Picture For This Day

Near the end of our little diversion to D.C. About to head to G.P. More details on (and photos from) the trip later.


Washington, D.C.
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Picture of This Day

Racing with Uncle Mason. We made something of an unscheduled detour on the way home to Virginia from Pennsylvania.

Washington, D.C.
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Picture of This Day

Kiernan met his great-grandmother today, on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Morann, Pennsylvania
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Picture of This Day

On PapPap's shoulders after stopping for lunch at the State Arboretum of Virginia.

Blandy Experimental Farm; Boyce, Virginia

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mapping and Napping

Here's a few more pictures from today's trip to Pennsylvania. Quickly with some brief commentary.

1. Beach First:


After getting up much later than usual--understandable considering yesterday's day of flying from Colorado to Virginia, and a few semi-restless nights in the high-altitude of Breckenridge--
Kiernan woke up concerned he wasn't going to get to see the beach. He immediately began begging us to put off the drive to Pennsylvania. Instead, PapPap agreed to take him down to the beach while everybody else got ready.

It's hard to make them out, but they are there. Two specks on the beach of the York River.

2. Get out the Map:


Sandi had a host of cool activities for Kiernan to do while we were on the road. She would instruct him to find a location on the map, something on our route. Once he found it he would get to pick a number. Whatever number he picked corresponded with an activity on her list: coloring a birthday card for Bubba, playing a guessing game, getting a new book.

Here he is looking for the first location, Gloucester Point, with his mom. A lot of people don't know this, but Wendy's Ph.D. is in geography.

3. Get out the Nap I:


Kiernan, after lunch.

4. Get out the Nap II:


Uncle Mason, after lunch.

The Best Defense

The most important tradition in the Pennsylvania roadtrip is the stop for ice cream. Here Sandi shares a bit of her cone with Kiernan. He has just finished sharing a banana split with PapPap.

After the stop Sandi got into the back seat of the van so that she could sit next to Kiernan for a bit. They spent some time talking about some new dinosaurs his mom had purchased for him at the stop. I tuned in and out of the conversation as I read my New Yorker (long trips are when I catch up on months of missed magazines). At one point I tuned in to hear them talking about Iquanodon.

Sandi: What does he [Iguanodon] use the claw for?

Kiernan: To defend himself.

Sandi: What do you use to defend yourself?

Kiernan: My mom.

He said this without even a split-second's hesitation. Sandi and I burst into laughter, surprised and delighted at the response. Keirnan smiled, then elaborated...

Kiernan: My mom and my dad!

The Snake Version

My father is known for telling stories. He has a couple of story modes. Most often he will tell what the family refers to as "The Long Version". Upon request he will tell something called "The Short Version". Supposedly. I'm not sure anybody really has any experience with "The Short Version".

Today we took a roadtrip to Pennsylvania. We've been planning this trip for months so that Kiernan could meet Dad's mom, Bubba. Kiernan's great-grandmother. It is her ninetieth birthday tomorrow.

On the way we stopped at the State Arboretum of Virginia for lunch. Dad took this opportunity to tell Kiernan a couple of stories about snakes. Here's Kiernan listening to one of the stories:


Now a view of the other listeners at the picnic (save the photographer, Wendy):



[Truth be told, Dad is an excellent storyteller.]

Picture of This Day

The whole Breckenridge gang--eighteen strong--went to Dillon Reservoir today to play and have a picnic. An excellent picnic, it should be noted, thanks especially to Omi. We had a hilarious time.

Above Kiernan is about to go down a biggish tunnel slide, followed by some dude he met at the park.

Breckenridge, Colorado
Saturday, July 25, 2009

Winging Out

A few shots from this day of travel.


On the plane, waiting on the tarmac* in Burbank for our flight to Denver. Kiernan at work coloring dinosaurs. Our flight went in two legs, stopping in Phoenix for a bit and then continuing on to Denver, and Kiernan was great. He's a much better traveler than I am. Not that this is difficult.


Incidentally, he's coloring Dimetrodon. He's crazy about prehistoric creatures right now, be they dinosaurs or pelycosaurs or sea creatures. He has more than twenty of them that he plays with, and he is very particular about which one is which. We decided to give him a new one after the plane took off from Burbank.



