The other day, Anne returned home lugging a big, heavy box. She had found a new and improved version of a beloved toy that the boys used to have when they were little, Lillian Vernon’s Primary Building Bricks. These cardboard bricks come flat packed, with some assembly required. Anyway, that is what Dads are for. The set that we used to have were boringly homogeneous, all were red, with white grouting and all of them were the same size. Declan’s new set is multicolored and comes with a variety of brick sizes. It immediately had Declan squealing with joy. Anne and Dave shared the brickmaking duties and Declan was left with the tasks of first stacking up the bricks and then knocking them back down again also-know-as builder-boomer. Back in the day, Dan primarily took the role of builder, while Dave did the boomer work. At times this dichotomy caused consternation, with Dan getting frustrated, seeing Dave destroy all of his creations. At those times, Anne had to intervene and council Dan and help him see it as a process, or a game of builder-boomer. I think that the old set of bricks were eventually gifted to a school. I do see one instance where our now adult children can use these new bricks in play. Maybe while Declan is napping. The Boyz of Noyz still play a game together, Warhammer 40K. In this rather complicated game, each player first creates and then moves their army around a tabletop game board. These new bricks would make for excellent terrain in their Warhammer game.