As the obsessively dutiful mother that I strive to be, when Griffin got to the age where I felt he should be interested in puzzles I acquired some. I found myself dumbfounded that the only interest he ever expressed about puzzles were to dump the pieces out on the floor and move onto the next toy. What? Since Harrison’s reaction to puzzles as a toddler were about the same as his big brother, I finally reached a point of exhaustion. Stepping all over puzzle pieces that always managed to show up underneath my bare feet unexpectedly was just more fun than I really wanted anymore, so I got rid of them. ALL of them.
So, a few weeks ago when our nursery caregiver at church, Miss Vicky, shared with me that Maclin was obsessed with puzzles, frankly I was shocked. Huh? My child likes puzzles? But I spend all day with him, I would know if he likes puzzles or not … wait a minute … we don’t have any puzzles.
So of course, my mother and I ran out the next day and bought him a puzzle. I have spent the past two weeks watching him, utterly fascinated.
This is Maclin’s new race care puzzle. See how the tow truck magnetically picks up each car? (I realize now that I cannot duplicate his sound effects of the tow truck in writing accurately, so use your imagination and fill in your own. )
Each piece gets carefully lined up until they are all out. Then each piece carefully goes back in. And the process starts all over again. I have discovered that this is what he does for hours after I put him down for the night.
And watch out. He’s not into sharing the puzzle. He tackles Griffin and Harrison whenever they go near it screaming “No! That’s my puzzle.” I should be disturbed by this outburst, I know, but it’s funny. And there is very little in this house that is truly “his” without first belonging to somebody else. Everything is a hand-me-down when you’re the third boy. Clothes, shoes, toys …
A nice reminder that each child is a unique individual. I am so lucky that they call me mom.
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