Puzzle Master

I was planning on doing a March post, but so many of the pictures from March were of Henry doing puzzles, I decided they should get their own post.

I have never had a two-year old so interested in doing puzzles – he really does love them. 

He’s getting pretty good, too.  After he got bored of his 25-piecers, he decided to try out Lizza’s 48-piece princess ones.  She has a Snow White and an Ariel one, and once he figured them out, he went through a stage where he would just do them over and over and over again.  The impressive thing was that he didn’t even have a picture to look at – he was just figuring them out all on his own and then memorizing which pieces went where.

Most mornings he would come downstairs and head right over to the cupboard where the puzzles were so he could get a few done before breakfast (and this kid loves his breakfast, so if he’s willing to postpone it for puzzles, it shows how obsessed he is). 

He loves to keep things organized.  One of his favorite things is to do a whole bunch of puzzles and then line them all up in a row.

I felt bad for him just doing princess puzzles all the time, so I found him this 60-piece state puzzle at the dollar store.

After he learned that one, he wanted to try a more advanced one.  I had one that I actually bought a long time ago when Tristan was a little kid – it has 84 pieces and is recommended for ages 7 and up.  Henry had seen Lizza do it, and wanted to try.  I kept telling him it was probably too tricky (I should have known that would only make him more interested).  The first few times he did it, I helped him put the edges together, and then he figured out where all the states went.  After his first few times, though, he memorized where all the pieces went, and he didn’t need any help after that.  It quickly became one of his favorites. 

Here’s a video of him working on it.  My favorite parts are when he says “ya know?” (he ends lots of his sentences that way these days) and also how at the end of the clip he says “you little freak” to one of the puzzle pieces that wasn’t cooperating with him.  (I'm sure I have his older siblings to thank for that.)

A few weeks ago Lizza brought down this 100-piece dinosaur puzzle from our game closet.  She was just sure Henry would love it, but I thought it might be too big for him, and was worried he’d get frustrated if he couldn’t do it.  I guess I should stop being surprised when he proves me wrong.

Also, some funny puzzle-related Henry stories:

1.  I love when my kids learn grown-up sounding phrases, and then surprise me by using them at the right time.  A few months ago Henry was working on his wooden state puzzle on the kitchen floor.  It was after dinner and I was trying to sweep, so I kept telling him to hurry so I wouldn’t sweep up his puzzle.  After I had finished sweeping everywhere else, I started pretending to sweep up some of his pieces, just to tease him, like “oh, no!  I’m sweeping up Virginia – you better hurry and put it in!”  He did not think this was very funny, and didn’t appreciate me rushing him along.  He started scowling as he hurried to rescue some of the states from the broom.  He then shook his head and muttered to himself, “This is a joke!!”  Like he just couldn’t believe how ridiculous I was being.  The funniest is that for sure he learned that phrase from Daniel.  I just hadn’t ever heard him say it before.

2.  The other day Henry was working on some puzzles in the kitchen.  He kept accidentally dropping pieces on the floor, and for some reason he had decided that Daniel should be the one to pick them up for him.  I think Daniel picked up a few, but then he went in the other room.  The next time Henry dropped a piece, he yelled in to Daniel, “Hey, Dad!  I dropped a piece!”

Daniel wasn’t really paying attention, and he called back “Nice!”  (thinking that maybe Henry was just needing some sort of validation for finishing the puzzle). 

I was out in the kitchen with Henry, and saw him get a really disgusted/perplexed “whatever, Dad” look on his face.  He then yelled back to Daniel, “No, Dad!  I DROPPED a piece.  Don’t say “NICE” when I DROP a piece.  Just GET the piece, okay?”

Haha.  We love our little puzzle master.  Ya know?