Goodnight Africa, Night 111213

I skipped a couple of nights, it seems. I have excuses. I shall not share them. Instead, here's a field trip picture.

The hand you see is that of one of the educators at this week's 2nd Grade field trip to a place called Tree People. The educator is calling on Kiernan to answer a bunch of questions and thus win the first of five prize rings for his class group. The educator selected him based on his singular ability to smile without teeth...

...and Kiernan had to answer a few questions about what trees need to grow. This would be repeated with other students over the course of the session, but Kiernan was the first to do it.

He aced it.

For the rest of the field trip he got to wear the Seed Ring.

Goodnight Africa! Can't wait to have you back home!

Picture for This Day

Please excuse the blurriness of this picture, I snapped it late in the afternoon and today was an overcast day.

He got annoyed with me a little before this. Tuesdays after school are Oliver days, that is to say his best friend Oliver comes home with us after school on Tuesdays and the two of them get to frolic like mad for a couple of hours. After Oliver's mom picked him up Kiernan wanted to do a variety of things I said "No" to, like playing with a neighborhood boy and watching TV. As a result of my "No" answers he decided he was bored.

I simultaneously love it and hate it when he says, "I'm bored." I hate it because I just hate that statement. I think I always have been annoyed by it; I subscribe to the lyrics of the late 90s group Harvey Danger, who said in the song "Flagpole Sitta": If you're bored then you're boring...


I was teaching Health to 9th graders around the time that song came out, and so I heard the statement "I'm bored" an awful lot, and my annoyance calcified into full-on hatred. Not for the freshmen, mind you. They were teenagers. What can you expect. No, just for the statement. So when Kiernan says he's bored my knee-jerk reaction is a flash of anger. Or used to be. Nowadays I get a kind of glee out of it, because unlike some parents who feel responsible when their kid is bored and feel guilty and start tap-dancing, I just put it on him. "Figure it out," I say.

I've come to a peace about this. In fact, I kind of like it when he says, "I'm bored." I see it as an opportunity. A little part of me wants him to be bored sometimes. This is a chance for him to figure out what it means to entertain himself. Which, incidentally, he never fails to do.

Deprived of the easy solutions of watching TV or playing with his neighborhood buddy (the latter which he gets to do nearly every day), he sat down to draw. He did so grudgingly at first, of course, but in no time he was lost in what he was doing. What you see in the picture above is part of a monster project he's doing. The specific drawing above is a monster called Sea Terror and it's sort of a mini-project within the monster project, because Sea Terror is going to be huge and is going to take up at least seven sheets of paper. In that picture he's working on the torso and, in case you cannot tell, fully engrossed in what he's doing.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 10

This week we're lucky to have Nana here for a visit.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 9

He's not often crazy about having his picture taken, but he's been a real sport posing for these Goodnight Africa pictures every night. So tonight I told him he could make whatever face he wanted to make. "Really?" Surprise filled his voice. "Sure."

Thus, demon spawn.

Oh well. Could have been worse. And it kind of fits my state of mind tonight, truth be told.

October 24, 2011

A Sleep Song

Midnight trip to the restroom. I caution him to avoid tripping as he makes his way to the toilet, because many times when we make this trip he is asleep on his feet.

"I'm awake, Dad." He says this as if reassuring me. Letting me know any concerns I may have are unnecessary. He's got this. He looks at me to let me know he means it, and gives me a little smile.

Then, standing and doing his business he sings...

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.
I can see all obstacles in my way.

I have no idea how he knows this song.

He sways a bit at he finishes, and then washes his hands and stumbles off to bed.

Goodnight Africa, Night 8

Goodnight from the one-week mark.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 7

 An action shot for tonight's Goodnight. He's insisted upon sleeping on the floor all week, and thus must prepare his little sleeping area each night by turning the floor of his room into some kind of pillow bunker.

October 22, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 6

Friday, October 21, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 5

A goofball, but a loving and loveable goofball.

Speaking of goofballs...

While Kiernan's dad begged Kiernan to pick a book for nighttime reading, Pap-Pap helpfully stacked all of Kiernan's favorite sleeping-buddy animals on the bed. Thanks Pap-Pap!

Meanwhile, Kiernan chose a book he wanted to read for the morning, a new book his mom had left for him, and set about previewing it. He most emphatically did not want that one to be the actual pre-bed reading book. He wanted to save it for the morning. Uh-huh.

