Due Praise

He was so great today. That's really all I want to say. I mean, he's a great kid. Duh. We all know that. But he's six years old, so he's gonna have his moments. Today...I just have to praise him.

We try to make time for him to play with his friends every day after school, at school. It's first grade. Play time is precious. But today we had to run a dvd to CSUN for his mom's Monday night class, so we were on a mission. Usually when we have to leave right after school, he gets sad. Not today. An errand for Mom? No problem. I'm on it, Dad.

Of course getting to see Mom on a Monday, her tough long day, is a reward in itself. The fact that her office is packed with candy is a nice little benefit too. But still, we had to drive around forever and find a parking spot, then walk about fifteen minutes to her office, then back to the car, then stop at the dry cleaners. Nary a complaint.

All of this may seem pedestrian--some of it literally so--but it's these normal little moments of real life that make being a parent such a pleasure. He was so cool.

So we got home and his neighborhood friends were out playing. We should have gotten down to homework right away, but he'd been so good. So patient.

So I relaxed the schedule and let him head out to play. See a little joy there? So do I.

We got the homework done during dinner, so it worked out. Plus, we earned major points with Mom. Mom points, time for play, and homework completed...now that's multitasking I can get behind.

Picture of This Day

Working on a major craft project with his amazing mom.


February 27, 2011

Question of The Day

Kiernan was in the tub and he hit me with this one.

"What's the word for when a person rises from the dead?"

Buh...duh...what?

"What's the word for when a person rises from the dead? I know the word for when a person floats in the air. That's levitation. What's the word for coming back from the dead?"

I tried for some context, and failed. But then I remembered that right now everything is about exploring superhero powers and creating his own Bionicles with their own special weapons. So I put this question in that slot.

"Resurrection," I replied, finally.

"Oh!" He brightened up. "What was it again?"

"Resurrection."

"Okay. Resurrection."

Picture of This Day

Wendy bought him cowboy boots, and he's crazy about them. She's out of town for a couple of days this week, so picking out clothes for school can get a little dicey. It's Friday so I figured sweats and a t-shirt would be okay. I have him a couple of choices for shirts and underwear.  When we got to the front door after brushing teeth, this is what I saw.  Sweats tucked in boots.

"You sure about that?" I asked.

"I love these boots!"  He was beaming.

As I put on my seatbelt I heard him singing softly to himself a made up song. It went something like this, "It's gonna be a great day, because I'm wearing my new boots."

Onward to school.

Picture of This Day

He's in a Far Side phase right now. He's burned through my entire Calvin & Hobbes collection, and now he's laying waste to my second favorite comics collection.

What's fun is reading these together. From time to time he decides we should do the faces in the panels of The Far Side. Hilarious.

Like me, though, sometimes he gets annoyed with getting his picture taken.

Picture of This Day

After Spanish class today Kiernan decided he was going to entertain himself, and his friend Oliver, and Oliver's brother Sam, by being Tarzan. Tarzan of the schoolyard. It's hard to tell from this shot, but he's got part of that tree in his hand--er, rather...a vine--and he's swinging from table to table.


February 23, 2011

Training Video For This Day

Wendy is heading to Texas for a conference this week. In preparation for that conference she recorded some short videos with teachers at Kiernan's school. Right before she left she realized she needed some student input as well. She grabbed the nearest, likeliest lad and asked for his help in defining one of her favorite educational concepts, collaboration.

He helped.

That's my boy.

Picture For This Day

Playdate shot from earlier in the month. I like how this is living room soccer, but it looks like dancing.


February 5, 2011

Picture For This Day

Modeling a Valentine's Day gift from Aunt Judy in Utah. Just between you and me...Aunt Judy knows movies.

February 18, 2011

Picture of This Day

This Saturday started in the best possible way, with a visit from Kiernan's cousin Dorian and his wonderful parents, JoAnne and Mitch. What he's doing above is the home equivalent of "Are we there yet?"

Dorian and company showed up moments after this, and much joy ensued.

February 19, 2011

Today in first grader celebrity gossip

As Wendy flossed Kiernan's teeth this evening, she remarked that his longish hair reminded her of one Justin Bieber. Kiernan mumbled something past the fingers in his mouth.

"That's right," his mom replied. "He's on a lot of magazine covers."

Pretty impressive that she was able to decipher that. I myself could not, as I was busy gagging in the background. The two of them continued to discuss Bieber, Kiernan asking if he was the one with the really blonde hair, like his friend Sylas. I have no idea what Wendy's response to this was, as by this time I was actively trying to keep from throwing up. That is, until Kiernan said rather nonchalantly,

"A lot of people think he's a lip singer."

Wendy and I locked eyes.

