Letter by Letter

After our day at the beach, we returned home and had some dinner. I had a salad, as is usually my wont when Kiernan and I are on our own. I think I made him some pasta. That's always a good guess, as pasta is two of the three things he will eat these days. Those three things being pasta, rice, and pasta.

No, I don't have any idea where he gets his protein. Space aliens maybe? Reading about dinosaurs? You can get protein from reading, right? As long as the subject is meat-eaters. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with that.

At any rate, it was about midway through the meal and I was trying to avoid telling a story. Kiernan is back on a stories-at-dinnertime kick, especially when it's just the two of us. I tell these stories about him being a detective who solves intergalactic mysteries with the help of the dwarf planet Eris and its satellite Dysnomia. We did this every night for awhile but it stopped for a few months for some reason. Maybe because of traveling. Maybe Kiernan lost interest. I don't know for sure. But a couple of weeks ago Kiernan asked me to start up again, and then after a couple of days he asked me to tell a story about dinosaurs during dinner. I don't think he was intending for me to do this, but I just incorporated dinosaurs into the detective stories. How, you might ask? By using that tried and true get-out-of-jail-free card all lazy writers have in their arsenals: time-traveling!

Well, the rejiggered stories were an instant hit. I enjoy telling them too, but not every night. Making up stories on the fly is fun, but also fairly tiring. And on this day, after five or six hours toiling in the sand at the beach, I just was not in the mood. So I tried distracting him with questions about the day.

He knew what I was up to but went along, showing mercy. At one point he noticed the bowl I was using for my salad, a bowl that is a little monument to one of my favorite meals, artichokes. He started playing with the word.

"What if you took off the 's', Daddy? What would you have?"

"Well," I said. "Artichoke."

He smiled. "What if you took off the 'e'?"

"Artichok."

He laughed. "What if you took off the 'k'?"

Before I could reply he said, with glee, "Articho!" We both found this quite funny.

He went on down until the word had been dismantled. Then he turned his attention to the watering can over near the hose (we were eating outside) and started taking apart that word.

I have no idea why he decided to do this or why it was so amusing, but he did and it was. And that's all this post is about.

QOTD

Kiernan, a few moments ago:

"To me, morning is the best time of day!"

Quoth the Daddy:

"Mmmfprgl."

Boy at Work

These days Kiernan has homework. Homework! Kindergarten homework! Can you believe this?

Amazing.

Right now it consists of practicing upper and lower case letters and doing a bit of reading each night. Twenty minutes of reading, to be precise, which he notes on the front sheet of the homework by giving the title of the book he has read along with its author. Some recent titles include Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Reptiles by Chris McNab, and My Daddy Snores by Nancy Rothstein. Why he would be interested in that last one, I have no idea.

The twenty minutes of reading, in particular, should never be a problem. He loves to read, so that's never a chore. The problem is, already, finding the time. Finding twenty minutes. I cannot believe I just typed that, but finding twenty minutes has already started to become a challenge. This is mostly my fault as I am wont to let him play for almost two hours after school each day with his friend Oliver. I love watching him play with his friends. I don't know that I can really put it into words except to say that I think it's cool and this is what his life should be about at this point.

At this point? Heck. From now on.

It's also sometimes pleasant time for me, even in the sledgehammer heat of the Valley. I sit on the benches that surround one of the big trees on the playground and read my book while Kiernan and Oliver bury dinosaurs in the dirt and make mud with Oliver's water bottle. I'm actually reading a book for chunks of time for the first time since I can remember. It's kind of nice.

But still, work is a good thing. Learning that is important too.

After working on letters and reading during the week, homework is turned in on Friday. One more thing is due on this day. The Mystery Bag. I could write out what the Mystery Bag assignment is all about, but I think I shall just post an image of the last one.


So, as you can see, this time around Kiernan chose Bonitosaura. A dinosaur. I know! How weird is that! His clues, in case you're having trouble translating, are...

1. A sauropod (sauropods are an infraorder or clade of saurischian ["lizard-hipped"] dinosaurs, as I'm sure you well know).
2. Long tail (backwards 'g' there).
3. Loud feet.

Now, while it is the case that Kiernan has many toy dinosaurs, he does not have a Bonitosaura. Why choose that particular dinosaur, you ask? Because just that day Kiernan's Nana and Pop sent him two very cool posters. One featured birds you might see in the backyard. The other one was entitled "Weird Dinosaurs". Here's a picture of the latter:


The directions on the Mystery Bag assignment clearly state that the object in the bag can be "an item or picture of an object". So, Kiernan set to work finding an image. This was his idea, and he did this on his own.


