Cliche

We just arrived in Phoenix for Christmas with Kiernan's Gammy, Grance and Aunt Amy. Happy to be here. The trip--we drove from Los Angeles--took a good seven hours or so, with emphasis on the "or so".

Kiernan was great on the drive. I want to be clear on that. He has his typical four-year-old moments, because, well, he's four. But he did a great job. But I just have to say one thing...

That whole "are we there yet" gag we all see used ad nauseam in comics and television shows? Yeah. That's a cliche for a reason.

More later. Enjoy the brevity for now.

-xtien

Story Logic

The Planet Heroes are currently all the rage in the Murawski household. The Planet Heroes are a line of action figures put out by Fisher Price that are aimed at taking advantage of the fact that Kiernan loves learning about the Solar System. I'm convinced this is the only reason they exist. Kiernan was given one of these action figures by his friends Ryan and Kyra for his birthday, and because he's so nuts about all things planet this toy immediately became one of his favorites. This figure is called Earth Ace, and his planet is, of course, Earth. The other Planet Heroes are similarly paired with planets, and each one basically has a personality that somehow matches his planet. Zip is the dude associated with Mercury. Because Mercury is a fast planet. Rings is the fellow associated with Saturn, for obvious reasons. Daz is the Planet Hero that goes with Venus. She's a hot chick, because Venus is...um...hot.

Since Kiernan was so immediately enamored of Earth Ace, we went online and checked out The Planet Heroes website (surfing note: for some reason I can never see the site with Firefox, only Internet Explorer, so YMMV if you click on the above link). Surfing about the site we found voices to go with each Planet Hero, which is all well and good unless you're the person who has to then do those voices ALL DAY LONG. There are also three video episodes on the site that you can watch for free, as well as companion comic books that you can read or print out. We've read the comic books a few times and Kiernan has watched the video episodes a few times as well. I think they're fairly goofy, and clearly exist only for marketing purposes, but then again, what doesn't? Plus, he just loves these things.

In one of the episodes, a traitor infiltrates the ranks of the Planet Heroes. He is named Slash Red Giant (or something) and Commander (the sun) inducts him into the Planet Heroes group, or league...whatever they call it. What Commander doesn't know is that Slash Red Giant is working with Black Hole Professor Darkness, the nemesis of the Planet Heroes whose sole purpose appears to be to destroy the Solar System. At a crucial moment in the episode--erm...SPOILER ALERT--Slash Red Giant zaps all of the Planet Heroes with his gravity ring power (or something), trapping them.

Or most of them. For some reason Earth Ace and Zip are not at first trapped by the gravity ring power. From a screenwriting point of view this is so that Earth Ace can escape and come back to save the day with a Giant Space Cow (I'm sure you saw that coming). What about from a story logic point of view? Who cares, you ask? Well...Kiernan does.

The two of us were eating dinner the other night, and during a lull in our conversation, Kiernan asked the following question:

"Why didn't the gravity get Zip or Ace?"

Two things here.

1. There was no segue prefacing this . It just came out of nowhere. Sort of. I mean we are always talking about the planets at the dinner table. Have been for months. Our regular dinner routine consists of asking about the day of someone at the table, then launching into a story about the Interstellar Intergalactic Super Detectives. Kiernan gives me a story prompt, usually something about one of the planets stealing something that belongs to us, and I spin a tale about the planets. Again, we've been doing this for months. I believe I've mentioned this before, and I say that because I intend to write these stories and turn them into a franchise, and will use this blog as evidence that I'm not stealing from the Planet Heroes, which we just discovered on November 29, 2008. There. That should work as adequate evidence.

2. I have barely watched these videos myself. I'm not saying they are insipid, but let's just say I'm not the target audience. Plus, almost any time a video is on at our house--especially when Wendy is away on a business trip, as she is this week--I spring into action and go crazy trying to get stuff done, stuff I cannot do while entertaining what has to be the most high-maintenance four-year-old on the planet. Seriously. He demands live entertainment constantly. Even while sitting on the toilet. We have no one to blame for this but ourselves, of course, as we figured that reading to him was a good way to facilitate potty training. But still, I'm just saying.

