A little over 8 months ago Jr. saw what he coined as “Darth Vader’s Ship” at the toy store. This was a rather expensive lego set and we felt a worthy goal for a boy who really wanted something. The price tag with no discounts was over $100. So Jr. started saving and counting up every single penny he had. Jr. has been saving for almost six months towards this goal.
Then we got the Black Friday Ad. The exact lego set was on sale for $40 dollars off. A savings too important to ignore. Limited quantities of course. So what is a Daddy to do but get up at 5am to run to the local target at a bit after 6am – - for a boy whose saved for 6 months. Thankfully since we are not in a hurry and such it was a relatively leisurely trip for our intrepid toy hunter.
A few hours later when Jr. awoke he immediately began counting out his money to pay back his Daddy. And was the happy purchaser of the “Lego Darth Vader Ship” of his little boy dreams.
Thus began our marathon lego project for the weekend. Jr. put this massive project together almost all by himself. Only asking for bits of help when he needed to hold one piece steady while attaching another. (Sorry for the blurry hands. There was too much excitement to get a spectacular picture.)
And after almost 10 hours and 24 minutes* of reading schematics, finding pieces, and snapping legos together he was finally finished and ready to play!
I know he’s happy with himself for all the different “work” that went into saving for and building the final product. I know he’s delighted with some of the hidden features of the ship and with his tiny lego Darth Vader complete with red light saber. Me? I’m happy with the fact he’s so very proud of himself today.
*total time isn’t really exact. Jr. started working on it on Friday mid-morning and didn’t quit till almost bedtime. Then he worked most of Saturday too. Though the breaks were a little more frequent as his brother was persistent in his desires to play together. But I figure 10+ hours is a pretty good guesstimate.
