Snaps

Been busy...very busy.  Who knew that full-day school, soccer, swimming lessons and PTA volunteering, as well as church responsibilities, would be so all-consuming.  Oh yes, and the renovating.  The never-ending project.  Asher said the other day while playing in his 'new room', "Huh.  I was always thinking that me and Owen were going to sleep in here!"  Talk about sobering moments.  But we are moving absolutely as fast as we can, we just took on a bit too much given the free time we now seem to have; lesson learned.

The room is *almost* done.  Just have to get the plumbing finished up (not our job!), and put shelves in the closet.  And a few paint touch-ups.  And moving the boys in.  And inspections.  And, and, and...  In the meantime, the room has been really fantastic as a playroom and has officially turned into the lego and puzzle room.  It's going to be sad to have to turn it into a bedroom :P  But I will appreciate getting my own bedroom back upstairs!!

All three of them are getting so big.  Sometimes my mouth just wants to drop open when I get a glance at one of them from a new angle and I am jarred noticing how different they are by the month.  I always get pictures of them eating with food-smeared faces.  They are in constant motion unless they are taking in calories, I suppose.

The puzzle phase

Let it be known that Asher's puzzle phase began shortly after turning four during summer 2013.  And was it ever a puzzle-y summer.

Owing to his heightened interest in 25-100 piece puzzles, we have acquired about 15 puzzles from Target and the Dollar Tree, and some we just had around the house.  Asher is an EXTREME PUZZLER.  It is almost addiction-level.  He will sit in 'the new bedroom' (not quite done but getting very close as I speak) which has a wide open shiny new wood floor, spread out his puzzles and go to town...for hours...and I mean from after breakfast until suppertime, if he is allowed, with breaks only for food and potty.  Even at family camp, we always had to drag him away from a puzzle on the floor of the cabin to do other things. He completes a puzzle, starts another, and goes through the stack until they are all assembled on the floor, then rips the first one up and starts over.  He has honed his puzzling skill amazingly.  Today I offered him a new-to-him 100 piece puzzle that had been hiding in a closet.  He did it just a little more slowly than I would have.  He now knows what to look for in the right piece, has a great eye for actually finding it, and how to look back at the box and translate what he sees into arranging sections he's completed roughly in order in space so they will eventually fit together.  It's quite amazing!  At least to me.  His focus is incredible.

The other day I was saying to Reuel that it's funny how your place in history dictates how you think about things.  Video games quickly become as consuming for Owen as puzzles have been for Asher.  But I would never even think about letting Owen play very much.  I look at him playing a video game and I feel like I can actually see him losing social skills, getting no exercise, and caring about nothing other than the games.  But if a kid gets interested in puzzles (in today's world) it sort of seems like an intelligent pursuit (for a 4 year old), we admire his focus, we buy him more puzzles, and sit back and chuckle at his obsession.  I asked Reuel why we it actually seems healthy to let Asher play for long periods instead of telling him to get outside and get some sunshine instead of looking at those brain-wasting puzzles all day?  Or maybe video games aren't so bad...is it so different to move cardboard or to drag your finger across a screen?  There is a difference of time scale...the games flip between rounds super fast in general, and the puzzle requires longer-term concentration.  Anyway, it's interesting to consider (for my feeble mind).

Eden gets quite bored with her playmates (Owen gets in on it too, just not quite as extensively) looking at wiggly-edged paper pieces.  She got her revenge today.  I was filling nail holes in the trim while Asher was puzzling and Eden suddenly began giggling uproariously while shaking all of the pieces of 3 different puzzles into a single pile on the floor.  Asher didn't fuss as he had already considered the added challenge of mixing pieces (I had advised against it).  He does know all of his puzzles by heart now, but that fact hasn't caused him to lose an iota of interest in assembling them over...and over...and over...

Asher's favorites:
We have nearly all of the crocodile creek travel puzzles: http://www.amazon.com/Crocodile-Creek-2913-8-Travel-Puzzle/dp/B004QP6SBA/ref=pd_sim_t_4

Superhero puzzles: http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroes-Puzzle-puzzles-vary/dp/B0030HEH1S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1378346840&sr=8-3&keywords=superhero+puzzle

The Ravensburger 100 pieces are such great quality and this is the one we have that he wiped out pretty quickly today: http://www.amazon.com/The-Vets-100-Piece-Puzzle/dp/B00508OI28/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1378346875&sr=8-7&keywords=ravensburger+100+piece