Cole's latest fascination...

For the past several years Cole's interests have remained within the category of "things with wheels", CARS 1 & 2 the movies (and their never ending inventory of figures), monster trucks, Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars, firetrucks, construction vehicles and even airplanes (they have wheels too!) He has a playroom full of racetracks,runways, raceways built out of blocks, even most of our tables have "zoom" marks etched in them from repetitive action.

Though they remain an integral part of his imaginary play, he has entered a new world with his love of Lego's NINJAGO. A friend of his from Montessori began talking about them and brought his in for show-n-tell and a seed was planted. Cole has since become immersed and keen on finding out everything about the five ninjas (one of whom ironically is named Cole, their master Sensei Wu and their army of enemies (skeleton warriors). We found an in-depth book about them and we read it over and over for weeks as he memorized very fine details about them ALL!

Over the past four months he has collected numerous spinners (the figurines nestle into orb shaped vessels that twirl and spin like tornadoes) and the ninjas and skeletons in varying garb. Cole earns a new "something" with good behavior every two weeks (having to donate something in return) and without fail he has chosen some NINJAGO item to supplement his growing fleet. Cole has also become quite the master of spinning as with a flick of his wrist, he has his ninjas and their nemesis "fighting" as they roll over the counter, the tile, any available hard surface. When I try to play with him, I have continually failed with my dismal attempts to make my spinner actually spin. He comforts me by saying "that is alright mom, at least you are practicing". LOL

He watches their TV show with the utmost focus and though I haven't sat through many of the episodes in their entirety, I do like that amongst the "battles" and the "good vs evil" plot, there are a ton of messages about hard work, dedication, concentration, doing the right thing, friendship, differences amongst individuals, how to stand up for oneself and so on. I hear Cole reenact what he hears when he is playing and love to listen to his interpretation.

The past several weeks, Cole has asked for the NINJAGO Lego kits. This means 250 plus pieces of small microscopic Lego parts that when painstakingly are put together following 42 pages of instructions morph into cool blade cycles, sword stations and flying aircraft. They have moving wings, wheels and other WOW factors. Cole circles me like a hawk as I attempt not to curse while working on aforementioned creations (one took me two hours to build). However, the toil is all worth it as his smile beams out at me and I get an "I love you Mom" as I hand him the latest vehicle. I then breathe a sigh of relief (at least for another two weeks).