The kid loves reading and is particular. What's a parent to do?

BTW, we got to talk to Wendy tonight. Her safari is going well. She's having a blast with Claire and staying in a lovely lodge and seeing all kinds of amazing animals. Also, shock of shockers, she's eating African food!

Goodnight Mom! We miss you!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 4

Evo, of the Hero Factory, joins Kiernan for tonight's picture.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 3, video bonus

A quick video version of our new Goodnight Africa series, made shortly after talking to Mommy before she boards her plane for Kilimanjaro. Sorry for the abrupt cutoff, it was a spur-of-the-moment situation and the batteries went kaput. The final translations, of Meow-Meow and Stripey: "We love you!"

The other adult voice you hear on the video belongs to Pap-Pap, btw.

Question of the Day

"Dad, can I tell you what 'onomatopoeia' means?"

Goodnight Africa, Night 3

Pap-Pap arrived for a visit today, so they posed for tonight's Goodnight Africa picture together. The red you see is not sunburns, or anger...just poor lighting and photography.

We got to talk to Wendy tonight, incidentally. She called while Kiernan was in the bath and we all got to talk on a stunningly clear phone call from Africa. Calls from our house to her office at CSUN should be so clear. Anyway, she called to say she's doing well and was about to get on a plane for Kilimanjaro and her safari adventure.

Bonus pic:

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tigerland

Kiernan is playing soccer again, and it's going really well. A night-and-day difference from the last time he did rec league soccer a couple of years ago. This time he seems to be having fun and actually learning how to play soccer. He's into the games and practices much more, and really focusing on his skills. He also has a really good pair of coaches this time around, which is making a big difference too. It's great to see him taking to a sport like this.

I'm trying a couple new methods of making and uploading a slideshow, since the site I used to use is shutting down in the spring and in preparation of that has disabled the create-a-slideshow option.

Here's test method two.

Tiger Oct15 - slideshow dvd

Looks like number two wins for quality. Unfortunate, since I had to use a website for that whereas I created the first one using Windows Moviemaker on my computer. I'll keep messing with it. For now enjoy the action shots from last Saturday's game!

October 15, 2011

Goodnight Africa, Night 2

Mr. Clean loves and misses his mom.

October 17, 2011

Africa Update

Just got off the phone with Wendy. She just arrived in her hotel room in Dar es Salaam. She sounds great, safe and exhausted.

October 17, 2011
1:15pm (PST)

Goodnight Africa, Night 1

Today we took Wendy to the airport for her two-week trip to Africa. Tanzania, to be exact. She's going there to train some teachers and see a different world. We're very, very excited, of course. And we're also sad and full of concern, of course. We've never been away from her this long. We have no idea how much we'll get to be in contact with her during this time. It's an adventure for us all, to be sure.

So, in that spirit, I've decided to post a Goodnight Africa picture every night. Just a shot of Kiernan right before bed. One of our constants when Wendy travels is that we get on the phone at Kiernan's bedtime. This is important to all of us. Getting to say "I love you" and talk about the day even for a few moments. It's an important thing for all three of us, but it is an especially important thing for her when she's on the road. I know this first hand from the times I've been traveling. Getting to make that little bit of contact, right before he goes to bed...it's huge. I've had a couple of trips when I couldn't do this--my hiking/camping trips in Joshua Tree where there is no cell service whatsoever spring to mind--and I just went to bed feeling like a part of myself was missing.

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that it won't be possible to extend this tradition to Wendy's Africa trip. I don't know if you people realize this, but Africa is a whole other continent. It's like on the other side of the world or something. It may even be winter there. Who can know?

In the interest of preserving the tradition, or at least a sliver of it, I'm going to post a bedtime image for each night. Hopefully his Mom will get to check these out during her travels, but even if she cannot, she'll be able to see them all when she returns, and know that each night we were wishing her sweet dreams right before our heads hit the pillow.

Keep in mind these will be quick shots, and they will be low quality and sometimes blurry since I refuse to use a flash even in low light because...well...blech. But it's the thought that counts, so no grousing!

Anyway, we put her on the plane at around 2pm, so she's probably about halfway there at this point. To say we're already missing her would be an understatement.

Good night and we love you.


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Picture For This Day

Random picture that came up in my wallpaper shuffling program. His expression here is so great and the picture just made me so happy this morning that I decided to post it here in the hopes that it would jump start me to get back to posting more updates.

Look at that face!

From 2007