Independence

Kind of a goofy picture, but I like it.  I had to shoot it surreptitiously from across the room.

We spent the last week of December in a cabin with family.  Gammy and Grance and Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Mitch and Cousin Dorian.  One of the great joys of the week was watching how Kiernan and Dorian interacted. How they played and shared and negotiated.  They are so great together.  One of Kiernan's big challenges was dealing with the time when his younger cousin would take his nap.

The picture above captures Kiernan working this out one day.  He spent most of Dorian's nap just playing with Legos.  On this day he was playing with his cousin's new Lego bulldozer.  Kiernan loved this thing...as did Dorian.  No surprise, it was Dorian's newest toy.  But Kiernan so wanted to play with it.  That bulldozer was so, so cool.  So, on this day, Dorian said Kiernan could play with the new bulldozer while Dorian was asleep.  It was just such a great negotiation.

Kiernan spent most of Dorian's nap that day playing on his own with the bulldozer and another Lego dumptruck.  The adults were on the other side of the room, reading and writing in journals and playing Angry Birds and catching naps and going for walks.  Hearing Kiernan in playtime, doing quiet voices as his cousin slept...beyond beautiful.

After an hour or so he asked me to play with him.  We went into the cabin's kitchen and played, me operating the dumptruck and Kiernan commandeering the beloved bulldozer.  I felt so good, being the good dad playing with his son.  Sharing quality time.

After fifteen/twenty minutes Kiernan asked, "Is Dorian gonna be up soon?"

Yeah, I'm a good dad.  But at this time...just a placeholder.  Oh well.  Getting him to fly on his own is the point, right?

Right.  Sigh.