the kids are moving past stacking rings (although forever loyal to THE WIGGLES) and on to a new stage in entertainment – puzzles. i have moved the puzzles down to a more reachable level and they are quite pleased to be able to play puzzles or words whenever they please. i have also moved the scrap or recycled paper and crayons to their level, so now sela doesn’t need to come to me with her imperious command, "i need to draw" whenever the spirit moves her.

one of the kids best presents EVER and one that i will always keep came from lucy. (that would be the same miracle worker who bathed and fed sebastian dinner at her house for the first month after the triplets came home and charles was out of the country). she got them wooden puzzles with their names on them. brightly coloured and rectangle shaped, then the letters come falling out of the puzzle and can be pushed back in.

sela is unimpressed with me that i selected her such a short name. she mastered her name puzzle a year ago and has been mentally petitioning for a name change to "marie antoinette" "queen elizabeth the third" or some other letter lengthy name, although i suspect she feels entitled to the title business.

she quite enjoys doing the "sebastian" puzzle, and slaps the letters into place, "e" is for ear, "b" is for ball, and whenever i hand her the "s", even though it is the "sebastian" puzzle, she says as if it is the most normal thing in the world, ""s" is for sela".

carys is more methodical about achieving her puzzle, which is a good thing because it gives me more time to remember what things "y" is for. yogurt? ypsilante? yams? yaks? please don’t remind the queen of reflux about yakking.

jasper likes his name although he believes that every letter is "s" and stands for jasper. but they love those puzzles.

while they are puzzling out life, sebastian and i are playing "concentration", basically where you lay the cards down and try to get pairs. we have a set based on underwater sea life characters….seals, puffer fish, crabs, sea lions, sharks, clams, octupus.. you get the picture.

naturally, i lose on purpose. like most kids and adults, seb hates to lose and wouldn’t play the game if he thought he was going to lose. and concentration is meant to help him learn to concentrate in school and i am supposed to be helping him bla bla bla. the problem is, if he is going to win the game, that means i have to lose. like most kids and adults, i don’t particularly enjoy losing, even when it is my beloved offspring winning.

does this make me a bad or less maternal person? do i care?

when he’s wiggling his (admittedly very cute) tushie in a dance i know he learned from me saying "woo woo i’m on fire yes i am" …it is very tempting to inform the exile from my loins that the only reason he is winning is because i am letting  him. instead i get modest revenge and enjoy seeing panic flare in his little eyes as i get three pair in a row which usually gets him worried and recounting his pairs like scrooge mcduck. but honestly.

when can i start winning? how will my child ever appreciate my brilliance if i don’t start beating him (at games) on a daily basis. i think i should start now.