Detail-Oriented

NorthernToddler got some LEGOs for his birthday. Now, in NorthernDaddy's opinion, four years old is too young to be smoking the crack that is LEGOs. Not only is someone four years old not ready to jump into the world of infinite possibilities that the blocks provide, their little fingers are not equipped to deal with some of the connections that need to be made - not to mention that those little pieces end up everywhere. E v e r y w h e r e. Despite Toddler having a dedicated storage box for his LEGOs, just today NorthernDaddy found a LEGO block under the sofa. It was rolling around right next to the decapitated head of a plastic pirate figurine (that's a whole 'nother story...).

Let's examine the particular tragedy that is Toddler's LEGO kit. He received one very small box set of LEGOs that was a rocket launching pad with a little van (#3366 Satellite Launch Pad). Judging by the picture on the box, it looked pretty cool. It looked innocent. NorthernMommy helped Toddler get the box open and got him started on building his ambulance (Toddler calls the utility van his "ambulance"). LEGO instructions are pretty easy to follow - even four-year-old Toddler could follow along and figure it out by himself. Toddler finished his truck and had fun playing with it - until it fell apart. That is when the combination of Lego + Toddler turned right ugly.

NorthernDaddy was enlisted to help re-assemble the truck. He opened the instructions to the appropriate page, gathered up all the parts he would need, and started to build the truck - or so he thought. Toddler prefers that things be done his way. In other words, he is a four-year-old control freak. As Daddy was piecing together the truck, there was a tiny tyrant leaning over his shoulder offering "advice". Things were going okay until NorthernDaddy got to this piece:

You see that little yellow piece? There are two of them in this LEGO kit. Toddler took issue with the fact that Daddy picked one of these yellow pieces up randomly from the floor and placed it where the instructions told him to put it. You see, apparently NorthernDaddy picked up the wrong yellow piece.



Toddler went all wacko on poor NorthernDaddy - it started as a mild conversation about the possiblity that Daddy might have used the wrong part, and turned into a full-blown shouting match about the two parts in question being the same piece. As Toddler was landing punches and throwing elbows, NorthernDaddy found it hard to restrain from statements like: "they're the exact same bleeping part, you bleepinglittle control freak".  Finally, Toddler won: the offending yellow piece was removed and the other (exactly the same) piece was installed.

NorthernDaddy calls him 'Control Freak'. NorthernToddler prefers to say that he's 'Detail-Oriented'.