Picture For This Day

Back to the bench at the five minute substitution mark during his second basketball game, Friday night. Don't worry, I refill those little bottles of water many times.

His coach is sitting behind him on the bench. Yes...that is a flip flop.

Friday, January 30, 2009

No. Brown. Accident.

After the trip to the Chabot Space and Science Center, the boys and their mothers settled down for well-deserved naps. The Dads headed out for a walk. Mitch was keen to show me the neighborhood and I love walks like this, exploring a new place with interesting terrain and a guide who likes to talk about his surroundings. Great for me. I would have loved to go running in their neighborhood as well. It's wonderfully hilly and the air was quite brisk. Unfortunately the initial drive in taught me that the street layout was all but incomprehensible, at least for a newcomer, and as I didn't figure taking the GPS on my run was a practical idea, I gave up on the idea of a run. No matter, the walk was great. Mitch, JoAnne and Dorian live in a great little neighborhood.

Once all walks and naps had ended we all prepared for a sojourn into the city. [Those of you who have seen Dress to Kill, I implore you to imagine the way Eddie Izzard says "the city", about this very city, as you read those words.] JoAnne and Mitch wanted to take us into San Francisco to one of their favorite restaurants. So we got ready and headed out in separate cars. JoAnne, Wendy, and Dorian in one car. Mitch, me, and Kiernan in the other. This was the only point in the trip when I wished we had taken the huge minivan Enterprise tried to thrust upon us. However, while it would have been nice to ride into the city all together, riding separately provided a singular benefit: the conversations of Kiernan and Uncle Mitch.

Mitch and I belong to the same school of toddler communication. That is, we are wired to field any question from a child as a serious question and do our level best to answer that question, no matter how absurd, no matter how deep we are in the "why" thread. Our answer may be as absurd as the question, but that answer is delivered with all seriousness.

We were not two minutes away from the house and Mitch was talking to me about the nearby Mills College when Kiernan chimed in with, "Excuse me, Uncle Mitch. Excuse me, Uncle Mitch."

We paused.

"I have a question," said Kiernan.

Mitch thanked Kiernan for his politeness and told him he would be done with his story in two minutes, and then he would answer.

Kiernan waited patiently and by the time we got on the freeway Mitch was ready to answer Kiernan.

"I have two questions."

"Okay Kiernan. Go ahead."

Kiernan's first question: "Are we there yet?"

Mitch's answer: "No."

Kiernan's second question: "Mitch, is your hair black?"

Mitch's answer, after the laughter: "No, it's brown."

Those were his two questions, asked back-to-back. "Are we there yet? and "Is your hair black?" I love how kid-dom is so often Non Sequitur Land. At least to us.

The conversation went on, went back and forth, and as we sped along the freeway I clicked on the heat in the car. A moment later, Kiernan asked, "What's that smell?"

We went through some smell investigation, along with various denials, until Mitch finally said something like, "Oh no!" As it turned out he had stepped in something a dog had left behind in front of his house. Unfortunately for Kiernan, being in the back seat meant that the car heater carried the smell right back to him. Mitch told him him the smell was because of what Mitch had stepped in.

Kiernan asked, of course, "Why?"

Mitch answered, "Accident." Then Mitch said, "So, the answers so far are...'No.' 'Brown.' 'Accident.'" He then went on to make a point about the thematic nature of these answers, but I think we shall move on at this point.

We proceded on our way and eventually got to the Bay Bridge, which is a very cool bridge to drive across. As we approached it, Kiernan asked if we were on a bridge; he's at the point where driving on cool bridges and significant tunnels is cool and interesting. Mitch mentioned that the Bay Bridge was about to be replaced, because it was seismically unsound.

Well, the fact is you cannot throw out a term like "seismically unsound" and not expect Kiernan to call you on it.

Kiernan asked, of course, and Mitch being Mitch, without skipping a beat he explained what he meant to Kiernan, that seismic engineers had tested the bridge and determined that it was not up to modern earthquake construction codes. Kiernan pressed him for a deeper explanation, so Mitch gave him an example, explaining that during the big earthquake of 1989 a part of the bridge had collapsed and a car had fallen through.

Kiernan seemed content with this and was quiet as the conversation moved to other topics. After a few minutes Kiernan finally asked a new question.

"Where's the car now?"