He gets so excited whenever he gets a new dinosaur. Makes me happy. Here we thought we were giving him Rhamphorhynchus, one of his favorite pterosaurs. A millisecond after he got it he said, "It's Pteranodon!" He pointed out the particular shape of the head as evidence of this. We were not convinced. Finally I took the thing and studied it. Some of these little figures have labels on them. Sure enough, next to the "Made in China" designation was the name of the dinosaur. Tough to make out, on one of the wings. Pteranodon. [Actually it reads 'Pteranoden', but who am I to quibble with spelling on a toy when I spelled it incorrectly in naming the picture file?]

Finally, we arrived in Denver where Gammy and Grance met us at the airport and drove us to Breckenridge.


Kiernan, walking with his Grance in the airport in Denver. I love moments like this.


*I love to use the word 'tarmac'.

Picture For This Day

My brother Mason.

I found this little gem while cleaning out my office recently. I'm trying to cull my enormous collection of books, and in going through one of the boxes I found this tucked in the cover of a book. It reminded me of my son so I had to post it. Plus, I'm super proud of my brother.

Virginia, Halloween, A couple years ago (or so).

Kinderbugs

I feel like sharing a couple of pieces of work from Kiernan's first days of kindergarten. These are the first two things he brought home. Since I can't send these to all of you, I offer you electronic versions. You are welcome to print out your own copies and put them on your fridge. Or download them and put them on your desktop...your virtual fridge.


They were studying insects that week. It's been exciting to hear Kiernan tell us the three parts of the insect, and it's been very amusing hearing kid after kid tell parents, "Worms aren't insects!" I've heard that many times over the last few days. My favorite was the adamant way one kid corrected his older sibling with this information, and with the fact that spiders, also, are not insects.

I particularly like this second picture, because my favorite bug is the ladybug. And Kiernan knows it.

The variety of colors in both pictures is no accident. Kiernan is nuts for colors. He recently went through a R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. phase where he would draw rainbows and spell out the colors and use different colors for each letter. I'm very excited about little things like this because I'm not very good with colors and he very clearly is. This makes me happy.

Finally, there's this:


I include this because my mom found it amusing. I had taken a picture of it when I was entering the school grounds to pick up Kiernan on the second day of school because I found it charming. The next week when Kiernan's Nana and Aunt Hope came with me to pick him up, Mom noticed the sign and laughed, charmed by the very same thing that had inspired me to take this picture.

So I include this for her, and for you. Love to all.

Picture For This Day

Watching TV with Nana. This is a bit before Kiernan and Wendy took Nana and Hope to the shuttle bus that would take them to LAX. End of a great visit.

We miss you both.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Picture For This Day

Reading with my friend Tom in a tent in our back yard. Just a little tent we set up for playing with dinosaurs. We had a party Friday night to celebrate the visit of Hope and Nana. Tom showed up with a book for Kiernan.

They read it several times.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Picture of This Day

Hanging out with Aunt Hope. Eating lunch and enjoying the dinosaurs.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Reader Watching

As I said in the previous post, Nana and Hope took Kiernan to the bookstore to buy a birdwatching book today. He loves pointing out the birds in the backyard during dinner. Loves watching the hummingbirds as they feed and perch. Loves pointing out every bird that lands. Wants to know all about them. I know nothing about birds, so Mom and Hope decided they should go and get a book about them. Very cool, especially considering my grandfather was pretty knowledgeable on the subject.

They selected a book and bought it. I thought it was a bit thick as it was a field guide, but they all decided it was a good choice.

After dinner, while we sat around and talked, Kiernan excused himself to read his new book. That's him, in the background of the above picture reading it. Here's another shot:


What can I say? I'm proud of the fact that this kid loves books, loves to read. That he pursues his interests with passion, already.

I thought this book would be too much for him. Just too much for him to care about. It's a field guide, not a children's book. I was wrong. He sat there reading it. From time to time he would run over to us to show us a specific bird. He'd read the type of bird and then show it to us, one by one.


Note to To-Do List:

-Buy some decent four-year-old-friendly binoculars.

-Plan an outing.

