You see, this is why I spend so much time reading parenting blogs. Well, part of the reason. The other part involves reading how other parents can do dumb things too so that I don't feel so badly about myself. But a lot of it has to do with figuring out things that I should probably be doing with my child that I would not likely figure out on my own because I'm tired/not that creative/a bit lazy.
The puzzles came to me from a variety of sources recently, and I just can't believe what a hit they've been. Of course, E has had lots of puzzles in the past, but up until now they've been of the "beginner variety" - wooden boards with pegged cutouts rather than the big girl jigsaw jobbies. For some reason it just hadn't occurred to me that she would be ready for and/or interested in them.
I think the first person to suggest it was my MIL, who said that J's dad used to love to watch J and his brother do puzzles when they were about E's age, that it helped him unwind after a stressful day. Shortly thereafter, E received a few puzzles as a gift from my parents. She took to them like stink on a monkey.
But I have to admit, rather than providing a chance to unwind, that first 16-piece puzzle required 45 minutes to assemble, a glass of wine and the need for mommy to walk away for a minute...several times. One man's stress relief is another mom's kryptonite, it would seem. But E loved it.
Since then she has been playing with the puzzles every couple of days, and is getting more and more adept at them. This morning before school she pulled one off the shelf while I was getting ready, and after only a few minutes, I came in to find this:
I just love finding out another thing that my kid can do. How easy is it to get stalled in the fingerpainting/face painting/kitchen/dollhouse cycle of familiarity, but how completely awesome is it to break out of that and realize again, for the one millionth time, that your child is a genius and capable of anything? Pretty awesome.
This stop: Big Girl Puzzles. Next stop: Total World Domination.
We're totally into puzzles right now too... almost to the point of ridiculous. She usually wants to do one after another. With Gram, she'll sit there and do it, one after another. But with mama... I start, she flitters around, I ask her who's really doing this puzzle?!... she flitters some more, then comes in to finish it off when its about 90% done. I have to say though, she is pretty good at them when she can put her mind to it. If we can just hold her attention there for more than 10 seconds.
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