The Smile Game

It's the Smile Game. An engaging, fun activity where Beatrice explores her ever-expanding universe of family, friends, teachers and other adult figures of varying degrees.

Bea starts the process:

"Let's make...[insert name here]!"

Then I continue:

"Is [name] a boy or a girl?"

"A girl!"

"Okay, now what about her face..."

We continue on, making the new "virtual" person in Bea's social network, adding their nose, hair style, eye style, eye color, hair color, clothing color, body size and shape, glasses and/or freckles -- and last but certainly not least, the smile.

And it's always the same smile. A simple, sweet line curved up at the ends. Everyone smiles in Bea's world. We should all be so inclined. Yes, it's toddler naivete, but she doesn't know the difference.

Again, we should all be so inclined.

Forget that it's a first-generation Nintendo Wii where you can make the different people that end up appearing in the different games you can play. To Bea, it's the Smile Game where familiar faces bring comfort to a still very new person in this big friggin' sometimes sad and scary world. A world where you can lose both parents in only four months.

On a lighter note, baseball may be a few months away, but we can play with family and friends everyday.

"Daddy, let's play baseball!"

"You got it, Bea. Batter up," I say, smiling.