Everyone has their favorite games to play with babies and toddlers. I love to do interactive games and teach babies the hand motions that go with.  Like  Mother Goose’s “Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man,” and the nursery rhyme “The itsy-bitsy spider”. However, my favorite game to play with babies and toddlers is peekaboo.

Every child seems to love peekaboo. Even when they are very young, if I put something over my face and then pull it down and say “Peekaboo!” with a big smile, they smile also. Soon they learn how to do it themselves. They pull a little blanket or whatever is available over their face (often over just their eyes). I say “WHERE is ISLA?  (or LUCAS or any of my other grandchildren-when-they-were-babies”), and then they uncover their face and I say, “THERE you ARE!” and we beam at each other.

They love to do it over and over. As do I.

Such a simple game. Yet it always brings a boost to my heart, a lift to my spirits. It seems to do the same thing for them, because they will play it again and again, giggling every time.

Why is peekaboo so universally popular, with adults and with babies?

For me, it’s the fun of interacting with a little human being, seeing his or her mind at work, and earning a giggle. It’s also the joy of leaving my complicated adult world behind and entering a simple, loving place where all that exists is loving a baby and having that baby smile back at you.

For babies, I’m guessing that part of the attraction of peekaboo is a baby’s complete and total dependence on adults for survival. So playing this game, which starts with a little bit of separation but always has the same ending, always a big face beaming at them and saying, “I love you, here I am for you, you are special”, must be so reassuring.

Also, perhaps, babies enjoy the security of knowing the ending. Like the romance novels I read where there is usually trouble in the middle but at the end, two people who love each other always end up together. And I do love romance novels, perhaps for the same reason that babies love peekaboo. They reconnect you with love at the end.

For who would not enjoy a game where at the end you are reunited with someone who loves you very much and lets you know that? Where always, when one pulls aside that curtain there is the certainty that there will be a smiling face and a voice that exults in seeing you?

We grown-ups aren’t as obvious in our needs as babies are. Yet all of us need affirmation, reassurance, human connection, and yes, love.

And all of us, unfortunately, experience times when a curtain comes over our lives or our hearts and we cannot connect with love or feel its presence in our lives.

So, today I’m going to look for someone who is experiencing some sort of curtain, some temporary separation from the sunshine and from happiness. I’m going to give them a big smile or text them a balloon to say, “I see you. You are special. I value you and I love you.”

A little peek-a-boost.  For them and for me.