LEGO (37 page)

“I think that you should wear the T-shirt,” she replies.

So, hospital johnny issues resolved, we proceed into the operating suite. My eyes are drawn to the two massively oversize surgical lamps pointing down on the operating table. I can’t help but think that they look like the headlights from the Power Miners sets. I tell myself that that is the last LEGO comparison I will allow my mind to make.

After Kate is prepped for the surgery, my chair is placed next to her head and before I’m even aware I’ve moved, I’m holding her hand.

“Are you ready to meet your baby?” I ask her.

“Yes. Are you?”

“Yes.”

I feel her squeezing my hand, and suddenly I hear the doctor saying that if I want to see our baby, I should stand up now. The nurse puts a hand behind my back—I think she’s waiting to see if I’m going to pass out.

And then our daughter appears, beautiful and screaming, her tiny red fists clenched and a mass of hair slicked against her skull.

“Whoa,” I say. “That’s a lot of hair.”

“Look at all that hair,” says the doctor.

I kiss Kate’s cheek roughly and am caught briefly between following the baby to the corner of the room where she will be tested and weighed and staying with Kate to make sure she is fine.

“Go,” mouths Kate, and I leave without asking if she’s sure.

They stretch the baby’s legs out to measure her, and she is placed on the scale: 8 pounds, 9 ounces appears on the red digital readout. A nurse places her beneath a warmer before swaddling her in a blanket.

“You can take her to your wife now,” she says. I lift the baby from the warmer and walk over to my wife.

“Would you like to meet your daughter?” I ask Kate, my voice cracking for the first time.

“Hello, Charlotte,” says Kate, kissing her, as I hold them both cheek to cheek. “Hello, little Charlotte Ann. I’m your mama.”

 

 

That night, I lie on a foldout cot, attempting to avoid any movement and the associated awful grinding noise made by the plastic cover, which I’m convinced will wake the baby sleeping in the bassinet at the foot of Kate’s hospital bed. I try to imagine what life will be like from now on, but that proves as difficult for me to do now as it was before the baby was born.

I try not to worry each time Charlotte makes a noise or when she is silent, but that still doesn’t stop me from checking on her several times throughout the night—the cot protesting each time with the screech of plastic. It then threatens to collapse each time I try to climb back in.

It’s hard leaving the hospital room two days later, but I sneak home to gather some additional baby clothes, the carrier, and a much-needed shower. I turn on my desktop computer out of habit and zone out briefly, the lack of sleep making me forget that time is passing.

While still on autopilot, I wander to the online LEGO Shop and click on the search function, which allows me to view sets by age. There’s a section for ages zero to two; I open it.
This is baby stuff,
I think, forgetting that I’m not shopping for myself.

At the thought of “baby stuff,” my mind re-engages and I remember that
our
baby is waiting back at the hospital. I click through pictures of houses and trains and large pails of bricks. I momentarily wonder if there is a baby toy I can order, but after a quick scan I see that newborns are not quite ready for LEGO. Only two days in and I’m making the right call as a parent. The recommended age actually begins at one and a half years, and that’s for DUPLO bricks.

So, it looks as if I’ve got a playdate in 2011.

acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs)

collections of
(See also
collecting)

couples as

“Dark Ages” and

Female Fans of LEGO

as growth industry

LEGO Group marketing and
(See also
LEGO Group)

origin of term

See also
building; collecting; conventions; usergroups

Agents Volcano Base (LEGO set)

Airport Shuttle (LEGO set)

Alpha Team (LEGO Deep Sea Mission)

alternate build events

alt.toys.lego (ATL)

Alvarez, Virginia

Ambeck-Madsen, Peter

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company

Aqua Raiders (LEGO set)

Armstrong, Tommy

art, LEGO as
. See also
mosaics; my own creation (MOC); scale modeling; vignette themes

Asanuma, Mariann

Ashton, Matthew

Askildsen, Tormod

automatic binding bricks

Baerwyrm (MOC)

Barnes, John

Batman’s Buggy (LEGO set)

Becraft, Andrew

Bellaire, Ohio.
See also
Toy and Plastic Brick Museum

Belville challenge

Bender, Charlotte Ann

Bender, Jeffrey

Bender, Jonathan

Bender, Kate

birth of Charlotte Ann

building by

in Denmark

LEGO building by

Berard, Jamie

Bertrand, Marc

Bertrand, Rita

Bertrand, Jr.

Bertrand, Victor

Beyer, Jan

Billund, Denmark (corporate LEGO Group headquarters).
See also
LEGO Group

Bionicle (LEGO sets)

Mask of Destiny (Web site)

MOCs made with

Sledge and

biplane

Blackstone Group

Blacktron Intelligence Agency (MOC)

Blake, James

blind build events

Bonahoom, Bryan

Bonahoom, Kathie

Bonktron

bowling alley (MOC)

BrickArms

Brick-a-thon

Brick Bash

Brickbay.
See
BrickLink.com
(Web site)

BrickCon

blind build

Dirty Brickster

BrickFest

BrickForge

BrickLink.com
(Web site)

inception of

sellers

Toy and Plastic Brick Museum and

BrickMaster (LEGO program)

BrickMaster
(magazine)

BrickScope

Brick Show

Brickstructures

Brick Testament

Brickworkz

Brickworld

alternate build contests

Female Fans of LEGO

Minifig Customization

Brothers Brick (Web site)