There he sits, at my computer, searching the Internet for images of Bonitosaura. The poster spread out on the floor for inspiration.

P.S. Thanks Nana and Pop!

Picture For This Day

From a trip to Disneyland a couple months ago.

This picture is on our refrigerator, and every time I see it it makes me smile and/or chuckle. This is basically every time I open the refrigerator.

I felt it was high time to share it.


Disneyland: Anaheim, CA
June 14, 2009

"Only me and my mom..."

Some dispatches from this morning. But first a picture of a reminder:


After school these days I've been letting Kiernan hang out and play with his friends. We used to do that after Preschool too. The last couple of days his preferred activity after school has been to play with his dinosaurs in the dirt. He runs off behind a tree--usually with his friend Oliver--and buries his dinosaurs in the loose dirt. The two of them end up covered in dirt from head to toe.

Last night before dinner Kiernan informed me that he wanted me to bring three dinosaurs in particular when I came to pick him up. I asked him to remind me, and he said, "I need a small piece of paper." He went over to the scratch pad we keep next to the phone in the kitchen and tore off a piece of paper, then headed to his drawing table.

A couple moments later he told me he needed two more pieces of paper, and some glue. "No, not glue," he said. "Tape. I need some tape." We went into Wendy's office for the tape and he giggled.

Pointing to a Post-It note stuck to the monitor on her desk he said, "Look, there's a reminder too!" He laughed again and pointed to another one. "And another reminder!"

We took his three small pieces of paper and the tape and he proceeded to tape the paper reminders to the door.


Thus are Brachiosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Pachyrhachis waiting in the car so they'll be there when I go to pick him up in a bit.

Moving on to a couple things from this morning.

On the way to school Kiernan suddenly said, "Daddy, all of my dinosaurs are flexible!"

I laughed, delighted, and asked him what he meant. He proceeded to describe what parts of his dinosaurs could be bent.

A bit later he asked, "Is there a number bigger than infinity?"

Scrambling, I asked where this came from. He said two of his friends, Oliver and Etai, had told him that their moms said there was no biggest number. I did my best to explain the concept of infinity.

He thought for a few moments before saying, "I know how to draw the infinity symbol."

"Really?" I responded. "How?"

"It's a sideways eight."

"How do you know that?"

"My mom taught me," he said. "Only me and my mom know that."

That put a huge smile on my face. Only me and my mom know that. Priceless.

First Day Slide Show

Here's a few more pictures from the first day of Kindergarten, September 1.

This slide show features Kiernan with his friend Ryan, another kindergartner. The two of them are kicking around on the play structure in the main yard of the school. This is Kiernan's favorite place to be right before school and right after school.

I love seeing Kiernan play with his friends and make new friends.

[Note: The guy lending a hand in the fourth picture is Ryan's dad, Andrew.]

A Cracking Good Morning

A picture from this morning. I decided to make pancakes for breakfast this morning, mainly because pancakes are Kiernan's favorite. Still, just that fact usually wouldn't get me to whip up pancakes on a school morning. Two things motivated me:

1. Wendy left for a longish business trip yesterday morning, so doing a little extra is a good idea.
2. Gammy was here last week while I was off at a friend's wedding in Oregon. She made french toast for Kiernan for breakfast. Twice.

I will not tolerate a breakfast gap.

Once he saw what I was up to, he wanted to help. I knew this would be the case, which is why I left adding the eggs until last. Kiernan is our expert egg cracker. He climbed up on the stool I'd brought into the kitchen*, cracked in the two eggs, and whisked them into the wet works. Then he helped me stir the wet stuff into the dry stuff. Finally he did the most important bit of helping, eating the extra chocolate chips I'd dropped on the counter.

As I prepared to cook the pancakes, he made an excited announcement. "Hey Dad! Tomorrow we can make waffles!"

The pancakes turned out pretty good, although I prefer to use real butter. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter doesn't work as well in the batter, in my opinion.

The big surprise came as Kiernan polished off the first pancake. He asked for me to make him another one without chocolate chips.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "This one was too chocolatey."

Too chocolatey? WHAT?

Oh well.


[*I forgot a crucial step in the sequence. On his way he grabbed a few dinosaurs. "I want my dinosaurs to watch!" Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way. Just keep pachyrhachis out of the flour next time, please.]

Picture of This Day

After school play time with his new BFF, Oliver.


