Monday, February 24, 2014

Puzzling Conversations

 

Colin has always been a puzzle, but lately that has taken on new meaning. The boy loves to do puzzles. He will drag them off the shelf and put them together, one after another. He is starting to dive in to the more challenging ones. He takes after his mom and his grandma. He starts with the edges first....

You make me proud, son!!

 

The other day he pulled out this frog puzzle, (pictured above) and proceeded to lay out the top and bottom edges. All the while, the puzzle pieces were having conversations back and forth as they were being fitted together. Colin provided all the speaking parts - including different accents - as the conversation went along. The discussion centered around who (which puzzle piece) was sitting next to so-and-so.

 

Colin has a favorite puzzle - a large floor puzzle of a fire truck, that he got for Christmas. He put it together, on his own, first try, and can now do the whole thing in under 5 minutes. There is a dog pictured in the fire truck, so each time he puts it together, the conversation is with the dog who is saving some unseen burning object with his 'race car fire truck'. The puzzle is about five feet long, but he will push it all around the floor as if the fire truck were driving to the fire. This is great fun for everyone else to watch, but the poor dog and cat have had enough of being chased by the big flat fire truck.

 

It fills my heart with joy that he has discovered puzzles. None of the other kids have really taken interest, except for Jordan in just the past year, when we put together a large Springbok puzzle at Christmas time, or when we go to my mom's house to visit. She has a puzzle table with a puzzle in the making at all times. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of sitting with my favorite puzzles, listening to music and entering a trance-like state as I focused on its completion. There is a Zen-like feel to putting chaos into order. Perhaps Colin senses that too.