Once we got past the shock and awwwwww ( as in oh my goodness they are adorable) stage, we started to notice small things that the girls needed some help with.

The fact that both girls had small hand tremmors was pretty high on our list. The doctors chalked this up to effects from lack of nutrition and sunshine (read that as ricketts) and to potential nuerological delays that would take time to catch up/resolve. Basically the brain is trying to do so many new things that the signals start to get crossed up a bit, resulting in tiny hands being a bit more shaky than you’d want to see. Doing puzzles (especially ones with small pieces) was one of the recommendations we got from the team of the international adoption specialist that we met with.

That made sense, but puzzles are expensive (at least the solid wood ones we were looking at) and Elena in particular was getting frustrated by her inability to place the pieces easily.

Time to break out the playdoh. Rolling and smooshing it seems to have helped with the tremors and overall hand strength. Then one morning I realized that all those cookie cutters made it possible to create puzzles on the fly that required all the dexterity (pincer grasp, two finger pulls etc) that we were loooking for with the added bonus of no frustration since pieces can be squished into place when need be.

In our case we found that contrasting colors work best. Basically you make the puzzles twice and then switch the pieces.

After a while we added in matching, colors and shapes to the game turning it into a great lesson.

Now the girls make their own puzzles.

Locations as far flung as my own garden and that of my neighbor (who plants thistles and pink roses) to the botanical garden here in Chicago, Kew Gardens in London, several locations in New Zealand and Spain.

It is more challenging than setting them up in the Really Really Big Studio with lights and a white backdrop, but the results are what Iook for in images, the natural patterns and textures of nature in their full vibrant color.

Which means that no flower was harmed in the making of this movie. Well, except for the Asian Lilly that our 2 year old “helped” mommy with.

This is also a test of the flash slide show widget I have set up that lets me add images to my photo archive and have them automatically be added to the slide show without having to edit the flash code.

Large Format prints, of these images and many many more, are available for purchase by visiting the Really Really Big Products Site

Colors of nature – Images by Really Really Big Industries, Inc.