Dan: Lego video

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 22 February 2008 in People & Portraits and Portfolio.

I'm a bit of a cheapo and eschew buying toys when I could just as easily (if not more easily) borrow them from people. But one toy we've invested in with a vengeance is Lego and here's how it all got started: When Dan was teeny-weeny one-month old, we had a Man Yue Party for him and someone (we still don't know who to this day) gave him a big box of Lego! As the new mom of a squidge who could not even flip over yet, a big box of Lego might seem a bit 'advanced'. And it was. Dan couldn't even sit up and lick the Lego blocks till he was 6+ months. Then, figuring out how to take the Lego blocks apart (when Mommy stuck them together) took another few months of motor skill development. I'm glad I had the insanity (or rather, foresight) to insist that we lug the whole box of Lego across oceans to Stanford, because that when Dan started really playing Lego. After he turned one, he figured out how to join Lego blocks together (instead of just licking them and throwing them about). The set came with pieces that had wheels attached, so naturally, Dan began to 'make' cars, trucks and fire trucks with his Lego set. As he grew, he also made 'microphones', 'bats', 'swords' (essentially, a long thin tower of lego blocks). After we came back to Singapore and he turned two, I used a lot of shopping vouchers we received to buy a Lego dump truck, container truck, steam roller, a few rooftops and a box more of blocks. These items came with blocks of different thickness and sizes, and PEOPLE!! (Lego People?!), and even,... windows, a swing, etc., ...

So really, we're really into Lego!
Here's a video of Dan playing with Lego. Of course, I helped him set up the Lego playground, but he's able to build imaginative stuff too. Like, the cab of a truck, when stuck on a thin tall tower of blocks, becomes an "air control tower' and all the red blocks when put on the wheels, together with 2 yellow railings we got as part of the playground, become a 'fire truck with ladder'.

I'm really glad that Dan loves non-tech toys like Lego. I was never really into those shiny, flashy, techno toys. Shivers.