Monopoly.

My kids love to play Monopoly. Not Monopoly Jr. The big, terrible to set up, always a huge ordeal that lasts four hours, grown up Monopoly. I'm not sure why the fascination to play a game that even I, as a grown up, think can be boring, but they love it. So finally, after many, many parent supervised games, Jordan now knows enough about how to distribute money and property, the ins and outs of sending people to jail and requiring doubles within three turns to escape that he can be Lord Monopoly on his own.

Free, at last.

He milks this role quite well, I might add. When I listen in on their gaming sessions, I hear Jordan say things like, "Lucy, I don't think you want to buy this property. You don't have the money for it." or, "You really, really ought to buy this one, Sam. It's your favorite color, blue!!"

Huh. Perhaps a tish bit manipulative. The other day, while helping the kids clean up the game, I found a wad of one hundred dollar bills stuffed under one corner of the game board. Who actually ends up with 47 one hundred dollar bills in a Monopoly game? That would be the all powerful, buy this, go here Monopoly dictator Jordan. When questioned, he shrugged his shoulders and innocently answered, "It was a good game for me, Mom."

Yeah. I bet.