Butterfly chasing marbles

Yesterday, the kids came home and after admiring their clean room ( what I did while they were at school) they wanted to actually play in that clean space or in the alternative watch tv and those requests were both denied. So, Tallulah said " I know, let's play butterfly chasing marbles!" And Annabelle said "ok!" Tallulah said " I'll get the marbles and the butterfly!" And Annabelle said " I'll get the game board, meet you upstairs!" And away they went. I decided to play with them, since I felt bad about being all Hyphen-ish about their room. I went upstairs, and Tallulah was lining up four marbles on one side of the lid of a lego box (the game board). Annabelle was looking for her blue marbles. (on a side note, I love it that my girls call the big, shooter marble, the tiro. You can definitely tell who taught them how to play marbles). Then Tallulah said, "ok, now its's time!" And she wound up a wind-up butterfly, placed it in the middle of the of lid, and let it go. If it knocked a blue marble out of place, Annabelle got a point, and if it knocked a green one, Tallulah got a point.

I was amused by this game and I asked them when they made it up. "Now. Just now, we just did it."

Now I was marveling. Marveling at how two people can be so in sync with each other, how play comes to children so easily--no devices, nothing plugged in with shiny lights, just a toy that has amused kids for a hundred years.

Not marveling. I was marbling.