Poker + Two Year Old = Not So Good
I finally hosted Chick Poker on Friday night after begging off the last time since my place was nearly declared a disaster area by the Feds. Since my last foray into decorating, the place actually looks quite inviting so I was happy to have folks over.
Stacey had asked if she could bring her two year old monster (her word, not mine), Devon, and I said yes for a couple of reasons. We've played before at her house and he was relatively content with a DVD and the TV as a babysitter. I have a good collection of Disney films and lots of toys and stuffed animals to play with and nothing of any value whatsoever except my laptop and that's purely an emotional attachment to me (love my laptop, cannot be away from it for more than 20 minutes at a time, must check email, must check blog comments...it's sick, I admit). We've also had him at Angela's before, and while he got a little fussy, he eventually fell asleep and all was well.
It wasn't so much all well on Friday, though. Here's the thing about a two year old: they want you attention...all the time and without anything competing with said attention. Playing poker definitely distracts one from the kid. He let his displeasure known, loudly, several times.
He's kind of a loud kid overall, actually. That didn't bother me so much since I come from a very loud family and, since I've had a kid, I've learned to tune out the "I just want your attention so I'm going to yell" voice from the "I've cut myself and am about to pass out from blood loss" voice.
We tried distracting him with some DVDs from home. Unfortunately, they were so grimy with fingerprints that my player had trouble reading them. We switched to my collection of Disney after that. I gave him the choice of viewing, popped it in and he was settled and quiet for all of five to ten minutes per movie. By the end of the night, I had a half dozen tapes piled up on the floor, each of which hadn't gotten much past the opening scene.
My 43 and 45 (Petty) cars were somewhat amusing to Devon. As long as I was on the floor racing them with him, that is. If I weren't, they were clearly too boring. Between raiding the cookies and stealing poker chips, he was pretty much bored.
He, however, wasn't a problem for me. I get the whole kid thing. My thought was, let him be bored as long as he's not destroying anything and let's play the game. Unfortunately, my fellow players didn't share the same mindset. They were so preoccupied with Devon that they'd forget to ante (OK, to be fair, they often do that), wouldn't realize the action was on them then took longer than usual to make a decision. Sigh. Once again, I was the nag with the telling them what to do. I can't help it, really. It's just in my nature.
Stacey went broke first and Becky cashed out with $16 of her starting $20 left because Devon was 'sad' and wanted to go home. Apparently, 'sad' is his new word to describe anything he's not happy with. Chris busted out, too, so that left Angela and me with the money. She cashed out $45 and I cashed out $39. I think I could have gotten ahead of her but we stopped too soon.
Devon's really into cars so I told Stacey that as soon as he's out of the diapers that she can drop him off at my place for the afternoon. We can watch the races and play with cars and other toys. As long as there's not a Poker game going on, he can have all of my attention. It'll be a good time.
Stacey had asked if she could bring her two year old monster (her word, not mine), Devon, and I said yes for a couple of reasons. We've played before at her house and he was relatively content with a DVD and the TV as a babysitter. I have a good collection of Disney films and lots of toys and stuffed animals to play with and nothing of any value whatsoever except my laptop and that's purely an emotional attachment to me (love my laptop, cannot be away from it for more than 20 minutes at a time, must check email, must check blog comments...it's sick, I admit). We've also had him at Angela's before, and while he got a little fussy, he eventually fell asleep and all was well.
It wasn't so much all well on Friday, though. Here's the thing about a two year old: they want you attention...all the time and without anything competing with said attention. Playing poker definitely distracts one from the kid. He let his displeasure known, loudly, several times.
He's kind of a loud kid overall, actually. That didn't bother me so much since I come from a very loud family and, since I've had a kid, I've learned to tune out the "I just want your attention so I'm going to yell" voice from the "I've cut myself and am about to pass out from blood loss" voice.
We tried distracting him with some DVDs from home. Unfortunately, they were so grimy with fingerprints that my player had trouble reading them. We switched to my collection of Disney after that. I gave him the choice of viewing, popped it in and he was settled and quiet for all of five to ten minutes per movie. By the end of the night, I had a half dozen tapes piled up on the floor, each of which hadn't gotten much past the opening scene.
My 43 and 45 (Petty) cars were somewhat amusing to Devon. As long as I was on the floor racing them with him, that is. If I weren't, they were clearly too boring. Between raiding the cookies and stealing poker chips, he was pretty much bored.
He, however, wasn't a problem for me. I get the whole kid thing. My thought was, let him be bored as long as he's not destroying anything and let's play the game. Unfortunately, my fellow players didn't share the same mindset. They were so preoccupied with Devon that they'd forget to ante (OK, to be fair, they often do that), wouldn't realize the action was on them then took longer than usual to make a decision. Sigh. Once again, I was the nag with the telling them what to do. I can't help it, really. It's just in my nature.
Stacey went broke first and Becky cashed out with $16 of her starting $20 left because Devon was 'sad' and wanted to go home. Apparently, 'sad' is his new word to describe anything he's not happy with. Chris busted out, too, so that left Angela and me with the money. She cashed out $45 and I cashed out $39. I think I could have gotten ahead of her but we stopped too soon.
Devon's really into cars so I told Stacey that as soon as he's out of the diapers that she can drop him off at my place for the afternoon. We can watch the races and play with cars and other toys. As long as there's not a Poker game going on, he can have all of my attention. It'll be a good time.
