Legos Friends

So when Legos introduced "Friends" a while back, I thought it was ridiculous and was near insulted.  Why would girls need their own special Legos line?  What's wrong with ordinary Legos?  Why do Legos need to be pink and purple for girls to like them?  Now I feel the need to eat my words.  Maya has become enamored with Legos Friends.  Turns out, it's WAY more than pink and purple Legos.  They come exclusively in "packs" with which you build something.  (We have a treehouse, a camper (thanks grandma and grandpa!), and a veterinary clinic (thanks cousins!).)  They also all come with some characters.  Whoever came up with this clearly did extensive research on the little girl age group.  They appear to know my daughter better than I do!  Maya LOVES these things.  She plays pretend and builds at the same time.  Which is what I assume they figured out in their research... that for girls, play time is as much about the characters and the situation as it is about the construction.  Oh, and the instructions are perfect for the age group.  They're entirely numbers and pictures, and they're completely clear.  Maya has absolutely no trouble following them all on her own.  Every once in a while she misplaces something, but when things don't fit later, she goes back and figures out why by herself.  And watching her spatial reasoning skills while she does it is simply fascinating.  She's able to recognize pieces of strange shape regardless of their orientation on the table.  She's able to visualize where the pieces go given the picture instructions and her partially constructed item, even if the two are turned different ways.  Fascinating.