Puzzle Time

For the past month or so, Lauren has been obsessed with puzzles. No, not the 25-piece large puzzles intended for toddlers. They must have at least 100 pieces, and she will sit for 30 minutes at a time, several times a day, until she completes them. Then she takes them apart little by little, and rebuilds them again. Watching her level of concentration is so inspiring that we've all become caught up in the craze. Of course puzzle central is the dining room table. For those of you who know my OCD tendencies, rest assured that I'm in therapy and have mastered proper breathing techniques so I am almost able to tolerate the hurricane of toys and games that has subsumed my living and dining room. Of course, I am also actively soliciting bids to convert our third car garage into a playroom, so hopefully by the end of the year Lauren will have her own official play space.




Of course we highly prefer this latest activity to Lauren's other more recent passion - the Yo Gabba Gabba show on the Noggin channel. Yes, the show is harmless and vaguely educational. But the characters on it disturb me almost as much as the Teletubbies. Every time Lauren wakes us in the middle of the night to tell us she had a bad dream (we're down to about once a week now), it's all I can do to restrain myself from asking her whether in her nightmare she's being attacked by Foofa, Plex, Toodee, Brobee, or DJ Lance (if you don't recognize those names, you are so lucky; if you do, you have my sympathy).