Lego

2 Comments Posted on December 17, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: The Lego Hospital You Built At Your School

4 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack,

Yesterday when I walked in your classroom at KinderCare to pick you up, I noticed that a couple of your friends were helping you build the largest Lego project I’ve ever seen you do.

You showed me how the huge hospital only had one chair for the patients to sit on. I saw a Lego man leaned back; while a line of a dozen or so homemade Lego men (4 small blocks in a T-shape to represent a person) waited in line for the chair.

Another actual Lego man was hanging from the roof, though I’m not sure why.

It appeared as if you were the foreman of the construction project, as your friends Xavier, Jacob, and Joshua assisted you.

Turns out, that was the case.

When I dropped you off this morning, your school director Mrs. Tonya explained there was a slight disruption right before we walked in.

Apparently, one of your friends who was not part of your construction project tried to take a Lego piece off of it:

“No! That’s Jack’s! You can’t touch it! He’s still working on it!” your friend Joshua explained to other student; as Mrs. Tonya explained it to me.

It’s pretty cool to see you in this role of project manager among your friends. From what I’ve seen when I pick you up each day, you’re never the kid who is highly vocal; leading others in that way.

Instead, what I am seeing is you leading your friends through ideas and activities. I like that.

Anytime you receive a new Lego set, we build it together; only for you to take it apart a few hours later, using its unique parts to combine with other unique parts of other sets.

You love the wrecking ball you received with one of your birthday gifts from last months.

The way I feel, all these countless hours playing Legos at home are yielding the results in your play time at school.

I will gladly take pride in seeing you as a creative innovator.

Love,

Daddy

3 Comments Posted on November 22, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: We Actually Let You Open Your Presents At Your Birthday Party

4 years.

Dear Jack,

These days, it’s apparently become the standard not to open your presents at birthday parties; especially if it’s in a rented facility and especially in a bigger city.

I figure part of it is a time restraint issue for the 2 hour time limit… and then perhaps part of it is a new cultural take on it; that it’s somehow rude or showy for your child to open his presents in front of all the other kids and their parents.

So naturally, I assumed that’s how we were supposed to do it too, at your 4th birthday party last weekend– to refrain from opening gifts during the party; this was your first birthday party you’ve had that hasn’t taken place at our house.

However, around the middle of your party, some of your friends began asking when you would be opening their gift.

Having eaten the cake and snacks 45 minutes into the 2 hour time slot, it still allowed for plenty of time before and after the food, so that there was still a solid 20 minutes remaining for opening gifts.

So… even if it may have been breaking the rules or social taboo or something, Mommy and I let you open your gifts in front of your friends!

And I am so glad we did! I am so glad it worked out that way.

I was sort of sitting in the middle of all your friends as I was taking pictures and I saw the look of excitement as each of them gradually realized that their gift was in your hands and about to be opened.

Some friends even stood right next to you or behind you to get the equivalent of a backstage pass.

Granted, there were only about a dozen kids there, so it didn’t take all that long; maybe 15 minutes to open all the presents. And of course you helped hand out the party favor bags with the crayon Lego men we made.

I am now convinced: Opening the presents at the party is the way to go! The party attendees demanded it and were happy to see it happen.

Not to mention, you were happy to oblige!

Love,

Daddy

6 Comments Posted on November 20, 2014November 22, 2014 Health, Storytelling, Uncategorized, vegan

Dear Jack: Your “No Artificial Anything” Lego Themed 4th Birthday Party

4 years old.

Dear Jack,

It is true, you are now a 4 year-old! And I can absolutely without a doubt tell you that you had an awesome 4^th birthday and birthday party.

Knowing the relevance of Legos, given the fact you will spend hours at a time building Optimus Prime and Dinobots, we booked your party months ago at a place called Bricks 4 Kidz.

That was the best decision for your party. Not only did you and your friends have a great time playing with Legos, but the parents felt at ease, yet still involved, with all the action.

There were also optional peripheral activities going on for any of your friends who wanted to mix things up; like making a cool spiral design on a paper plate using a Lego-operated device.

This made the first birthday party you’ve had outside of our home; I quickly realized how stress-free it truly is when you don’t have to worry about anything.

Your birthday party was on autopilot; it flowed so well.

The only thing we were really responsible for was bringing the food, which, you know me… that’s a big deal.

I made sure that in addition to your party having a Lego theme, that it also had a “no artificial anything” theme as well.

These days, you really have to go out of your way to find “birthday food” that doesn’t have garbage ingredients in it, like artificial food dyes, animal bi-products, or mysterious chemicals.