Brown, Carol

Brown, Conrad

Brown, Dan

at BrickCon

at Brick Show

LEGO Group and

museum design by

Toy and Plastic Brick Museum

See also
Toy and Plastic Brick Museum

build in a bag events

building

build rooms

contests

detail building

rainbow building

set building

supports for LEGO structures

tools used for

See also
collecting; conventions; mosaics; vignette themes;
individual names of LEGO sets

Burj Dubai (MOC)

Burks, Jared

bus (MOC)

BZPower (Web site)

Café Corner (LEGO set)

Canvin, Steven

Castle (LEGO Belville)

certified professionals program

Chapman, Will

Charlie (dog)

Chicago House of Bricks

Christiansen, Godtfred Kirk

Christiansen, Jan

Christiansen, Ole Kirk

clamps

Classic-Castle.com
(Web site)

Clikits (LEGO set)

collecting

adult collectibles

build rooms and

expense of

Fifty Years of the LEGO Brick
(LEGO Group)

LEGO Collector’s Guide
(LEGO Group)

by LEGO Group

locating used LEGO sets

for married fans

saving childhood collections

sorting and

Collicott, Allison

Collicott, Benjamin

Collicott, Duane

on AFOL events

on Toy and Plastic Brick Museum

Collicott, William

color

customization of minifigures

LEGO Ambassador Program and

marketing to girls/women by LEGO

pink bricks

translucent bricks

complexity, of LEGO sets

Connect & Build pen

constructionism

conventions

Brick Bash

BrickCon

BrickFest

Brick Show

Brickworld

Chicago House of Bricks

layouts at

LEGO Group representation at
(See also
LEGO Group)

public displays at

video gaming and

Cook, Alice

cow (MOC)

Creator LEGO sets

customization

Dale, Tracy

Danish Trade Exhibition

“Dark Ages”

Darrow, Brian

Darth Vader (model)

Dayman, Aaron

Deep Sea Mission (LEGO set)

delivery truck (MOC)

Dirty Brickster

DUPLO

debut of

Micro bricks

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dynamic Adult Learning

Eaton, Ron

Empire State Building (LEGO set)

Enfield, Connecticut (LEGO Group U.S. corporate headquarters)

Erickson, Tom

Executive Discovery

exhibitions

Expert Builder (LEGO sets)

Fast Flyers (LEGO set)

Female Fans of LEGO

Fifty Years of the LEGO Brick
(LEGO Group)

Fine Clonier Decals

Finley, Abner

Flickr

Forrest, David

Foulds, Jim

Friberg, Helle

Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension (LEGO action figure)

Gerling, Steve

Gibson, Frederick

Giddens, Chris

glue

goat lifeguard

Godzilla

Gondry, Michel

Google

Grand Traverse Lighthouse (LEGO model)

Greater Midwest LEGO Train Club

Greater Midwest LEGO User Group

Greco, Felix

Green, Suzanne Rich

Green Grocer (LEGO set)

Guinness World Record

guns

Gyugyi, Paul

Harry Potter (LEGO sets)

Harry Potter (MEGA Brands, Inc.)

Harshbarger, Eric

Hassenpin

Hassenplug, Steve

Hempel, Ralph

Henderson, John

Hershey, Robert D., Jr.

Hietbrink, Bruce

Higgins, Bill

Hitchcock, Christina

HiTechnic

hobby sellers

Houdini (cat)

Hunt, Jeff

Hussey, Wayne

Idea House (LEGO Group)

IndyLUG

International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

Jensen, Jette Skovgaard

Jorgensen, Kirsten Sofie

Kenney, Sean

Knudstorp, Jørgen Vig

Koelback, Lars

Korte, Brian

Kristiansen, Kjeld Kirk

Kristiansen family

lamp, designed with LEGO

Langrish, John

lasers

Laswell, “Purple” Dave

LDraw

Leach, Chris

LEGO brick design

elements

for girls/women

invention of

manufacturing

patent on

separators for

sloped LEGO pieces

studs and tube design

terms for

LEGO Chess tournament

LEGO City Advent calendar (2007)

LEGO Collector’s Guide
(LEGO Group)

LEGO Creator Beach House (LEGO set)

LEGO Digital Designer (LDD)

LEGO Direct

LEGO Factory (design program)

LEGO Group

Ambassador Program

Bionicles and

brand of

Community Development

competition of

consultants

corporate headquarters (Billund, Denmark)

Idea House

Inside Tour

LEGOLAND parks
(See also individual LEGOLAND parks)

LEGO Serious Play

licensing by

manufacturing

marketing by

model design

mold warehouse

New Business Group

origin of LEGO name

profit and loss of

set building by

space and castle play themes

Technic and

3-D Model Center

Toy and Plastic Brick Museum and

U.S. corporate headquarters (Enfield, Connecticut)

U.S. debut of

Web site of

LEGO Imagination Center (brick and mortar store) (Mall of America)

LEGO Island (LEGO set)

LEGOLAND Billund (Denmark)

LEGOLAND California

employees of

Miniland

model cities of

LEGOLAND parks

history and locations of

ownership of

LEGO Mindstorms

LEGO-ometry

LEGO Racers (set 8152)

LEGO Serious Play

LEGO Set 1082