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?