Eli 6.3: Holiday Edition
Since it's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., here are a few Eli stories that are hopefully for your amusement.Last night we were playing Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Eli's fascinated by the instant replay feature, or rather, that when there's a replay of a javelin throw, you can also see the replay on the giant stadium screen at the same time.
We had been playing for about thirty minutes, and it was time to stop, because Eli needed to go upstairs for his shower. "Eli, let's go," Gloria said.
"Just a minute, mom," he said.
"No minute," she said. "Let's go."
"Mom!" he said, looking at the television and pointing to the stadium screen in the background. "I'm watching my REPLAY. I'm on TELEVISION."
***
This story won't make any sense if you're not familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender.
On Tuesday afternoon, there were squirrels in our backyard, and both George and Gracie's tails got bushy from all the excitement. Eli was about to pet George as he walked by, and Gloria said "Eli, that's not a good idea. I wouldn't pet George when his tail is bushy."
"Why not?" Eli asked.
"Cats are a little nervous when their tails are bushy," I said. "They get excited and really can't control what they're doing."
Eli thought for a few seconds about this. "Oh, I get it," he said. "It's like they're entering the Avatar State!"
"That's right," I said.
"And they can't control themselves, just like Aang," he said.
"It's the Catatar State," Gloria said.
***
Last night, we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner, and Eli saw three little boys sitting at a table near us. "Dad, look at those triplets," he said.
"Those aren't triplets," I said. "They look like they're all different ages."
"Oh," he said. "How do they watch THREE kids when there are only TWO of them?"
"Well, it's like this," I said, taking out a crayon and drawing on the butcher paper that covered the table. "Let's call Mom 'M' and Dad 'D'. Kids will be a 'K'."
"Got it," he said. I drew a D, an M, and a K on the butcher paper, and drew arrows to the K.
"With one kid, plus a mom and dad, how do they watch him?" I asked.
"They both watch him," he said.
"That's right," I said. "That's called a double-team." I drew another K. "Now what do they do?"
"They each watch one kid," he said.
"Yes," I said. "That's called man-to-man." I added one more K. "What do they do with three kids?"
"I don't know," he said. "There's one extra kid."
"That's why they can't play man-to-man," I said. I drew two circles near the D and the M. "With three kids, Mom and Dad each have an area they watch, and they watch all the kids that come into their area. This is called a zone."
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