My husband is on a business trip and will be out of town until Sunday. Life tends to loosen up a bit when he’s gone. I suspect some things slide when I go away, too, but he won’t admit to that. More ice cream and pizza in the freezer when I get home tell a different story, however.

Not the point.

Anyway, last night Noah was playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii. He’d been grounded from the game for some time because of grades and behavior but so far this school year he’s got an A in math, so I let him play.

It was bedtime and he was playing. I told him it was time to brush his teeth and stuff, but he did his normal, “I’m almost done, Mom.” I know because I get addicted to games, too, that this means, “Leave me alone for another hour or whatever.”

I sat and watched for a bit and he insisted that he just needed to get to ONE PLACE and he’d finish that section or the game or something.

I decided to let him go for a bit, but it became clear that he couldn’t figure out the last piece to the puzzle and it was getting very late.

I told him Daddy wouldn’t be happy and he’d have to figure out the rest the next day. He was frustrated anyway and as he huffed into the bathroom to brush his teeth, he asked me to find out who made that game and tell him that it was impossible to finish.

I put him to bed and went back to my desk to work for a bit. After a few minutes I heard a random noise or two coming from the living room area.

We have a guinea pig who sometimes chews on the bars of his cage or knocks his dish over so I thought maybe that’s what I heard.

The second time I heard something, I started out toward the living room. I could see a reflection in a window of Noah moving around. He turns the sound down and leaves all the lights off so as not to alert any parents that he’s out of bed.

WHen I confronted him, he said, “I figured it out!” Apparently as he lay in bed after prayers, he’d figured out what the last piece of the puzzle was.

He happily handed over the controller after I told him I’d let his score finish tallying and ran back to bed.

My son, the gamer!