A Shortcut to Ahi

The day after Christmas, Kiernan and I went for a hike in Topanga Canyon with Grance, Kiernan's Aunt JoAnne, and his Uncle Mitch (JoAnne and Mitch are pictured bottom left). It was a beautiful, mild day that was just a little bit chilly, and therefore perfect for a hike in the mountains.

One of our big gifts from Gammy and Grance was the backpack you see pictured. Kiernan has grown too big for his original carrier, the Baby Bjorn that held him to my chest. His Gammy, Susan, was good enough to rent us a backpack carrier when we visited Phoenix in November, and we discovered it worked very well. Kiernan just loves to be outside, so a new backpack immediately went on our Christmas list.

Kiernan's mom, his Gammy, and his Aunt Amy did not go on the hike, as they were at the time enduring a grueling day of spa treatments. Our family gift to Susan and Amy was a day at the spa, and somebody had to go along to make sure they made it through the ordeal unscathed. Lucky for me, Wendy bit the bullet and accompanied them.

Meanwhile, the rest of us had a great hike, led by our intrepid leader Rance (pictured above right), who, without falter or the slightest fret led us on a labyrinthine trek through the wilds of Topanga. I have to tell you, there were times when we feared we might never return to civilization. JoAnne--Rance's daughter--at one point came close to inciting a mutiny. Mitch--her husband--briefly lost his mind, squaring off against a chipmunk and threatening to "Rip that grizzly bear apart with [his] bare hands." I am ashamed to say I broke down and wept openly, crying to the heavens, "Why? Why? Why?" But Rance, he never wavered, never doubted. And neither, for that matter, did Kiernan. They were our rocks. We shall not soon forget that day.

Especially since the hike was followed by a sushi dinner. This dinner was the idea of our indomitable guide, who never for a moment was in the slightest danger of getting us lost. And the sushi dinner was in no way intended to keep us quiet about almost getting us lost, since that never happened. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Man that sushi was good.

The Bubble Boy

So Cool For School

Last week Kiernan had his first day of school at the infant/toddler program. He had an auspicious beginning by using a new word that day...school. Or, as he says it, "Cooooool!" It was a nice surprise, as this is not a word we've been working on with him. But on our way, Wendy said to him, "Kiernan, we're going to school!" And he responded with the above as if on cue. Now it's possible he was actually commenting on how he felt about going to school, but I don't think so. The spelling I've used doesn't quite give the way he said it justice. He didn't really say the word "cool". Imagine what he said with just the barest hint of an 's' before it, a tiny little 's' too tiny even to put down in writing. It was clear he was trying to copy his mother. He's becoming quite the little mimic.

School is going well. He seems to like it a great deal. It's a loosely structured affair. The first forty-five minutes or so involves playing. There is a theme for the week--last week was animals, this week is transportation--and toys that deal with that theme are set out all around the room. Children are welcome to play with whatever toys they want to from the shelves, though. They are also welcome to wander into the adjacent room with the previously enshrined ball pit. Kiernan still loves the ball pit, but his clear favorite in that room is the laundry basket full of pom poms. Since his mother and his godfather Daniel were both cheerleaders, and indeed cheered together at William and Mary, this comes as no surprise. Kiernan loves to take all the pom poms out of the basket, shake them a little bit, then put them right back in. It's surprising how many times this has to be done. As a non-cheerleader I clearly do not understand the many nuances of dealing with pom poms.

Next everybody goes outside to play in the yards set aside for the little kids. Since the infant/toddler program is on the campus of a middle school, it is important to set aside areas like this. Kiernan does not agree that this is important, however, as he took every opportunity that first day to try to get to where the big kids were playing basketball and dodge ball. Perhaps he just wanted to cheer for them. Or perhaps he just sees himself as more mature.

