The Precious

Christopher saved all of his money for 2+ years, and was finally able to buy the object of his desire: the Lego Death Star, a $400 monstrosity of a creation.   We'd honestly thought that by the time he had enough money for it, he'd have lost interest in something Lego, but nope! He remained determined throughout to buy it, and triumphantly announced at the end of May that he had enough money.

Frank asked him, "Are you sure? You've almost got enough money for your own iPad!"

But the boy was not to be deterred.  We went online to buy it, after verifying that it wasn't available locally.  After the purchase, I received an email from Lego saying that the set was back-ordered and wouldn't be in til the end of June...almost a month later.   I told Christopher, reluctantly, and his response astounded me: "Mom, I've waited 2 years. One more month will be easy." (Holy cow!)

A few days later, I got another email from Lego, apologizing for the inconvenience and saying the set was now not going to ship til September.  As I was mulling how to break the news, I got a *third* email from them - but this was a shipping notice (what the hell?).

So, when we arrived home from our Triple Marathon trip, it was waiting on the front doorstep.

Here's the overjoyed boy and his Precious:

Here are some interesting facts about the Lego Death Star: the box weighed 21 pounds; the set contains 3,803 pieces; it's designed for ages 14+ (I think it's more a collectors piece for nerds than a play set for younger kids); and the instructions consist of a 260-page spiral bound booklet.

C has spent the little time we've been home this summer putting the Death Star together, and predicts it'll take him the rest of the summer.  Here's the latest stage:

We're really proud of him for saving all his money for something important to him, and not being distracted by being able to afford smaller things all along - even if we think $400 is a ridiculous amount of money for Legos. 

 Updated to say: This is what the Death Star will look like when done.

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Curiouser and Curiouser

(Note: will put up cruise pics & stories once FTP gets fixed. Again.)

Before we left for our cruise, I let C play the Sims 3 game. If you're not familiar with it, here's the wikipedia link to it. Basically, you create a town, and houses, and people, and then control every aspect of the people's lives - from bodily needs & functions, to hopes & dreams. It's fun, addictive, and, at times, exhausting.

It's also, possibly, not a great game for a kid with OCD tendencies.  He's spent 99% of his time creating & customizing characters and their houses, and 1% playing the game. But it's been an interesting glimpse into his mind.  Here's what I've learned so far:

1. He loves to create characters that look evil/edgy/scary, and then give them really great personality traits.  He'll show me a dude with tattoos, a green mohawk, a unibrow and black leather clothing - and say things like, "He's just misunderstood.  He's a really nice guy but sometimes people don't give him a chance."

2. He's quite thrifty.  He builds a house and somehow has $8,000 left over (a fortune in the Sims world). But then realizes he needs to give his poor people a countertop so they can prepare food, and begrudgingly buys it for them.

3. He apparently doesn't like being an only child. He's forever creating families with 4 or 5 children in them.  I suppose that if he were one of 4 or 5 children in real life, his Sim households would be filled with only children. No way to know, I guess.

4. He really wants people to regard him as brave and daring. He created a mock Livaudais family, and gave the son the "daredevil" trait, then told me, "You know, because he's kind of like me."  When I expressed surprise, he spent most of the rest of the day trying to convince me that he's a daredevil - using such evidence as, "Sometimes I throw grapes in the air and then catch them in my mouth! I could CHOKE!"

More insights to come, I'm sure.

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