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Picture For This Day

Out for ice cream with dinosaurs and friends (who showed up by chance). A treat after the first day of school.

September 1, 2009


*You'll note that this week's posts only include pictures from the past. Well, I'm out of town, so I can only post older pics. I know many of you want news from his second week of school, that will have to wait until I get home and get news (and hopefully some pictures) from Gammy.

I'm on a roadtrip with my friend Tom, visiting Oregon for our friend Aaron's wedding. Having adventures. I'd post pics of that, but this is Kiernan's blog, and you come here for pictures of him. Someday soon I'll start my own concern and post pictures of my own adventures there.

Love to all.

Picture For This Day

A picture from week one. Hanging out after school with his new friend Oliver.


Thursday, September 3, 2009

Picture For This Day

Kindergarten, week one. His job for the week: holding the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.

More on this later. I promise.


Friday, September 4, 2009

Picture of This Day Deux

A picture from pickup after the second day of school (he's the one in the white shirt). I waited on the other side of the fence while Kiernan studied something or other with his friends. Wendy brought him to school this morning, and apparently when he arrived a couple of his friends were already there playing in the yard. One of them yelled, "Kiernan! We found a baby wasp! Come look!" Kiernan bolted to join them, leaving Wendy without a look back.

Here he gives me the same treatment when I arrive to pick him up.

Exploring his world. With friends. Priceless.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Falling In

After breakfast on the first day of school the kids all lined up with their classmates. Here's a few pictures as Kiernan lined up with his class. I considered doing a slide show, but decided I liked the individual pictures too much.

In line with Mom.

Mom getting him ready for game day.

"I keep my eyes wide open all the time." Sorry Mr. Cash.

In line with Dad. Also, you can pick your friends...

The Story of the Film So Far

First Day 2007 (Preschool year one). First Day 2008 (Preschool year two). First Day 2009 (Kindergarten).

First Day, The Third

Kiernan had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday, Tuesday September 1, 2009. This summer he had a couple weeks of sort-of Kindergarten, now we've got the real thing.

The day began with pancakes.

Sandi and Pap-Pap suggested we start a tradition, something we'd continue for every First Day of School from here on out. Their tradition with Mason? Pizza party. Nice idea. I could go for that. Except for one thing. Kiernan doesn't like pizza right now.

Yeah, you read that right. Kiernan doesn't like pizza. And that's not even the most ridiculous example of his him being a picky eater. That would be how he won't eat an ice cream bar that has a chocolate coating outside of vanilla ice cream. Like, say, a Klondike Bar. He loves chocolate. He loves ice cream. Won't eat them together in an ice cream bar. I've literally found myself peeling off the chocolatey outer layer of a treat at an amusement park because this came as a surprise and I didn't want to waste the thirty-five dollars we'd spent on the amusement park ice cream treat.

Great googaly-moogaly but sometimes I feel like I'm raising Adrian Monk.

Anyway, pancakes are his favorite food so we got up and made chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes before school. Then we went off to have a potluck breakfast with all of the other Kindergarten kids and their families. [Note to Self: Next time have pancakes for dinner.] Each kid was supposed to bring a breakfast food that began with the first letter of the student's first name. So, what to bring for Kiernan? We thought about Special K cereal. Perhaps kiwis. I suggested kielbasa but that never even got out of committee.

We ended up bringing Rice Krispie Treats (that is...Krispie Treats, Rice). That worked out fine.

The breakfast was nice, although when it first started I got a glimpse at what the beginnings of a panic attack might feel like, and how hard it must be to fend one off. Goodness. All those kids and their families, all around. Swarming. Another indication that Kiernan is at school for real now. No more idyllic lab school. No more cute and cuddly infant/toddler program. This is the first step into real school and all the jostling and claustrophobia that implies.

In the end it didn't matter. To put it simply, he handles this stuff with ease. Much better than I do. I had to work, actively work to keep from showing my nerves. I kept smiling and joking and being casual, thinking I was protecting him. After breakfast the kids all lined up with their classrooms and headed in. He had a moment, a tiny sliver of a moment when it looked like he might break, might cry. Because he was sad we were going to go. Then when his classmates started to head into the classroom he ran for the door. Ran for it.

We saw him in the classroom, showing his teacher his lunch bag and examining his new digs. It was a sight, seeing the parents huddled about the door until the assistant principal shooed us away and closed it with these-aren't-the-droids-you're-looking-for ease. We dispersed.

Feeling happy. And proud. And a little empty.


A few pics from first day pickup in a bit.