Bits and Pieces
What is it about the age of three that suddenly makes every gift come in a million itty-bitty pieces? No, not broken toys, just toys with a lot of parts. As in, parts over here and parts over there. Until you just give up and say, “Oh well, I’ll find them with the vacuum.”
After agonizing for nearly three years with a child who put everything in her mouth, the abundant parts are hard to get used to. Three is also the first year that board games, too, show up under the Christmas tree. They come with parts, too. And really simple instructions.
I try to focus, but halfway through a “rousing” game of Candy Land — all of ten minutes long — my mind wanders. I begin to think, “Hmm, I wonder which food manufacturer underwrote this game? How much artificial color and high-fructose corn syrup would be in all of that stuff? Am I going to have to try and explain what a gumdrop is?”
