, she said with absolutely no remorse in her grinning voice, “Sorry, Dad!”

From then on, every card she played, whether it was on Dan or Wanda or Magoo, whether it was a zero or a reverse or a six, she would look at Dan as she played it and say, “Sorry, Dad!”

Dan took it like a man, a man that he is, and a new tradition was born.

Now every time any of us plays a card in Uno, we mumble those two words.

It’s very important to Wanda to place the cards in the discard pile herself, to dress herself, to NO NO NO I CAN DO IT! She is quite obsessed with her old and big bigness.

Last week Laylee had a friend over and the friend said, “Your little sister is so cute!”

Wanda considered this for a second, a troubled frown furrowing her brow and after a few seconds blurted out, “There are NO LITTLE SISTERS IN THIS HOUSE! WE ARE ALL BIG!”

Yeah, we are.