What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Lego.

I guess that Finn liked dinosaurs for longer than 15 seconds. Looking back, we managed to accumulate a number of dinosaur related books, a stuffed stegosaurus who shares his bed with him and occasionally joins us at the table if we are eating salad (he's vegetarian), and approximately 800 million small plastic dinos of uncertain genus and species, which I shall call "spikosaurs" , the etymology of which will be readily apparent to anyone who has had to walk across Finn's floor in the dark. Still, we're not into dinos too much any more. Not that he dislikes them, it's just that there's little room for anything else in his head besides lego, either building, playing or whining for me or his mom to find lego instructions on the computer for him to "read" and "covet". I suppose there's no actual need for " " around covet - unlike the reading, which is aspirational, the coveting is very, very real).

Nevertheless, at the time of his birthday some months ago, he wanted a dinosaur cake. Lisa being rather pregnant and tired, she decided that the dinosaurs themselves could be represented by a selection from the menagerie that dwells in the boys' room, and she made a volcano cake in order to, as Finn would say, "extinct the dinosaurs so they are bones." The coolest part of the cake was that she built in a depression atop the cone, and put in a small glass bowl. When it came time to light the candle, she put in some chunks of dried ice and poured on some water, creating some nice eruption-like atmospherics. It was actually a little hard to see at the park, but the kids all really liked watching the dry ice fizzle. I'd like to think that I did contribute in some small way to the cake, insofar as I was the one who had to drive to the random gas-station/truckstop in west oakland that sells 10 pound chunks of dry ice. I can't imagine too many of lisa's pastry oriented competitors roll down there too often.

The party was a big hit with Finn's classmates. They hunted in the sand pit for dinosaur eggs (each contained a small spikosaur - my gift the the parents of his friends), had a dino themed treasure hunt and went at trays of plaster of paris encased dinosaurs (more spikosaurs - you're welcome people) with hammers and screwdrivers. The hammers were a big hit - while none of the kids displayed the patience and restraint of future archaeologists, they were certainly focussed - most ignored the dinosaurs and spent up to half an hour ensuring that every piece of plaster of paris had been reduced to dust before moving on to the next activity.

I can't believe that Finn's five already, and that the dino stage has already come and gone. Tune in next year for the lego cake, or whatever it is that will have swept into the imagination of the six-year old to be. Just please don't let it to be bakugan.