Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A really long post about Legos

I feel like I live in my own private Lego Land.  In the past 6 months, Henry has become a Lego fiend.  FIEND.  What does that mean, you ask?  It means that I have permanent Lego marks on the bottom of each foot. 
While Henry is pretty good at keeping the Lego's in one general area, his little brother IS NOT.  Sometimes Wyatt thinks it is fun to throw Legos or take them for rides in his truck or hide them in speakers.  It's a special treat whenever Jim and I sit down to watch a movie and there is a little hum coming from the sub-woofer.  And the best part is that neither Jim or I can do anything about it.  We have to wait for Henry to stick his skinny arm inside and pull out whatever treasure Wyatt has placed inside. 

Anyhow, I digress.  Did you know how many clear legos they make these days?  A lot.  That is how many.  Also, do you know how tiny legos can be these days?  Very tiny.  At first, I was like, wow!  Cool!  Look at all these awesome accessories!  This would make the perfect headlight for a Lego car or the awesomest center of a flower! 

I am pretty sure I have vacuumed up half of what hasn't gotten stuck between my toes.

So far, this doesn't seem like a very positive blog post.  I will now change direction.

Legos are one of the awesomest things that has happened to our Henry!  It's like he found his "thing."  Mix Legos with Star Wars, and we are in Hea-ven.  Every morning, he finishes his breakfast and walks straight to that box of teeny tiny parts and dumps it into a heaping pile. 

This is when the magic begins.  Though he stays pretty close to certain themes - Star Wars, shooters, spaceships - he is always excited to create new things.  I love it.  LOVE it.  And he's so good at it!  He has a mind for that kind of concentration and can even follow the directions on his own to build Lego creations.  He might use his poor mother to look for all those ridiculously small parts, but he must be the one to put it together.

One of my biggest challenges these days is keeping Lego Darth Vader or Lego Obi-Wan out of "someones" little pockets when he goes to school or church.  Henry is so proud of these little guys, he thinks that everyone is going to be just as excited about them and he MUST share them with the world.  It is quite thoughtful, really.

A few weeks ago, I retrieved the mail and threw it on the counter.  A few minutes later, Henry walked up, pulled a piece of mail out and said, "Mommy....what....is this?!"  With a look of pure astonishment and unbelief, he held up this:

which became his favorite reading material.  I am not even kidding you.  He would lay on the ground on his tummy and just look and look and look at all the Legos.  Then he would talk about them.  And he would have to show us things.  Then he would show us again an hour later because surely we didn't remember the awesomeness of it all.  This catalog is so tattered now, I am tempted to toss it, but Henry has asked me to please tape and staple it back into place so he can continue to enjoy it.

Have I seriously just typed this much about Legos?

If you have a little boy (or girl, whatever) and you have experienced this:


...you know my joy.  My little guy using his imagination and creating is just amazing.  It also doesn't hurt that he enjoys doing something ON HIS OWN for a good length of time.  Just sayin.'

Here are some more pics of our boy and his toys for our family's enjoyment:

The tongue plays a big part in his concentration...

TaDa!  A shooter! 


Truly, this has been an awesome addition to our daily routine; something fun that we all enjoy doing together and something that Henry enjoys doing on his own.  It is really cool when your kids find something that they just love to do.  Especially when that thing is not a video game.  Woohoo! 

Now if only I could create some kind of fence to quarantine the Legos to one area...or keep Mr. Sneaky Pants (aka Wyatt) from hiding them in various locations throughout the house.  Like his diaper.

So okay.  I realize that if Henry ever hears about Lego Land, we will probably need to figure out how to get there eventually.   And I guess I'm okay with that.  There is nothing like seeing pure excitement on the face of your children, and I cannot even imagine what that would be like upon entering such a place for Henry.  Totally, totally worth it.

Jim?

Friday, April 01, 2011

Why I don't like to share

I made the mistake of giving Wyatt a bite of my cereal once.  Because I have Celiac's Disease, I am severely limited on cereal choices and I am pretty protective over what I can have.  I am eternally grateful to the makers of Chex cereals, for having such a fabulous assortment of gluten free flavors.  My very favorite is Cinnamon Chex and no, you may not have any.

Anyhow, back to Wyatt.  You know, when your baby is all "Waah!  Waaah!" in your face when you're just trying to enjoy your breakfast?  And the only thing you can think of is that you just want a little peace and quiet while you eat?  So I gave him a bite.

That was really dumb.

He now makes it his daily goal to break into my cereal boxes.  The nerve.  He never gets very far, because I am a tyrant when it comes to my cereal and he becomes very, very afraid of the cabinet where it is held.

Until this day:


He is sticking his hand in my box!




Do you see his determination?  He is determined to disobey.  The nerve.  I thought the desecration that had been done to my box was enough so I put it on the counter, out of his reach.

On another note, guess who got taller?



Aaaaand round two.
At this point, I have decided that he is so much like me (MUST.GET.TREAT.) and this is funny.  I will watch his struggle because it is futile.  Muahahaha!  Well, I will watch until it looks like he has punctured my precious.  Oh yeah, I went there.  Try not being able to eat 75% of the yummies in your own house!
Now, for those of you who would like to experience a piece of what gives me the constant giggles, please enjoy this next video:

 "Mommy tells me to use my words but words don't make her give me what I want.  SO I SCREAM!"

To the end of my story...  I put the cereal away with a very firm "NO" directed at the cabinet door.  I calmed him down.  We watched some Calliou.

And then a while later, it was very quiet on the Wyatt front.


He found the open box. 

After all that hard work, I decided to let him enjoy his spoils.  After all, it was the Honey Nut Chex.  Not my precious.

Some of you might be wondering why I don't just move the cereal.  Well, you see, if I move it, it will end up in one of the upper cabinets.  And then Jim will eat it.  And I'll have to go all Gollum on him.  I'd rather limit those experiences to those who might not remember them.  I'm just sayin'.