Poking Me in the Eye Would be Less Painful

Note to self: Looking cool doesn’t ever make anything less complicated.

It looked cool in the box. Hudson likes airplanes. It was on clearance for 50 cents (that is right where it should have stayed). I would make Will build it with Hudson – Daddy/son bonding time. These were the thoughts passing through my head just moments before I bought the atrocity you see.

There is nothing like a balsa wood airplane. Hudson loves puzzles and Will loves to put things together so I figured I had found the perfect match. Hudson saw the plane and begged continuously to put it together during one of Annie’s nap times. I finally caved and figured it couldn’t be THAT hard. I would just let him pop the pieces out with me and assemble them with Will. The popping took him a good 30-45 minutes. That should have been my first clue. I’m sure all of you veteran parents are chuckling and shaking your heads at me. I deserve it.

When Will got home he didn’t show any interest in putting it together so I figured I would give it a shot. I think he knew better. The directions on the page said, "Match each letter or number to its pair." Easy enough. I unfortunately, did not notice that there were no numbers or letters printed on the pieces. There was a sheet showing each piece labeled 15 on one side with 6, 22, and 47 on the remaining sides.  Hudson’s attention lasted all of 3 pieces. My dignity and pride along with Will’s occasional glances pushed me to the bitter end. I won’t even say how long it took or make anyone relive my horror with the details. Just know it was ugly…very ugly!

Lesson learned: A large portion of the challenges I face in life arise because I bring them on myself!!