Wordle Wonder

Wordle from a while ago. We love the green ones!

MAUI, MAY 31, 2024 — These days, I wait till later in the afternoon to work on the Wordle puzzle, because of the chance that my 7-year-old grandson might want to help me solve the puzzle over Facetime after school. I’m on Maui, he’s in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a good end-of-the-day activity for the kids and Nana, their other grandma and primary day-caregiver. They have already walked home from the school bus, had snacks, and probably even played some driveway hockey. Time to wind down and wait for Mom and Dad to get home.

I do my best to not let more than about six weeks go by before I go see the grandkids in person, and I’m getting ready to head back to the Pacific Northwest in a few weeks for the summer and for the birth of my newest grandbaby. But when I was on the mainland earlier this year, it had been a span of two months between visits. When I arrived at my daughter’s house, instead of “Hi Grandmommy,” my grandson greeted me with

“MAPLE would be a good word for Wordle!!!!”

He’s come a long way, that boy, now nearing the finish line of first grade. We started doing the puzzle together last year, when he was just a kindergartner.

“Try car Grandmommy,” he would say back then.

“Not enough letters,” I would respond.

“How about triceratops?”

But now he gets it. Five letters. He sounds out the words and counts with his fingers. SHuh-Ah-R-Kuh. Shark.

Yesterday, my phone buzzed in the afternoon, waking me from a nap. It was Nana, asking if I had time to do Wordle. Of course I had time! I shook myself awake.

“Let’s try crate,” my grandson said. So we did. It works pretty well to Facetime on my laptop, and then use my phone for the puzzle. I can hold up the phone to the webcam so he can see. The day before, we started with jello.

Facetime Wordle two days in a row! Big treat!

Yeah, yeah, we all know that it’s best to start with a word that has more vowels, more commonly used letters like r or s. But we always learn something that leads us to the answer, right? The Wordle bot gives analyses of starting words, but I rather think it doesn’t matter in the slightest what word we use. We get there in the end.

Facetime fun.

I mean, there was that time last year my grandson insisted we start with the word poopy. Well, why not? I did attempt to explain that poopy only has three letters, but that was just a little too complex of a concept when he was a kindergartener. As I recall, however, we solved the puzzle that day within a respectable number of guesses.

Figuring out what it is not helps us figure out what is. Sometimes in life, you gotta figure out what you don’t want in order to figure out what you do want. It’s a process of honing. Simplifying. Like how I’ve been living my life these past years. Michaelangelo said in order to sculpt David, he simply removed from the marble what was not David. But before he could that, he had to see David in his mind’s eye.

I wonder if David turned out just how he imagined it would, or if it took on a life of its own? I wonder if Michaelangelo had to pivot at some point in the process?

My grandson cheers and giggles when we get a correct letter now, and his excitement is so dang satisfying. Hey, we got an “A”!! Especially the greens, which tell you that not only is that letter in the word, but the placement is right too! Woot!

We love the greens. Good in your salad, good in your puzzle. We’re doing good.

Baby sister is ready to get in the game now too. She’s 3. While we were thinking of the next word after crate yesterday, my granddaughter pushed her little face into the Facetime screen.

“Try ALL-I-GA-TOR,” she sing-songed, quite loudly.

“ALL-I-GA-TOR!” she repeated.

“I bet we can try gator tomorrow,” Nana gently said.

But we never know about tomorrow, do we? The kids might not care about Wordle tomorrow, or Facetime, or anything other than riding bikes outside, which honestly, is how it should be. Or I could be out at an appointment, or the phone buzz might not wake me from my nap. It’s challenging to maintain a meaningful relationship with children from a distance.

Thank Goodness that I have had the luxury to come visit whenever airline tickets are cheap.

Thank Goodness for Wordle and Facetime.

Mostly, thank Goodness for the ever-patient Nana.