“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.
Index
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
BrickCon
blind build
Dirty Brickster
BrickFest
BrickForge
BrickJournal
Brick Kicks
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
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
Kirkbi Ag and Lego Canada Inc. v. Ritvik Holdings Inc.
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 Club Magazine
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
Kirkbi Ag and Lego Canada Inc. v. Ritvik Holdings Inc.
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