Dalton in his Roanoke College colors

OK, so the title is misleading. The wig isn't actually a Roanoke College wig. The color, however, is a good match. Dalton and I spent the afternoon at the Virginia Tech Math Emporium Mall. In case you haven't seen it, this place has all the features of one of those small malls that everyone forgot. Except that it is adjacent to the Virginia Tech campus and the school filled one end of it with computers and desks. I guess they run their math labs online in this area which is aptly named the Math Emporium. At the other end of the mall, is an official VT bookstore. In between is a private gym, a really good coffee shop, and a series of other shops and restaurants that you wouldn't recognize. It's likely that most of those indistinct shops would not exist if it were not for the steady stream of potential customers strolling by on their way for their daily dose of math. Even with this potential audience, the shops don't seem to prosper.

Regardless, we're pretty glad the mall is there. It has a number of fountains and some good space to run around. The bookstore has a children's section where we read books and bathrooms to go potty (critical). Dalty loves to throw pennies into the fountains. I used to ration them out to him to make the experience last several minutes. Of late, he has been holding the pennies and so they tend to go in handfuls at a time. Dalton is not much into delayed gratification.

The mall also has a number of large ceramic turkeys that have been decorated in various different ways. I took several pictures of Dalton in front of the one covered in Legos (his favorite) today.

We've also had some success in getting Dalty interested in words of late. My trick has been to start watching MY videos. Dalton gets to choose two videos to watch on the computer in the morning and two at night. These are short things of five minutes or less. When the word videos were new, he chose those. When they were displayed on Grandma and Grandpa's huge TV, he chose them. At home, he chooses some ABC music videos put out by They Might be Giants. I've managed some traction by watching my word videos separate from his videos. So far, he has sat down and watched my videos with me. He has resisted (as always) the reading of the words at the end of the video. However, if I read them incorrectly, I can get him to correct me on the ones that he knows. We will see how long it lasts.