What? What? We haven't entered a time warp, have we? We're still in first grade here, right?

Wendy patiently tries to untangle the terms "lip singer" and "lip syncing" as I dizzily sit and come to the conclusion, silently, that "lip singer" is a pretty good alternative. I'm considering a patent and a website purchase when I remember we're trying to get our boy ready for bed and I refocus.

"Who told you about this?" I ask, trying not to sound like a member of the Stasi.

"Oh..." he takes a moment to consider, then rattles off a few names of his classmates.

So this is where we are now. Bieber gossip in first grade. Really?

It's funny. It's cute. It's adorable. And still, I want to scream and cry.

Too bad, Dad. Welcome to 2011.

Picture of This Day

Yep, another reading picture. As I've told you before, I'll never tire of these. Buyer beware.

Once again he exchanged his library book on his own, after the official First Grade Library Day. Which is to say, the official library visit is on Wednesday every week, and the kids keep the book they get until the next week. But the librarian lets some first graders exchange their books with more frequency. We stopped in today after school since Kiernan finished the book he picked up yesterday...um...yesterday.

He picked a new book. A graphic novel this time.

As she checked the new book out for Kiernan the librarian smiled and asked, "Will you bring this back tomorrow? So you can check out another one?"

Kiernan, acting shy in this moment as he does, said, "Yes."

She smiled. "Because I imagine you'll finish this one in the car on the way home."

He smiled back and thanked her.

She wasn't far off.


February 17, 2011

Picture of This Day

From the one-hundredth day of First Grade. As you can see by the crown there. He looks a little desperate. That's my fault. It took me a couple of tries to get the shot properly, and he was tiring of hanging around by one arm.


February 16, 2011

Picture For This Day

Sending an extra-cheesy message of love to his mother on Valentine's Day. This is the pose I got when I told him I wanted to text her a picture, since she was working well into the night that night. Oh well. You can't really blame him for hamming it up for his mom. After all, she bought him that shirt.


February 14, 2011

Happy Valentines Day!

We'll go in reverse order.

We had a nice Sunday yesterday, lunch out together and a movie. Since Monday is Wendy's long work day, we opened today's gifts before bedtime last night. Here we see how he feels about his new Atlantis Lego set from Pap-Pap and Sandi.

Here he is regarding the set before we asked him to pose. I like this expression.

And here he is at the beginning, catching his first glimpse of the gift. I'll never get tired of that look of surprised glee.

Again, Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Picture of This Day

After lunch and a movie--Gnomio & Juliet--Kiernan decided he wanted to treat his mom to dessert at our favorite frozen yogurt place, Menchies, as an early Valetine's Day present. He was only thinking of her when he made this suggestion, I'll have you know.


February 13, 2011

Picture For This Day

Practicing last week's spelling words at dinner.


February 10, 2011

Picture For This Day

Kiernan's school celebrated the Chinese New Year yesterday. Apparently the kids were instructed to ring in the year with seafood.


February 10, 2011

Picture For This Day

Another picture from the Science Center field trip. Here the kids experiment with a huge coiled tube that carries sound across the room. All very scientific. You see my boy up there? He's burping into it.

A wealth of science to discover at the Science Center, and Kiernan is sending burps to his friends. Oh well, they are studying solids, liquids, and gases right now. So maybe this is legit.

Uh-huh.


February 9, 2011
Los Angeles, CA

Picture of This Day

Snack time with his buddy Sylas during today's field trip to the California Science Center.


February 9, 2011

Fan Boy

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but last Sunday a bunch of dudes in something called the NFL had a big event. Now, we're not much for sports watchin' in the Murawski family, at least not as a family. I tend to Tivo any sports events I want to see and watch them late at night when everybody else has gone to bed. This consists of some pro football games and a slew of college basketball games. Confession: I fast-forward through most of the action.

Wendy wanted to watch the Super Bowl together, though, so my Tivo routine wasn't going to do. Given the length of the average NFL game (approx. 12 hours) added to the pageantry of the Super Bowl (add. approx. 7.5 hours), we figured Kiernan was going to make this difficult. So Wendy had the idea of giving him a new Lego set to put together while we watched the game. Or rather while I watched the game and Wendy read her book until it was time to watch commercials. This turned out to be a smashing idea. He was ecstatic upon getting his new Lego set, and fitting together the three-hundred plus pieces kept him busy for most of the game.

Something unexpected happened though. He got into the game.

This happened in bits and pieces. Dribs and drabs. It kind of snuck up on me. At the beginning, Kiernan asked who I was rooting for, and he was surprised to find out that I wasn't rooting for the guys with my favorite color uniforms: green. Whenever he sees sports on tv, be it a game or just a Sports Center clip, he will ask who I want to win because invariably his allegiance will be with the team wearing his favorite color, red. That's the extent of it. So the fact that I was rooting for the Steelers was confusing to him, but he accepted it.