Migrating

Nana and Hope are visiting this week. Life is good. They flew in yesterday, and Kiernan immediately got to introducing them to all of his dinosaurs. As I've said, he's heavy into dinosaurs at the moment and loves talking to people about them. He has several--ha ha...did I say 'several'? I meant to say 'a gazillion'...silly me--dinosaur toys and he loves introducing them to people. After he introduced Nana to all of his dinosaurs, shortly after we returned with Nana and Hope from the airport, Nana opened her suitcase and presented Kiernan with a dinosaur game. Here's Nana and Kiernan examining the game.


It's a nifty little game. Kiernan loves it. You press a button and a weirdly British computer voice tells you facts about the dinosaurs. Kiernan knows most of these facts, but he still loves playing with the game. I love the game too. My favorite thing about it? It apparently has no volume control. Sweet!

Today, Nana and Hope's first full day here, we all went to pick up Kiernan at his summer kindergarten and whisked him away to lunch. Here's Kiernan, Nana, Hope and Wendy at pickup time.


Note the tatoo. Wendy brought that back from her trip to Tennessee last week.

After lunch we all went to the book store. This is an exciting excursion any day of the week, but today was especially exciting as Nana had conspired with Kiernan to buy a bird watching book. True story. Yesterday during dinner Kiernan revealed that he loves watching the birds in the backyard. We eat most dinners outside and Kiernan loves watching the hummingbirds buzz the flowers and the other birds perch on the wires. He often asks me to whistle to them. At dinner with Hope and Nana he continually asked, "What bird do you think that is?" He always asks this, but I'm completely ignorant when it comes to birds, so everything is either a pigeon or a swallow, no matter what it actually is.

Nana took a different tack. Instead of giving a dopey flippant answer, she said, "Let's go get a bird watching book tomorrow.

And that is what they did.

Here's a shot of Nana, Hope and Kiernan checking out the bird watching book they picked out at the bookstore today...while they do some birdwatching.


Note the birdwatching "binoculars" Kiernan made at school last week.

Picture For This Day

I spent a fair amount of time this weekend going through old pictures. Here's one I found of Kiernan with Grance having a brief discussion, or perhaps a toast, before a meal. Grance's comment below, informing me that he's online and catching up on The Creeping Kid gives me just the excuse I need to post this picture.

Hope you all are having a great trip. You're in our thoughts!


[Pic from November 2007]

Weighty Matters

During a recent dinner I brought out my little digital kitchen scale to weigh something at the table. I usually use it for baking and whatnot (it really comes in handy for one of my favorite recipes, Almost No-Knead Bread*). When I used it at the table Kiernan immediately became curious and wanted to start weighing things. I taught him how to turn it on, switch it over to ounce mode, and how to use the tare feature. He weighed some of his food. Eventually, of course, he moved onto his dinosaurs. I mean, who wouldn't?

Above you see him examining the results of weighing Parasaurolophus as Amargasaurus looks on. (5.6 ounces, if you're curious.)

Two days ago we were having dinner again, oddly enough, and Wendy starting talking about things she liked about Kiernan. I'm not sure how this started. I think it was part of getting him to talk about his first day of Kindergarten, something that was very difficult to do. He just didn't want to talk about it very much. I thought we had a few years before asking about the school day became like pulling teeth and the total answer to the question "What happened in school today?" was a sullen, "Nuthin'." Oh well.

So I think Wendy asked Kiernan to talk about what he liked about himself for some reason. She asked him to say two things he loved about himself. Then she said two things she really loved about him. I believe they were "sense of humor" and "inquisitiveness". She turned to me to get me to chip in two things I love about him, when he broke into the conversation.

"What are two things you love about---" Wendy started to ask me.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Kiernan, interrupting, "but Albert Einstein says, 'Always keep asking questions.'"

Seriously. It just came out of the blue like that. An Albert Einstein quote. We burst out laughing. It was uncontrollable and totally prompted by surprise and delight. I saw Kiernan's expression change, darken a bit as he started thinking we were making fun or laughing at him. He brightened up when I shifted and started saying how cool I thought that quote was and how surprised and excited I was that he mentioned Einstein.

"Where did that come from?" I asked, incredulous. "Did you talk about Albert Einstein in school today?"

