It's Puzzling

Sometimes when the manutia of life piles up around you, you loose perspective on how much you have learned over your life. How much you understand. How much the knowledge of one thing helps you understand other things. How the things you learn in life are building blocks. Some of those blocks are tactile and some are theoretical. But learning how they fit helps to move us from one intellectual plateau to the next.

The world is complicated and the only way anything works is by all the bits and pieces fitting together just right. Many times I take this for granted. Sometimes because I'm overburdened and simply focused on the outcome. And sometimes because if you think really hard about it, how every little piece of everything has to come together just perfectly so that things work out the way they do, it can be very overwhelming.

This is the case for very complex things like Dashy: every cell had to divide properly, my body had to supply him with everything he needed properly, and our emergency c-section had happen properly for him to be here with us just the way he is today. And, it's the case for simple things like my purse: it needs to be big enough that I can tote diapers, wipes, baby food, a few toys, my George Costanza wallet, cell phone, blackberry, some unpaid bills and my laptop. A smaller purse just would not do (but it might help my sore back!)

I never thought about exactly when you begin trying to figure out what things go together, and how things go together. Like Floyd (our cat) and food. These things go together (but maybe it would be better for his waistline if they didn't.) Or which sheets go on which bed and how they fit on each bed. These are things you just know. You pick them up along the way but you don't work hard to understand them or to figure them out. But, I'm learning, there probably was a time...

Dashy has been working hard, for a while, to figure out this puzzle of a world we live in. It started a couple months ago, remember the ball in the elephant's ear trick ,and has progressed from there. Every few days it's something new.

Which lid and how does it go on the container...



















How do the cups fit together...



















How does the puzzle go together...



















Do Floyd and a shoe go together... (Floyd: "You SO don't get me!")















The other morning Dashy was popping around his room matching things by color. The yellow ducky and the yellow balloon. The green cup and the green toy. The yellow ball and the yellow butterfly wings. The purple puzzle piece and the purple hippo.

Sometimes, like that morning, all the pieces come together. Other times you see him trying hard to figure it out.

You and I know that the doggy doesn't go in the kitty hole. But you gotta try in order to learn, right?



















Or he'll try to see if Arlo (our dog) is interested in a book. Or if the big cup fits in the little cup. (I love the "concentration tongue" in this one!)



















I feel like I'm letting you down a little on this post. Like I should have more pictures and video. I actually started this post a while ago but eventually decided I just needed to go ahead without all the show-and-tell or I would never get it up. The problem is it's not a constant thing. It's here and there. It's fascinating when it happens, but whenever I move to get the camera I distract him and he zooms off to do something else. So, sorry. I apologize.

But trust me, it is amazing to watch and it definitely makes you think about how everything works together, and how you have an understanding of this on so many levels, and how you take that knowledge for granted everyday.