I know I go on and on about how I love the way my son's mind works, but there's a reason for that. I'm crazy about it. I just love that after several minutes of talking this is the question he came up with. That you can see that the wheels were turning the whole time, even as we moved on to other topics. And that he was processing the whole conversation, that whole time. Visualizing it in his way. Until ultimately the computer in his brain wanted to know, "If a car fell through the bridge twenty years ago, where is it today?"

I have no idea how we answered this question, as we were so flummoxed by it, but we did somehow.

A little later Mitch pointed out the Golden Gate Bridge, which was visible in the distance. "Look Kiernan, there's the Golden Gate Bridge."

A pause. Then, "Are you serious? The one with things like hair?"

I'm sure you can picture the bridge in your head. I'm sure you can picture seeing it from a long distance. If you can't, go and Google it real quick. Do a quick image search. I can wait.

All those long cables. Off in the distance. "The one with things like hair?" My kid is just so cool.

Next...Little Italy.

Picture of This Day

Kiernan and I did some just-in-case bed shopping today (Friday). He loved trying out every bed. Well, almost every bed. After his first trip up to a top bunk, I pointed out the "Please Don't Climb Onto The Bunk Beds...Thank You" sign. After that, no more climbing. There was only one sign for all of the downstairs beds, so he did question how that could possibly apply to every single bunk bed in the place. And he had a problem with the "Thank You" on the sign. "Why are they thanking me? They can't see me." Are we raising a future lawyer here?

While it has some cool elements, we ultimately decided against this monstrosity Death Star bed.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Picture For This Day

One of the random prop books on the shelves at the furniture store was an encyclopedia book for kids (teens and older). Kiernan asked about book shelves, and I pointed out this prop book. He opened it. As luck would have it, there was a picture of Jupiter inside.

He paged through the book, stopping at one of the Jupiter pages to read a paragraph to me. A paragraph. This isn't a great picture, but you can see the text in this book is normal book text. This isn't a book for children.

I'm just so taken by his love of learning.

January 29, 2009

Space Center Part III

Upon arriving in the Discovery Room at Chabot Space and Science Center, I found my own personal astronaut. One little known fact about astronauts--because NASA keeps it under wraps--is that they prefer to wear mismatched shoes.


As Kiernan manned the rocket, I couldn't help but be taken with the whole weird and great social dynamic that tethers to parenting. Kiernan was in this fake rocket, playing with a little space shuttle toy. At that moment he was alone. Eventually another child showed interest. What to do then?

I find the whole social contract that deals with kid etiquette and sharing and controlling your own kids to be fascinating. Sharing, in particular, I find fascinating. Let me start, at the outset, by saying that I believe sharing to be a good thing, an important thing. I believe we should do more of it. And yet, when I think of the sharing we encourage on the level of our children, I cannot help but take pause. What do we expect here? We expect that if our child meets another random child, a stranger, that he should share his toys with that stranger. Do we expect the same of ourselves as adults?

If some guy walked up to me and grabbed my iPod and demanded I let him examine it, I'd smack him. And for good reason. Yet we adults expect our children to share their toys with total strangers. What a weird society.

What a weird tangent.

Anyway, at some point another kid tried to enter the little fake rocket. I'm sure the kids would have eventually worked it out. They usually do, one way or the other. Instead the kid's mom and Kiernan's dad worked it out...through the kids. Another interesting dynamic (at least to me), is this talking-to-other-adults-by-talking-to-your-kid thing. The mom said to her little boy something like, "There's another boy in there. Just wait a little bit and it will be your turn." Those were her words to him. Translation to me: "Your kid is on the clock."

I said to Kiernan, "Okay, buddy. It's time for somebody else's turn. What do you want to play with next?" Translation to kid's mom: "I hear you. We'll be out of here in one minute."

We moved out of the rocket and shed the astronaut costume and Kiernan headed to the back of the Discovery Room. There he found a felt board with the sun and the planets on it. He got to work. One of the things I just love about Kiernan is his focus, the way he sticks with an activity. He loves the planets. He found a felt board with the planets on it. No other kids were interested. So he kept playing with the felt planets, on and on, until another kid interrupted him.

Eventually another kid did interrupt him. A kid named Connor picked up on Kiernan's intensity and jumped into the fray. They had a conflict when Connor grabbed the felt Earth. Connor's dad jumped in to moderate, and we had another of those proxy conversations. We both backed off, thankfully, and the kids made their way.

These are some of my favorite moments, watching Kiernan work things out with other kids. Watching the way kids converse and negotiate, especially without parental help. I love eavesdropping on toddler conversations. I love the way they work things out. Connor [pictured to the left with Kiernan] would point out a planet and Kiernan would correct him. They would go back and forth. It was great.

