Tic Tac Toe...with emphasis

This afternoon I demonstrated for Teagan some of the string games I learned as a child --"witches broom" (AKA bananas, fishing spear or janitor's keys), cat's cradle, a couple of slip string tricks (like hand catch), and more. She was enthralled, took the old, green, yarn loop from me while I loaded another pile of laundry into the wash, & immediately transferred what she'd learned to string play with her feet! Instead of trying to create the web of Jacob's ladder, she laced the string around her big toes & began pulling it this way & that, creating new shapes & calling out to me, "Look, Mamma! It's a party hat!"

The yarn loop broke under the pressure of one yank after another twist & pull. Teagan asked me, "Can you knot this for me, Mamma?" To which I of course answered, "I can knot!" We giggled because she got the "cannot/can knot" homonym joke.

Then, as she played with her feet & string a bit more, lying on her back on my bed, she again called out to me, "Mamma! Look, I made Tic Tac Toe."

When I looked, sure enough, she'd created a perfect little crisscross between fingers & toes that precisely resembled the board of the famous boredom-busting pen & paper game. Better, yet, Teagan made another joke:

"Yeah. Let's call this Tic Tac TOE!"

*sigh*

That girl! She kills me with her quick wit! Yes, Teagan. That is authentically a Tic Tac TOE board.




(This picture, below, was a reenactment; the crisscross was difficult for her to reproduce.)