Henry and I like to play Sorry! together. Henry doesn’t know how much I like to play it, because I never offer to play it. But I always hope he will ask if we can.

We fought over Sorry! this morning. He was losing and so he said he wanted me to win and was trying to move his pieces so that I would win. I said this was not an acceptable way to play a game. I said we wouldn’t play the game if he played this way. He continued to play this way. I said the game was over and removed our pieces. He cried and said I was mean and retreated to the play room, where a very meaningful pillow was thrown at me as I entered. By this point I had realized that I should have just walked away from the game, instead of dismantling it. It had been childish of me to dismantle it. I didn't say that to Henry, but I apologized for ending the game. He said that I was mean to apologize for something I had done wrong.

Eventually we played two more games. He won the first and I won the second.

For years at bedtime Henry wanted us to tell him stories. There were rules, his rules: The stories had to be true, and they couldn’t be repeated. Now John has started making this request, but I think he’s too young for the stories we used to tell his brother. Last night he asked for a story about Papa, and I told him that once Papa was angry with his mother, and decided to punish her by running away. (Henry loved this story.) Young Papa went to tell his mother he was going to run away, because he thought she’d be very sorry for what she had done, but instead she said, If you’re going to run away, you’ll need a thermos and a sweater. Papa thought to himself: This is bad. Then his mother took him to the front door and said goodbye. He wandered a little while on his street, maybe sat under a bush somewhere, then came home and rang the bell. He was readmitted.

Johnny’s eyes were huge in the dark. I found myself tacking a hasty, bad lesson onto the thing: It’s better to stay with your mommy in the house. John was relieved. Yes, it’s better to stay with Mommy. Then he wanted another story.