Shortly after this we all headed home for nap time and dreams of the planets. It was a great day, and only half over. After our trip through the Solar System, where would we go?

Why...Italy of course.

to be continued

Picture of This Day

Shopping for a new bed.

Kiernan: "I like the bunk bed!"

January 28, 2009

Space Center Part II

After viewing all of the planets in the Solar-Go-Round, we gathered ourselves so that we could make our way downstairs for the planetarium show. Tearing Kiernan away from a room full of planets is no mean feat, but we managed somehow to do it. Perhaps it was the promise of a giant movie about the planets that did it.


I cannot even remember the last time I was in a planetarium. I was a little nervous about taking Kiernan to the show. I've heard people say that seven is a good age to start bringing kids to the actual shows in the planetarium. Plus I have a thing about parents who take kids who are too young to the movie theatre. But this was an animated film geared toward kids, and it was only forty minutes or so long.

Just walking into the planetarium was such an interesting experience. It brought back feelings and impressions of planetariums past more than actual memories. The memory going into the auditorium did evoke was of my first time going to see a movie at the old Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Back before Arclight took it over and renovated it and made it into the palace it is today. It's a great theatre now, but it was good back then too, when it showed the odd classic film. The first film I saw there was 2001.

We found our seats and waited for the theatre to fill. Finally the lights went down and a Hal-esque voice (again with the 2001 evocation) started to talk to us about planetarium etiquette. My nervousness returned when the voice instructed us what to do if we experienced motion sickness (close eyes and it should go away). I wasn't worried about myself, of course, so much as I was worried about Kiernan. Being in a movie theatre can be an intense experience, so much more so when it involves something you are passionate about, and motion-sickness, I have found, is not something kids inherently understand. I had an epiphany about this recently. I think it was during the drive to Arizona for Christmas, but it might have been before that. At some point Kiernan said he wasn't feeling well. Something about his stomach or his head hurting. And it occurred to me that he was drawing on his doodle-pro and that maybe he was experiencing a bit of motion-sickness. The epiphany was that if he was experiencing motion-sickness...how would he know that's what it was? The answer is, he wouldn't. He wouldn't be able to make the link that he was feeling queasy because he was trying to draw or read or whatever in the car.

I just find such things interesting.

As it turned out, Kiernan had no problem with motion-sickness during the planetarium show. At least none that he complained about. Overall he did fine with the show, a little animated feature called The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket. Two kids turn the box from the new refrigerator into a rocket and get their mom to let them spend the night in the thing in the yard. They pretend to take off and the rocket takes them on a voyage through the Solar System. The book on astronomy that they bring along serves as their guide for the voyage, in the person of a huge animated vaguely Einsteinian head that pops out of the book. His is the only head we see, as the animators chose not to create the kids or the mother or the father. They are disembodied voices tossing things onto the screen. Kiernan refers to one of the kids as "the whiney one".

After the show we headed back upstairs so Kiernan could get another crack at the Solar-Go-Round and Aunt JoAnne ran out to the car to retrieve the picnic lunch we had brought along with us. We sat down in the cafe and enjoyed turkey sandwiches (with basil and avocado) and then Kiernan and Wendy headed into the nearby Discovery Room, a place that was jam packed with kids, parents, and activities. In short order I was called into the room.

To Be Continued...

[Picture Note: All pictures on this page, including Jupiter, taken by Uncle Mitch.]

Perspective

I'm going through a bunch of pictures Mitch, my brother-in-law, took during our visit to Oakland, trying to decide what else I'm going to say about our visit to the space center. Mitch is a great photographer, so culling is not so easy. In going through the pictures and thinking about what I want to say I stumbled upon a nifty little picture.


At first I was confused by this picture. For a split-second I could not recall why the picture seemed familiar to me. Then it clicked and I remembered this...


There's really not much more to this post than that. I'm just so tickled at this, that we caught the exact same moment like this. I intend to post more about the space center and the time in Oakland--Grance and Gammy demand it, after all--but I had this little moment of recognition upon seeing the top picture and I wanted to share it.

For good measure, here is Mitch a couple seconds later:

Space Center Part I

I must say I loved the fog and the cold and the rain that attended our recent visit to Vacaville and Oakland. While it is comfortable to wear a t-shirt when I'm going to pick up my son from preschool in January, it is nice to have a change. Generally I fear the cold unless I am skiing or going to a film festival in Utah. I'm not a big fan of cold weather. But it was nice to get a little coldness during this trip. It was nice to get a little variety.

