Well, that was quick

I love that we have the tradition of doing a jigsaw puzzle of an ancient world map for each of our kids.

I like blogging the in-progress pictures and sharing our puzzle-gluing trade secrets.

I like having friends come over to help in the project that takes months of invested time.

Being pregnant with Baby #4 most definitely requires a new puzzle. Months of continued entertainment!

Oh...wait. It's already done.


It had started with sorting into ziploc bags because we weren't really sure where we were going to set up.

I had the grand idea of how to move the puzzle up on top of the shelves in the office so it was out of the way when we weren't working on it, and otherwise we could watch Netflix and sit in our nice comfy office chairs and just plug away.

Eventually we had finished enough that we were able to remove the already-completed top and make it small enough to fit through the office door. Then we could enjoy Lord of the Rings on our flatscreen with real speakers and sit on the couch while puzzling--or, as often in my case, lay on the couch while Chris puzzled because I was too sick to sit up that long.

It was a great setup, really. And things only got better with the friends who did come to help, though I have no pictures of it... There were several weeks when Charisse came to give me my violin lesson, then just stayed for a couple hours to work on the puzzle.

Today was just such a day. And now it's done.

This is a new record for us. I still had a couple months of pregnancy left when we finished Jane's puzzle. Megan's puzzle was glued about four days before she was born. Ben's...well, Ben's puzzle was finished about, ahem, fifteen months after he was born. 6,000 pieces was no small feat.

This time, though. Wow. It's 3,000 pieces, like Megan's, and it's done. I hit second trimester on Monday--we finished this one before the first trimester is even over.

We're just experts at map puzzles now. 14,000 collective pieces does lend itself well to certain puzzling insights. And, might I add, we have never lost a single piece of all 14,000.