The Road to Geekdom

We're well on our way here to making the boy as big a geek as his parents. Our theory is that if we continue to expose him to the geeky activities that we love, that he will have no choice but to also embrace his impending geekdom.

This week we went to a jug band concert at the local library. Yes, that's right - a jug band. It was not at all what I expected, but we totally enjoyed it. It was the Juggernaut Jug Band, and they played a mix of music ranging from Khachaturian's Sabre Dance to the Doors' "People Are Strange." If you've never heard the Doors done by a jug band, I highly recommend it. Matt was skeptical at first, but by the end of the show he was doing his head bobbing move and getting into it. The older women sitting behind us were thoroughly charmed by him.

We've also been busy teaching him about history. We recently took a day trip to Fort Boonesborough, the settlement established by Daniel Boone and his men in 1775. Matt could not have been less interested in the fort and the reconstructions of native settlements, and was even unimpressed with the live blacksmith demonstration. He did, however, enjoy the slightly gory movie detailing Boone's history with the local Indian tribes, especially all the parts involving muskets and other weaponry. Because I swear there is something on their genetic code that makes boys gravitate to all things destructive.

The settlement:


Matt and Charles at the back gates of the fort:



Much more interesting to him lately is the introduction of Charles' telescope. He absolutely loves to look at the moon and the stars, and asks every night if we can set it up on the deck.






His small stature makes him a natural for the astronaut corps, so maybe this is the first step in that direction? He did ask Charles the other night if we could visit the moon. We can't wait until he is big enough to take to Huntsville, Houston and the Cape and really expose him to some serious space geekdom.

We've also instituted family game night, where we play a variety of Matt-friendly board games. His favorite right now is UNO, which he is actually pretty good at. He likes to play the Skip cards and laugh at whoever he has skipped. It is possible he may have gotten his mother's slightly competitive nature. Ahem. He also likes Yahtzee, basically because he enjoys dumping out the dice. He does have a small problem with the name, however, which leads to episodes of him rolling his dice and yelling "Nazi! Nazi!" Which, I'm sorry to admit, is freaking hilarious.

More updates to come, especially now that Wee Ball has resumed. We are the Ruritans this year - once again we missed out on Wild Willie's Fireworks as a sponsor. Maybe next year.