hide 'n' please don't make me seek

I like to consider myself as a fairly patient person. Well, except today I'm not. I ran out of patience yesterday and I don't anticipate getting a fresh batch in until Monday. But normally I'm pretty patient and I play a lot of the little kid games that can sometimes be annoying. You know the ones, pretending to fly a plane to get them to open their mouth for food, putting their clothes on wrong and pretending it's right, or racing each other to pick up the most toys. But lately Alexis has come up with a new game and it is driving me crazy. I can't find anything cute or fun about it, that's how crazy it drives me. At least now I've cleared up the misconception that I'm a perfect mom.

Here's what she does. I leave the room for one second, she hides. I tell her to put her shoes on, she hides--and she hides her shoes. I say "lunch is ready", she hides. Even if she has requested we play a game and I get it out and all set up, she hides. Now, lest you're confused, our house is not that big, so there's not a lot of hiding places. It's not like I spend all day looking for her and that's what's bothering me. It's that she hides behind the couch and refuses to come out until I acknowledge that that's where she is. I would almost prefer that she hide somewhere hard, because that might actually be fun. Instead it usually goes like this:

Me: Alexis, please go get a toy to play with in the car.
Alexis runs away quickly, totally ignoring what I've asked her to do, and hides behind the couch.
Me: Alexis, do you have a toy? Alexis, stop hiding and come out now!
Alexis: You have to find me mom!
I sigh very deeply and then think to myself, hmm, is she behind the couch or the table? Couch or table? Couch. Table. A serious mystery.
Me: Alexis, you're behind the couch. Get a toy now or we're leaving without one.
Alexis: HOW DID YOU KNOW I WAS BEHIND THE COUCH???

No matter how I try to explain it she does not seem to understand that when she talks it gives away her hiding spot. I picked her up from her friends house the other day and of course she ran to hide. Her friend went to get her out from behind the chair and by the time I got in the room she was yelling at him, "Don't tell my mom where I am! You are ruining my hiding spot", not even realizing that she's the one who gave herself away.

I have no clue why she thinks this is so fun, and I'm not even sure why I despise it so much. I think maybe once or twice I've pretended to play along, but every other time makes me want to pull my hair out. Do you think maybe that's why she continues to do it?