I'm not entirely sure how you spell that word...but you know what I mean, right? 

Rock Paper Scissors

Do you remember how old you were when you first learned how to play that game?

Well, Brooklyn and August were/are respectively, 5 and 3.

Know when it comes in really handy around our house?

At bath time.

They love bath time. They love to dump all their toys out of the froggy hanging on the wall, splash around and get  water droplets on whatever book Kyle or I are reading and entertain Dorien who stands on the (dry) side of the tub and slaps his hands enthusiastically against the edge of the tub as he watches them.

What they don't love is getting soaped up. Because that means bath time is drawing to an end. And they always want the other to be first to get their hair washed and all soaped up. 

This posed a problem until Kyle and I taught them how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. 

Last night, as they were arguing over who was to get soaped up first, Kyle said, whoever loses Rock, Paper, Scissors gets soaped first. 

This killed a good ten minutes as Kyle and August did the same hand motion approximately 7 times in a row and  was eventually ended with some rock over scissors. 

So we may not have managed to speed up bath time, but we raised the level of competition and cut out some needless whining and bickering over who gets cleaned and hauled out of the tub first.

It's the little things, really.