A Sort of Homecoming

Saturday was a fairly busy day with a soccer game in the morning and a Harvest Festival at Kiernan's old school in the afternoon. The Harvest Festival is a yearly fundraising event at CSUN Lab School, where Kiernan went to pre-school. Oddly enough, this was the first year we could attend. In years past we've worked to help organize it (I was in charge of the bales of straw, if you must know) but have always been out of town for the event.

This year we were in town, and although Kiernan has moved on to a new school, we decided to attend the fundraiser at his old school. We decided to do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, we love the CSUN Lab School. It's such a wonderful place with incredible staff and faculty. So going to support them was a no-brainer. Also, Kiernan's BFF from pre-school--Nicholas--was sure to be there. Finally...cake walk. Who can resist a cake walk?

Well, I can, for one. Call it a 'pie walk' and I'm in. Cake walk? Meh.

Anyway, we went. As we drove up and scouted for a parking place Kiernan looked over at his old school and said, wistfully, "My old school!" Suddenly I heard Steely Dan in my head. Sweet.

We got there close to the beginning, so the festival was sparsely populated. It took a little while for Kiernan to warm up to the place. I love these moments, these moments when he gets all shy and hides behind my legs. When he won't let go of my hand. He's usually so gregarious, so outgoing. He's amazing at meeting people, which he totally gets from his mom. And I cannot tell you how happy I am about that. He makes friends so easily and naturally. But it's also nice to see this shyness crop up from time-to-time. It's nice to see a bit of me peeking through in these moments. He's a good mix.

Nicholas and his sister Veronica--pictured at the top of this post--arrived shortly after we did. It was beautiful. I mean Gone with the Wind beautiful. Okay, maybe not that, but it was pretty nice. They yelled and then ran to each other and wound up in a big hug. So cool. Moments later they were digging in the sand, as you can see over there to the right.

The Harvest Festival was a great success, and far more crowded than I would have imagined it would be. Although, to be honest, for Kiernan it was all about Nicholas. The games and activities and contests and food were of almost zero interest to him. All he cared about was seeing his friend.

But then...that's what homecoming should be, shouldn't it?

Picture of This Day

Kiernan's old school, the CSUN Lab School, had its annual Harvest Festival today. We dropped by and Kiernan was reunited with his best friend from preschool, Nicholas.


Saturday, November 7, 2009

Picture For This Day

Kiernan with his friend Sam, right before trick-or-treating. Kiernan is holding aloft Reader the Dog. More about him later.


Halloween Night
October 31, 2009

Also I carved these pumpkins. Kiernan and Wendy drew the patterns.

Picture For This Day

On Friday, Kiernan's school had a costume parade at the end of the day. This is a shot from right before the parade.

Kiernan's favorite subject these days is dinosaurs, as most of you know, so it makes sense that he should be one for Halloween. He chose Triceratops. I love this, as that's my favorite dinosaur and always has been. Kiernan's good friend Oliver is crazy about The Beatles. No, I'm not kidding. He is a five-year-old with a favorite rock band. And not only that, his favorite band is not some weird, goofy, insipid fuzzy-suit-wearing group of goofballs from Australia or something. He loves The Beatles. So his parents dressed him as his favorite Beatle, George.

Coolest. Parents. Ever.

Happy Halloween!


Friday, October 30, 2009

Picture For This Day

Kiernan and his friend Oliver during last week's field trip to the pumpkin patch at Underwood Family Farms. His first real field trip.


Moorpark, CA
October 19, 2009

Picture For This Day

Even though this is a pretty crappy picture quality-wise--I've got to get a new camera, something that does stills properly and also does video--I'm posting it because it was a great moment. This is a shot from our trip to the Natural History Museum last weekend. Kiernan was excited about this display because anything even slightly related to dinosaurs interests him. Ammonites, being an extinct group of marine animals that disappeared around the same time as the dinosaurs (to over-simplify things), clearly interest him.

