Rocking Number Six

The bulk of Kiernan's birthday celebrating happened over the holiday weekend, with his big party on Sunday.  I'll hopefully find some decent pictures from that event (translation: hopefully Brutha Mitch will send me some because the ones I took are pretty crappy) and post them.  This post is just about the birthday proper, which took place on Monday.  A school day.  These are a couple of odd pictures from that day, for you.

After school we gave Kiernan the option to choose what to do next.  Strangely, running straight home and doing homework was not his first choice.  His first choice, when he saw us there to pick him up, "Can I go to the play structure and play as long as I want to?"

Yep.

Just about every day Kiernan wants to head over to the play structure located near his old Kindergarten class and play with his friends.  Usually I say we can do this for a little while and then we head home.  So the difference this time was that he got to determine how long we stayed and played.  We watched him as he ran around with his friends and played a little tag, then, as is his wont, went into his lunch box and started working on his lunch.  He almost never eats any of his lunch during the actual lunch time provided in the school day.  Far more important things are on his list of things to do at this time.

Fearing "as long as I want to" would mean staying until the next school day, we gently reminded Kiernan that he had a couple of exciting things on the horizon.  1) He was going to get to choose where we went for dinner. 2) There were presents waiting to be opened at home.  Upon mention of the latter he immediately went and picked up his backpack and proclaimed that it was time to go.

As we headed out to our cars, we broached the subject of dinner.  We did this with some trepidation.  More than a week ago we had been at one of Kiernan's favorite places to eat, California Pizza Kitchen, and he had announced that he wanted to have his birthday dinner at CPK.  That was fine with both of his parents.  We can find plenty of good stuff to eat there, and Kiernan loves their curly mac and cheese.  In point of fact, CPK is about the only place that makes macaroni and cheese that Kiernan will eat.  In his defense it is quite good, but then again I think just about any recipe will seem "quite good" if an extra pound of butter is incorporated into it.

Then, a couple of days ago Kiernan announced he wasn't interested in going to CPK for his birthday dinner anymore.  What was his replacement choice?  Burger King.

Ugh.  Facepalm.

Wendy and I went back and forth about this.  I absolutely hated the idea that our kid was choosing fast food for his birthday meal, and Wendy was none too pleased either.  But what are you gonna do?  It's his birthday.  He should get to choose his own meal.  Plus, he was a pretty good sport at my birthday meal last Friday when I chose a restaurant where the only thing he could find to eat was croutons.  Uh-huh.  Not joking.  As a lad myself, I always chose my mom's incredible skillet enchiladas, but then I was a child of discerning tastes.  It seems my boy has not quite reached that point yet.  So we took a deep breath and headed to Burger King.

In the parking lot Kiernan dropped his next request.  He wanted me to run home and gather up all his presents so he could open them at dinner.  At Burger King.  Sorry...I couldn't do it.  For some reason that was a bridge too far.  The mental image of us opening gifts in that setting, while Kiernan ate chicken bits shaped into crowns...it just filled me with a mixture of disgust and sadness.  So I had to say no way.  But I was willing to compromise.  If he wanted to, we could take the delicious BK food home.  He went for that.

So not only did he choose fast food for his birthday...he chose take out fast food for his birthday.  Sigh.  I don't get it.  To me that's like going to Paris and having dinner at McDonald's.  But what do I know?  At least we were going home.

Where my mood improved considerably.  We threw a blanket on the floor in front of the fireplace and had a picnic in front of the fire.  Yeah, it was Burger King food, but at least I could have a glass of wine with it, which apparently you can't do if you actually eat at Burger King since their new product, The BK Big Wine Sipper, hasn't yet been rolled out.

He started tearing into his presents, which was a lot of fun.  I like watching Kiernan open presents.  Sometimes he does that thing I imagine most kids do, that give-me-the-next-present thing where it seems they can't tear through them fast enough.  More often than not, however, he wants to stop to read the book he just opened or open the package and explore the new toy or game.  This can be crazy making at Christmas, when there's a crowd waiting to open the next present, or when the services of Dad are required for technical assembly.  When it's just him opening the presents in front of the fire, it's cool though, especially since this year he's so into Lego sets and Bionicles.  I get a great deal of joy when I see how excited he is to open those packages and unfold the directions.  The way he concentrates on putting together those things is just so arresting.  Yeah, it can get frustrating too, but mostly it makes me proud.

One of the most interesting gifts he got this birthday was a rock collection from our family friend, Pat.  This was such a nifty gift because it was so personal, something Pat had owned for a long time and was passing along to someone he thought would appreciate it.  Boy was he right.  Kiernan opened the box and he just lit up, mouth wide open.  He was just so excited to identify the different rocks in the collection and point out which rocks he already knew about and work his way through pronouncing the ones he did not.  "Obsidian!  There's Obsidian!"

It was just a lovely moment, capping a wonderful birthday.