The Chase

Since Troy has started crawling, I have taken to chasing after him when he starts to explore. I’ll mock run at him and nip at the backs of his thighs as he scoots across the floor. He’ll start giggling and go faster to get away from me. He always heads into the formal dining room, I’m guessing to try to hide behind the safety of the table.

Once we get in there, I’ll drop to all fours and crawl with him, since that room has carpet. It’s still tough on my knees, but nothing compared to the tile or hardwood floor. Only instead of following him around the table, I’ll go the other way. When we meet on the far side of the table, he’ll see me and stop. I’ll immediately turn around and head away from him. Seeing me in retreat, he’ll start giggling again and give chase after me. I’ll go a few paces and stop to wait for him to catch up. I look back to make sure that he’s still giving pursuit. When he sees that he’s gaining on me, he’ll turn on the afterburners and shoot across the floor, laughing the whole way. When he gets close, I’ll start going again.

We’ll make a couple of laps around the table like this, until I fake getting tired and slow down. That’s when he realizes that he has finally got me, and he’ll pick up the pace. When he gets close, he starts grabbing my foot, which makes me fake stumble. As soon as he sees me go down, he pounces! He literally starts to climb up my back end to take me down, like a lioness taking down a gazelle. I’ll let him wrestle me to the floor and admit defeat. He’ll lay on top of me victoriously, holding me down and bouncing to let me know that he won.

We both love this game, and it wears him out, so it has the added bonus of that. However, what I found out this week was that apparently Troy has started doing this with one of the little girls at the daycare, Audrey. He takes my role of crawling away from her and then stopping to make sure she’s giving pursuit. She chases after him, and he’ll start crawling again. Around and around the room they’ll go, dodging toys and furniture. And always if he gets too far ahead, he’ll stop to wait for her. I love that he’s playful. I love that he’s kind. And I love that he has been making friends to play chase with.