A throwback to a few years ago.
It's an oldie, but a goodie :)
I was at my BFF's house the other day for a playdate. Mostly for the kids, but also for us.
If I had to play one more game of hide-and-go-seek, or listen to Dora's high-pitched voice for any longer....God only knows what I would do to myself. Or to Dora.
My BFF and I had children almost at the same age. At the time, the toddlers were 4 years old, and the babies were a year and a half.
While we drank our coffees, the babies were napping so we only had the toddlers to deal with. But as every mom knows, toddlers are a handful alone. I'm always shocked at how loud they are.
Side note: this is where my sister would yell...."YOU'RE LOUD! SHE GOT IT FROM YOU!" and I would answer in a whisper..."I'm not THAT loud".
On a regular basis I wonder how a toddler can talk nonstop for an entire day.
Literally.
An entire day.
No joke.
Like.....24 hours long.
There is not a moment of silence in my house. Very often I whisper "shhhhh" under my breath or "stopppp talkinngggg" while Lola is still going on and on about Ariel or Rapunzel or some other Princess that I will never live up to.
But suddenly, the toddlers went quiet. I looked up from my coffee.
My BFF caught my eye and winked at me. "Puzzle." she said, as if reading my mind.
"Yes! Puzzle! Puzzles are AWESOME!" I say excitedly.
I am loving this sudden peace and quiet.
I can finally hear the voices in my head again. Hello friends......
"Totally. Puzzles are so calming." said my BFF. "I find that just sitting here with the kids and helping them is so relaxing for me too."
"Oh, I know babe! I feel the same way! I wish Lola would play with puzzles more often. But she'd rather get me involved in a huge Barbie pool party. I mean it's not that bad though....Ken's pretty cute.....and when he wears his speedos......"
She continued on. "At our family get-together last summer, my Dad really got into puzzles. He would sit there for hours, with a glass of wine, just working away on his puzzle. He loved it! But then my brother and his wife decided to get him one for Christmas.......a 1000-piece! My Dad couldn't sleep over this crazy thing! He couldn't get any of the pieces and it just stressed him out....but he felt like he couldn't stop until he finished the whole damn thing!".
It suddenly got me thinking....as everything does.
What is it with having to finish a puzzle?
Were we born with this desire?
Why can't we just walk away?
I mean, I will sit there for...........at least 10 minutes until I finish Lola's Hello Kitty puzzle.
But it's just so frickin' adorable when you see the finished product. A cat holding a tiny, little umbrella in the rain. I mean, C'MON!! How cute is that???
My sister brought a puzzle to the cottage last year.....a 1000-piece nature landscape.
MAMA got addicted!!
It was ridiculous.
We couldn't use the kitchen table for weeks because God forbid you moved a piece out of place.
She finally let me put a tablecloth GENTLY over the puzzle when I refused to sit on the floor to eat dinner.
"Vy iz it such a pro-blem to eet on ze floor???!!" she yelled.
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That night we all worked on the puzzle. My mom yelled at me many times when I handed her a piece that I thought was the river, but was actually the sky.
"LUDGE!! PAY ATTENSION! DAT IS DE SKY!!"
I rolled my eyes, took a swig of my beer and called it a night.
"Mama!" I said very sternly "Don't be loud ok? I need it to be quiet. Don't work on this stupid thing all night OK!??"
"Yaa-yaa! Ok! Go to sleep!" she said without looking up from her puzzle.
In fact, she grabbed her granny-glasses and was bringing piece after piece up to her eyes trying to determine if the piece was river or sky.
In my bedroom, which is adjacent to the kitchen at the cottage, I climbed into bed.
After applying my hand cream, putting in my ear plugs and pulling down my eye mask, I turned off the light.
BUT........
All I could hear was Mama through the walls.......and through my ear plugs.
Stupid Walmart brand >:(
"Iz dat it?? No. Iz dis tree or leaf? Vat about dis? Ahh! Yes! Very good. I have leaf!"
Then I heard tapping.
I'm sure it was Mama's foot on the floor.
She always tapped her foot when she was working on something.
Then......the humming began.
Mama started humming the theme song to The GodFather.
Are you kidding me??
I HAD ENOUGH!!
I jumped out of bed, lifted my eye mask and pulled out my ear plugs.
I threw open the door and squinted as the kitchen light blared in my eyes.
Goddamit! This is so NOT pre-bed behaviour!
"MAMA!! You need to be quiet! This is ridiculous!! Put the puzzle away and go to bed!"
Everyone, including my mother, started grumbling at me as they got up and began turning off the lights.
The whole family was always grumbling at me so it doesn't phase me in the least.
But FINALLY I could go to bed :)
Peace and quiet.
Ahhh......
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But......at 3am......I still couldn't fall asleep......
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At 8am, my sister came out of her bedroom.
With her face all scrunched up, she said "LUDGE!?? What are you doing?? Have you been up all night??"
"Oh shut up", I said.
"Just sit down and help me figure out if this is river or sky!"
;)
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