As Lily fit herself into the space under Mommy and Daddy's bed, she giggled quietly. Mommy knew Daddy was on his way home, and she told Lily it was time to hide. Hide and seek was Lily's favorite game, and she loved to play it with Daddy. She always won when they played; Daddy could never find her, and she would jump out of her hiding place and he would be happy that he didn't lose her. And today, she was going to do something new: she was going to make noises like a mouse.
See, today at naptime, Mommy read a new book. It was about a mouse and when Mommy read the stuff the mouse said, she did a squeaky little voice. When Lily asked Mommy way she did it like that, Mommy told her that mouses – no, the word is mice, Mommy told her that too – that mice sound like that when they talk. She reminded Lily about how Mickey Mouse talked, and Lily remembered how he was kind of squeaky too.
So while Lily waited in the space under the bed, she thought it would be funny to make noises like a mouse. She thought that might confuse Daddy because he wouldn't expect Lily to make noises like that, he would expect her to talk. Because Daddy always said that she talked a lot, just like he did. He liked that she talked a lot because he liked to talk to her. All of her family liked to talk, but Daddy and Gram talked the most. Lily thought that Grandpa Jim probably was the one that didn't talk too much, but she still loved to sit with him. He would tell her stories about Mommy when she was a little girl, and he always made her laugh. And he liked to tell her about Grandma Jo, her grandma in heaven. Lily loved those stories the most.
All of a sudden, Lily heard footsteps – Daddy must be home and coming into his bedroom! Lily wanted to giggle but she knew that would give her hiding space away. And she could hear Daddy talking – he was talking to Mommy. "Where is my Lilypad? She didn't say hi to me when I came home from my meeting. I want to hug and kiss her, but I can't find her!" Lily smiled and then she looked out and saw Daddy's feet in his shoes and Mommy's bare feet and then she heard Mommy answer Daddy, "Well, she was here with me all day. We even read a new book today!" And then she remembered she was going to squeak today.
"Squeak! Squeak!" She thought she did a good job of squeaking, especially when she heard Daddy say he thought he heard a mouse. He didn't want to look for the mouse, but Mommy asked him to. So he did, but he looked in other places, not under the bed. Lily squeaked some more, but they still couldn't find her. Daddy sat down on the bed to take off his fancy shoes, so Lily decided to tickle him to see if he could figure out where she was. She reached out and touched his leg, and he jumped up. "Kate! Something or someone just touched me! I'm too scared to look under the bed!" Lily couldn't help it, she giggled when he said that.
"That sounds like my Lilypad giggling. I have to look now!" But before Daddy could look under the bed, Lily slid out and jumped up. Daddy had a big smile on his face as he hugged her. "There you are, my pretty Lily! Were you hiding under my bed? You are the best hide and seek player I have ever known!"
Lily smiled as she told Daddy she had been the "mouse" under his bed. He picked her up and smacked a kiss to her cheek as he told her she won their game of hide and seek once more. As they walked into the kitchen to join Mommy, Lily couldn't wait to play again. Maybe someday, she'd let Daddy win. Or maybe not!
A/N: This was inspired by some memories. When she was a little girl, my youngest sister used to hide under my parents' bed and make squeaky noises to "surprise" my dad when he came home from work. It was so cute, and I just had the picture of Lily doing something like that to surprise Rick.