Starting Them Young: Lego-maniacal

It's official, my Emma is a Legomaniac! She recently found a book called "Lego Friends" about a group of girls that are in no way different from the girls from her Strawberry Shortcake show. They hang out, they have "jobs," and they solve everything with friendship. From that book she recognized the same girl on a Lego Friends show on Netflix, and she began devouring that during her rest time.

Product placement being what it is, she started becoming interested in the toy version of the girls she loved. Wandering through Walmart the other day she spotted a wall of the stuff and instantly lost her mind. Now this was after about 15 minutes of "Oooh Daddy look at that! Daddy stop I wanna look at this!" Our time was cut short by my son's famous 10 second bathroom warning, so I thought I was in the clear.

Ha.

Every day she's been talking about the toys. Not in that incessant way that kids are prone to do, but she was honestly excited at the prospect of owning her own Lego Friends toys. She's been saving up (and forgetting about) money this year, so we reminded her that she has a piggy bank of money she's been saving for a special toy. Done deal.

We went to Walmart with a purse full of money and she was faced with every parent's favorite question: "What do I buy?" People in the store kept laughing because every minute or two Emma would wander off and get excited about something pink, and I'd keep repeating "That's cool Emma, but what are we here to buy?" Followed by some version of "Oh yeah!" as though she had genuinely forgotten why she was holding a box in her hand.

We survived and she got 4 Lego projects - 2 buildings, a car, and a dog house grooming... thingy. I don't know, it's what she wanted with her money so I kept my mouth shut.

We got home and immediately got to work. I tried to convince her to come take a nap with me, but she wasn't having it. Having never built a Lego project before, I was blown away by how simple and accurate the instructions for a kid's toy could be. Take note world - good pictures trump bad written instructions!

I was granted the honor of deciphering what went where and pointing out which pieces she needed. And other than pushing down a few tricky blocks, I had 0 to do with the actual assembly of her very first Lego project.

As her bakery started taking shape she was positively giddy. She kept squealing and telling whoever was around how much fun she was having.

"I didn't think building was so fun!"
"I love my new Legos!"
"Legos are awesome!"

Seriously, my kitchen became a commercial from the 80s. It was so cool to see that she was hooked, and what a classic hobby for her to latch on to. After an hour of her learning how to build Legos, including not even really needing me to explain the diagrams at the end, she was the proud owner of her very first Lego creation!

I'll admit, I'm a bit envious of her. I never really did Legos as a kid (unless Knex and Tinker Toys count), and seeing how much she enjoyed it makes me wish I'd been able to play Legos as a kid. And with my hoarding proclivities I'd be sitting on a gold mine of plastic caltrops! I shared with Emma how I've never really built Legos before, and she put her hand on my arm and said "Dad, you can go in my room and play with my Legos whenever you want. And if you tell me you're playing with them I'll come play with you!" Seriously, I almost went out and bought her a new set of Legos with that one.

So wish me luck as I dread the day when a loose Lego finds its way beneath my foot.


See you tomorrow!

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