The times have changed.

I have a bunch of Duplo blocks from when I was a kid that I've kept in a box under the coffee table, waiting for Elaine to show interest in them. Mostly, they're standard rectangular bricks, but there are a half dozen or so "door" blocks. And those are the ones that Elaine extracted a few days ago. I didn't question her interest in them... They are more complex blocks than the simple rectangles.

Then, she handed one to me, saying "You want this computer?" For the first time I looked at the block with the eyes of a child who has been being entertained by computers since she was born, instead of the eyes of a twenty-seven-year-old whose first memories of computers are of boring black-screened CRTs, enigmatically stealing the attention of her father.

And, indeed, the door blocks do look like computers.

I have commenced a campaign to hook Elaine on Star Trek. The plan is to begin her on all the TNG episodes that focus on small children. For starters -- "Rascals." Her favorite parts were, of course, joining in when Ro and Guinan were trying to jump higher than each other and, also, saying "Ferengi" over and over again.

Next up -- "Rascals." That's how two-year-olds work.

Two weeks ago, I was struck by a brilliant idea. I was stuck on my novel, "Otters In Space 2," and I was feeling downhearted about the prospects for sending "Otters In Space 1" around the agent and publisher slush piles out there. So, I thought, why not create something entirely different? Something that can be published straight to the internet (not to be too cliche here, but...) like Dr. Horrible and The Guild? Of course, I have no actors...

Or do I!??!?

Actually, it turns out that I have some very fine actors. Canine actors. And, swathed in duct tape, Trudy and Quinn make some very fine SPACE HOUNDS.

So, I have been very busy, building sets, making costumes, giving my actors some last minute obedience training, and, oh yeah, learning how to use an entirely new piece of photo-managing software. But, the hard work has all paid off, and I am now using my precious vacation time at Orycon to make SPACE HOUNDS! live.

Elaine checked a book out from the library today. She's seen me do it before, so she apparently had the concept down. We were in the children's section, flipping through a book called "Countdown to Kindergarten," about a girl with a cat who clearly reminded Elaine of Kelly. And, when I said it was time to go, Elaine declared, "Take book home!" So, she brought the book right up to the check out counter and, except for needing to borrow my library card, checked the book out all by herself.

Between inheriting her dad's old computer and learning to use the library, Elaine now has all the tools she needs to learn how to take over the world! Bwa ha ha!

In addition to general communication skills, Elaine has also been making huge progress on her computer skills. Last week, I started her out on Reader Rabbit. It's fairly different from the little, black and white game I played on my mom's mac as a kid. But it's the same basic idea: educational puzzle games that reward you with music and animation when you get them right. Of course, the puzzles I remember mostly had to do with spelling rhyming words (of only three letters), and they were way too advanced for Elaine.

Now, however, there's a whole sequence of Reader Rabbit games -- starting with one aimed at babies who can't do anything other than uncoordinatedly waggle the mouse and pound on the keyboard. Elaine mastered that one in two days. (Even so, it was an excellent game, as I don't know any other way to teach a two-year-old to use a mouse.) The next level of Reader Rabbit is aimed at toddlers, and it took more like a week for Elaine to master it. Last night, she graduated to the preschool level.

At this rate, hopefully, she'll be ready to play Diablo 3 with me by the time it comes out.

This has been a big month in Elaine's little world. She started preschool, gymnastics, and a music class like the one she used to take in Seattle. Until I signed her up for all of those, I hadn't realized that she was basically starting school. Four days a week, she has somewhere that she has to be before noon, and, apparently, four out of seven days is critical mass for utterly shifting Elaine's sleep schedule. I don't think I've seen this much of this many mornings since I was in high school.

Elaine's language development has become fairly interesting too. She no longer picks a pronunciation (such as "doot" = milk) and sticks with it, requiring us to learn her code language. Now, she'll switch her pronunciation of tricky words around, trying to get them closer to standard English. This makes her overall easier to understand -- but it was confusing when "doot," which has been constant for about a year, suddenly became "nut" (with an umlaut over the 'u'). Elaine also uses complete sentences; though, her pronouns tend to be backwards. ("She wants more," being her way of asking for more.)

With all of this progress in communication, I've noticed that Elaine now feels different in my memories of recent events. For instance, if I remember that I watched a movie last weekend, and I try to remember who all was there, I might think, "I know there were three of us -- but, I don't think Mom or Molly was visiting... So, that would be me, Daniel... and... Elaine?" See, I'm used to discounting Elaine when counting people, because, until very recently, she hasn't actually contributed to events and conversations like a full person would. Now, in her broken way, she does. It's eerie. A little like the moment in "The Cat From Outer Space," when Jake the cat first speaks to Dr. Frank Wilson.

Now if we can just teach the other Floor People to talk...

As Daniel headed back to work after lunch today, I told him I might just let Elaine watch movies all afternoon since it's already been a long week. However, despite my worst intentions, Elaine has so far banged on pots and pans, read Green Eggs & Ham, and played with alphabet refrigerator magnets. Now she's talking about going to the park.