March of the Godparents

Sunday was a pretty good day for Kiernan. He got to see all three of his godparents, which always makes him happy. He's just crazy about the three of them, and really lights up when they come over.

It was also Movie Swap Day for Kiernan's parents. We don't get out to the movies much these days. This is our fault, and not for want of babysitting offers. In the months leading up to Kiernan's surgery, both of us were loathe to leave him with anybody else for any length of time. Even though his trusted and beloved godparents offered to look after him, as did his grandparents when they visited, Wendy and I were too freaked out to take them up on the offer. Especially after he had his spell--an episode related to his heart condition in which it seemed he was going to pass out. Until this happened we'd never really seen any external indication that there could be anything wrong with Kiernan's heart. He was the very picture of health. The spell was quite sobering, and it just seemed unfair to put someone else in the postion of looking after him. But the real reason was overprotectiveness and paranoia. The idea that he might have another spell, or a related emergency, with neither of us there to see him through it, was unimaginable.

Understandable to be sure, but still frustrating for those who'd offered to babysit and wanted to spend quality time with him, and frustrating for us as well.

Since his surgery we've been far too focused on his recovery to consider going on many dates, but the time is approaching when we'll need to make that a more regular thing. In the meantime, there's Movie Swap Day, in which we stagger our film viewing, one of us going out to see something early on and the other one going out later. There is an added bonus to this method of moviegoing: I get to dodge the chick-flick bullet. I just cannot overstate the value of this aspect of Movie Swap Day. There's nothing worse than finally getting to go out and being stuck watching The Wedding Planner.

So imagine my surprise when I asked Wendy what she was going to see this Sunday afternoon and she answered, "Serenity." She was going to see a spaceship movie! And she was going with her chick-flick buddy, Renee! At first I thought the two of them were trying to pull a fast one, that they were actually planning to sneak back to Renee's apartment to watch a compilation video of Matthew McConaughey's shirtless scenes. Or else Renee had found out about a Scottish Highland Games festival and the two of them were going to crash it to try to find the personification of Jamie--the hero of these Scottish romance/time-travel books they both read--and try to swipe his kilt. Turns out they did go to see the spaceship movie, and really liked it.

For my part I went to see a penguin movie. Yes, that's right. Given the opportunity to finally get out to the movies, I choose a documentary about penguins. I cannot explain this. I can, however, report that March of the Penguins is a fantastic film. I expected it to be. What I did not expect was that the film would make me feel so good about being a parent. Not that I've ever felt otherwise, but this film just filled me with a sense of pride and happiness about this new role of father. Kind of a cool byproduct.

At any rate, later in the day--but before the penguins--Kiernan's two godfathers, Darren and Daniel stopped by to see him. As if getting to see Renee--who in her alter ego "Nee Nee" is his godmother--wasn't enough! He was in seventh heaven, crawling all over them and showing them some of his new tricks. A great ending to the day.

Of course then I had to walk seventy miles to get food for him, but that's another story for another post.