Little Kid Kasparovs

Sure the babies still like dinosaurs and human evolution and their bicycles and Magic Tree House and My Little Pony and baking sweet treats and Nancy Drew and Halloween, but their latest obsession?

 
 
 
Willow would rather play with me (and one of these days soon she's going to kick my butt instead of it being the other way around), but Syd likes to play, too, so usually I pit the two girls against each other and I coach.

It makes for a WAY better game, frankly--both of those two little nuts are so crazy and unpredictable that they'll do anything, and they never pass up an opportunity to take a piece. Seriously, they might as well salt the earth when they're done, because they leave their battlefied BLOODY!

And I can't even describe the thrill as they race their pawns to the other side to get their queens again, only to have the queens attack each other the very next move--and goodbye, queens!

All I can say is thank goodness--the girls and I are taking a cross-country road trip in a couple of weeks, and before we leave, I am shifting some cash out of the food budget and buying us a travel chess set. Because we won't even notice that we're eating beans and rice AGAIN if we're playing an exciting game of chess over dinner...