Lego girl!

Anna and her new Legos

It's quiet time in our house right now. That means that William is sleeping and Erik and Anna are playing "quietly" in their rooms. Erik has spent most of the day building a diesel switcher and train station platform (with cafe) out of his Lego bricks. This summer he discovered the joy of audio books, so he's been listing to 101 Dalmatians repeatedly while building. Multitasking at 6-years old. Impressive. Erik gave Anna Legos for her birthday. It's the basic pink girl set. Admittedly I'm the one who strongly suggested Erik "get" them for Anna. I'm also the person who would have had a small fit if anyone gave me pink Legos as a kid -- too girly! Times change.

Until Thursday, Erik had every standard-sized Lego in our house in his room. Because of his love of trains and Legos, he is saving his money for a Lego train set. The basic sets start at $150. He gets about .50 to .75 per week in allowance. He will be saving for awhile. I love that Erik loves Legos and I have no problems with his interest in trains, but I won't be buying that train set any time soon, either. Why should I when he spends his time building train engines, cars and stations that are far more imaginative than anything I've seen in a toy catalog? It's entirely possible that he will indeed keep saving till he has enough, which would be a wonderful lesson in financial discipline. Until then, he has Lego-related synapses developing all the time.

Erik and one of his recent creations: subway station

Half the Legos in Erik's collection were mine, and I still feel pretty attached to them. As much as I love Erik's love for them, I also have two other children in the house who I feel need access to all the wonders of Lego building. For now, we chase William out of Erik's room and direct him to our collection of large Duplo Legos, but what about Anna? That's where the pink Legos come in. If we gave Anna a box of any old Lego set, Erik would decide that it should really join the other Legos, which just so happen to be in his room. Even with her new set, he argued that an orange piece (we think it's supposed to be a diving board?) should become his because "orange is a boy color." Um, no. So, the pink Legos make our princess lover very happy and they stay in her room because pink and purple just don't work with Erik's vision for his Lego railroad empire. No, it's not a box of Technics or Mindstorms, but it's a start. As I closed the doors for "nap" time this afternoon, Anna was building a house of her very own creation. I know that there's been an uproar about the Lego Friends collection, and I purposefully didn't bring that set and its doll scenes into the house at this point. They will probably come in time, though. Yes, I'd rather just giver her a box of any-colored blocks, but I honestly don't believe a few sets of girly Legos will damage her development. Anna is surrounded with a science-loving engineer father, a tomboy, book loving (fashion impaired) mother, and two all-boy brothers. The princess culture can only go so far in this house. Anna is a girl who keeps choosing books on robots, space and electricity to read. Last week, while she was prancing around in a princess dress she deflected my complement on her appearance with, "I'm not pretty, I'm strong." (You can be both, honey, and you are.) So, I can live with her current love of princesses, too, because I think my princess is on her way to royally great things. Thanks for the pink bricks, Lego. They work just fine.