As the game went on and he concentrated on his Lego set, he would ask questions about our reactions. At one point I reacted strongly to a key fumble--don't worry, my reaction was totally 'G' rated--and we explained that to him. At another point I reacted favorably to a sack of Aaron Rodgers. Kiernan asked about that and I dashed off an explanation; Wendy helpfully paused the game and explained the concept of the quarterback sack to him. Again, he accepted it.

As the game drew to a close Wendy prepared him for bed, asking me to pause the game with a few seconds left, so the two of them could see the very end with me before bedtime.  With about fifty seconds left it was clear the game was over, so I paused it and had the two of them join me. I explained how this fourth down pass play, if unsuccessful, would mean the end of the game. Then we watched it.

I'm not a rabid fan, by any means, but sometimes when my team loses I get sad. It happens. I might carry it around for a day or so. No big deal. Well, when that fourth down pass play failed, I looked over at my son and saw that he was crushed. Crushed! This meaningless thing. This event where I wasn't even rooting for the right color uniforms. And there he was, shoulders slumped, brow furrowed, lip quivering.

Maybe part of this was due to the fact that it was well past his usual bedtime. I don't know. But I was shocked at how quickly he had established an emotional connection with the fortunes of a team just a few scant hours before he couldn't have cared less about. For me, this was perfect. I had a hard time rooting for the Steelers this year. It always felt uncomfortable. Oogy. But still, I wanted them to win. I would've felt sad. Instead of that, however, I found myself immediately channeling my energy and emotions into bucking up my newest little fan.

"It's okay. The Packers played better today. That happens." This was true. Clearly. Though cold comfort.

I forget what else we said to him, but it was variations on that theme. Lessons on sportsmanship and whatnot. It was nice, because it totally distracted me from  my own misplaced fan emotions and focused me on my son and his new feelings. Kind of cool.

I'm still knocked out by how easily a fan was created on this day. Wow.

[NOTE: The above picture was taken by the father of Ryan, one of Kiernan's friends, at the birthday party of Aidan, another of Kiernan's friends. As you can see, the dude--his name is Andrew--can take a picture.]

Picture of This Day

This picture, like so many, is going to make sense to but a few. But as we walked to the car after school today, I was just struck how my little boy is becoming something else. He's becoming a dude who wears jeans and walks somewhere. He's not just a little boy somebody looks after. He's that. Yes. And he will be that for a good while to come, thank goodness. But he's becoming something else too. He's becoming a guy.

As we headed to the car this afternoon, he handed off his school backpack to me and ran on ahead. As he does just about every day. But today, as I watched him walk ahead of me, I saw the beginnings of a saunter. And I saw him walking into the future. That's why I snapped this picture.

I love every day. He still cries like a baby when he stubs his toe. Next moment, he walks like a man.

What a weird world is being a parent.

My Electronic Readers

Let me see if I can set the scene.

It's Super Bowl Sunday. Hours before the game, to be sure, but it's shaping up to be a lovely lazy Sunday. One person in the house figures out a way to get out of pajamas into real clothes. That person is dispatched to pick up lunch out in the world. When he returns, he finds the rest of his family snuggled on the reading chair under a favorite blanket...reading. Well, what else is the reading chair for? Makes sense.

The hunter/gatherer serves lunch to the snugglers. Fine. That's good. They are reading. He loves that. Mom is reading her iPad book. Son is reading the magazine his godmother Nee-Nee got him for Christmas. So all is well. This goes on for a time, until hunter/gatherer enters the room again to find both Mom and Son reading from iPad. As it turned out, Son finished with his magazine, and started looking over Mom's shoulder. Luckily Mom was reading something juvenile fiction-y. One of those Lightning Thief books or something, and not that vile tripe she was reading for her book club last week. At any rate, Son had taken interest and had thusly taken exception with Mom's rate of turning pages. I mean, the kid is a great reader, but nobody can read at this woman's rate. Seriously.

So Mom read to Son for awhile. And Son read to Mom in turn. It was sweet, but it wasn't perfect. Mom wanted to read faster, and Son did not want to read out loud anymore.

The above picture shows the compromise. I wish I'd captured the moment before, with the two of them reading side-by-side, but I missed it. Mom reading the book on her iPad. Son, snuggled next to her, reading the same book at his pace on the iPhone.  Both happy as could be under their blanket together.

And both not at all shy about asking hunter/gatherer to refill their drinks. Since he was up anyway. And they were so comfortable and all snuggly.

Ah technology.

