That is the perfect example of why I could never, never in a million, billion years, teach small children.

I'm SO not an expert, but I think he's just overexcited and has a flair for the dramatic. I don't think he's that odd, really. Little kids are goofy.

Yeah, the only condition I can think of is an abundance of joy for being a participant. That, or he's making up for the kids who are just standing there.

Okay, I'll go with worriedly-goofy. Thanks, I feel better about laughing now.

Steve Ballmer as a young boy.

I think it's called "being four".

I think you can feel better about laughing. I thought he was adorably funny in that totally-out-there little kid way that has nothing to do with the fears we later develop about how people will see us. It's one of my favorite things in the world when I happen to see a kid just totally zoning out on his/her own shit.

Clearly, he had to compensate for all the little slackers who were just standing there. He single-handedly kept the entertainment quotient above baseline. He's also going to be the kid who does all the work during group projects while all the others goof off and talk about Sarah's birthday party on Saturday.

Reminds me of a kid I saw at the post office yesterday. He was with his mom ahead of me in line (about 3 people ahead of me). He looked bored (because there was a line) and so I started flirting with him and making faces with him. He was so happy that someone was entertaining him that he started singing and dancing. It took his mom way longer to figure out what was going on than it should have given that he was directly this all towards me. She was starting to give him crap about his behavior when she figured out an adult was the one who started it and who was encouraging it. hahaha. (He wasn't being bad at all - just doing cute fun kid stuff.)

To be fair the mom had a pretty fresh new baby with her as well that she was lugging around in a portable car seat thingy. (I would estimate that the baby was 3 weeks old.) After I was done they were still in the parking lot (she was getting the newborn strapped in) and when I walked by the little boy started clapping. LOL.

I love enthusiastic kids. They absolutely make my day - especially at this time of year when lines are long and people are often pissy.

directly=directing, even.