Dear Monkey:

I think I need to clarify something...

When I told you that Candy Land was my "favorite" game, I didn't mean out of all the things I could be doing in the whole wide world.

What I actually meant is that I find it more tolerable than Chutes and Ladders, a game that currently aggravates me to no end. I'm not sure if it's just the poorly-designed Toy Story version, where the little characters clutter up the board, making it almost impossible to count spaces, or the fact that you do not yet recognize your numbers beyond ten, making the idea of having you move your own piece back and forth a 100-space board a bit challenging for a child of your mere 3 1/2 years, but when I basically end up playing the game by myself, a tiny bit of the fun trickles out of the experience. So yes, Candy Land, where you can actually make your own moves, and correctly, is much more fun. That does not mean, however, than when faced with you being home sick today, I had quite the reaction you were hoping for when you eagerly told me: "That means we can play your favorite game!!"

Although I have to say, it is somewhat sweet that you already had it all set up for me, and also amusing that, after playing with Daddy yesterday, you have now incorporated things like "We have to cut the deck" and "You're on my tail!" into our game play... Bring it on!