the pieces come together

Matt and I had a first last night -- we put together a puzzle. Lizzy helped us, too, actually. That kid will never cease to amaze me. I think she delights in keeping us off-balance... But, back to me and Matt. We agreed that it was a terribly dorky thing to do, and yet very fun and companionable, as well. Those are some of my favorite moments with him -- when we're combining our people power (maybe helping a friend move), or our brainpower (doing a crossword puzzle, say) or making some big plans for the backyard or porch or something.

I haven't done a puzzle in ages. I recently bought one at a bookstore on a whim. It's a 500-piecer. Not super-simple, but not super-hard. And it's Disney characters, so it's not super-tricky. Though the all-brown border gave us fits! I was surprised that Matt got so into it. I asked him about that. "Oh, you know me," he said. "I avoid these types of things because I'm totally anal, and won't be able to rest until it's done." I think we slapped the 500th piece in there at about 11:55 p.m. Because, well, I'm the exact same way.

My mom's family are big puzzlers from way back. We used to vacation at Rockaway Beach, Oregon, for every spring break -- my three girl cousins, me, my little brother and our parents and grandparents. It was a blast. Invariably, there was a 1,000-piece puzzle, most likely of a quilt or field of flowers or something else totally impossible and nearly without much variance to the pattern, to induce extra blindness -- er, provide extra challenge. I didn't take part in the puzzle-doing much in those days, but I learned the basics -- first, you find the edge pieces. Especially the corner pieces. Work from there. Of course, let the picture on the box be your guide. It's been fun to guide Lizzy through her 30-piece puzzles. They cost $3 at craft stores, and she really enjoys peeling off two or three of them before dinner. With those puzzles, the edges and corners become less important -- the picture is pretty obvious, and it's the easiest way to get the thing to take shape -- but I taught her the other method, anyway.

I just had a conference with her teacher at day care -- they really are quite ambitious about what the kids learn, if it sounds odd that I call a day-care employee a teacher -- and she was telling me that Lizzy asked to 'see the box' one day when the kids were putting together oversized puzzles on the rug. It really blew her away. It's cute, and gratifying, to hear of Lizzy continuing family traditions, be they ever so minor. She's got a heritage, as do we all, in some form or another, and I'm realizing more and more of the things that make my family distinctive and familiar to me as I model them for Lizzy. Here's hoping most of them will be GOOD things!