Puzzling

This week while I was attempting to get some housework done, I pulled out a puzzle for Lily, hoping it would occupy her and possibly be educational at the same time (score one for Momma!).  Nope.  Still hanging onto my pant leg, crying.... Sigh.  But I was going to get the dishwasher unloaded at the very least, dangit, so I let her fuss for a minute and tried to finish.  I left the cupboard door open while I was putting away the kid dishes, and of course, Lily took advantage of that.  She loves to play with the sippy cups.  Normally she will bring me a cup and say "wa-wa," making the sign for "water."  Not because she wants a drink, mind you.  She's just informing me what goes in the cup.  (I still make that mistake about every other day, filling the cup for her, only to be rewarded with her throwing it across the room, then toddling off or begging to be picked up.) 

Whoops, off track...anyway....  This time she didn't come bring me a cup, she was busily matching lids to cups when I almost tripped over her to put away the bowls. 

(notice the puzzle, completely unloved?)

I almost missed that little ping inside my head, but I did get it.  I mean, really, here I was trying to force a contrived educational activity when something we do every day could serve the same purpose.  So I stopped what I was doing for a minute (really, 5 at the most), and pointed out the different colors of cups and lids and pulled out the camera. Look how intently she was working on her "puzzle." 

And what do you know, the traditional puzzle came in handy for something else!  She started picking up the pieces, making the animals' noises so I did all the noises with her, and then she came up with this perfect idea for practicing one-to-one correspondence:

And the dishes still got put away.  So there, score one for Momma after all!