Picture For This Day

Reading to Uncle Andrew before dinner at Mom's house. Aunt Hope and Uncle Andrew gave him three cool books for Christmas, none more exciting than this new Ice Age book. Kiernan watched one of the Ice Age films on the flight from California, and would get two of the characters the next day.

On a side note, dinner was one of my favorite dishes of all time: skillet enchiladas. Mom rocks.


Seaford, VA
January 27, 2010

Jumper

Kiernan visited Sandi's school and spent some time with some Virginia kindergartners. I believe this is the first time he has successfully jumped rope. Pretty cool.

We all have to start somewhere.

Hi Dorian!

Kiernan got a video greeting from his cousin Dorian this morning. This is his response.

I post it here because I don't know how to email it. I tried, but the file size was too big. I'll have to get Mitch and JoAnne to tell me how they are able to upload such high quality video without using a compression tool the way Blogger does.

Oh well, for now this'll have to do.

Picture of This Day

Lunch at one of my favorite places in the world, The Cheese Shop. This is the place that taught me that traveling 2,684 miles for a sandwich is not an unreasonable thing. Had a great lunch with Wendy, Kiernan, Pap-Pap, and Sandi.

Here's a bonus pic of my dad giving Kiernan the old Vulcan Mind Meld.


FWIW, my sandwich is the Combo (turkey/VA ham) with Havarti on French bread with extra house.


Williamsburg, VA
January 27, 2010

Video Thanks (Galaxy Far Far Away Edition)

One of Kiernan's favorite gifts this Christmas was a bunch of Star Wars figures from his godfathers, Darren and Daniel.

Let me just tell you one thing. Answering questions about Star Wars all day long? Priceless.

Video Thanks

Gammy and Grance (Wendy's parents, of course) gave us a great gift this holiday. We got a membership to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and a trip to San Diego. The Wild Animal Park is great, and I cannot wait to go back.

Kiernan loved the trip. He loved it so much that when we were preparing to check out of the hotel he started crying. In fairness to him, it was a great room. A huge suite. What can I say? Wendy knows how to work the upgrades.

The video captures Kiernan having a great time. As per usual, his favorite thing is never what you expect it to be. So much the better.

Picture For This Day

We've had the joy of Nana's company all this week. I can't tell you how excited Kiernan was to see her, how much he was looking forward to her being here. He talked about it all the way to the airport on our way to pick her up.

First thing the two of them did was get to work sticking stickers in a brand-new sticker book Nana presented as a surprise to Kiernan.


Great visit.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Picture For This Day

On the way back from our weekend in San Diego we stopped in one of our favorite places, San Clemente, for lunch on the pier. Lunch was good. A Fat Tire and some fish and chips. The restaurant had three different types of fish for fish and chips. The regular (and classic) cod. Halibut. And salmon. I tried the halibut. It was good, but I think too dense a fish for that application. Next time I'll stick with cod.

After lunch Kiernan demanded some time on the beach.


San Clemente, CA
January 10, 2010

Picture of This Day

Holding onto one of the telescopes at the Wild Animal Park while he checks out a couple of people coming down the zip line ride thingy. Looks more like he's manning the artillery to me. At any rate, great day at the park. More pics when I get back home.


San Diego/Escondido, CA
January 9, 2010

Picture For This Day

On the day after Christmas the girls all go to the spa and then see a chick flick. The boys go to the Arizona Science Center. You make the call.

Here we are, right before it's about to close. Kiernan is working in the middle. Rich is off to the right up there, doing a basketball experiment. And Rance is at the table to the left, trying to figure out the Tower of Hanoi puzzle.


December 26, 2009
Phoenix, AZ

Picture For This Day

Christmas morning. Replete with dinosaurs. Dino toys. New dino books. And shiny new dinosaur pajamas from Sandi and Pap-Pap.


December 25, 2009
Phoenix, AZ

The Velveteen Jedi

I realize this is not a good picture, as far as technical quality is concerned. But I love it. Because it helps me tell a story.

