Lego Races

Big Man, like most boys, is competitive - very competitive. He can turn almost any activity he participates in into a race. Want to work a puzzle? Mom has to work one too and it becomes a "puzzle race" to see who can work their puzzle first. Need to take a bath? Well, Big Man can take his bath faster than you can. Want to play Legos? Of course, it has to be a race!

Just how do you race with Legos, you may ask? Big Man gives each participant (himself and Mom) an empty base on which to place Legos. Mom is only allowed to use 2x2 pieces and he only uses 1x1 pieces (which makes it harder to win). The first one to fill their board completely with the correct size pieces wins. And since our Lego container is a huge toy box (Big Man inherited all his dad's Legos as well as receiving many lego sets of his own) this can take awhile.

Another favorite race - and Big Man just now challenged me to yet another one - is a coloring race. In this race we each sit down with a coloring page and box of crayons and the first one to finish their coloring sheet neatly wins. Now this race is a bit subjective, but Big Man NEVER rushes just to win. He colors as neatly as possible. I see this as the OCD coming out, but I'm also very glad he always does his best.

My favorite type of race is our puzzle races. In this race we each work our own puzzle. The puzzles must have the same number of pieces to make things fair. Big Man would never consider himself at a disadvantage because of his age. On the contrary, he knows that he's faster because he's younger. After all, I've told him that very thing countless times after trying to chase him down when he's running away from me. He loves our puzzle races. And at age five he can work a 100 piece puzzle in an amazingly short amount of time. Maybe there's something to this race idea after all. It's certainly more fun for him than having Mom help him. Because he never needs help when working a puzzle. When he was younger he would get furious at me for suggesting he try certain puzzle pieces in certain spots.

Well, I have to go. I've been challenged to a coloring race and I'm currently losing because I'm sitting at my computer instead of coloring my sheet.