Our Summer Obessions - Star Wars

Now that Sam is nearing 5 and Noah is firmly 2 (in every sense of that word - he does everything he can "by self!"), we've discovered a surprising facet of their development. They tend to cultivate obsessions, often of the same thing. We've seen this a little before with the obsessiveness with which Sam devoured everything Thomas the Tank Engine when he was 3, but with Noah as a multiplier, our household has become a bastion of a few choice things. The rest of the week, I'll slowly show the various characters and objects that have caught the boys' fancy, starting today with Star Wars.

An obsession with Star Wars is not that uncommon; I'm of the generation that grew up with Star Wars and had the Star Wars sheets and the plastic figures with lightsabers up their arms and the Darth Vader helmet to store the figurines in. But neither Sam nor Noah has seen Star Wars (and when I've tried to get Sam to watch it he expresses no interest). Sam's obsession comes completely from Lego Star Wars for the Wii. Noah's interest comes from Sam.

When we traveled to Huntsville in early August to see my brother and his family, we hatched a plot to take the kids to the Space and Rocket Center where they were having a giant Star Wars exhibit. Eli, my nephew, had a Lego Star Wars-based love of the series as well, so we bundled the kids in their Star Wars shirts and off we went.The exhibit itself was marvelous. Props and costumes from the movies filled a large exhibit area and alongside the movie memorabilia were small hands-on projects to explore the science behind the movies. So Sam and Eli got to build hovercars out of magnets and legos, see if a robot could recognize whether one or two people stood in front of it, build and program a robot to do small tasks, and even ride on a hovercraft for a few minutes.Since the exhibit, Sam and Noah play Star Wars constantly. Joy's mom got them small foam swords they have christened their "lightsabers," and they run around fighting each other (and us on occasion). Sam makes up stories about being a super guy and flying in outer space. And Sam regularly declares he is a padawan learning and Noah follows up that he is R2-D2. I can't imagine what life at our house will be like once they eventually see the films.