This is Kiernan with one of his godfathers, Daniel. This was taken in a dark restaurant on a night when we went out to eat with Kiernan's godparents, Daniel, Darren, and Renee. Late in the meal Kiernan snuck under the table over to the other side of the booth to play with Daniel.

Before the meal, his godparents had given him his Christmas presents. Some of which were figures and spaceships from a certain film franchise we shall refer to as Star Wars.

I use this picture because Kiernan has been talking about these toys ever since. Also, if you look carefully just below the decorative picture that hung over our table, you'll be able to see some figures. I think Obi-Wan Kenobi is up there.

Anyway, the next day at dinner Kiernan kept asking me about the figures. He'd present a figure and ask me what that figure might say. Given that I like movie quotes, I'd oblige. Then Kiernan would start to dissect the quote. Here things got difficult.

Kiernan: Obi-Wan Kenobi. What does he say?

X: Um...The Force will be with you. Always.

Kiernan: What does that mean?

And so on.

I mean seriously. Just for fun think about this. How do you explain "The Force will be with you...Always," to a five-year-old? Ack!

The next morning, as I was getting Kiernan into the car for his first day back at school, he asked me the following question.

"Daddy. Is Star Wars really real?"

I caught my breath. I mean, really. How do I respond to this? All of a sudden I'm at ParentCon 2 and I'm not sure if we're dealing with a Santa Clause level event here or not. How do I respond to this.

I took a deep breath and calmed down.

"What do you think?" I responded.

"I don't know," he said. "What do you think?"

"I wish it was real," I said. Sort of punting.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it's one of my favorite things."

He thought about this as I secured his seat belt, closed his door, walked around the car, and got into the driver's seat.

"Me too," he said finally. "I want to be Obi-Wan Kenobi...or Admiral Ackbar."

"Admiral Ackbar?" I said laughing. "Why?" There was relief in my laugh.

"Because he says...'It's a trap!'"

That's my boy.

Picture For This Day

Reflecting with his friend Oliver, after 36 holes of minigolf.


Sherman Oaks, CA
January 3, 2010

Picture For This Day

At an indoor play place called Gummy the Bear. Yes, I want to punch the people who named it that, too.

You see Kiernan looking at a figure before him. A girl in purple. The first thing he said to me about her was, "I hate her! I hate that girl!"

Twenty minutes later and he's chasing her everywhere, playing with her happily for an hour...hour and a half. They would run around and around, going down slides and chasing each other, often taking a break--a moment to reflect perhaps--in the structure in the picture. The one marked 'Kitchen', as you can see.

Hmm. Surely there's no larger lesson to be gleaned from all of this.

No. Surely not.


Northridge, CA
January 2, 2010

Mountain out of a...

Okay...one more thing.

The above image is from a book Kiernan was reading tonight called Cobweb Christmas. He was reading it silently to himself while I perused my own book. Suddenly he looked up and asked me a question.

"Daddy, do you think spiders think we're mountains?"

Just like that. Out of the blue. No prep. No front-loading. Nothing. Just that question and I'm expected to have an answer for it. Now.

"Um." I think that was my response as I tried to think. I didn't just want to say, as I so often do, "What do you think?" He's getting wise to me on that. So I thought about the question. Meanwhile I stalled.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because we're humongous to them."

Okay. Fine. Good point. I asked the question in my head...Do spiders think we are mountains? Spiders vs. Mountains. Hmm. No! I thought. Not Spiders vs. Mountains. US vs. Mountains.

I felt pretty good about this. All I had to do was lead him down the path to figuring out what was different between us and mountains. From there he could reason out the answer to his own question. I thought about the difference between human beings and mountains and the answer occurred to me. I was prepared to lead him to it, point-by-point. I asked him what I thought would be the first of a few questions...

"What's the difference between us and mountains?"

He didn't even think for five seconds before saying, "We move and they don't."

SERIOUSLY? I had been so proud of thinking of that! And he came up with it on the fly! In less time! Damn it!

It's okay. I know I'm destined to play this out many more times in the years to come. I know that. Really...it's okay.

[Note to self: read everything in the world in the next five years.]

Sending the Wolf

Okay. The last of the test videos.

