Patches turned five yesterday. It always amazes me how my kids can be so big and so little at the same time. I look at him and he is so much smarter and more capable than he was only months ago. He’s grown taller, lankier. The last vestiges of toddlerhood have disappeared. And yet he still curls up so small in my lap when he is sad. Among his birthday gifts were items representing both his future and a connection with the baby he once was.
Patches got a lego set with all the pieces to create an articulated spider. Patches opened the box and set up on the kitchen table. With the booklet in front of him, he carefully sorted through pieces and put them together. Lego instructions are all visual and he was fully capable of using them. It took him 90 minutes, but he put that 193 piece spider together all by himself. When he was done, he came to me with a smile on his face. The spider was in his hands. He showed me how the legs moved. He told me that it was a nice spider and had the spider give my arm a hug to demonstrate. Best of all was the confidence in Patches eyes as he looked at he complicated thing he had done all by himself.
Patches also got a great big stuffed puppy. The thing is three quarters as big as he is. I bought him the stuffed animal because he is continually begging for someone to cuddle him in bed at night. Hopefully the giant puppy (already names Ruffy) will qualify as “someone.” It is also possible that I’ve doomed myself to having a giant stuffed dog in bed with me along with my not-so-grown-up-at-night 5 year old boy.
lego is so cool, these days. It’s taken over in many ways from meccano, and has moved on a LONG way from coloured plastic bricks.
They are so much fun at this age. It’s hard to believe how much they have grown and how much they still need us at the same time.
Ona