He's a Puzzle-Addict

Gavin is a puzzle-addict. He's really enjoys doing them and he's actually really good at putting them together. Yes, the boy who seemingly has a very short attention span, constantly switching from one activity to another, loves sitting completely still (for 20 to 40 minutes at times) and figuring out how pieces of cardboard fit together to make a picture. It's one of his all-time favorite things to do.

Vivian tries to copy her brother and do puzzles with him, but she just doesn't get it. No matter how hard she tries, he always finishes his puzzle before her and sometimes completes two puzzles before she finishes one. Vivian understands the purpose of a puzzle, but she still shoves together two pieces that don't belong, banging them with her fist into place. Gavin gets very frustrated by Vivian's blatant disregard for puzzle etiquette and will reprimand her when she doesn't do it correctly. He then tries to teach her the correct way. Well, you know how that plays out. Vivian yells at him to leave her alone or she'll hit him, because as you know, she's the boss.

We've even started redirecting Gavin's energy (when he's disobeying us or clearly too wound up to function) by having him take a "puzzle break." And it seems to be working. One of us will notice that he's about to go off the deep end and we'll say, "Gavin, let's take a puzzle break." His face will usually light up, bringing him back to reality and away from a total meltdown, and he'll run to the "puzzle box" to pick out one of his favorites.

So while Vivian is a bit more physically coordinated than Gavin, he definitely beats her in the cognitive skills area (at least with puzzles, anyway).