Legomania

We got a Lego catalog in the mail recently and Ethan has spent hours poring over it. Let me just say, Legos have changed a lot since the days of our Legoland spread across Kirk's bedroom floor. I seem to recall our catalogs showing simple machinery and buildings, a couple different animals (I was the master at building sheep!), and a few variations of colored bases. Now there are huge, sprawling farm sets and construction sets and some kind of rock-mining set. Even a Sponge Bob set, which by the grace of God will never pass through the doors of my home. Ethan has been using the 'map', as he refers to the catalog, to recreate some of the equipment. It is not easy to build a giant crane or excavator out of our basic set of Duplos but he is managing quite well. My attempts aren't up to par, though. I handed him my version of the cement mixer and he looked at it with disdain. "That is not a mix-mixer," he pronounced. "That is a gun-truck." My bad.

"I wish I had dis one, and dis one, and dis one," he tells us as he turns the pages of the catalog. They are all really cool-looking, and I find myself thinking the same thing. Matt told him that we can get some as soon as Evan is big enough not to swallow all those pieces. I think at this point Evan is pretty much out of the random-toy-swallowing stage, but is heavily into the destroy-everything-in-sight-because-it-is-superfun phase. I am looking forward to the time that the kids can really work together on a satisfying project. My brother and sister and I spent hours, some of our most peaceful together, in our Lego city. I am often surprised at how long the boys will play together now, and I am excited for the days to come when Matt and I can really join in the fun.