January 6th

 

Drats!  Already a day behind!  Yesterday Teddy's best friend came over for a playdate.  As I mentioned, this has been a highly anticipated visit for some time, and as a result, Ted's emotional intensity was high.  And as we all know, high emotional intensity of a four year old = meltdown city +/- aggressive overtones.  Ted managed both.  He was just so excited that he kept throwing things down the side lane in his exuberance, running around (almost in circles) and not listening.  Generally, though, the play was wonderful, as it always is.  Harriet received payment for her first paid job - babysitting during a party in December.  Who did she babysit?  Why this delightful little creature here.  Harriet spent the day drawing up a colour chart for her and teaching her colours.  After the first hour of her arriving, she was saying "Boo" and "Geen" like an expert.

But with the heat turned up and the boys busy playing (almost seamlessly) together (actually they played perfectly together, it was just when their play brought them into contact with others outside their sphere of madness), Harriet was on a mission to do some silliness of her own making.  She set up a big water play area for her little friend, and then decided to get very wet herself.  My friend was accommodating with the bucket, as you can see.

 

The Soaking may have been the only time that Susie and I weren't talking rapidfire monologues at each other (usually simultaneously).  Harriet took this opportunity to catch my eye.

 

After our visitors left, Teddy decided to break apart a set of Lego he received from Harriet for Christmas and re-make it into another object.  It can be a helicopter, a boat or a plane.  This time he was working on the plane.  

Now here's something for all of you out there who haven't yet struck Lego.  This was only the second time Ted had set out to put together a Lego set.  It's the first time he had done it completely solo (I was making dinner).  It's rated ages 6-12yrs.  Now everyone I know who has had children who were enthusiastic about Lego (usually older boys) has been extremely proud about how their child could assemble Lego constructs that were aged for much older children.  You know, so a five year old putting together something for 12yr olds.  I was always highly impressed.  

And then I started noticing how frequently I was being told this.  And then, when I put together my first Lego creation with Ted last year (a caravan from Nana & Gangpa) , I was confronted with the instruction booklet for one of these things.  And I saw how easily they were designed.  One or two pieces at a time, clearly marked and illustrated on each page.  But perhaps I had unrealistic expectations on what a five year old child could do (since Harriet had never been the slightest bit interested in construction).

Nope.  I don't think I do.  Turns out that, incredibly, Ted is also capable of putting together Lego sets designed for older children with absolute, problem-free ease.  Remarkable?  Obviously not, given my experience with other parent's tales.  Surprising?  Not at all, once you see how they lay out the booklets.  Genius?  Hardly likely!

So yes, my news for the day is that modern Lego sets are not age-rated at all well.  All you need is for your child to be interested enough to sit down and focus on it for that amount of time. 

 

And yeah, this is just here because Harriet let me take her photo while she was listening to an audio book.  Yes, yes, her headphones are down around her neck.  I think she was absorbing the vibrations as a deaf child might.