A boy and his Legos

Andrew turned 5 yesterday, but somehow things have morphed from birthday into birthweek. We celebrated with my side of the family on Monday night, with our immediate family yesterday morning, we'll get together with Katherine's brother and sister-in-law on Friday night, and his Chuck E. Cheese birthday party is on Saturday.

So far, for him, it's been all about the Legos. He got his first Legos back at Christmas, but those were just the basic non-themed starter pack. Then in February, we joined GameTap and discovered a computer game called Lego Rock Raiders. This opened up a whole new world for Andrew, who began to grasp the concept of creating a story for his Legos. Unfortunately, because many GameTap games are older, I had unwittingly introduced my son to a really cool Lego theme... that was discontinued three years before he was born. Thanks to the magic of eBay and BrickLink.com (an online marketplace dedicated exclusively to Legos), however, we were able to track down almost the entire line of Rock Raiders Legos, which we (along with his aunt, uncles, and cousins) gave him for his birthday. We turned his train table into a Lego table that he how calls "the Rock Raiders planet."

In the midst of gathering the Rock Raiders sets, Lego introduced a bunch of new sets in the Indiana Jones series, which is advertised relentlessly on the Cartoon Network and NickToons. Andrew's godparents Craig and Anne, who were in town on Saturday, and my folks both gave him some really cool Indy sets. In about a week's time, he has developed an impressive Lego collection. He LOVES building, inventing new vehicles, and creating stories for his Legos—and I must say, he's got a talent for it. Putting together sets designed for kids "ages 8-14" has been no trouble at all for our boy who just turned 5.

Is it possible that I'm a little too excited about this? Perhaps....