My Obsessive Boys

For those of you who know me, I am about to ask a ridiculous question...Where on earth did my boys acquire or learn their obsessive behavior? No, it couldn't have been from me! :)


Over the last two nights, there has been some obsessive Lego building going on. Most of the Legos are at Dad's house , so after having some fun with the very cool dragon set that Ethan got for his birthday, we decided to go on a quest for another Lego kit. The original plan was to have both of the boys agree on one set to purchase - HA! Who was I kidding? Even more frustrating than trying to get them to agree on a single set was finding a set within the price range that I had established before we left. Our goal: to find a Lego set $30 or less with a large number of interchangeable pieces. What that last line means is that there are some really cool Lego sets, but most of the bulk of the sets are taken up by pre-cast items (ie. dump trunk beds) rather than a large number of pieces. So, we search for sets with lots of cool pieces that you can't get in the regular "Creator" set.

We didn't match all of our goals, but we did find a high volume set for Ethan. It is a 6 in 1 set where you can make lots of different items, but not all at the same time. Does he elect to start with one of the easier, smaller airplanes or boats? Absolutely not! His choice was to make the airplane that used ALL of the pieces. It took two nights for him to complete (yes, he would have stayed up all night last night if I had let him) and the end result is gorgeous:

Ethan post-bath and his completed airplane

Another view of Ethan's airplane

Alexander had a very difficult time agreeing with Ethan's choices. We finally opted for a smaller set for him since the airplane set was less than I had alloted for this purchase. He opted for the catapult! He did a great job and methodically followed the instructions. He had nearly convinced himself that he would never be able to do it on his own, but after some encouragement from both Ethan and me, he did it. I don't think I helped him at all. Well, I guess I did help in a way - he likes the punch down on the catapult at full force (of course) to make the Lego "boulder" fly as far as possible. The result is that the entire catapult comes apart and we have to find the pieces on the floor. The Lego piece search work is the only assistance that I have given to him!

Alexander and his catapult with the good guys and the bad guys!