Last week a Candyland board game arrived at our door. “Best Daddy Ever” ordered it. It’s not the first game we’ve played with Rachel, but it’s the first board game. Cootie has been the game of choice up until now. My first thought upon opening the game was that this “isn’t [her] mama’s” candyland game. If you change something isn’t it supposed to be improved? This new gameboard is much less impressive than the candyland I remember. I had to search for all the candy. I remember a simple board with the lollipops and gumdrops shouting out at you. And where was the root beer float? I loved that! about the old game!

Anyway, Rachel didn’t seem to mind. We played happily and Hannah was having a rare manageable moment. She was sitting on my lap, letting me play without grabbing the board and yanking it off the table. About five minutes into the game, Rachel’s game piece moved a few squares ahead of mine. “I’m ahead. I’m winning. I’m going to win, right mom?” This line of questioning kept up the entire game. When did she develop this competitive streak? A year ago, running was all about fun. She didn’t know what the word win meant. Now when we’re walking upstairs and she reaches the top of the stairs first, she says, I won. Hmmm.

Candyland has particular significance for me because I cheated at it once. Big time. Well I tried. And failed. Big time. It would have been the best game ever, though! I had this fantasy of playing candyland and getting all the candy cards. You know, the perfect game. So, being the clever girl that I was, I arranged the deck so that every other card was a candy card, starting with the second card. And then I volunteered to go second. I think I was playing with my sister. I don’t remember. I just remember that the opponent caught on to me. Bad poker face, I guess. I was so busted.

The only other time I remember cheating on something was on a science test in the ninth grade. Again, I failed. It was awful. I was new to the school, very shy, and hadn’t studied for this test and somebody handed me a cheat sheet. I took it into class with me and I got caught! Right in the middle of the test. Terrible. I was a nice girl. Really. I couldn’t even cheat well. I had to go tell my parents and have them sign the test. Just awful. I never cheated again.

Do you have any cheating stories to share? I won’t tell. Promise.