My son

SGL Lil Grymm Goggles AD
Originally uploaded by SteamGearLab.com

My son is pretty amazing. Yes I know all children are to their parents, so let me take my time to be biased. I see so much of myself when I was a kid, in my son. It's a weird perspective. I mean I know how I was treated when I was a kid. It will be no shock to my friends that my "talents" were not appreciated as a child. Well not by my mother and sister anyway, but that's a different story for another time.

One thing we can all agree on is that watching a child learn is one of the most incredible things ever. The Hows that work followed by the "Ah-HA!" moments are so special. For instance, I being a fan of animation from when I was a child, was curious if the old school animation I grew up with would make my kid laugh. I noticed that almost all of the animation that is forced down kids throats these days are more commercials for a toy and brain numbing, without a trace of actual humor or entertainment. My test was to sit my son down to watch 'Duck Amuck', one of my favorite's as a child.

Keep in mind, at this point, James had no knowledge of Daffy Duck nor who he was. I refrained from laughing at any of the parts just to see what he would think. It was AWESOME! he laughed like I have never seen him laugh at a cartoon. but it was what he was laughing at that was interesting. It wasn't the slapstick of it all, it was Daffy's inflection and pauses that punctuates his sarcasm. This was a few years back, but ever since that day, he will watch old Looney Tunes over Spongebob any day. Whats even more interesting is that he works on mimicking their voices, and works hard to get them just right. He does the same with sound effects. Something I remember doing as a child also. He once came home from school and told me that he was shocked that one of his friends had "no idea" who Wile E. Coyote was. "How could he not know?? I told him ALL about him". THAT is hysterical to me.

Music has always been a big part of his life too. Introducing him to different styles has been important since he was very small, especially classical and instrumental. He also likes Jazz, Blues, and Swing. Since he could talk, he has always had this knack for picking up sound cues in instrumental music for films and knowing what was happening in those few notes. Again, something I did as a kid. Being that we spend a lot of time in the car driving to and from RI, we pack the trip full of music to enjoy. I load up some favorites of his on the iPod and add some that he's never heard to get his opinion. He is very curious and will ask several questions about the sound of instruments or what lyrics mean and those are the bright spots of my trips.

So the young man turned 8 recently. he's at that age I was dreading where he is coming to the realization of the divorce and how it all works. It's difficult for him. I think it's come about because of other kids at school or his cousins and seeing how they live, or it could just be the distance between us. I know it's hard for me to be so far away and only seeing him on weekends. but I would imagine it is harder for him some days. Both his mother and I do the best that we can to make it easier for him and make him understand, but to an 8 year old, it's not always that cut and dry. My wife also encourages him as much as she can and does a great job of finding just the right words for him, when it seems I have exhausted all in my arsenal. She's great that way.

I find that working on projects with him is really bringing us together. He is really starting to adopt the Steampunk aesthetic. Not that I should be surprised by that. the kid has loved steam trains since he could crawl, and can explain how they work better than anyone I know on Brass Goggles. He has already constructed his first Steam/bubble gun and this weekend built his first pair of goggles (seen above). Like with me, it's like complicated Lego's to him. he comes up with some cool ideas and loves hanging out in my studio taking this from that and seeing how it fits together differently. coming up with little stories for the contraptions is also a favorite of his. Not sure if he gets it from me, or I get it from him sometimes. All in all, he is turning out to be a great kid, and I will always be proud of him, for being himself.

Ciao-

~Doctor Grymm