Rainy Days and Dinos

It's New Year's Eve! I think that calls for a dino slide show.

Kiernan found this raincoat under the Christmas tree. The coat was accompanied by Baryonyx from The Dinosaur Farm (best dinosaur store in the world) and a Pterosaur place mat. Santa knows his [her] stuff.

A raincoat in Southern California? A foolish gift you say? Well guess what, yesterday it was raining, lo and behold, and Kiernan and his mom needed to walk down the street for a playdate at his friend William's house. So, voila, gift in action.

Happy New Year, all.

Dinosaur Moment of This Day

Ah, the end of December in Southern California. The dinosaurs needed a little time on the chaise to decompress.

Kiernan was happy to oblige them.


After this idyllic moment the dinosaurs moved to the slide where they plummeted into a bucket. Good times.

Today. Moments ago.

Squirrel Picture For This Day

My brother came through.


As promised, I've posted the picture he was taking while I was taking the picture at the bottom of this post.

The boy's got skills. Or rather...skilz.


Washington, D.C.
July 2009

Picture For This Day

Another pic from the HD cleanup.


From our visit to Colorado last April. Taking a walk with Amy and Halley. I love that dog. I love Kiernan's face here.


Denver, CO
April 7, 2009

Random Bonus Picture For This Day

Looking through my laptop files and deleting old stuff. This Dell Mini is great, but has a tiny HD, so I have to bump stuff all the time. Don't worry, it's backed up.

I don't usually like posting pics with me in them, but I like this one. It's from a visit to Virginia last summer. We were attending an outdoor concert in Yorktown with Sandi and Dad, one of the lovely Friday night affairs that goes on all summer on the Riverwalk. It was raining, so we took our picnic food and sought refuge under a banquet tent.

Great picnic. Great time.

Yorktown, VA
July 31, 2009

District 2009

More pics from our impromptu trip to D.C. last summer, as I clean up my HD.


Kiernan and Uncle Mason cooling off their feet in a large fountain/pool after touring the museums.


Sandi challenges Kiernan to a race around the pool/fountain.


Sandi and Kiernan are on the far side of the pool. You can sort of make them out if you look carefully.



Kiernan and Sandi finish the race. It was neck and neck.


Chilling out, after the race.


Walking with my brother. I think I'm cool. He is cool. Check out the bandana!


No, they hadn't just seen 2012.


A break for a drink with his Terminator protector, the Sandi2000.


Finally, we stopped at a cool little ice cream spot on the way back to Gloucester Pt. from D.C. This is a little place in Fredericksburg, VA called Carl's, an ice cream shop that offers maybe five flavors, all soft-serve...and all delicious. One of those little hole-in-the-wall places you hear about from friends or see on some obscure show on the Food Network. We worked our way through Fredericksburg, asking for directions along the way. Finally we found it and there was a huge line outside.

Great end to a great trip.

You Can't, You Won't, and You Don't Stop

Some more pics from my laptop HD cleanup. These pics are from this summer, taken during the return trip from Pennsylvania back to Virginia with my brother Mason, Sandi, and my dad (Pap-Pap). On our way back home, by way of DC, we decided to find a lawn globe for one of Sandi's friends. I took some weird pictures, inspired by my brother's love of reflections in photographs. I love Kiernan's pose in this picture.


My brother Mason is much better at this than I am, of course. He's a pro. I'll link to his stuff here if he gives me permission. He's incredible. But for now, my amateur attempts will have to suffice.

Here he is, with me, both our cameras in shot. So meta.


This was a great trip, back in July, 2009. Kiernan's first foray into Washington, D.C. This was an unplanned side-trip, and it worked out beautifully.

Here's one final pic. My brother at work. [If he sends me the pic he took at this moment, I'll post it, and you'll see what I'm talking about.]

Picture For This Day

At the birthday party for Kiernan's friend Isabella.


Northridge, CA
December 13, 2009

(A Couple of Weird) Pictures for This Day

After pictures of two of the grandfathers, I'm feeling the need to post some grandmother stuff. But I'm having trouble finding anything cool of Gammy from Thanksgiving. So I'm posting this weird picture of Luke Skywalker. Who the heck knows what I was thinking in taking this picture? I don't know. But I like it. There's Luke, and in the out-of-focus background you can see Kiernan and Gammy and Grance.

Also...some espresso.


This is a shot of the espresso I mentioned from the lunch trip that nobody but me liked. I'm no good at taking pictures of food (you'll have to go to Mitch for that), but I loved the espresso here and this makes me feel happy today.

Also, love the grandmothers.

The Pap-Pap Chronicles

After putting up the post about Grance and Kiernan, and getting some nice feedback from Rance, I started thinking about my dad's visit earlier in November. I went hunting for some pictures and decided to put up a few. These two pictures are from my favorite part of the day, school pickup time.