Picture of This Day

Saturday featured a playdate with some pretty happenin' dudes, Kiernan's friends Jon and Matt.

I just want to say, I was out of the house for this. I just want to make that clear. Perhaps I should make myself present at these events. If I do not, I might find myself singlehandedly responsible for a wholesale return to the fashion of the 80's in less than a decade's time.

Don't think I'm not taking such a threat seriously, upon seeing this picture.


February 5, 2011

Picture For This Day

We had Nana in town last week for a visit, which was so great. We're missing her now that she's back home. Just felt like saying that.

Here you see her playing a game she invented with Kiernan. They were throwing rocks into the tree and predicting where those rocks would land. Or something. I can't really say for certain, as I wasn't invited to play. This was Nana and Kiernan time.

I was only to happy to 'c' my way out.


January 24, 2011

Picture For This Day

A weekday dinner night out, with dessert at the best yogurt place ever. Moms and boys rocking the town.


February 1, 2011

Dopey Link of This Day

I don't ever spam this blog with stupid YouTube junk. But my friend Miriam shared this with me today, and it resonates. As I said in a recent post, it's all superhero stuff around here these days. We played with Jedi powers the other day, when Kiernan insisted we both choose Jedis and do battle. Then yesterday he drew repulsor beams on his hands and he pretended to be Iron Man while I was Wolverine. [Spoiler Alert: Wolverine doesn't fare so well against Iron Man, as it turns out.]

Anyway, here's the YouTube junk:



Do with it what you will. But I beg you, do not use it for evil. That leads to the Dark Side.

P.S. It's actually better, much better, if you view it here, on YouTube, than the embed above. The format of this blog cuts off the frame way too much. And that makes a difference.

Picture For This Day

Totally random picture. Kiernan's old preschool has an event called the Harvest Festival every year; this is a major fundraiser for them. Back when Kiernan was a student there we worked the thing. It was great fun. Now that Kiernan has moved on to elementary school we no longer work the festival as volunteers, but we like to attend and show our support.

I took this picture at the 2010 Harvest Festival. Here's Kiernan with his friend Nicholas, with whom he attended preschool and who is now at Kiernan's school attending kindergarten.

I'm not even sure I haven't already posted this picture. I just stumbled across it in going through some files, and it charmed me. So here it is. Maybe again.


Sometime in 2010
Northridge, CA

Balancing Act

Today was an early day at school. That is to say, school got out early. More than an hour early. Given that this is a Tuesday and we volunteer in Kiernan's classroom on Tuesdays, this meant my day was pretty well gone. Oh well. It happens.

But that's just me grousing. What this post is actually about is finding balance.

A basic tension around these parts is the whole homework-vs-play thing. Homework isn't really all that important in first grade. I mean not as far as content is concerned. Not really. It's more about establishing a routine. Helping to set habits for the future when it will matter. But setting those habits and expectations is important. So we believe that doing a bit of homework first thing when we get home is a good thing.

We also believe having plenty of time for play is a good thing. This gets difficult in these "winter" days when it gets dark earlier. I put "winter" in "quotes" because we are wearing short-sleeved shirts most of the time here in Southern California nowadays. At any rate, Kiernan has really been into playing outside with the neighborhood kids lately. We love that. But balancing that with getting homework done is difficult. We want to instill those values of hard work, and the routines of doing schoolwork first thing, but we don't want it to be a chore in the pejorative sense that that word carries. It's a tough edge to walk.

Today was an early day, so it was easier.  When I picked him up I let him play for a bit at the school, as is my wont. I had to look after his friend Oliver anyway, as Oliver's mom had to pick up the younger brother at the same time school was letting out. I intended to let Kiernan play for about an hour after school, so we stayed after Oliver's mom showed up and took Oliver home. However, Kiernan had an unfortunate encounter with a parallel bar, so we ended up leaving the play structure early at his tearful behest.  We got home, and Kiernan immediately wanted to go find his new neighborhood friends and play.

"Let's do some homework first," I said. "Just fifteen minutes. Then you can play outside."

He thought for a moment. "How about two pages of homework instead of fifteen minutes?"

Interesting, I thought. Now you should know that Kiernan is a master negotiator. He's far better at this than I am. However, in this case, I knew he was going to get the short end. It would take him longer than fifteen minutes to do two pages because I knew he would get into it. It was money math challenge stuff and he likes that. So I agreed.

He got down to work with nary a complaint.

Here he's figuring two ways to make change for each number. He's great at this stuff. He finished his two pages in about twenty minutes, because we take our time discussing concepts and working out new ideas.  And when he was finished...

...his friends buried his legs in sand.

We don't always achieve balance. Today we did.

Yay for us.