The picture above is of the Chabot Space and Science Center, socked in by fog. No matter. While the constant fog meant we could not have gone to look through the telescopes at night, it had no impact on our ability to enjoy the wonders of the space center.

As we prepare to enter the center, Kiernan is goofing around with his Aunt JoAnne. The two of them have conjured a new planet, Planet Aunt JoAnnis. In the picture to the left Kiernan and Aunt JoAnne are chanting about Planet Aunt JoAnnis. Apparently she has the "rays that are the best".

Upon finding this out, Uncle Mitch prepares to pounce.

We entered the space center and bought tickets for the planetarium show, a great and silly animated program called "The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket" that I shall cover in a subsequent post. We had some time to burn before the show started, so we all headed upstairs to something called the Solar-Go-Round. Why did we decide to do this? Well, let's just say the Solar-Go-Round exhibit had the promise of models and information about the Solar System.

We got up to the top floor of the center and found the Solar-Go-Round, which was a huge room with all of the planets of our solar system--including Pluto--suspended above the room. On person level were various hands-on displays for the kids to manipulate. A large cylinder of liquid and sand you could spin to create a tornado. A dry ice demonstration to help you get a grip on the gas giants. An air hockey display. Yeah, that last was really there, and I have no idea why. I'm sure it had a purpose but it showed us eff-all. Still, it was kind of nifty.

The two closest pictures here, the ones with the orange background, show Kiernan's discovery that the planets were in this big room. He walked in with us, really not getting what this all was about. He stands before the sun in the picture just up and to the left and realizes that Mercury is over his head. The picture that follows, the one to the right, shows his reaction to his discovery that Mercury is over his head.

I cannot overstate how much he loves learning about and talking about and playing about the planets right now. But I don't think I have to explain this. If you just look at his face in that last picture, you'll get it.

Capsule

Here's a little series from our visit to the space center while we were in Oakland. Sort of an extension from an earlier PoTD. Getting ready for splashdown.



In the foreground is Kiernan's cousin Dorian. I love Kiernan's expression in this picture. It's such a funny little expression...unless he's giving it to me, of course. I'm not so crazy about it when he directs it to me at, say, dinner time.


I love this picture because it looks like Kiernan is going through some serious pre-flight checks. He is clearly intent upon checking his instruments here. I'm sure Dorian has a clipboard in his hands.



Now the co-pilot is doing his own pre-flight checks.

Picture of This Day

Suited up for his very first basketball game. I promise to get a new camera soon.

January 26, 2009

Picture of This Day

Flying home from Oakland.

January 25, 2009

[Goodness but I so want to make a political comment here...oops! It appears I just have!]

Tres Importante

We have arrived home from Oakland, after our visit to JoAnne and Mitch and Dorian. I have some things to post, especially about our trip to the space center, but I don't think I'll get to those posts tonight. Still, there is something I do need to get to. [The above picture shows Kiernan and Dorian on the day of our arrival, in Dorian's room.]

Kiernan misses his cousin Dorian. And his Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Mitch.

It was clear that he would from the moment we drove away from their house, headed to the off-site rental car return area at the Oakland Airport. As we began to pull away Kiernan immediately began asking why we had to leave. He did so in the most sad and pitiful voice. If I had not been so intent upon finding a gas station on the weird and winding roads of Oakland this would have broken my heart. He clearly wanted to stay.

The trip home was fine, for the most part. There was a bit of turbulence, during and after the flight, but for the most part the return voyage was smooth.

A ritual that is part of most dinners at home is The Relating of The Day. This is preceded by The Asking about The Day, of course. We sit down, and before any stories about the planets can be told we absolutely have to go over the events of the day. Kiernan is often reluctant to recount his whole day, and is generally canny enough to get everyone else at the table to do so first, so that dinner is over by the time his turn rolls around. Getting him to talk about his day is important, though, so we find a way to make that happen, either by insisting he go first or by allowing him just to tell about a limited number of things that happened during the day.

Tonight at dinner I asked him to give me just three things about today. Three things that were his favorite things. Three things that made his day.

"Well...the first person I talked to today was Aunt JoAnne...no...Dorian!"

When Kiernan relates the narrative of his day, it generally begins with the first person he talked to. If he happens to be talking to you at the moment he is talking about his day, then you are the first person he talked to that day. If you appear doubtful, he will think for a second and then give the real answer. I find this interesting. This little manifestation of the need to please.

