03.14.14

It's no secret our family has gotten big into Lego lately. While Paige has lots of Duplo, she loves playing with the regular (and much smaller) Lego. Because she's normally careful with it (as in, she doesn't try to eat it - she takes everything apart as soon as I build it for her), I don't mind her having a few small sets. We've bought her the Lego Friends sets - there's lots of controversy about these sets. They only come in more feminine colours (pink, purple, lighter shades of green, yellow and blue), and the sets themselves are "ehhhhhh" (my official review). Bakeries, lemonade stand, pool sets, etc. are the more prominent sets, however there is a drum set, karate class and a pretty neat tree house. What gets my goat is the new figures that come with them. I just don't like them. They're big, you can't really change outfits (not beyond changing the colour of their tank tops), and they don't look like Lego.

Kaeleigh recently linked to an article where a 7 year old takes Lego to task for having more "boy sets" and she wanted more girl sets that "had adventures". Kaeleigh asked if it was actually up to Lego to provide an equal number of male/female sets, or up to parents to teach their children to get more creative and invent that which we find lacking. It got me thinking - because I agree with the 7 year old (why can't I find a female firefighter set?), but also with Kaeleigh.

So tonight I ordered a few female Minifigures that I hope will help Paige's imaginative play later on - a scientist, a police officer, a surfer, a robot...thanks to EBay, I was able to "build" my own minifigs for her. Okay, and for me.

03.03.2014

Wyatt and I have been working on a little project for his room. I'm not sure who had more fun setting up the scenes - I do know that I have several photos with Paige's hands reaching into the frame though. The kids have been getting more and more into Lego. He had received 2 sets when he was 4 (a fire truck and concrete mixer) and after we put them together for him, they drove him insane. He'd try to play with them like toys and pieces were falling off or it was just too difficult to manipulate. We put them away for a year and bought him Duplo instead, and now he is a Lego pro. I bought him a Lego Creator set (one set, three different configurations) and he did all three (mostly) on his own. I'm having a hard time not buying 100 sets all at once, not because I don't want them having Lego, but I don't want to spoil them with any sort of toy. We just started with allowances, and I'm trying to teach Wyatt the concept of earning money and having to save for things he wants (and right now it's all LEGO).

Paige, on the other had, watches us build her sets (I've just been buying her small sets like a bunny hutch and a dog with a dog house), and then takes everything apart. Which I understand is the idea behind Lego but it still drives me nuts. :P