Levels

     My son LOVES to make "levels."  This word and idea comes from playing video games and watching his Daddy play video games and the two of them playing together.  So now when he is playing in his room or the living room, he makes levels, a lot.  Every day we have at least one group of levels.  There is not just one level.  You have to beat the first level to get to the second, and so on.  This could go on forever.  When I am playing a level with him, at some point I have to tell him, there are no more levels after this one or that the boss (the biggest bad guy) needs to be next. 
     I love watching him play, but what is awesome is to watch him build them or look at them after he has built it, but before he plays it.  After he plays it, the pieces have usually "blown up," so you don't get to see the intricate detail he has thought through.  He builds these levels almost anytime he has friends over, but there are two friends with whom level building goes to an EPIC level.  We had a play date with one of those friends this afternoon.  My son and his friend can be in his room for hours, with no arguing, just building and playing levels.  The reactions of moms when seeing my son's room after level building and/or playing has happen is usually, "Oh my!!  It is such a mess, we can help clean it up."  Or, "Oh my gosh!  It looks like a bomb went off!"  I on the other hand, am used to the look, so I am not as worried.  I tell them that it is not a problem and my son will want to finish the level anyway, so just leave it.  :-) 
    Today was a level of epic proportion once again.  But the boys weren't able to finish playing out the whole level.  They were planning the next one as his friend was walking out the door.  (FYI, next time, it's an ice level.)  My son didn't even finish it before bath time.  We were playing other things this afternoon, so he didn't get to it.  Tonight, I decided I would clean it up for him while he was in the bath.  As I was cleaning it up, I was able to look at all the planning they had put into it.  The bad guy teddy bears (these are actually meant to be a learning pattern aid, but my son loves that the 100 count bucket of bears never seems to end) were placed in just the right places.  His Skylanders were ready for battle.  The Star Wars guys were everywhere ready to take on both the Sith (bad guys from Star Wars) and the teddy bears.  My Glo-Friends from when I was a kid were ready to take part too.  Books were platforms, and blocks are bosses.  Next time going to take pictures. I didn't think about it until I had taken most of it down. But the whole time I was appreciating the intricacy of it.
     A fabulous part of taking it apart was that I know some of the secrets to his toys.  Other people might not know to look inside the Millennium Falcon (a Star Wars ship, we like Star Wars, ok? ;-) ) or the AT-AT (another Star Wars vehicle).  But by not knowing those secrets, others would had missed the little Han in Carbonite and Star Wars Angry Bird Han in Carbonite (I know, we are nerds, I am ok with that) that was hidden in a secret compartment in the Millennium Falcon.  (This is even more awesome because it is Han's ship and the boys had Chewbacca driving the ship, which totally goes with the movies.  It was a super cute nerd moment.) 
     It made me think that sometimes what we think we are looking at-a mess, a disaster- isn't really what we are seeing at all.  But we don't always SEE, we look, but don't see.  I want to see.  I want to look at all of the details of things and understand. Not just levels, but other situations that I am looking in on.  I want to get down and see why it is the way it is.  I love my son and the things he teaches me.  Thanks for reading.  :-)