Is a Puzzlement

It has gotten to the point where I no longer have to sit on Nathan to get him to fall asleep at night. I simply have to return him to his bed five or six times, and if I can remember to keep it down, to not yell and get him all agitated, he will probably fall asleep within forty minutes or so.

The night always begins with him talking to himself in bed as he "reads" a bunch of books. I sit in my room and listen for the moments of silence, thinking each time that this might be it! He might be falling asleep now! Then I can turn on my TV and watch a show with inappropriate content, or take a shower, or actually read more than a paragraph on my book at a time! But usually the silence is just his pondering what he should get while he is out of bed, and it is only a matter of time before the baby gate rattles and there he is, on the other side, still thinking he is so clever for getting out in the first place.

The other night one of the silences seemed to go on and on, but it just didn't seem right. there were too many shuffles for there to be two sleeping children in the room. So I got up and peeked.

I had left the room a mess, simply because the idea of getting the kids to clean up before bed seemed like torture... to me. There were a bunch of puzzles all over the floor, all the pieces mixes up and spread out... honestly, who had the time? Well, apparently Nathan did, because when I checked on him he had completed four puzzles all by himself. These aren't hard puzzles, but when you consider having to sort out which bits went with which puzzles... And he's not even two. I was impressed. It's hard to be mad at your kid when you're so busy thinking they are smart.