This summer, my 7-year-old began dumping every single Lego he owns all over his bedroom floor. Daily.

At first, this triggered a spike in my blood pressure. But after taking some time to play with him, I learned you really can’t find the pieces you need unless you spread them all out. when I asked what he was doing, he explained.

“You know on Lego-Batman how they have these penguins? I figured out how to make them, Mom! And I even gave some of them guns!”

Instead of muttering my usual, “That’s great, honey,” I stopped, put down the laundry, and stepped away from the computer with its endless tasks.

When I really looked at what he was doing, I discovered that he’s really good at creating 3D objects independently.

Together, we began building penguins. I fished for pieces, he put them together. By the time we ran out of flat smooth four-cell squares, he’d made 17 of them.

Of course, his brother and sister crowded around, gawking and curious.

I was so proud – he voluntarily offered to split them evenly between all four of us (I even got a couple!). He even offered his sister pink ones.

They played with the flock of Lego penguins all day. I dried tears over disintegrated water-fowl, and I donned my penguin medic’s hat to reassemble them.

We experimented with floating them in the pool, then rescued the sunken birds (Legos don’t float that well). The TV stayed off. The penguins visited every room in house (I think I’m still finding them several days later).

The day of the Lego penguins, we made more than odd-looking squarish birds. We made fun. We made memories.

Visit Emily at Chatting At The Sky to read more stories of celebrating every day moments.