Puzzle Pieces

Okay, this is the strangest thing, but when I was writing my post for tomorrow and scheduling it, THIS post disappeared!  Totally, and yet the comments appear to be attached to my Tuesday post.  Now, the Tuesday post is about Noah.  Soooo, I'm wondering if he had anything to do with this.  I've never had a post disappear.  I did not press "delete".  Noah has typed on my computer before and I've come close to ordering things... but never like this!  I noticed something was wrong on the dashboard, so I quickly went to a page I still had open and copied all the text to make another post.  Good grief!  I think I've lost the two comments, but at least this is back...I think.   Noah, where are you?

 

 

Puzzle Pieces

She places the pieces
As she watches life
Unfold before her
It begins to make sense
As she knows the blue of sky
The antics of ants
And snowfall soft on her eyelids
Sounds and colors
Arranged to shape
The puzzle of the world
We guide her hands
and eyes
and footsteps
Handing her pieces
of comfort
of family
of life
of love
And one day she picks them up
on her own
And passes them on.

by Donna JT Smith

Not yet two, my granddaughter, as her brother before her, is following in her mother's, grandmother's, and two great grandmothers' footsteps of loving puzzles.  It may be because early on they saw their mother and me each Christmas spending snowy days and evenings hovering over puzzles of 1000 pieces.  We at first tried to keep brother from "helping" with the puzzle, as we knew he would end up losing a piece by knocking onto the floor.  But after a little bit we came to our senses.
He would beam when two unrelated pieces snapped together.  Who cared if the red piece was in the snowbank?    We would fix that later.   It was, after all, just a puzzle.  Who really cared if we lost a piece?  It was more important and fun to have him join in.  So when sister came along, she was invited to "put the pieces together" as soon as she could kneel on a chair to reach.
We would all sit around my big round cleared off computer table (a second kitchen table in my kitchen) and have a great time finding pieces that fit together - my daughter's and mine, more correctly perhaps but not always!
I love that they love puzzles.  The above picture is my granddaughter's hand placing a piece she found in the right spot.  She has a couple more pieces to go, and had help with most of this one, but as they got to the end, she was able to spot the correct pieces for the remaining spots.  Not bad for under two years old!  But, of course, she's had a couple of pros for mentors!