Puh bll

We recently gave Jack a puzzle he'd received for Christmas. It had a few smallish pieces and we weren't sure he was ready for it at the time he got it. Pretty sure it came from his aunt Robin, since there's a sticker on the back saying it was made in Ireland. It's a puzzle of polar bears, penguins, and seals frolicking on a patch of ice, while whales swim about in the water below.

So I opened the plastic on the puzzle and he instantly took out all the pieces, which made putting it together kind of difficult since there wasn't a picture guide and I didn't remember what it looked like. But after several hours of work I managed to assemble it again, just so Jack could again destroy it.

Early on it was clear he had a certain fondness for two pieces (one of which, I'm sad to say, has since disappeared to parts unknown.) One is a little baby polar bear, riding on its mommy's (or daddy's, who knows, they're polar bears) back. The second is the smiling HEAD of the adult polar bear, who shall remain gender unknown. I'd build the puzzle, he'd wreck the puzzle, and then he'd go running off through the house - he's basically started running, about three weeks after starting walking - with one of these pieces in each hand.

As you can imagine, Jack digging the puzzle out from where we kept it underneath his bookshelves, scattering its pieces across his room, and then running through the house with two of them, wasn't really conducive to putting him to sleep as part of his bedtime routine. So yesterday, we tried putting it away - I hid it in the back office while Emily gave Jack his bath.

Later, I'm working, and Emily is getting Jack into his pajamas and ready for bed, when I hear, faintly, him saying "puh bll.....puh bll....puh bll...." Emily informs me he's down on the floor, looking under his bookshelves for the puzzle. "puh bll....puh bll..." How could we resist that? We bring out the puzzle, he lights up, grabs his two favorite pieces, and he's happy.

The question (among others, like did we give in too easily to his plaintive cries) is, is he saying "Puzzle," or "Polar bear"? Because we've referred to it as a puzzle, and to the polar bears as polar bears. And even if he IS saying "Puzzle," does he think he's referring to the polar bears?

If you'll excuse me, I have to go try to find that other piece.