So the first thing about his day that was important to him was that he talked to Dorian first.

"What else did you like about today?" I asked.

"Playing with Dorian."

We left Dorian's house at around nine this morning. So the bulk of today, which included flying on a jet airplane, happened after that. Still, one of Kiernan's favorite things about today was playing with his cousin Dorian.

What was the third thing he liked about today?

"Toast for breakfast."

I love this, for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the way it dovetails so nicely with the other things he loved about today. That most of what he loved about today happened before nine this morning is very telling, especially since he's not even in the Army.

The other reason I love this is because toast at Chez JoAnne et Mitch is not just toast. It is...I don't know...Le Toast. It is toast of a higher order. The bread is the good stuff. Wheaty and full of grains and you know with every bite that it's good for you. Cream cheese has been invited to the party. Good, real butter will make an appearance. Lox...yes lox...will be in attendance. Some kind of wondrous chestnut butter will also stop by. There will be sea salt, and a pipkin of dill. Not to mention good quality plain yogurt with homemade granola to go on top. Homemade granola! I kid you not!

Kiernan had toast with the chestnut spread and raisins on top. It was like the Coldstone Creamery of toast. Seriously. Who knew you could do that with toast?

No wonder breakfast made Kiernan's top three today.


[JoAnne and Dorian rest after breakfast--or, as the Dutch say, Zalig Toastfeest--as we prepare to depart. I love the way they look, and the way JoAnne is looking at Kiernan as he draws on his DoodlePro.]

Picture of This Day

Junior Space Man.

Chabot Space and Science Center. Oakland, CA
January 24, 2009

Picture of This Day

Playing with Cousin Dorian.

Oakland, CA
January 23, 2009

Banana Fanna

I am used to the toys fast food restaurants give with their kiddie meals being utter junk--why not, you might ask...their food is--but until Kiernan received the above toy with something from Burger King I was not used to them being surreal. I guess I owe Burger King a sort of grudging congratulations for crossing that barrier with their Giant Stormtrooper Head on Top of AT-AT toy.

I must confess I was immediately fascinated with this weird little toy. You might note that on the side there is a little thingy. If you turn that little thingy the toy will attempt to walk. Sort of. It's a pretty sad crawling lurch, in actuality, which further adds to the surreality. Kiernan had no interest in this toy when he first got it. He has no real touchstone with merchandise from the Star Wars films. It wasn't until early one morning when I started doing a goofy voice for this toy that he got interested. He's always looking for new foils for his Planet Heroes to defeat, so we began to play a game where the Planet Heroes had to save the day from this weird Burger King toy.

He asked what its name was. I looked at it, quickly decided against the first name that popped into my head (Hydrocephalic Storm Trooper Guy), and sent the ball back into Kiernan's court. Kiernan is great at coming up with names for his little friends and characters, and usually does so without hesitation. One of my favorites was the name he gave his Build-A-Bear bear. We were in Alabama on business a couple of years ago. The two women Wendy was working with are good friends of hers, and they wanted to take Kiernan to the local Build-A-Bear Workshop store* and treat him to a bear. After the process was complete we asked Kiernan what the bear's name was.

"Clabby Bear," he said, without skipping a beat.

He did not disappoint this time, either.

"You name him," I suggested, holding up the Storm Trooper toy from Burger King.

Kiernan looked at it and said, "Joo-Shaba."

I have no idea where this came from. None at all. He didn't appear to know either. But since then that weird toy has been called Joo-Shaba. Works for me.

I bring all of this up because we are visiting with Kiernan's cousin Dorian and his parents, JoAnne and Mitch. We were having lunch with them today and they were telling us about Dorian naming a little toy dog he received when his dad was on a business trip. Since his dad was away in Chicago, Dorian decided to call the dog 'Cago'. Very cool name, no matter what the context, and doubly cool because of it.

That's all. Just wanted to tell you all about that. Oh, and also, Cago likes dried apricots. In case you were wondering.


[Picture Note: Kiernan leads the Planet Heroes delegation, coming in peace to the bedroom of his cousin Dorian. Dorian's delegation led by his dad, Mitch.]



*This reminds me of a story about Aunt Amy. Probably best left for another time.

Picture of This Day

Kiernan checks on his friends as I wait in line at Starbucks. His cool new planet backpack--a gift from Pap-Pap and Sandi--has turned his Planet Heroes into portable (read 'constant') companions.