The cool thing about this moment was that he walked up to this huge ammonite, looked at the sign, and started reading it, sounding out the scientific name Pachydiscus seppenradensis out loud on his own. I can't say I ever get nonchalant about the fact that Kiernan can read, as I constantly find joy and surprise in it. But I have come to expect him to read most simple things and most signs (making billboards like the ones for Zombieland* problematic) and don't go ga-ga over every little thing. However, it still knocks my socks off when he reads something like this. Wendy and I just turned to each other with our mouths open.

I'll try to find a couple of better pictures from the museum trip and put those up too, but the visit was something of a bust. As it seems with all such attractions in Los Angeles, it was under extensive renovation, and the renovations seemed to include most of the dinosaur stuff. I don't know what the deal is with LA (the zoo, until recently the Griffith Park Observatory) and renovations, but it's annoying.

Anyway, loved this moment.


Natural History Museum
October 17, 2009

*Loved the movie, BTW.

Picture For This Day

We had a couple of days of decent rain this week. So nice after all the heat. I really loved the change. Kiernan was annoyed by the rain, however, as it kept him from playing outside with his friend Oliver after school.

So yesterday I let him play for a long time with his friends, including a new friend named Mason from the room next to his class. The theme of this play session was Dinosaurs, Puddles, and Mud. What is it about boys and puddles? The moment a puddle appears a boy is sure to launch himself into it. Water goes everywhere. Then on the way to the car he complains that his feet are wet. "I'll need to take my shoes off when we get to the car. My feet are all squishy in them."

"Oh really? I wonder how that happened."

I can't believe I'm complaining about this.

At any rate, as I took this picture I was thinking that age old thought: "Boys will be boys." I shook my head, bemused. "You don't see any girls doing this," I thought with a sigh.

Moments later two girls from Kiernan's class, Lillie and Molly, walked by with Lillie's mom. They saw Kiernan and Oliver pouncing into the water puddle and immediately climbed down to see what was up. Before her mother could stop her Lillie leapt into the puddle, splashing water all over them. Kiernan howled with laughter.

Shows what I know.

October 15, 2009

Picture For This Day

At the LA County Fair last week. He's a little concerned about the Tyrannosaurus behind us.

Pomona, CA
October 4, 2009

Pictures of This Day

I just got a new phone. I'm still getting used to it. Here's a couple of pictures I took with the phone, the first ones I've posted. I'm considering getting a new camera, but leaning away from the higher end SLR I had planned on getting previously. I'm thinking of something like a Flip Cam so I can start to post video. Or maybe the Canon SD960 IS, so I can shoot video and stills. Not sure yet.

Anyway, here's a couple pictures from the new phone. This phone is so much smarter than I am.


Here is a picture of Kiernan posing with three of his dinos. Allosaurus is chewing on the tail of Megalosaurus, who is, in turn, chomping on the tail of Spinosaurus. But I'm sure you all could suss that out from looking at the picture.

What the picture does not make explicit is that Kiernan is playing outside on this rainy day because he is totally freaked out by the smell of my cooking in the kitchen. I'm trying a new recipe for White Chicken Chili in the slow cooker. I've just toasted and ground some cumin seeds. He objected.


Oh, and here's a shot before that. This is Kiernan doing his homework, his daily reading, on the kitchen floor while I cook. At this point I'm still prepping. No offensive smells yet.

I keep telling myself he'll grow out of this picky-eater phase. Well, I can dream.

Sigh.

Pajama Day

Last Monday was Pajama Day at Kindergarten. Here's a slideshow of pictures taken right after school.

Kiernan and his friend Oliver hang out, as usual, combining their two favorite things. Dinosaurs and reading. Make that their three favorite things: dinosaurs, reading, and playing together.

Oliver had brought this dinosaur book to school. He was clearly excited to share it with Kiernan, and Kiernan responded in kind as he had read the book at a bookstore some time before. They ended up reading the book together and quizzing each other on which dinosaur was coming up next.

They get so excited about books. They truly love learning, and they don't even really know it.

I love it.