a good friend of mine has a very very very active son, and one of her strategies for dealing with his energy has been to give him paint cans to move around the yard. as in "hey! i have a great idea! why don't you take these 1-gallon cans of paint -- i think there are 8 -- and move them over here, to this spot about 100 feet away?"

i used to laugh in amazement at this--the ingenuity, as well as the phenomenon of a child that had so much energy that he found this fun and challenging.

now, well, i am not laughing. i am thinking that i might have to invest in some gallons of paint myself. every time i turn around, carter is relocating some heavy object. moreover, he chooses to carry these objects, even though some of them have wheels, and others would slide along the floor easily. as he does this, he talks to himself, narrating his effort.