Like Father, Like Son

Anyone who knows my husband and his family knows there are numerous engineers in the family.  Some have engineering degrees (they cover mechanical, computer, and electrical engineering I believe) and those that don't have an engineering degree seem have a knack for figuring things out.

My son is certainly following in the family tradition.  The other day I asked him to make me something to prop open one of the doors in the house.  I told him how much I wanted it opened and the rest was up to him.  He came up with a door stop made of K'Nex.

A couple weeks ago, our family went to Orlando for the first annual Orlando Mini Maker Faire. 

Essentially it's a nerd fest.  So hubby and son were in heaven.  There were booths where you could see things that people had built (e.g. local school's who participated in First Robotics competitions, a couple who invented a better swimming flipper, and people who made model R2D2's, among many others items).

There was also an area where kids could solder LED eyes into a robot pin.

Hubby was impressed as was the person overseeing. OK... so was I.

Daughter wasn't as interested in the faire, but she was drawn to one booth in particular.  The toucan and the fruit hanging from the tree in the picture below were animatronic and moved their "lips" or beak to the lyrics of various songs played using an iPod.  It was pretty cool.

Needless to say, next year the girls will be staying home.  I'm sure the boys will be going back though.  After all, they found a vendor there that sold them a basic programming kit that was up and running after just a couple hours of working on it.

Can you tell that my son was happy that he had written a program "all by himself"?

It's amazing to see how much alike my husband and son are.  Right now, my son is very proud of that fact.  Based on my recollection, that desire will end around the teen years so I suppose we'd better enjoy it while we can.