There, Out in the Darkness

I'm not sure you'll be able to make out these pictures, but I wanted to share them because I get so tickled by the things that interest Kiernan, and by how he keeps those things in his mind.

Recently one of the books he was reading about the Solar System and the Universe talked about the different stars in our own galaxy. It talked about those stars by name, and for whatever reason this became interesting to Kiernan and he latched onto it. Sometimes he disregards the parts of astronomy books that don't directly relate to the planets and their satellites. Other times he will show some interest in heavenly objects other than planets, like comets and asteroids. Usually when we venture outside the Solar System he loses interest and returns to a Solar System page, excited to tell you what the planets are. He never seems to tire of telling you what the planets are, or of drawing them.

But this time he got interested in the stars. Cool enough. Cooler still? Days later he was still into drawing those far off stars, and he still remembered their names.

He wanted me to draw with him, so I grabbed a crayon and started drawing. He had already done a standard picture of the planets--disappointed that he could not locate a teal crayon for Uranus...teal? Really? I didn't know teal at his age. Come to think of it, if it hadn't been for Miami Vice I probably wouldn't know what teal is today--and I started on a picture of my own, asking him about the stars he had learned about. "Are you drawing them?" he asked me. "Sure," I replied.

As I drew them, he told me which was which and encouraged me along the way. He is really good at that, saying things like, "That looks great, Dad!" I particularly love the way he encourages me when I'm drawing with him because I'm so clearly inferior to him when it comes to this. Just look at the two drawings above. Look at his picture of Earth, alone, as compared to the goofy stars I drew. Seriously. But still, he encourages me, both because we do that for him and because he wants me to stick around on the floor with him and keep drawing.

So I drew the stars and he named them. I scrawled those names down, inventing spelling as best I could.

Here they are spelled correctly, in case it's too tough to decipher the crayon above.

• Sirius
• Pollux
• Arcturus
• Rigil
• Aldebaran
• Betelgeuse
• Antares

He gets particularly excited when he sees the star Betelgeuse in a book. I get excited too, because my son can read the word 'Betegeuse'.