The Energy of the Young

My daughter brought her two boys to our house yesterday. The older one, who is 35 months old, immediately saw two toys on the floor, and picked them up. "I have an ambulance and a police car," he announced proudly.

Those were new toys, which may explain some of his excitement. He loves cars. Toy cars, real cars, animated shows about cars. Also trucks, tractors, and almost anything with wheels. He watches Mighty Machines and other shows made for children his age.

He didn't spend his whole day playing with the ambulance and police car. He also played with the car-carrier truck, the school bus, the taxi, and a drum. Read a few books. Climbed on the couch and jumped. Ran around the green car and the silver car in the driveway. Poured all the blocks out of the canvas bag we keep them in. One thing he didn't do was stop and rest for very long.

We took the boys to the playground next to the library. Crosby went down the slides over and over. He wanted to swing for a while. Then he went back to the slides. I wanted to get a photo with his adorable grin as he ran from the bottom of the slide back to the ladder to climb up again, but I wasn't quick enough.

The younger boy, who is 15 months old, enjoyed walking back and forth under parts of the play equipment. He also enjoyed a swing. His mother took him down the slide a few times. My wife sent him down a slide alone. That didn't work quite so well; he fell back, his head bouncing a little on the plastic. I caught him at the bottom. He looked startled and a little upset. But he was joyful a few minutes later when his mother slid down with him again. We stayed at the playground until Arlo, the younger boy, got too red in the face and seemed to be overheating.

These boys have been mentioned by all of us on social media. I have seen video of them with their mother and father. I love watching them. I talk about them on Facebook. I text about them a lot. I don't know if any algorithms has noticed them yet. I wonder what the data gods will become by the time my grandsons are old enough and aware enough to directly interact with them. Maybe we will all be enslaved by code by then.

For now, I'm enjoying life among real people. Take that, algorithms.