As Emily finished washing the dishes, she turned around and asked, "Okay, you two! What do you want to do next?"
Jeff and his mother, Janet, looked at each other uncertainly, their faces scrunched up in thought. Emily saw the look of confusion and grinned. "How about a game of hide and seek?" she suggested with a twinkle in her eye. "I’ll be the seeker, and you two have to hide."
She knelt down to their level, hands on her hips. "The rules are simple: I count, and you find a good place to hide. I’ll count to fifty, so don’t worry about rushing." Jeff and Janet looked at each other again, this time with a spark of interest, and then both nodded at the same time.
"Okay, I'll count to 50," Emily continued, "so you two better start thinking about where to hide. I'll try to find you!"
As Emily began her countdown very slowly, Jeff and his mother shared a quick, almost conspiratorial whisper, their toddler minds scheming on the best hiding spots.
"How about under the table?" Jeff suggested, pointing towards the large wooden dining table that had a perfect gap beneath it.
His mother shook her head. "Too obvious, sweetie. What about the laundry room? It’s small, and I bet she won’t think to look there."
As Emily continued to count slowly, both toddlers were still trying to think of a good place to hide. And just as Emily arrived to number 30......