So not really having paid attention to the Planet Heroes video episodes, it took me a good few moments to pick up on what the heck he was asking about when he asked "Why didn't the gravity get Zip or Ace?" I suddenly remembered Slash Red Giant (or whatever) zapping and trapping the Planet Heroes with his gravity ray. I subsequently recalled the fact that Zip and Ace hadn't been caught. That Zip tried to sneak away, that is until his boot creaked on the floor of the space station and Slash Red Giant zapped him. Earth Ace takes this moment to have a conversation with Commander about what he should do, a conversation right under the nose of Slash Red Giant that Slash Red Giant totally misses because, I don't know, he's busy cleaning his andirons or something. And he doesn't even own a fireplace. Not that I'd know this...

So I came up with something. That Slash Red Giant missed and eventually got Zip, and Ace escaped, and Kiernan said,

"Ace jumps back but the gravity gets the floor instead."

Which is totally what happened. Red Giant eventually becomes aware that Ace and Commander are having a conversation and tries to zap Ace, but Ace jumps back and the gravity power harmlessly slams into the floor.

Later in the episode, as Ace is riding in to save the day with Lunar and the Giant Space Cow, the Planet Heroes are released from the gravity and turn on Slash Red Giant. But the actual how of this isn't explained. It just kind of happens in the action of the climax of the episode. Whatever. It's just a marketing video. Again...not good enough.

"How did the Planet Heroes get out of the gravity?"

Again, I was stumped. So this time instead of making something up I just said, "I don't know."

And Kiernan replied with, "I think it didn't show."

Now, if you're still with me, let me say two more things.

1. Good for you.

2. Sorry this was so long.

I couldn't help it. I'm just crazy about this kid's mind. He tracks story logic in the things he watches, lets it bounce around his brain, and then later on starts picking it apart. Do you get how freaking awesome that is? Do you? He watched this video episode on the computer probably ten or twelve hours before, then out of nowhere at the dinner table he starts asking questions about the holes in the story. He gets that these are story problems, and he's not willing to let them just slip by.

I love it. What an amazing mind.

Next post: he does the same thing to one of my stories.

*Picture Note: Kiernan trying on his new planet pajamas, a gift from Pap-Pap and Sandi. He would wear them that night and all day the next day. No joke. All day.

Teachable Moments

Great little moment tonight that reminded me of something I've been meaning to post about for more than a year now.

Kiernan was taking his bath tonight and had just finished washing his hair. Washing his own hair, I might add. Something I didn't realize he could do on his own until his Pap-Pap--my dad--visited a couple of weeks ago. In point of fact, Kiernan didn't even realize he could do it himself until Pap-Pap's visit. It was amazing. I left them alone for a few moments in the bathroom during Kiernan's bath and by the time I returned Kiernan was washing his own hair. Basically because my dad introduced him to the concept that he could do it himself.

I'm telling you, there's nothing like the power of grandparents. Nothing.

As parents we can get so myopic. I don't mean this as a criticism. It is natural. We get used to doing things a certain way, and we keep doing them that way because when you're so close to growing life it's hard to tell when the changes are happening. It's also hard to know when it's time to break out and take a risk. Grandparents have perspective. They can see these moments and act on them in ways we cannot.

So my dad was visiting and helping with bath time and having raised two sons, and having taught years of first graders, he sensed that an opportunity for independence was upon us. So he taught Kiernan to wash his own hair. A simple, wonderful thing.

Tonight we were bathing Kiernan, and now he washes his own hair. This is still a marvel to us, and so we asked Kiernan how he learned to do this.

"Pap Pap taught me how."

Beautiful.

This reminded me of a year ago, when Kiernan left behind his diapers and adapted himself to the potty.

Now I realize that reading about potty training is not high on the reading list for of most of you folks. But I've been meaning to share this for awhile, so deal with it. A little more than a year ago we realized it was time for Kiernan to transition from diapers to using the toilet. Only we were about to embark upon a three week trip to Arizona, Alabama, and Virginia. The idea of negotiating the scary territory of potty training while on the road, and in the air, was really too much to handle. So we decided to hold off on formal potty training until after the trip. We agreed on this, and that was that.

