Hope 2008

See what I did there? I bet you thought this post was going to be about Barack Obama. Well, it's not. It's about my sister. Gotcha! Tee-hee.

My sister Hope is visiting for the week, taking advantage of her fall break to spend a little quality time with me and her nephew. She can't stand Wendy, so she is refusing to spend time with her. Kidding! Wendy is out of town on a business trip for most of the week. Got you again, didn't I? Man, this is too easy.


That's a shot from Hope's first night in town, a picture she took of us in the middle of one of our pre-bedtime rituals. This may not look like it, but what is going on above falls under the heading of "jumping on the bed". Most nights, after Kiernan has had his bath and has been dried off and has brushed his teeth and picked out his pajamas--which, as you may be able to see, always must be mismatched--Kiernan insists on a few minutes of jumping on the bed. This used to be just what it sounds like. We'd retire to the master bedroom [sounds grand, doesn't it?] and Kiernan would jump on the bed for a few minutes. A little exercise to get him riled up before it's time to try to get him to sleep. Incidentally, this is one of Gammy's favorite things about our parenting, and she fully supports it. Yep.

Over time, "jumping on the bed" transmogrified into other things, some related to jumping, some not, but all still kept under the "jumping on the bed" event heading. The two unifying principles of these events are, 1. They must involve Guinea Pig; 2. They always involve Kiernan watching what he is doing in the mirror. Before he climbs onto the bed he makes sure the bathroom door is shut so that he can take full advantage of the full-sized mirror on the door. I swear I've never seen a kid who liked to watch himself in the mirror as much as Kiernan does. I mean it, Narcissus has nothing on this kid.

A few weeks ago the "jumping on the bed" event became a competition between Kiernan and Guinea Pig. Kiernan would direct me (or Wendy) to lie down at the end of the bed, crossways. He would hand over Guinea Pig--'GP' or "Ginzers" for short--and then stand next to me. Then he'd say, "Ready...Set...Go!" Then he'd jump/dive into the pile of pillows at the head of the bed. GP would "jump" at the same time (parentally assisted, of course), and as soon as they both landed Kiernan would immediately ask, "Who was higher?" Upon being answered he would then ask, "Who was faster?" This permutation did, at least, have something to do with jumping, even if it was not what is classically referred to as "jumping on the bed".

The newest wrinkle, however, has nothing to do with jumping. It's really just falling. I have to lie across the bed, facing the mirror. Kiernan climbs on my back and says, "Go up!" I push myself up. He falls off onto the aforementioned pillows. He finds this endlessly hilarious and really would do it all night if I'd let him. Sadly, business must intrude. I have a lot of things I have to get to once I get him to sleep. Most notably, collapsing.


My favorite pic is the third one down, where it looks like I am heavily under the influence of some sort of controlled substance. I'm not, other than a glass of wine or several. What you see in this picture is my body preparing for the aforementioned collapsing after a day of being pummeled by toddlers. Yes, I meant the plural there. Remind me to tell you about my experiences picking him up from school, sometime. I swear I must have the term "jungle gym" tattooed on my forehead in some sort of ink only visible to children.

Hope loves the top picture best of this series. "Look at him! He's posing while he's falling!" She believes this is clear evidence that Kiernan knows exactly how cute he is. I think he's just being accommodating. Helping out the photographer.

I'm sure that's it.