Yesterday morning, as I was dreaming of my deserted island and contemplating how I was going to survive another morning by myself with a fussy baby and whiny three year old, I saw it: the glorious box of LEGO blocks. Not just any box, but a giant, filled to the top, box of brightly colored hours of fun.
I’ve always loved building. I grew up spending hours with LEGOs, Tinkertoys and even had a real child’s size hardware set that I built dollhouse furniture with. When I was working in childcare, I used to love sitting down and spending time building elaborate block structures with my students. And now, I could spend hours building and rebuilding with (or without!) my girls.
When I saw that box today and was desperate for a few minutes (or seconds even) of calmness, I made a proposal to Sugarplum: “What if we did LEGOs together and used EVERY SINGLE block in the box!” At first she wasn’t convinced that was something she wanted to do but I got her with the no-fail “Yeah, you’re right. We probably couldn’t do it anyways, I think you’re too little.” “I’m not too little!” Got’er!
So we started building, the big pieces first. Then she wanted to make a tall, tall tower. Then we filled in with all the smaller blocks (while trying to hold off Godzilla Baby as we loving call our curious guy who wants to be in the middle of and grab everything!) Then we decorated with all the people and specialty items. And we did it, we used EVERY block in the box!
It took us nearly an hour with all the planning, building and rebuilding we had to do but we worked together and were both very proud of our teamwork at the end. We had worked together; built a building and good memories; we didn’t argue, fuss at each other or whine; we spent the hour talking, discussing and laughing. It’s the kind of moments I wish could fill our days instead of the usual housework and running around that usually consumes our time.
And then the fun began for Doodle when we let him knock the whole thing down!
