Chapter 4
"Can we watch tv?" Emma asked once she finished her snack.
Hanna bounced up and down on the stool. "Yeah Momma, please!"
David reached out his hand towards Hanna. "Sit still, honey, you're going to fall."
"No I won't," Hanna grumbled. She sat still anyway though.
Emma looked up at her mom and smiled. "So…tv?"
"I think we've had enough tv time," Snow said.
"But I didn't get to finished my turn."
"Let's find something else to do. You can pick something to watch before bedtime later."
"Why does she get to pick?" Hanna whined.
"Because it's my turn," Emma told her, then she turned back to her mom. "Did I hear you say before bedtime?"
"Yes, Emma. I said bedtime." Snow said.
"You know I'm still an adult, right?"
"Well, your body might not think so."
Emma crossed her arms. "I'm going to go to bed whenever I want to."
"And I'm going to bed at 10 like I always do!" Hanna said.
"We'll see," Snow picked Emma up from the stool and carried her over to the table. "Sit here for a minute while I get something for us to do." Snow placed Emma in the chair and went to the cupboard in her bedroom.
Hanna stood up on the stool. "What are you getting Mommy?" She leaned over to try and get a better look.
"Careful…" David quickly scooped her up into his arms.
Hanna rolled her eyes. "Daddy, I'm fine."
"Well, you might not have been, so please no more standing on the stools." David placed her in a chair next to Emma.
"Okay." Hanna watched her mom walk back into the room carrying something. "What do you have?"
"A deck of cards and Candy Land." Snow held up the deck of cards first. "I thought we could play Go Fish."
Hanna and Emma looked at each other, then back to their mom.
"I think we can handle something a little more advanced than that," Emma said.
Hanna nodded. "Yeah Go Fish and Candy Land are for little kids."
"Hmmm…okay then." Snow set those aside, then went back to get something else. "How about UNO?"
"Oh that's my favorite!" Hanna said.
Emma shrugged. "That's better I guess."
Snow sat down beside Hanna and began shuffling the cards. David picked Neal up from the swing and sat beside Emma. Snow dealt everyone seven cards, and they started the game.
Hanna picked up her cards and tried holding them in one hand like she normally does. She realized that was going to be a lot harder than usual. Her hands were smaller now, so she just held them with both hands instead.
Emma was having the same problem. She liked to organize her cards by color. She put all of her cards in one hand and fanned them out so she could see them all, but her tiny hands were making that very difficult. It took longer than usual, but she was finally able to get the cards situated how she wanted them.
"Are you girls ready?" David asked.
"Yeah I want to go first!" Emma shouted.
"But I'm next to Mom, so I get to go first!" Hanna shouted back.
"Girls, if you're going to fight, we're not going to play," Snow said. "How about we let your Dad and Neal go first?"
"Fine," the girls said.
David put down a blue eight on top of the blue four. "You're up, Em."
Emma looked at the card on the top of the pile, then looked at her selection of cards. She wasn't sure which one she should play. She had to think hard to remember the rules. She looked back at the pile. "Blue eight," she whispered to herself. So that meant she could put anything blue down or an eight. Emma looked back through her cards and spotted one that was blue. She picked that card and held it out towards the pile. She couldn't quite reach though, so she sat up on her knees. She leaned across the table again and placed it onto her dad's blue eight. "Okay, Han. Your turn."
Hanna nodded. She looked at the card Emma put on the pile. It was blue. Hanna scanned her cards, but she didn't have a blue one. She looked back at Emma's card. She couldn't remember what that number was. Hanna closed her eyes for a second, then looked at it again…it was a seven. Hanna looked through her cards and found a green seven. She didn't know how she was going to get the card though. If the let go with one of her hands, her cards were going to fall and everyone would see them. Hanna sighed and pushed all of her cards into a pile, so she could hold them in one hand. Then she put one behind the other until she found the seven. She also had to sit up on her knees to put her card down.
Snow placed a green three on the top of the pile and David put a blue three on top of that.
Emma panicked for a second when she realized it was her turn again. Her mom and dad were really fast. She looked at the card on top of the pile. Blue. Emma scanned her cards, but she didn't have any blue ones left. She looked back at the number. Three. Emma scanned her cards, but she didn't see a three either. She had another card that was black, had all four colors on it, and +4. Emma couldn't remember what that card did…stupid toddler brain. Emma thought for a second, then remembered that card meant she could pick whatever color she wanted and her sister would have to draw four cards from the pile. Emma grinned and put that card on top of her dad's. "I want to switch the color to red and you have to draw four Hanna!"
"Ugh…" Hanna had just finished spreading her cards back out so she could see them all. She scrunched them back together and held them in one hand. She reached out and picked up four more cards from the pile. "What color did you say?"
"Red," Emma told her.
Hanna tried to spread her cards back out again to find a red one, but she dropped them onto the table.
Emma leaned over to take a peek.
Hanna quickly covered her cards with her hands. "Emma, don't look!"
Emma grinned. "Maybe you should hold your cards a little better."
"Stop it!" Hanna could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes. "Mommy tell her to stop!"
"Emma, don't look," Snow said. "Give your sister a minute."
"Okay…" Emma sat back in her seat and waited for Hanna to take her turn.
Snow put her cards down and turned to Hanna. "Can I help you?"
Hanna nodded.
Snow picked up Hanna's cards and spread them out so Hanna could see all of them. She leaned over to Hanna. "Which one do you want?"
Hanna looked at her cards and saw a couple red ones, but she didn't know which one she should pick. She leaned closer to her mommy's ear. "Can I pick any red one?" Hanna whispered.
"Mhmm," Snow told her.
"Okay…" Hanna picked up a red two and put it on the pile.
"Good job." Snow helped Hanna get a good grip on her cards before picking her own back up again. She placed a red six onto Hanna's two.
David placed a blue six on the pile next.
"Dad…" Emma groaned.
"Hey, don't be mad at me." David nodded towards Neal, who was happily lounging in his lap. "Your brother picked the card."
Emma rolled her eyes at him. "He's a baby. He did not pick it. You did."
"Just go, Emma," Hanna complained.
"Okay okay…just a sec." Emma looked at her cards. She didn't have a blue. She couldn't remember what card her dad put down, so she looked back at the pile. What was that stupid number? She couldn't remember, so she picked a red one that looked like it and placed it onto the pile.
"That's a nine, Em." David told her.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the card again.
David put his cards down and picked up the one Emma just placed onto the pile. "See how the line is here? That means that's the bottom. This one is a nine. Mine is a six, see how the line is…"
"Yeah, yeah, okay…" Emma took her card back, then began scanning her other cards for one she could use. There was a yellow one that looked like it was the same number as her dad's, but now Emma wasn't so sure. She also saw a card that had a circle with a line through it. She couldn't remember what that did, but she was pretty sure it needed to be blue anyways and it was red. Emma could feel her cheeks start to get red. She looked back at the yellow card that looked like her dad's. She tried to remember what he said about the lines. Emma could feel tears start to well up in her eyes. She didn't know what to do. Why couldn't she remember? She looked up and everyone was waiting for her. "I don't…" Emma put her cards down onto the table. "I don't want to play this stupid game anymore."
"Yeah me either." Hanna said. She was still having a hard time holding her cards.
"Maybe we could try Candy Land instead?" Snow suggested.
Both of the girls nodded. Neither one of them wanted to admit it, but their toddler minds definitely couldn't handle UNO. They hoped Candy Land would be better.