No, this column is not sponsored by the LEGO Group

This weekend, Mikaela decided to break out the Lego set of an orchid she had bought for herself. The thought was that the Lego version should be much harder to kill, but I’m still not holding my breath. Since she was working on her project, I decided to join her, finally opening up a set of a Pokemon from a Lego-adjacent brand that I had gotten as a souvenir from our trip to Japan.

As we talked while building, it was revealed that this was Mikaela’s first time building the intended creation from a Lego set.

I was dumbfounded at this revelation. Now? The first time?

Ever? Is that even possible?

Mikaela broke through the stunned questions with an answer; while they had had some Legoadjacent toys as kids, they had never really had the instructions for anything. Apparently for her, they had mostly served as the structural foundation for her Barbies’ homes.

Okay, that’s fine and all, that’s one of the great things about Legos after all, but still… the idea that someone had gone 30 years on this planet without once following the instructions to create an awesome castle or spaceship failed to fully compute. Legos were, both literally and figuratively, the building blocks of my childhood. I can’t remember a time before Legos. One of my favorite Christmas gifts of all time? A massive Star Wars Podracer Lego set featuring three separate vehicles that the whole family teamed up to build over several days. Another favorite Christmas gift? A Lego Rock Raiders set that had been discontinued for years somehow showed up in our stockings, convincing me that Santa existed for at least another year (turns out Mom managed to find them discounted on the shelves of the old Pamida in Abbotsford). My favorite book in kindergarten was a Level 4 - Lego Rock Raiders book; I was so proud that I could read the highest level book that I feel like I carried the thing around everywhere. So much allowance money went to buying the latest Bionicle set or book. Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours were spent building and rebuilding with the bricks and telling the craziest, weeks-long stories with our creations.

We used to get the free monthly Lego magazine and my brothers and I would salivate over the impressive sets that we would never get, but would be oh-so cool to have (Clone Turbo Tank, I’ll never forget you). A dozen Lego video games were installed on our old Windows 98 PC, several more were added when it was upgraded to an XP, and the trend continued on the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. I used to utilize the Legos we had accumulated over the years to make terrible stopmotion videos that have hopefully been buried so deep in the YouTube algorithm that no one will ever find them. The Lego Movie that came out in 2014 is one of my all time favorite films.

Long story short; Legos were a huge part of my childhood. The fact that Mikaela had never built a set before Saturday seemed impossible.

Still, once I got over the fact that not everyone was as obsessed with the building bricks as my brothers and I were (or maybe still are), it was kind of cool to share that experience with her. While much of my concentration was spent trying to interpret the perhaps less than stellar instructions on how to turn my pint size pieces into a statuette vaguely resembling Greninja, it was fun to glance over and see how her own project was progressing. When we were finished, Mikaela said that she had enjoyed the experience and was impressed with the final product. I can’t remember if she said that she would build another set in the future, but I think my brain translated what she said as an invitation to have another Lego building morning, regardless of if those words were actually spoken.

At any rate, I had fun relaxing and sharing an old hobby with her, which is reward enough. Whether or not the Lego orchid actually lives any longer under our care will be a bonus.

A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW