It's Really the World that Hangs in the Balance

I was outside this morning working in the garage when L came running out all excited. "Daddy, come see what I did! It was very tricky!" I told her I would be right in and went about my business. A minute or two later she came out again, tugging at my shirt. "Daddy, come see!" I gave her something like an "All right all ready!" and started setting aside whatever it was I was working on. A minute or two later I headed into the living room to see what evidently couldn't wait.

And it couldn't.

"You're too late," Stacy said cooly. "L had assembled her balancing puzzle, and was all excited to show you, but N has already come in and knocked it down." A puffy-eyed L pouted in the corner. I think N had wisely retreated to his room.

I'm not sure where we got it, but the kids have a little wooden 3-D clown puzzle; you stand up the brightly painted clown, which rocks back and forth, and then stack all these little wooden cylinders on his shoulders, each painted to look like a ball. It's pretty hard to get all the balls to stay balanced on the clown without falling off or the clown rolling over.

Knowing it best for N to maintain his low profile, I swept him up and took him with me to run a few errands. We got back a couple of hours later. Inspiration had struck again while we were gone and this time I managed to hogtie N until I got to see L's masterpiece of poise and balance. She was quite pleased with herself.