To be sure, Kindergarten pickup-time is much different from the way it was last year and the year before at preschool. When I showed up for preschool Kiernan would just sprint to me and leap into my arms, almost knocking me over. The look on his face was amazing. Nowadays, well, basically he just notices me. He might give me a wave or a nod of acknowledgment. From time-to-time his face will light up and he'll yell, "Daddy!" But there's no running and jumping and hugging. He's too focused on his friends and playing. He comes to me only to raid my bag for any dinosaurs I may have brought. Progress. Oh well.

However, when Pap-Pap is visiting, Kiernan is much more excited after school. He was particularly excited to see my dad on this day, as Dad had not volunteered in Kiernan's class and so they had been deprived of each other's company for a few hours. The previous days (Thursday and Friday), Pap-Pap had volunteered in Kiernan's classroom. They both loved it.

Whenever my dad comes to California we have to take him to see the Pacific. He absolutely has to see the beach, so we try to build in a meal at a restaurant with a view of the ocean. This time we went to a place suggested by the mother of one of Kiernan's friends, a little dude named Mason. Mason's mom told my dad about a place right on the sand, and we sought that out. There was a forty-five minute wait, which was perfect as it gave Kiernan and Dad the chance to play in the sand a bit.


The food was pretty good too. I had an excellent butternut squash soup and some more than serviceable fish and chips. As we were on the sand we could not order beers, but the fish had been battered with Guinness, so there was that.


Miss you, Pap-Pap/Dad.

Picture of This Day

Yes Virginia, even in California we send letters to Santa.

It's raining here and Wendy elected to take Kiernan to the mall to get a picture with Santa. Brave girl. Sadly I've come down with some mysterious 3-hour flu bug, so I missed it. Not to worry, I suspect I'll be better for my trip out to the movies this evening.


Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Daily Grance

Over Thanksgiving, Grance and Gammy were here and Grance took this time to teach Kiernan how to read the paper. Sadly it was the Los Angeles Daily News they were reading together, and that's a terrible paper, but I suppose you need to start somewhere. It was nice to see Kiernan having such a nice time with Grance, although it was a bit disturbing to wake up to a five-year-old talking about settlements on the West Bank.


But it wasn't all news. Grance also did his level best to get Kiernan interested in some football. Better Grance do it than I do it, since I can't really watch a football game that isn't Tivo'd. I have to be able to fast-forward through the boring stuff, which is roughly 90% of any football game. The plus side of this is that I can watch a football game in about half an hour. But a little boy should not learn to watch football in this way. So, hat tip to Grance.

Lest you come to think that all Grance does is sit in a chair, allow me to disabuse you of that impression. One of the coolest things Grance and Kiernan did was go for a daily walk to a nearby park, a park I like to call Park Omar. I did not get any pics of those outings, so here's a picture of them walking at a shopping center.


I got this shot after we had lunch at a new place in town, a place I went with my dad when he was here called Roladin. It's a new bakery/cafe and it's quite good. Alas, I was the only one of the five of us who really cared for it (and Rance straight up hated it...ACK!). Great sandwiches. Amazing bread. Very good espresso.

After lunch Wendy and her mom just had to go to the dollar store down the way. None of us boys could stomach that, so we hung out outside. Grance and Kiernan made a circuit of the shopping center so that Kiernan could walk on the planter walls.

The Calm Before the *Storm*

Chilling for a moment before the birthday party; reading a dinosaur book with his cousin Dorian. T-minus two hours until go time.



The legs belong to Aunt JoAnne.

[*I mean that figuratively! You hear me clouds? FIGURATIVELY!]

Party of Five

The bouncy house has arrived.


Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Pap-Pap was here for the week, visiting from Virginia. As usual, it was a great visit. He and Kiernan got along famously and had a great time getting up at five in the morning together. Crazy.

Sandi sent a project along with my dad, a fall cookie project. This included a recipe for cookies Pap-Pap and Kiernan were to bake together, along with some fall-themed cookie cutters (a pumpkin, an acorn, and a leaf). Yesterday we stopped at the grocery store on the way home from school and grabbed some ingredients, and when we got home the two boys set about baking.


The cookies turned out pretty good, which was both a surprise and not a surprise. It was not a surprise considering the source of the recipe. Sandi is a world-class cookie baker, and the recipe was an interesting one, calling for a box of white cake mix as its primary ingredient. I was curious. The surprise was that the cookies turned out at all given that at the beginning of the process I had to explain to my father what a stick of butter was.

When all was said and done the boys turned out some pretty tasty cookies reminiscent of the cookies you get at Christmas time. Also, I've got a bowl full of dough in the fridge waiting to be baked. This is particularly fine as I just got back from the airport, where I dropped Pap-Pap off for his flight home. The promise of a week full of fresh cookies does little to help the fact that we miss him terribly, already...but I'm willing to let it help.

Thanks for the cookies, Sandi. And, most importantly, for sending Pap-Pap.


[Here we see the bakers after yours truly has pointed out that they forgot to include a key ingredient--chocolate chips--before rolling out the dough. I mean seriously. What is the world coming to? How does someone forget chocolate chips?]

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.