How Green Becomes Wood

Ivy squealed in delight while Dark continued searching out the blocks, and every time either he or Xander found one, she reacted like it was the most amazing thing in the world.

Once all the blocks were found, Dark looked to Xander and said, "I believe it is your turn to hide them."
 
"Okay," Xander agreed. He hoped he didn't hide them to hard for her. Still, this couldn't be that hard, could it? He started lightly chucking the blocks under the blanket and putting them under cushions and pillows. For the last block, he balanced it with great care on the back of the couch. Ivy would have to stand on the seat of the couch to reach it.
 
"Go find them, habibti!" Dark encouraged, sitting back while Ivy started crawling after them again to try to find the blocks, "Some days she does this for hours. I can get a lot done on those days."
 
"And she is having fun? She's not frustrated because her toys disappeared?" Xander asked, finding a safe spot to sit and watch her. She certainly looked like she was having fun.
 
"She loves it. Every so often she can get a bit frustrated, but that is typically if she is too tired. Sometimes I catch her hiding things for herself." Dark assured Xander as Ivy continued her hunt. "If we celebrated Easter, she would be delighted."
 
"I guess we could do something like an egg hunt with edible treasures sometime for no reason whatsoever," Xander remarked. "After Easter or Valentine's Day so we can get a boatload of cheap candy."
 
"And we get sugar out of the deal, so I'm good with that," Xander nodded. He used his foot to move the blanket so that the very edge of a toy was slightly visible. "Did you know Peter won't eat most US candy?"
 
He'll take one of those giant Symphony bars and some of the expensive stuff, and he like gummy candies. Worms, sharks, fish, all of them," Xander replied. "Might take some lemon drops and things like that. Turns up his nose at basically everything chocolate."
 
"Then I really cannot blame them, of the many places I have been, chocolate from the United States is my least favourite," Dark told Xander, "That is why we never give it out on Halloween."
 
"Okay," Xander agreed, slightly disappointed but more than willing to sit back. It felt weird just watching. Weren't you supposed to be involved when babies played? That was all he saw. Either toddlers being left to their own devices and kind of ignored (the not great version, he knew) or parents who could never not be all up in the baby's space. Was this supposed to be the middle ground?
 
When Ivy spotted the block on the couch, she went over to Dark and held her arms up so he could pick her up. Once she was able to stand on the couch, she babbled excitedly, holding it out to him and turning to show Xander.

"Great job, Ivy!" Dark praised, pulling her into a hug, "Baba is so proud of you!"

When he let her go, she tried to climb off the couch herself but slipped. Before she could technically qualify as having fallen, Dark had caught her with one arm beneath the chest, "Careful, Tifla," he told her, setting her down safely.
 
Xander clapped and did his best to display happiness that Ivy had found the block. He jerked when she slipped, but Dark had her. Xander clapped again, more slowly now. "Nice catch, Ba. Very nice."
 
"Thank you," Dark replied, smoothing Ivy's hair, "You would be shocked at how often she attempts to fling herself from heights."

Meanwhile, Ivy just happily crawled off, blissfully unaware of the pain she had been saved. Then she grabbed the blanket spread over the floor and pulled it over herself.

"Oh no, Xander," Dark said, a bit flatly despite being amused by these antics, "Where did Ivy go? I have lost her."
 
It took Xander just a second to catch on. "I don't know. Where is she? We will have to look for her." He gave his father a quizzical look. "Do all babies do stuff like this?"
 
Ivy stood in the middle of the room with the blanket over her head and giggled like she was truly undetectable.

"I believe so. I suspect what is happening is she knows when her toy is her the blanket, you cannot see it is there, so she believes the same principle must apply to her." He looked back to Ivy and said, "And now I just do not know where Ivy is."
 
"Okay. That makes sense. But wouldn't it be better to teach her how to actually hide instead of letting her believe she's hidden?" Xander asked. "Isn't this just... kind of lying to her?"
 
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