And puddles are for getting wet.

My little web-geek in training.

A tangle snake is always funny.

Yesterday evening we returned from a meeting at church, had dinner, and Eli demanded that we go outside and eat a popsicle. Once outside he quickly abandoned the popsicle in favor of drawing with chalk on the driveway.

“Draw me!” he said.

So I proceeded to draw a stick figure with a wild mane of hair.

“NO! Draw ME!!” he said again as he flopped down on the driveway spread-eagled.

The light click on over my head as I realized he wanted me to trace around his whole body.

We did one, then another, and then another. As soon as one would be finished, he’d leap up and careen to another section of concrete. He never did get the hang of spreading his arms and legs way out, so each time I’d have to remind him to spread out so he wouldn’t be a blob. Pretty soon there were six blue and green Eli’s cart-wheeling their way up and down the driveway.

Then I started writing his name inside the shapes.

“E-L-I!! Eli!!” He chanted as we filled in all the bodies. Or, alternately, “Do the next one! Put E-L-I right here!”

After that, I decided they should all be connected with dotted lines (to emphasize the cart-wheeling aspect) so I started back down the driveway doing that.

Once I finished that project, I decided to sit because, man, all that stooping over is hard on an adult.

After all that work, he went up and down the driveway singing, “Well, you walk and you walk and you walk and you STOP!” The stopping came with wild out-flung arms and stop hands at each of the chalk Elis. He’d look at me until I said, “Go!” and then he’d sing until the next outline. He probably made 10 or 15 circuits of the outlines.

The light started fading so we gathered up our chalk and headed inside for clean-up and bath. I snuck outside this morning though to talk some photos of our masterpiece:

Carpark North: Human (2005)

What makes this video so wonderful is the children, all of whom are in that awkward stage between true childhood and adolescence. Reportedly the directory, Martin De Thurah, cast child dancers but then instructed them to “dance ugly.” The result is surprisingly touching and, at a few brief points, poignant.

Röyksopp: Remind Me (2002)

I can’t stop watching this video. I walk away from the computer to break the cycle, and five minutes later I’m back watching again.

Eli has plunged feetfirst into the world of playgrounds. Several months ago, when we went to Chicago, we paused at a rest stop that had a small jungle gym with a slide. Eli carefully slid down the slide, decided that was okay, and slid several more times before we left.

Then there was the Giant Playset Up on the Mountain that was so much fun that Eli screamed and screamed when we tried to separate him from it. Even my explanation that it was lying about how many planets our solar system had did not dissuade him from his love of its ladders, steps, rock walls, and myriad slides.

Yesterday evening he was once again out on a playground, sliding and running and sliding and running. I’m getting calmer about the whole climbing-up-then-throwing-his-tiny-breakable-body-down-a-slide thing. No, it’s the other kids I’m beginning to worry about.

Eli loves people. He greets strangers and will talk to them at length about whatever stray thoughts a cosmic ray has knocked loose in his brain. The other kids, though — they do not see the glowing sign above his head that says, “This is the most special child in the world. LOVE HIM.”

Nothing bad has happened, not really. But I see other children ignoring him or slighting him and I want to run up and lop their heads off with my knife. And I know better! I cannot protect him from the other kids. Doing so would keep him from becoming a fully functional adult. I’ve dealt with parents who swoop down to protect their dear one from any bad experience, and the results ain’t pretty. I have no desire to be That Parent, the one that makes all of the teachers want to set bear traps outside their room for me.

So I sit on my hands and do nothing. No, that’s not quite true: I shoot death rays at the kids with my eyes. So far it’s not working.

I do a fair amount of boring stuff for Dragon*Con, including keeping track of radios that the staff uses and helping the trains run on time. I figure you’re not interested in that. What you’re interested in are the videos I make for Dragon*ConTV. I’ve sort of carved out a niche in that group: making videos for childrens’ products.

Last year it was baby food:

This year it was educational shows from NickJr:

Later I’ll talk a bit about our process and what I’ve learned over three (!) years of doing this. As to why I do this: It’s all about the kids.

I had a particularly great time this year at Dragon*Con. I attribute that to actually knowing more people and being friends with a larger circle than ever before. Sometime over the weekend I realized that Con is really just an event that I happen to attend to visit with some friends that I don’t otherwise see very often. It’s what we do for our internet friends, so I can live with Dragon*Con in that context. I was previously having trouble viewing myself as a sci-fi con goer so it’s good after three years to have resolved that issue.

