Hooked On Uno

On the Saturday after the fight at Kindergarten, Stella went shopping with her dad in the city. He took her to a neat little game shop inside this old shopping arcade. He thought that maybe the two of them would enjoy putting a puzzle together. The two couldn’t agree on which puzzle and ended up buying a deck of Uno cards. She wanted the game because she had seen it at another friend’s house. Stella’s dad was sceptical of Stella’s readiness for such a game. The pack stated that it was for people age 7 and up. He bought it in the hope of teaching her himself. He had taught her to play draughts and was hoping to introduce chess soon.
As soon as the two came home, the father and daughter tried out the new game while waiting for mum to come up with dinner. Stella’s dad told me that he tried to explain the rules to her but she was just impatient and couldn’t wait to start playing. He even tried to test her numeral reading and colour recognition skills. LOL. Both mother and daughter kept reminding him that she already knew how to read the numbers and ‘affirmative’, Stella knows the four basic colours. Duh! He told me that he just wanted to be sure to ensure success. Eventually he gave up explaining and gave in to Stella’s pleas. The two started the game and mum hovered around a bit to assist Stella. Apparently it took less than 10 minutes for Stella to get the hang of it and became addicted. That night, Stella didn’t want a story read. Instead the pair played Uno from her bed. On the following Wednesday when I was looking after Stella, her dad came home before mum. He almost immediately asked Stella if she showed me the game. In fact, she introduced the game to me right after her nap. For a few minutes I pretended to be new to the game and listened to her explanations. LOL. After listening to her dad, I realised that she was obviously trying to copy him with the explanations. He laughed when I told her what she did. Although he sounded a tad suspicious when he asked me if I had taught Stella the game previously (which I didn’t), I can see that this dad is very proud of his little girl and is truly happy to have found another interest the two can spend time playing together.