Blame Game

A couple of years ago, Jeremy recommended that he and I should start putting puzzles together. I liked the idea, so I bought him a puzzle for his birthday that year (2014); it's been in its box in the garage ever since.

On Monday, though, the boys and I went to the Pressleys. Mrs. Pressley and Dolly were finishing up a puzzle Mrs. Pressley had been working on over the snowy weekend, and I thought, "That looks like it'd be really fun!" So that nite, I bought up our card table and broke open the box of our 1,000 piece pastime.

We spent three hours, hard at work. Where we'd spend a typical nite in chairs on opposite sides of the room, mindlessly watching ESPN or flipping through various news feeds on our phones, on Monday, we actually talked. I think it was some of the best conversation we've had in a long time, so we decided to keep up our puzzle-building.

Tuesday nite, we did more of the same. By the time we went to bed, the puzzle was almost 75% finished. Then came Wednesday morning. I built a barrier around the card table, thinking it - plus my repeated admonitions to NOT TOUCH THE PUZZLE - would keep the boys away from it while I took a shower.

That's what I get for thinking.

Not long after I'd gone back to the bathroom, I heard a sound that sound painfully similar to puzzle pieces being shaken in a box. I rushed back in to the den. My suspicions were confirmed.

There, on the floor, were all 1,000 pieces - smashed, just like mine and Jeremy's plans to frame the finished puzzle for hanging in the boys' remodeled playroom. The boys were playing in the cardboard shrapnel.

After dealing with their disobedience, I made them pick up all of the pieces. I then put the full box back on the table to test the boys when I went back to finish my shower.

They failed the test.

Not two minutes later, I heard Jones cackling an evil kind of cackle, and I knew what had happened. This pattern played out three time in all before they finally did as they were told and LEFT THE BOX ALONE.

When I got Freddie up from his nap, though, the first thing he said was, "Where puzzle go?" I said, "You broke it!"

After that, he studied me hard for at least ten seconds, looking at me with a very concerned look before saying, "JoJo did it."

Sure, he did.