The Missing Piece...

I got it!!!

A What?
A Lego!
What is a Lego!?!?!

Lego is a play on words from the Danish expression leg godt, meaning "play well."
(Lego also means "I study" or "I read" in Latin...)
After learning this was a Danish word, I walked around the store...
With Hannah having so much fun, I wanted to buy her a Lego toy...
I skulked after looking at all the expensive price tags,
and I could have drank a skoal of aquavit to calm my nerves,
I considered dangling myself off the ballast of a life-size lego ship,
These legos are nothing to scoff at, I thought,
You could build a troll, a walrus, even an iceberg.
Wow.
I guess Lego is a pretty neat Danish word...

A man named Kirk Christiansen started a company out of Billund, Denmark in 1932.
His company made ironing boards, stepladders, and wooden toys.
In 1934, when his company had grown to six people, he gave it the name Lego.

Lego was registered as a trademark in Denmark in 1954.
In 1956, Lego started expanding sales to other countries.
In 1958 the "stud-and-tube" style of brick was introduced.
Lego has sold over 190 billion of those little Lego bricks which the company calls "elements."

Lego.
My Wallet now knows a Danish four letter word.

Big Eric Tunnel, Little Joy Tunnel

Hannah, you love to play with your Mega Blocks almost as much as I do. We have a nice routine down. I say I want to play blocks, and you tell me to make a tunnel for all of your trains (and also your ambulance) - and then we busily get to work playing. Today, however, you had complex building plans for your father. You had just come from the other room, you were fresh from a long artwork / coloring session where you would ask us to draw "big Eric" then "little Eric," then "big Joy" and "little Joy," over and over again so you could color them in with all sorts of insane colors. Yes, very fun! You still had Eric and Joy, your favorite art muses, on your mind.

You demanded that I build a big Eric tunnel and a big Joy tunnel.

(Sorry Joy, we started building big Eric tunnel first, and we ran out of blocks,
so you turned out to be a little Joy...)
Hannah, you helped me build, and you made many creative changes throughout the process.
Ultimately, Eric's head was allowed to stay, but...

You decided that his arms had to go.
Apparently you ARE your mother's daughter, after all...

In the end, you checked out how your new people-tunnels worked.
You drove Thomas the Train through Eric's legs a few times and then...

KAPOW! You smashed Eric into little mega block pieces!
I see Kristina has been playing blocks with you when I am at work...

Building Block Breakthrough!

Hannah, up until this very day - today, you LOVED to smash any blocks that Daddy stacked up for you into smithereens, waving your arms around until there was nothing but rug where the blocks were once standing. I would try and get you to stack and build, but you loved only one activity: knocking things DOWN! Today, you waked over and put a block on top of the tower that I had started for you, and for the next thirty minutes, it was build, build, build! Mom and I just sat back and watched you go to work! I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU! Love, Dad