Spacial Relationships

Kiernan is up from his nap and has picked up where he left off with Pap-Pap. Now that the letters have been written and the capitals circled, he has moved on to drawing all of the planets on the map. Reciting, drawing, writing and singing about the planets of our solar system is his new thing. Thanks mainly to his babysitter, Melissa, Kiernan can recite all of the planets in order--forwards and backwards. He loves to spend untold amounts of time drawing the planets and singing about them.

For awhile, Pluto was Kiernan's favorite planet. I did not have the heart to tell him that Pluto had been downgraded--I think scientists have now labeled Pluto a "Hobbit Planet"...but I could be wrong about that--because he liked it so much. So little and so far out there, all alone. Luckily his mom handled that task. I was thoroughly unhelpful, instead insisting that beyond Pluto was the Tenth Planet, Planet Goofy. At first Kiernan looked at me with a serious and confused sort of look, but he quickly got past this and just shook his head whenever I'd bring it up. He's lived with me for more than three years now. He knows the score.

One day, though, he just decided, out of the blue, that Planet Goofy was the Tenth Planet after all. Eventually other characters got to be planets too. In the picture to the left, Pap-Pap is pointing out Planet Donald. As my dad said, "You can tell that's Planet Donald. It's the one with the beak."

After this Pap-Pap went off to the restroom and I sat down to play a bit. Kiernan got a sneaky look in his eye, put the cap on his pen, and moved over to me. He touched the pen to my foot, tickling me.

"Did you do that?" I asked.

Kiernan shook his head.

"Who tickled my foot?"

"Um...a silver-tongued lizard," he replied.

"Wow," I said. "Where did that lizard come from?"

"Alabama."

So there you have it. The new game Pap-Pap and Kiernan made up before his nap--called "It Wasn't Me" and detailed in this post--is still being played after his nap. It is now an official game.