Of course, for me, your vegan dad, I knew just where to look…

I reached out to Annie’s and GoGo Squeez and they helped donate the majority of the snacks for your party. They are just as passionate as I am about spreading the word about the importance of eating real food.

Obviously, your friends loved our Annie’s crackers & cookies and Go Go Squeez pouch buffet!

And that was in addition to your vegan birthday cake that I special ordered from Whole Foods. You said you wanted it to be chocolate with blue icing, so that’s exactly what you got.

It was so good…

No eggs, no dairy, no artificial dyes or flavors… no problem! We liked it so much that Mommy and I (jokingly?) talked about ordering another cake from Whole Foods to celebrate when we move into our new house in January.

So not only was there plenty of fun to be had at your 4^th birthday party, but I was able to feel confident that I was serving you and your friends the best “birthday food” out there: Annie’s, Go Go Squeez, and Whole Foods vegan birthday cake.

Of course, there is that whole part about you opening the presents, but more on that in the next letter…

Love,

Daddy

5 Comments Posted on November 16, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: A Dad’s Letter To His Son On His 4th Birthday

4 years old!

Dear Jack,

Two years ago, on your 2^nd birthday, I started a tradition of writing you a letter on each of your birthdays; which started me writing to letters every week.

A year I wrote to you on your 3^rd birthday, right as you were making that unofficial transition out of “toddlerhood.”

And now a year later, here you are, a year into boyhood. There is no doubt you definitely a real boy; not a toddler, not a baby.

Those funny “onion head” pictures on packages saying that toys are not suitable for ages 0-3 are a thing of the past.

You can now easily handle smart parts without it being a problem; as demonstrated in your amazing Lego creations.

This evolution of my son is present in the wallet cards I get from your school each time they have picture day.

I see a chubby blonde-haired baby who turned into a brown-haired boy.

These are the new “good ole days.”

I can honestly say I’m just as happy as you are to see you open your presents. These are the days of Legos, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, and Captain America. (Sounds a lot like my own childhood!)

Gone are the days of changing dirty diapers and cleaning bottles. Gone are the days of you stuttering and speaking in pigeon-English.

The fact that we’re building this new house (and hopefully moving in it in January) only compliments your coming of age to boyhood, as well as our family’s coming of age to a family with a real boy.

I am so excited to teach you to learn how to ride a bicycle in the cul-de-sac we will live in. And can’t for the day we get to “go camping” in our backyard; even though I convinced you’ll ask to go back inside after about an hour.

Things are good and about to get even better.

Happy 4^th Birthday, Son. I love you with all that I have.

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on November 2, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

In addition to making you feel special by taking you to go get tater tots at Burger Republic back in September for the “The Great Food Truck Festival”, you also had a lot of fun that same weekend by helping Mommy and me make some of the party favors for your upcoming birthday party in just two weeks.

For your appropriately themed Lego party at Bricks 4 Kids (A Lego-themed party place), we are giving out homemade Lego Man crayons as part of your party favor bags.

Mommy found the Lego Man mold on Amazon. From there, we found a few boxes of old crayons; some of them having been baking in our cars for the past couple of years!

My main job was to take the knife and cut off the paper wrappers. Your job was to organize the crayons by color (which you did with great pride) and throw away the wrappers for me after I cut them off the crayons, which was actually very helpful for me.

From there, Mommy crushed them and fit them into the molds, baking them for a little while. After that they went into the freezer to cool off.

Too bad we only had one mold tray, which yields 8 Lego Man crayons at a time. Mommy was basically baking batches for about 6 hours straight in order to produce a total of about 64.

So as you can see, as long as you use as least 2 different colors of crayons, each Lego Man crayon is guaranteed to look unique, like a snowflake or a fingerprint.

My favorite one looked like the Earth. I named him Captain Planet.

Without surprise, you immediately chose your favorites to put in your own goody bag.

Making those Lego Man crayons was definitely a fun family activity for us. Granted, Mommy’s role was the most tedious.

But we all a great time. It was such a unique and “Pinteresty” thing for us to do.

I guess we get cool points now or something…

Love,

Daddy

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Lego

Dear Jack: The Lego Hospital You Built At Your School

Dear Jack: We Actually Let You Open Your Presents At Your Birthday Party

Dear Jack: Your “No Artificial Anything” Lego Themed 4th Birthday Party

Dear Jack: A Dad’s Letter To His Son On His 4th Birthday

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

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