My Husband thinks Legos are evil...

My husband thinks legos are evil, but I know better. A year ago some friends of ours moved away (sob. We miss you Brink Family!) and left us some of their good stuff. That is the good thing about living here--you get lots of hand-me-downs when people leave. So, amongst the strange and good, there was the amazing: A 1,078 piece Ultimate Collector Series Yoda Lego set--without instructions, but with most of the pieces. My husband was not thrilled to see it come into the house, but it was free and it was STAR WARS! He mumbled under his breath something about there being missing pieces and "where was the instruction pamphlet?" I just sighed and stuck it in the basement.

It has only been the last few months that Xavier has gotten on the Lego bandwagon. Or shall I say, he has been allowed to get on the Lego bandwagon. I have fought it tooth and nail, figuring I was going to be the one picking up the jillions of little squares off the floor and picking them out of my vacuum. Matthew fought them because he hates doing anything that doesn't have all the pieces and really, when does anything with more than 3 pieces owned by a child have ALL the pieces at once? Oh, and the fact that they cost more than gold. Xavier's friend, Adam has introduced him to the joys of Lego, and in particular Lego Star Wars. We've played the computer game and now, we play with the little plastic blocks of doom.

I had forgotten about the Yoda Lego set. It was hidden in a pile in the basement, but like any good eight year old, Xavier was where he shouldn't be and found it. He asked if he could have it. I told him he could have it if he cleaned his room and the basement and the garage....figuring I'd never have to give it to him. Less than 24 hours later all three were pretty well cleaned up and I couldn't deny he'd done a bang up job on all of them. I caved. I gave it to him. Matthew told me I was nuts and on my own. Then he took it back and informed Xavier that he could only work on it with supervision, so the pieces didn't get lost. I reminded both of them that I don't do legos--that meant Daddy was doing legos, whether he liked it or not. Matthew was not happy with the idea.

The next stumbling block was the lack of instructions, which we handled thanks to Google and the Internet. Download. Check. Print...um...ran out of ink and oh, by the way the instructions are 67 color pages long!!!! So download and find the table so he can look at the computer screen while building. Check. Enter Matthew and his laptop. Matthew agrees to put the instructions on his laptop, making it easier to see the instructions while building. Thanks Daddy. Daddy also wants to inventory all 1000 + pieces. I tell him he needs his head examined. I also tell him it is the time for him to help his son out. He moans. He groans. He procrastinates. He steps up. Two hours spent on Yoda yesterday and my eight year old is a different child. He smiles. He tells everyone about his Yoda project. He is obedient on the off chance Daddy will help some more...

This morning, Sunday morning, Xavier was less than excited to get dressed for church. Daddy hollers out the bathroom door: "If we are late to church, there will be no Yoda Lego-ing today." Need I say that I've never seen Xavier move that fast? We had minutes to spare as we sat in our cushioned seat in the chapel (yes, we were that early)--and he was an angel throughout church. Daddy and Xavier spent a couple of hours this afternoon working on Yoda. "I hate legos," mumbles Matthew as he is sticking pieces together. Then he proudly points out how much they've accomplished. After I've sent the kids to bed, Matthew sheepishly asks if I mind if we wait an extra 30 minutes before we start our movie...because he wants to work on Yoda with Xavier for a few more minutes. "I hate legos," he says, "but I promised I would work on it a little more..." Ninety minutes later Xavier fell into bed with the biggest smile on his face and my husband watched a movie with me. I don't know a lot about male bonding, but I do know two boys having fun when I see it. My husband thinks legos are evil, but I know better.