Vacaville, CA
January 22, 2009

Picture of This Day

Earth Ace and Venus Dazzle help Kiernan with his cranberry juice on a flight from Burbank to Oakland.

January 21, 2009

Picture of This Day

At an Inauguration party on the way to school this morning. Sally, the hostess, wishes to send the following message...

"Congratulations America!"

January 20, 2009

Picture of This Day

A little backyard basketball practice. No team practice today (or all last week) as the gym is being renovated.

January 19, 2009

Good Against Remotes

I got home pretty late tonight. The first thing I did when I got home was to take Kiernan for his late night visit to the bathroom.

I went into his room and scooped him up into my arms. Still asleep, this is what he said to me...

"Thank you, Remote Control."

Yeah, I have no idea. But I was amused and disturbed at the same time. Amused because just about anything he says in his sleep is adorable. Disturbed because I had to wonder if he was making some kind of commentary on my role in his life from beyond the veil of sleep.

Either way, great stuff.

Picture For This Day

I love the look of concentration on his face here. Also the fact that, for a moment, he is playing with something other than his Planet Heroes. But that may be because they are otherwise occupied. For instance, you can see Colonel Tune (of Neptune) doing pushups just behind Kiernan.

January 17, 2009.

Picture of This Day

A new Magic School Bus book. "I'm gonna preview it first."

January 17, 2009.

Picture of This Day

Out riding his bike, a birthday present from Gammy and Grance. January 16, 2009.

Hide and Go Nuts

As I've mentioned before, often after school Kiernan wants to run around and play with his friends on the enclosed front lawn of the school. Since his love of the Planet Heroes is dominating his life right now, this is no longer a daily thing. He often insists that a couple of the Planet Heroes greet him after school. For awhile Earth Ace would be waiting for him inside the car, balanced on the steering wheel. Last week I put Gustus (Jupiter) on top of the car. Now when I pick him up he cannot wait to see which hero is on top of the car, at which point he immediately wants to leave so we can drive home (or do errands) and he can converse with his new little plastic friends.

The thing is, I really love watching Kiernan run around with his non-plastic friends after school. Some days that's just what I need, to see him run about with them with such abandon. Some days they all want to chase me around, and that's good too. Not always, but most days it is. Today I was in the mood to get him to socialize and play a bit with his friends. He's going through an odd phase right now, testing his boundaries as kids will, and I wanted to observe him with them. Also give him a little more time with his peers.

So when he came outside after school and saw Earth Ace on top of the car with Venus Dazzle, and he said he wanted to get going right then, I encouraged him to sit down with his friends for a little snacking and then play a bit. He went for it. I hustled over to the car to get his pretzels and the bottle of water I had brought along [in lieu of the getting-to-be-too-ubiquitous juice cup] and he chilled with his friends for a bit.

One of the cool things about this impromptu gathering is the sharing. Parents bring snacks for their kids and generally bring a little extra. The kids share their snacks with each other. One mom is particularly good at this, particularly generous. This is Rosie, mother of twins Nicholas and Veronica. She always brings enough food for everybody to have some, and often even brings extra juice boxes. She is my role model.

After snacking Kiernan and his friends set about playing. On this day they played a bit of hide and seek, a bit of Firecats*, and a whole lot of running around with wild abandon. Often these activities were combined. The top and bottom pictures of this post show Kiernan in his role of 'IT' in hide and seek. I have yet to figure out the exact rules of hide and seek as Kiernan and his school friends play it. The 'IT' child counts, as you see Kiernan doing in the top picture. Once he reaches, well, whatever number he feels like reaching [I think], he rushes off to find his friends. This might entail actually finding some of them, then yelling at them as they yell at him, then running away. Or it might entail running around with total abandon and then going to hide in the bushes. The kids who have not been found end up running around too and then another kid somehow magically becomes 'IT' and starts counting.

I cannot discern the rules, but the kids work it out for the most part. And they seem to have a blast. Eventually it always seems to devolve into running around in circles and pushing each other down until someone inevitably gets hurt and starts crying [this is usually a child] and we all extricate ourselves from the situation.

The parents stand around and talk about parent stuff and act as referees. Today's parent conversation was about sleeping. When does your kid go to sleep? When do you? How many hours do you typically get? That kind of thing. To avoid being pegged as [more of] a freak I stayed on the periphery of this conversation.



*Firecats will be covered more extensively in a post to come.

Picture of This Day

A brief snack interlude after school. January 15, 2009.