When I am with the kids I attempt to keep my language clean. Well, cleaner. So instead of saying some like ‘Heilige Mist Fleddermausmann’ I will say ‘Holy Moly!’ So, of course the kids pick this up and it does sound cute coming from them.
When I was a child my father cut up some 2×4s and 2×2s into small regular pieces. For me it functioned as big Legos set. But, it was far more useful as I could drive matchbox cars across the surface and the pieces were bigger so I could seal up a portion of a room as a fortress. This all besides using the longer ones to hit my brother. So, I made a set of blocks to European dimensions and gave them to my kids so they enjoy the same fun I did. So far they have been fairly good about not fighting with them. Maybe it is a girl boy thing or that they are closer in age.
In Europe there is really no tradition of Cowboys and Indians. So, most of the little boys want to be Knights. And, right now Noa definitely wants to be a Knight. In fact that was the theme of his last birthday party two months ago. We have also gone to several Mid-evil fairs with the kids and they really enjoy it. Noa has a shield, a wooden sword, a wooden battle axe and cardboard set of armour.
In the modern era children will grow up with Legos. I was informed that if I got in the way of this I could irreparably damage my children. So, the kids now have the big Legos in a very large and disorganized box. The Legos have mainly come from Flea markets so the is a variety of sizes, shapes and colours. Last Sunday I built a really big tower with the kids. Since thy wanted it to go to the ceiling we needed to build a fairly large and thick base. Of course Papazilla and Noa Kong destroyed the tower. But the base was left standing. It was about 2 feet tall and I thought nothing of it.
Later Sunday night I had started a fire and was on the couch attempting to read a book I had picked up recently. Suddenly, I hear loud banging and can see it is only Noa in the general area of the noise. So, trying to be calm I ignored it for a while. After about 2 minutes of this I look up to see that Noa is behind the couch. He is holding one piece or 2×2 about as long as my forearm on the lego tower base. With the other arm he is swinging a similarly sized piece of wood onto the one he is holding on the lego tower base. Not really thinking about it a t the time I ask him what he is doing. He replies ‘I am manufacturing my Holy Moly Sword’. Good thing I was sitting down. Trying not to smile (or burst in to out right laughter) I make him stop. We have wooden floors and it was very loud. He was not pleased. Apparently, in that one move I have prevented the founding of the Order of the Knights Holy Moly.
Buford (AKA ‘the Pachyderm’)
It sounds like you guys had a great day. Did it help that you were so relaxed you couldn’t have done anything other than build a lego tower to the ceiling if you had wanted too?! Me and CJ have been playing the game “Battleship” a lot since the MCM! He loves it.