Letting Go of Legos!

Yesterday afternoon while Scott was playing the XBox, Robby brought me the Lego tank kit that Santa had left for him. He cocked his sweet little head and asked me if I would help him build it. Reminding me that we can do anything with teamwork, I agreed to the project.

I hate Legos! I am not able to look at a shape and break it down into a series of small squares and rectangles. For me, Legos are little colorful plastic squares of frustration. To add insult to injury, they really hurt when I step on one in the middle of the night!

Although I don't enjoy working with the blocks, I do it because Robby loves it. He is able to sit and create for hours, coming up with structures that I could never imagine. He is pretty good at freestyle building but has a lot of difficulty following the directions that accompany sets. He is only six, so his Lego instruction confusion is understandable. I am thirty something, and my inability to comprehend the schematic is pathetic.

Determined to demonstrate that following the directions in order and carefully completing each step without becoming frustrated will yield positive results, I sat down in the middle of the our living room and prepared for my Lego purgatory.  Robby and I sorted all of the pieces by size and shape before starting and we talked about the importance of patience. I unfolded the directions, took a deep breath, and we began.

Three and a half hours later our tank was complete. Yes, it took me that long to build a project that (according to the box) should be completed by a five year old. The stupid tank kept falling apart in my hands each time I tried to attach the gun (the final step). I had to start back on step 3 (out of 15 steps) on four separate occasions; each time Robby was there to encourage me and to "help" me decipher the ridiculous Lego schematic.

I was about ready to throw it out the sliding glass door and admit defeat when Robby pointed out the weak spot of our model. I forgot to place one stupid Lego on the base. One little green brick had stymied our entire project and cost me the afternoon!

We rebuilt the tank one final time, being sure to include the previously missing block. This time everything stuck and we were able to finish the tank. I'm fairly sure I was more excited when we were finally done. I thought that he would admire our handiwork or at least play with it for a few minutes. In a rather anticlimactic move, he said, "Well, that took a long time" before putting it into his Lego box and switching gears to play with his remote controlled helicopter.

His enthusiasm was underwhelming. I, however, am considering sealing the tank in acrylic and keeping it forever because you can be certain I will not be building it again!