Outside the kids ride around in little cars and wagons, and go into the sand area to slide down the slides and make sand castles. The other day Kiernan discovered how to use a little sand shovel to move sand from one place to another. Today, which was our third day at the program, he discovered that the primary function of the shovel is clearly to throw sand on himself and his father. The teacher was none too interested in him acquiring this skill, and I think she's going to give me a demerit, or maybe a time-out on Friday, for letting him learn it.

After sand-throwing class everybody heads back inside to sit in a circle and sing. This is followed by snack time, during which everybody sits around tiny tables and has a snack--crackers, apple, cheese, pea-pod with shrimp--and a drink--apple juice, water, martinis--together. It was at this point on the first day that his mother almost started crying she was so proud of Kiernan. All of a sudden she just looked at me, her eyes glistening, and said, "Look at him. He's sitting there in a chair. Eating with other kids. He's just so good."

After snack time the kids play again for awhile, then everybody cleans up (while singing the clean up song, of course). Finally, the kids all get in a semi-circle again and sing the goodbye song to each child.

Kiernan has had three days of school so far, and he seems to really enjoy it. I feel like I'm falling behind, especially in the homework, and I'm a little annoyed that they don't have a special snack time for the parents, but as long as he's having a good time, I guess I'll just have to deal with my disappointment.

Just like high school.

Product Placement

We must have spent about seventeen hours trying to come up with a decent picture for our family Christmas card this year, when you add up all the different venues and poses and outfits we tried. And when I say 'we' above, I mean, as I usually do, "Wendy". I believe I've made this clear before, but most of the time when I'm talking about some sort of task we have undertaken to better organize our lives, or be more active socially, or reach out to our family, I mean Wendy when I say 'we'. "We" is, after all, a reasonable abbreviation of her name.

For minute, after grueling minute, Wendy tried to capture just the right image. Digital cameras are wonderful. You can click away to your heart's content, never worrying about wasting film. Unfortunately you also have to be able to predict two seconds into the future because of the lag time between button being pushed and picture being taken. We never take pictures of Kiernan when he is smiling. We take pictures of him when he's going to smile. As with most of the things we're teaching him to do, I'm not sure who is being trained here, us or him. Wendy got a bunch of pretty good shots, but nothing she was ecstatic about.

So, the day before Christmas, we got Kiernan in his Santa suit--a gift from Wendy's Uncle Tom and Aunt Bonnie--and chased him around the tree for half an hour. This activity yielded several great shots, like the one above. The only problem was that stupid soda bottle. It seemed like every good shot had some dopey product placement in it like that.

Eventually Wendy just picked a variety of shots that went to different people. You probably know this, as you probably got one. I love the one above. I also loved this one of him riding the traditional Rocking Moose that he got for his birthday from Amy and Lisa. The only problem with that picture being the offstage arm of his mother. It's a cute arm, and structurally necessary, but it kind of throws off the composition of the picture.

Kiernan now has a Rocking Moose (pictured), a Rocking Horse that his Nana and Pop sent him, and a Rocking Fish that his Gammy and Grance gave him. Eventually we hope to have a rocking representative of each member of the animal kingdom. Kind of the Noah's Ark of rocking animal collections, if you will, but with only one of each.

Lord knows I don't need these things breeding. We have enough toys that make noise as it is.

Most Favored Gift Status

Kiernan's favorite gift this Christmas--aside from the one YOU gave him, which is the gift he really loves to play with/wear/save for college the absolute mostest because YOU are so special to him--was this box filled with packing peanuts. Clearly the folks who picked this one out, his Grandaddy Jake and Omi Karen, knew what they were doing. They shipped it out from Colorado, protecting the little styrofoam peanuts inside by placing a bunch of wrapped presents inside among them. This kept the peanuts from overcrowding each other too much.

After the presents were removed, Wendy had the bright idea that if he loved the ball pit at school, he surely would love to be put in a box full of packing materials. She was right. He must have spent twenty minutes in that box just rooting around. Then he spent another ten or fifteen minutes climbing/diving out and immediately demanding to be put back in. It was quite a Christmas morning.

I predict shopping for him is going to be much easier next year.