First, here’s a photo of Joyce in her White Witch costume. She entered the technical costume contest on Friday night. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t give her a prize, but I think she rocked! Also, her crown lit up!

Here’s a picture of the crowd on Saturday night. Saturday is always the most heavily attended day. You can believe it from this photo. Both Saturday and Sunday nights, I stood at the balcony with various friends and pointed out costumes and discussed what we liked and what we didn’t. This is a great con for people watching.

Speaking of costumes, Here’s some blue men with Patrick. They were great blue men and were in character every time I saw them. I love this photo and it may be my favorite that I took all weekend.

Here’s star-struck patrick after his encounter with the three men in blue.

Here’s a photo of a row of people in Jayne hats at the Serenity panel. The girl in the lower right corner was knitting a hat while she waited for the panel to start. I saw her sell two before it started. I was sitting at the sound board while Brian was on the mike bringing the crowd into the room and I had him tell them to look at me so I could take their picture. Isn’t power great?

The next few photos are of Joyce and me having our henna work done. I’ve posted about wanting to do this before but for various reasons have missed the boat. Joyce and I wanted very much to do it at the same time so we could ooh and aah over each other’s designs. And also, have a “girl-bondy” moment as she called it. I love my bracelets and am now probably spoiled for other henna artists as I loved Elizebeth and her work so much. Unfortunately, she lives in Savannah so I’m not sure how I’ll get my henna fix again.

Elizebeth working on Joyce’s hand.

Girl-bondy moment achieved!

Joyce’s beautiful fertility lotuses. I liked them so well, Elizebeth very kindly added one on the back of my hands just at the point of the big flower.

I had a great vacation and Eli had a great vacation with May and Pop. (They went to the park everyday, that’s how you know it was a vacation for Eli because I’d never drive 20 minutes one-way everyday to go to the park.)

Soundgarden: Black Hole Sun (1994)

This video is creepy, with an extra serving of creepy on the side and creepy for dessert. And why is Isaac Asimov staring at a TV full of static? The stretchy faces I can understand: the black hole is stretching people artistically instead of pulling them into thin strands of spaghetti due to tidal forces. Years later Kai’s Power Goo would put this power in the hands of people everywhere.

Foo Fighters: Everlong (1998)

Really, who hasn’t wanted an oversized hand with which to slap people around?

I believe Eli has finally absorbed the lessons of television, specifically reality shows: we all deserve to be on camera. He has taken to introducing us to his studio audience. “Oh, hi! I’m Eli. These are my friends, mom and dad. We’re playing Candyland.” Occasionally I can tell what show he’s auditioning for: “Oh, hi! Welcome to Sesame Street!”

He is often playing for his audience, real or imagined. Just a week or so ago he got done with dinner early and climbed down to play. He went into his room and returned with his etch-a-sketch-like drawing pad. He was walking slowly, not doing much, but as soon as he was back in the kitchen and realized that we were watching him, he began scribbling furiously on the pad.

On Mythbusters, Tory once claimed that Adam Savage had always acted as if a camera crew was following him and filming his every move at all times. Now we know who Eli will be when he grows up. Man, I’d really hoped that Eli wasn’t going to lose his hair like that.

The phone rang at 7 a.m. this morning. It was my dad calling to wish Stephen a happy birthday. By 7:30, I was in the shower and Stephen was shaving his head at the sink. We were talking about something. I don’t remember what. Eli wondered in with the phone. Apparently it had rung and we hadn’t heard it over the shower and us blabbing. It turned out to be my mom, calling to wish Stephen a happy birthday. (My parents are slow with the birthday cards so we get wake up calls to fill in the gap!)

But here’s the point:

My two and a half year old answered the phone, recognized who was calling, and carried on a five minute conversation without our knowledge.

And then he totally didn’t want to give up the phone to let Stephen get his birthday wishes. When if was finally my turn to talk, my mom said that she wasn’t sure that she’d called the right house because Eli sounded so grown up. But finally he called her Mumsie so she knew that she had the right number.

So if you call, don’t be surprised if Eli gets to the phone first. Just be prepared to talk for a while cause he’s not turning loose of that phone until he’s read you every book and explained every puzzle in his room.