Kids who are staying at Seattle Children's Hospital are finding messages written to them in huge letters when they look outside their windows. Ironworkers assembling the frame of a new building outside the hospital have been spray painting greetings to the kids on steel beams:

And sure enough, there on a reddish-brown beam was a message an ironworker spray-painted only a few days ago. Its big bold letters said simply, "HI JULIAN."

A couple of rooms away, Zac Graling, a 16-year-old being treated for leukemia, looked out at another beam bearing the message, "HI ZAC." [...]

The new building's skeleton is alive with greetings to Kitty, Colby, Kyle and Istvan. To Violet, Seth, Josh and Austin. To Rachel, Adam, Gillie-Jane and Christofer.

"Each day we do another one — at least one," said Tim Hettich, a superintendent with subcontractor The Erection Co., made up of Ironworkers Local 86.

Link -via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Alan Berner, Seattle Times

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The 18-month old daughter of YouTube user grizzdais knows actor Brad Pitt on sight! And he is totally cute and the object of her affections. Does George Kennedy get this kind of fan adoration? No, although I flabbergasted as to why.

-via The Uniblog

Tatiana and Krista Hogan are a pair of conjoined twins joined at the head. Because their brains are linked together, they may share a mind, according to some scientists. They certainly share some sensory information: Tatiana can see through Krista's eyes and Krista can see through one of Tatiana's eyes. But beyond being the source of scientific fascination, they're also little girls who are growing up. And they just started kindergarten:

“They love school,” says grandmother Louise McKay. The staff at the school have gone out of their way to make the girls comfortable, including setting aside a quiet room if they need a break and retrofitting a special toilet, she says. “They have a really nice team behind them, they’re helping us out trying to figure out ways of accommodating Tati and Krista so they’re comfortable at school.”

The girls have certainly caused a stir. One girl, especially, followed them around the first few hours, clearly curious. They quickly formed a friendship. “Every morning she waits for Tati and Krista to get there, and takes them over to play finger puppets,” says McKay. “They’re laughing and giggling."

Link -via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Brian Howell

Don't be too proud of this obstetrical terror you've constructed. The Pregonaut knew exactly what to do with her extended belly last Halloween. And yes, it does fire a beam of destruction. Click on the link to see it in action.

Link -via The Mary Sue | Mother's Blog

Life magazine looked back through its archives for weird inventions, including this baby soother. It's shaped like a human breast and vibrates to the rhythm of the human heart on the assumption that the form and cadence are familiar and comfortable to babies. Jokes aside, this actually sounds like a plausible hypothesis -- or at least enough to generate sales. I've got two young children, and I tell you, some parents will buy anything.

Link -via Gizmodo

Some couples celebrate their pregnancy with a professional photo shoot. Most are sweet and tender, but Nicole decided that she wanted a science fiction theme for her set. The results, taken by photographer Nuby DeLeon, are hilarious. The baby, a daughter named Taylor, has since been born. To the best of our knowledge, she is fully human.

Link | Photographer's Website

When I was a little boy, I asked my mother what hair was made of. She tried to explain it to me in a way that would make sense to a six year-old, but remain scientifically accurate. Hair, she said, is made out of protein. I asked "What's protein?" This proved to be an even more difficult topic, but she did say, at some point, that peanut butter was rich in protein. So, as I understood it, hair is made out of peanut butter. I responded by making a hair and jelly sandwich.

It was awful.

But that's what happens when kids try to understand the adult world around them. An artist named Pierrette Diaz composed a set of paintings that works with that theme, visualizing what kids misunderstand.

Link -via The Mary Sue

Author John C. Vanden-Heuvel Sr. has a good point when he writes, "It's never too early to be standards compliant!" Turn your kids into code monkeys before they're even potty trained with this board book written by a web designer for his child.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615487661/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=blaitonthevoi-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0615487661&adid=16EZNETA4R2TXRDH1ZMW -via Blame It on the Voices

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Would you like to be Fred Rogers's neighbor? I sure would. And watching him sing his invitation at the beginning of every episode reminds me why.

I grew up with Mister Rogers. There was something magical about him back then, and I still feel it to this day.

-via Kottke

Angie Naron spotted this adorable pair of pumpkin carvings in Chicago in 2009. They're simply perfect.

Link -via Craft | Previously: Bert and Ernie Fruit Craft

Sequoia National Park is a lovely spot that is strikingly similar to Endor, the moon on which the Ewoks of Star Wars live. Anthony Herrera's kids love Star Wars, so he photoshopped Ewoks into the background of their photos from a trip to that national park:

After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn't see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother.

Awww. Ewoks are so cute! And even cuter when they pay close attention to children, right?

No. Remember: Ewoks eat people. In Episode VI, they tried to roast Leia, Han, and Luke. You may look at them as teddy bears, but they look at you as dinner.

Link -via The Mary Sue

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What's it like to actually experience pregnancy? Men can only know vicariously, but researchers at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology have developed a sophisticated simulator that does a better job than any other currently available. It uses actuated air pockets to mimic fetal movement and an inflating water bag to demonstrate the weight and pressure experienced by pregnant women.

http://www.diginfo.tv/2011/09/22/11-0188-r-en.php -via DVICE

A blogger named Curtis claims to be on a diet consisting entirely of his wife's breast milk. It's an experiment to determine the suitability of the ideal newborn diet for an adult:

Preferring the taste of breast milk over cow's milk, Curtis said he drinks breast milk to settle digestive problems.

"And yes, I know how weird this may sound, it is kind of weird to me as well but why not?" Curtis wrote on his first post. "I mean cow milk was made for baby cows, why not drink human breast milk that was made for baby humans."

Some doctors are skeptical of this diet:

Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Center, had even harsher words for the couple, going so far as to call the stunt "truly asinine."

"The rapid growth and brain development of early childhood is best fueled by the high-fat, energy-dense elixir of breast milk," said Katz. "There is no basis in all of nature to infer that it therefore is optimal food for adult mammals of any species."

News Story and Curtis's Blog -via Dave Barry

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Operation Smile is an organization that offers cleft palate and lip cosmetic surgery to children around the world. Here's a video of one successful surgery on a little girl in Brazil. A day after the procedure, she looks at herself and is amazed at the results.

-via Doobybrain

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The scientific method was one of the greatest developments in human history. If a child can learn basic empiricism, then s/he has a great advantage in understanding the world. So I'm quite pleased that three and a half year-old Elmo has now learned the word "experiment". Our thanks to Craig Ferguson for teaching him.

-via The Mary Sue