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.

August birthdays

Time for a tea party

We're coming off of a big week here at the Olsen house. Last Wednesday, Erik had a morning of basketball camp at school, which gave him a rare chance to do some sports. We aren't the most athletic folks around here. He was glad to see his school friends and even happier to have one of his best friends (equally obsessed with trains, thankfully) come over for lunch afterwards. He also spent some time on his bike which he has just figured out how to ride with no training wheels and, even better, no falling over! So, Erik had that as his special day, which was important when the younger two had big days next.

Not to miss the spotlight for any length of time, William showed us on Wednesday that he can indeed feed himself if he's so inclined. I've been fretting because he refuses to pick up food for himself despite his ability to use a cup well and to generally use his hands and fingers with notable dexterity for a baby. Baby Mum-Mum, a strangely named rice rusk product did the trick. He picked them up and ate them repeatedly. But only them. (Postscript, one week later: On a hunch, because he also picks up and gnaws round cork coasters, I gave him Ritz today. Same story, picked up and ate. Guess he only wants round, thin food. Hmm.) So, there's one less worry to hold. Baby can feed himself. Sometimes.

Sprinkles!

On Thursday, our little girl turned four. We opened presents in the morning. The Birthday Fairy (a joke I made once that seems to have been taken to heart) brought Anna a tea set much to her delight. Erik was very happy to show her how to build with the Lego set "he" got for her. (I apologize to my younger tomboy self for the pink Lego set, but if it's not pink it will be absorbed by Erik's collection. A girl needs her very own Legos, too!) Later in the morning we walked over to our favorite doughnut shop -- Dimples!-- for a birthday treat. We were a bit late in the morning for a full selection of goodies but the birthday girl was given an extra one just because it was her day. I love those folks. Glad we walked, though! As if that wasn't enough sugar, after lunch -- and our usual birthday reading of Dr. Seuss' Happy Birthday to You -- we made the birthday cake. I was feeling a tiny bit guilty for not creating a fancy birthday cake of my own for the day. Now, I think I will always have the kids help make their own cake. It's so much more fun than staying up late to make a cake I hope will be good enough. Anna loved helping to make the cake and you should have seen the decorating! It was a strawberry cake for our lover of all things pink. We frosted it white and then had a pink sprinkle side and and green sprinkle side in honor of the next day's birthday boy. Anna and Erik each took over decorating their halves and they did it in a big way. Children do not apply sprinkles gently. Half a bottle on each side. Wow. Jamieson described it as a Peep cake. It had that same so-sugary-it-hurts-your-teeth feeling. But the kids were happy, so it was worth the mess. For dinner we went to 2 Toots. We tried to let Anna chose a restaurant since we don't want to always be heading off to train destinations as if only Erik's interests matter. She didn't want to make another choice though, so we tried a different location and enjoyed it, too. Anna had a birthday cupcake at the restaurant. The rest of us refrained since we had cake to enjoy at home. Highly sugared all around, we called it a good day.

Happy birthday to me!

This was not the end of birthday celebrations, though. Anna just barely escaped having a birthday twin. (Sorry, kids.) On Friday, we celebrated the first birthday of the boy formerly known as "The Baby." William is now an official 1-year old toddler. Anna and Erik very eagerly gave him his presents. (Trying to hold them back from totally unwrapping them and playing with them was the challenge of the weekend.) William had the good manners to be interested in all his toys, even the diaper covers mom thought would be okay for a birthday gift. He seems especially thrilled with the trucks. Although anything with buttons has him smiling, too.

Daddy took the day off and we spent most of the morning getting ready for the big party on Saturday. In time for lunch Grandma and Grandpa G arrived to enjoy some pre-party time with the kids, including a walk to the park to see the monkeys play.

On Saturday we were ever so grateful for the absolutely beautiful day. After the dry hot summer we've had, I was bracing for a houseful of people trying to avoid the heat. What we got was a sunny, breezy day in the 70s. It was absolutely perfect. We had all the grandparents and many good friends. The kids were able to stay in the yard and play. They were pretty well entertained with our collection of fabric tents and tunnels, a ball pit made from the wading pool, a craft table to make sun visors and bubbles aplenty. We ended up with way too much leftover food, but that means no cooking for our own meals right after the party. Yay!

It's so hard to believe that our little William is an entire year already, although his newly toothy grin makes him look more like a little boy and a lot less like a baby. Even Anna moving from 3 to 4 sounds like quite the age jump. In just a week she and Erik will begin a new school year. The kids are all getting big rather quickly. I'm doing my best to appreciate these little kid years. They wear me out, but I couldn't be more proud of all of them. What a blessing to watch them grow.

Seriously, folks? A pink cake? Do I have to share birthday stuff with my sister every year?