They seem pretty good so far. I'd appreciate your comments (as always). I'm not crazy about the quality, so I'll try some other methods. Right now I'm just using Blogger's uploading tool, and I have no idea how that rates quality-wise to posting to YouTube instead, or using the software sharing program that came with the camera.

The camera is Wendy's new Flip Video Camcorder. I feel a little guilty being the first one to use it, but as she's in Texas and was none too happy with missing Kiernan's first minigolf excursion, I decided to go for it and surprise her.

[NOTE: In the video I mistakenly refer to the date as "December 3, 2010". Obviously a mistake. This is not a video from the future.]

Skeeball Hero

Some folks like to hit the 19th Hole Cantina (whatever you call it) for a beer after a round of golf. Grab a sandwich. Maybe a tuna melt or a hot dog.

But seriously, after 36 holes there's nothing better than a round of skeeball. I mean, come on.

Hole in One...Assisted

Okay. Trying out The Creeping Kid's first video post. Cross your fingers.

Yesterday was Kiernan's first foray into the world of golf. It was a playdate for the last day of winter break, and about ten five/six year olds showed up inspiring the mom who organized the affair to ask, "How long will it take 8+ little kids to play 18 holes of golf?"

We were figuring four hours. Or infinity. As it turned out, the answer was, 36 holes in 90 minutes. We had not taken two major factors into account:

1. The sheer amount of sprinting. Not only from hole to hole. But from shot to shot.

2. The fact that what they would be playing would be far closer to hockey than golf.

As you can see in the video, Kiernan got his first hole in one. With a little inadvertent help from his friend Oliver. And he only lost one ball to the water. Much better than my first round of golf. Or, let's be honest, any round I've played thereafter.

Oh well, if you've got it, you've got it.

A good time was had by all.


January 3, 2010
Sherman Oaks, CA

Sound Advice

One of the traditions when we go to Arizona for the holidays is for the women to have a Girls' Day Out the day after Christmas. This has been going on for years. They spend the day getting their toes waxed and their elbows defoliated--or something--and go out to lunch and see a movie. It's a Dawn-to-Dusk situation, as you can imagine. The boys get the day before Christmas for their Boys' Day Out. This day is also known as Christmas Eve. Which means we go out for lunch and then come back for family time. Hmm.

Anyway, this year the boys had a bit more power because Rich, Amy's fella, was with us. So we got to hit a basket of golf balls in addition to going out for lunch, which was sushi. Good for me, as sushi is my favorite food. Not so good for Rich, as he's not a big fan of seafood, but he was a good sport.

The boys kind of snuck in some extra guy time during the Girls' Day Out festivities, however. Since they were going to be gone, we all loaded into the car--this time including Kiernan--and headed out to the Arizona Science Center. On our way there we got lunch, going to a place Rance called "Tiger". "I bet you can tell what they serve there!" he informed us on the way.

"Game?" I responded. "Venison. Buffalo. Stuff like that."

He gave me one of his withering looks in the rear view mirror.

I sat thinking, and all I could come up with was the idea of someplace like the Rainforest Cafe. Sort of generic American food. When we couldn't find the place on our first swing through town, I asked my phone to ask Google about it. Google said the place was actually called Wild Thaiger. THAIger. Get it?

Poor Rich.

Luckily for all of us, including Rich, this was some of the best Thai food I have ever had. Truly delicious. The ribs, for example...easily some of the best ribs I have had anywhere. So we were all pleased, even Rich. And even Kiernan, who was far and away the most high maintenance eater among us, found something he liked. [I'm ribbing Rich here, but he really was cool with everything we did.]

The picture above is from lunch. Noticing that I was spending a lot of time entertaining Kiernan, Grance suggested he come over and sit on his lap so I could get more eating done. Grance offered to read the book we were working on, When Dinosaurs Came with Everything. The light was pretty low in the restaurant, and this made reading difficult.

"I'm having a hard time reading this," Grance said. "I don't have my reading glasses."

Kiernan looked back over his shoulder and said, slowly and gently, "Sound it out."

Laughter all around.


Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to 2010.