Lego Pretend Play is Awesome!

The Man Upstairs: You know the rules, this isn't a toy!

Finn: Um... it kind of is.

The Man Upstairs: No, actually it's a highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system.

Finn: But we bought it at the toy store.

The Man Upstairs: We did, but the way I'm using it makes it an adult thing.

Finn: The box for this one said "Ages 8 to 14"!

The Man Upstairs: That's a suggestion. They have to put that on there. -(The Lego Movie)

It was a pretty short hop, yesterday, from loving the Lego movie to actually wanting to play with Legos. Daddy and I facilitated the hop by purchasing the kid a Lego set which had some of her favorite characters from the film, but soon she was building downstairs with Daddy for one hour, then two. They built the set first, then made all kinds of fun stuff to go with it. Daddy whipped up a motorcycle and a spaceship, and Maeve did a really good job following directions to help build the characters.

I want to give a recommendation for the Lego movie, actually. I watched it for the first time with a very keenly critical eye, and the only thing I objected to was at the beginning there was quite a bit of Lego gunfire, which came off like an action movie, with lots of explosions, etc. But the Lego gunfire appears to be actual Lego bricks shaped like laser beams, so it's not very realistic. But that was my only complaint. Otherwise, the movie's humor is genuinely funny and not particularly stupid, and the plot is quite sweet. Also, Maeve LOVES the music and so do we, it's nice to agree on what to listen to in the car.

Maeve had some great building and playing moments yesterday, but I was particularly proud of when Daddy encouraged her to fly the spaceship he'd built. She looked like I'd handed her the keys to the car!