2018 will forever be remembered as the summer of the jigsaw puzzle in our house.

Jigsaw puzzles were a big part of my childhood. I remember sitting in front of the coffee table with my mom and sister, working on 5,000 piece puzzles together. The one in particular that sticks out in my memory was sheet music of Beethoven’s 5th. Growing up we had a collection a 100 and 250 piece puzzles that, when they became two easy, my sister and I would dump them over backwards and assemble them upside down. I even spent a summer with my best friend on an “impossible” branded puzzle which had no straight edges. Since that wasn’t challenging enough, the backside of the puzzle was stamped with the same image as the front side, just rotated so you could never tell by looking at a single piece if it was upside down or not.

We were always destined to be a puzzle house.

As new parents Domingo and I stocked up on baby puzzles. I remember baby Alexis chewing on the wooden knob of a Melisa and Doug Shapes puzzle, holding it in her mouth like a binky. I probably even have a picture of it somewhere.

When the kids got a little bigger we tried the foam puzzles, and the kind that are meant to be stored assembled where the backing has an outline of each puzzle piece.

The girls never really seemed that interested, and the puzzles stayed mostly in the closet, forgotten. We decided to change that this summer. I wanted to try and bestow my love of jigsaw puzzles onto them, to see if I couldn’t pique their interest.

This summer I purchased a 250 piece puzzle, just to see what the kids were capable of. Nicole, Alexis and I sat down to work on it together. The design ended up being a little more monochromatic (see above), and thus more challenging than I anticipated, but that didn’t stop the girls from getting into it. Even Alexis was able to put some pieces together, and she’s three and a half!

From there we broke out the 48 piece puzzles and when those were two easy, I mixed up the pieces and had Nicole do two puzzles simultaneously. When that proved too easy Domingo found some 100 piece puzzles. In no time the girls were assembling multiple puzzles a night together, though Alexis can do the 48 piece puzzles herself. Alexis told me quite emphatically recently that they did not need my help.

I can’t wait for Dana to get a little bit bigger. We’re going to get a coffee table, and then really see what the kids can do!

Posted in Family Life