He replied, "No. From The Magic School Bus." Ahhh. As it turns out, one of the MSB books (The Magic School Bus and the Science Fair Exhibition) features Albert Einstein and he tells the kids to keep asking questions.

Wendy went inside to retrieve the little journal we keep on the counter to note the cute and clever things Kiernan says. While she was writing this down, she asked him to remind her what he said exactly. "What was it that Albert Einstein said?" she asked.

"E equals m-c squared," he replied.

To say this kid floors me on a daily basis is to grossly understate the situation. Sometimes I wonder how the heck I'm going to keep up with him when he already can think circles around me. He is so beyond. Luckily he brings me back to earth on a regular basis by throwing little tantrums and pouncing on me. In general reminding me he's a normal kid. As he did in the very next moment after the second Einstein quote when he spilled his milk all over the journal Wendy was writing in.

It was easy not to get upset about that. In fact, I was grateful for it.

E= mc². Honestly.



[*I actually got the recipe from my favorite cooking magazine, Cook's Illustrated. I would prefer to link to the original recipe, but it's behind a subscription wall so I can't.]

First Day 2.5

The first day of Kindergarten Summer School went pretty well, all things considered. There was a little crying, by child and parents, but not too much.


Here you see Kiernan about to depart for his first day, July 6, 2009. Notice that he has the always reliable Guinea Pig to accompany him (don't worry, GP stayed in the car during school) and that a dinosaur has replaced the other two friends, Meow Meow Kitty Cat and Pooh. As I've mentioned, he's nuts about dinosaurs right now. That particular little dude is Oviraptor. If you'd like to know what that name means, ask Kiernan the next time you see him and he'll be glad to fill you in. (Incidentally, Oviraptor stayed in the car too, with a backpack full of about ten or twelve other dinos.)

To get your Meow Meow Kitty Cat and Pooh Bear fix, check out the photos on these two posts depicting other first days: first day of preschool year one, and first day of preschool year two.

When we got to the school Kiernan was greeted by a helpful older kid. This cool little guy immediately took Kiernan's hand and led him over to where the day's schedules had been posted so that Kiernan would get an idea of what was in store for the day.


I must say that while I appreciated what was going on, I missed a lot of what happened next upon seeing the word "Math" at the bottom of that little schedule. It totally threw me. Math? He's going to be in a math class? This was a dividing moment for me, the moment when I truly realized and had to face the fact that we were crossing a line. On one side of that line was preschool and limitless playtime and goofing off. On the other side of that line was the real and actual school career.

The knowledge that there is no going back has shaken me a bit.

I've been anticipating kindergarten with a mix of feelings. Part of me is happy about getting more time to work on my own projects again. This is significant. Part of me is scared, because I'm losing a sizeable amount of time with my boy. This is significant as well. All of me is proud of his increased independence, of the way he is widening and deepening his world.

With every passing day my respect for my parents increases, and I understand each tear they shed and every time they laughed a little bit better.

The Night Before Kindergarten

Tonight was an exciting night for a couple of reasons. Two of the main reasons were...

1. Kiernan got a new book. This is always cause for celebration.

2. Tomorrow is the first day of summer school kindergarten.

To be sure, the two events are related. Because tomorrow is the first day of kindergarten, Kiernan got a new book called, The Night Before Kindergarten. The book came to Kiernan courtesy of the world's greatest kindergarten teacher, Kiernan's Sandi. She sent it to him in cahoots with Pap-Pap and his Uncle Mason. Beautiful.

They sent it out a couple of weeks ago, but we've been holding it for this occasion. We could have held it until the fall, when his actual kindergarten year starts, but we really didn't want to wait. We're all pretty excited about tomorrow. We have no idea how this "summer kindergarten" will relate and stack up to the start of his kindergarten year in August. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, we're excited. Excited as when we get a new book. An excitement that is hard to catch in pictures. As you can see in the picture below, which is a shot of Kiernan right after he's been told that this night he gets a new book. The pictures above, the clearer pictures? Those came after.

Picture For This Day

Watching fireworks. It's beautiful to see a person fall in love with his country.

July 4, 2009
Porter Ranch, California


[Note: 300th Post]