pickup sticks and puzzles

Our boy has been very interested in playing games and doing puzzles lately. Maybe it's just the winter, maybe it's a developmental thing, maybe he's been copying a friend at daycare, but he's been very excited about puzzles in particular.  And he's clearly gotten a lot better since the last time he was really into puzzles, finding the 48 piece puzzles easy, and even managing to do the few 60 and 100-piece ones on his own.  We bought a couple of new ones, thinking that it would take him at least a few times to get comfortable, but instead he did it immediately with barely any help.  So now we're back on the market, looking for some 200-piece ones.

The other game we've been playing is pickup sticks, a spectacularly old-fashioned game. We have the sticks that the Avery family played all through my childhood, courtesy of Popo and Bompy.  We've been playing it a lot, and although we don't usually manage to pick up all the sticks before losing interest, it's been fun.