Iron man

We all know that it's Dash's long-held ambition to be a metal-maker when he grows up, so that he can fashion jetpacks and Iron-Man-like suits to his heart's content. So when we visited a replica Elizabethan ship at Roanoke Island on our vacation, and then found it came complete with model settlement site with real people doing real jobs like, for example, a real live blacksmith, he was pretty thrilled.

He was fascinated to see the forge in action (while the rest of us wilted in the record-breaking midday heat), and overjoyed when the smith presented him with a newly hammered, bent, black, iron nail.

Dash (far right, dodging the camera) in the settlement village. The forge is that structure at the back.

The nail is his new most prized possession. If you asked him to chose between his blue light saber and the nail, he might be hard pressed to answer. But, just like the light saber, he keeps misplacing the nail, and at an inch and a half long, it's that much harder to find.

With a quarter, for scale

The first night, he took the nail to bed with him. So sweet.

Not so sweet at 4.15 when he appeared by our bed with a piercing, "Daddy! Daddy!" I took him on, since I was half-awake anyway (probably just recently back from Mabel's bed; Mabel's not sleeping well just now), and B clearly was not.

"Daddy's asleep. It's the middle of the night. Tell me."
"No, I have to tell him."
"No, tell me. What is it?"
"I can't find my naaaaaiiiil."
"Right."
"..."
"Okay, I'll tell Daddy, and in the morning we'll find the nail. I promise."
"Can I get into your bed?"
Sigh. "Up you come."

Shortly thereafter I was called away again, and left him snoring peacefully beside his insensible father. The nail was located in the morning. He's only lost it several million more times since then, but not, so far, in the middle of the night again. Today he got a small plastic pill box to keep it in, which will make it about 2% easier to find, perhaps.

In its box