The Grandmothers had other ideas. And they didn't even have to communicate these ideas. It was all telepathic.

First we were in Arizona, and Wendy's mom, Kiernan's Gammy, took it upon herself to whisk Kiernan off to the potty at any moment's notice. It was really superhuman. I can think of few other words to describe it. For the entire visit, whenever Kiernan looked the least bit interested in situations scatalogical, Gammy would rush him to the bathroom, set him up on the mini-potty, and read and encourage him for as long as it took. This was really the foundation.

We moved on to Alabama, where we continued this somewhat, but not as enthusiastically as Gammy had.

Next we moved on to Virginia, and it was in Virginia that the deal was sealed. We were at Dad and Sandi's house, and Sandi was somehow in on the Telepathic Grandma Link with Gammy, because as soon as Sandi found out what Gammy had been up to, she sprang into action. She did the whole "whisking away" thing that Gammy had done, but then she did one better. She busted out the Big Boy Underpants.

Whatever else you do in life, never underestimate the power of the Big Boy Underpants. Or, if gender merits, Big Girl Underpants.

Sandi showed up one day with a veritable stack of underwear for Kiernan to try on, and just like that he showed he was ready to make the leap from diapers to the potty. Getting to wear underwear--underwear like his ultra-cool Uncle Mason had worn!--in place of his diaper motivated him to adapt to using the toilet. It didn't matter that we were in the middle of a three week trip. It didn't matter that I was all worried about the logistics of the transition while on a trip. He was ready, and his grandparents intuited this. They encouraged him and praised him and helped him along. It was amazing. Because of them, adapting to using the potty was much, much easier for all three of us.

Anyway, I've been meaning to give Gammy and Sandi props for this for more than a year. Tonight's bathtime pronouncement by Kiernan, that Pap-Pap taught him how to wash his own hair, reminded me of this. So...all hail Grandparents.


Pictures:

1. The top picture is Sandi and Kiernan discussing life on the beach during our November visit.

2. The next picture, from the same visit, is Pap-Pap pointing at a polliwog. Actually, I have no idea if that is what my dad is pointing at. I just like the alliteration.

3. Next is a picture from a visit to Arizona last winter. Gammy and Kiernan are learning about varieties of cactus while out on a walk in Gammy and Grance's neighborhood. By the end of that trip Kiernan would be able to identify more cacti than I would have thought possible, both because I didn't know that many different cacti existed and because I wouldn't have believed a three year old could remember that many complicated names. All of this would come to seem quaint in a couple months when Kiernan started reading off the names of the moons of Uranus.

4. A final picture from the November trip to Virginia. Kiernan is out at on the pier with Sandi and Pap-Pap and his friend Helen (daughter of my friends Jeff and Kathryn).

Beachy Keen

I have no idea why I've decided to start this post with this picture, or why I'm posting it to TCK at all. I can't really explain it, other than to say that the moment I saw it it made me feel good. I'm going through all of the pictures from the recent trip to Virginia, deciding what to post and what to print out for inclusion in cards to Grandparents and Great Grandparents and others. I also need to isolate a few photos that Jeff has requested. As I did this the above picture popped up and made me happy. I don't really know why. It's a fairly pedestrian shot of me standing on the beach with one of my best friends and my brother as my stepmom Sandi looks on. But it pleases me. So here it is.

As indicated in my last post, we were on a recent trip to Virginia, a trip that was more or less a surprise. I'll go into some of the details at some point, possibly, but the picture above shows me the first full day in Virginia. I flew into the airport in Newport News with Wendy, Kiernan, and my dad. We got in and had a delightful crockpot meal that Sandi had waiting, and eventually got to bed. My brother Mason was supposed to show up with several of his friends sometime during the night, and apparently ended up arriving at around six in the morning. He and his friends pitched Mason's tent on the front lawn and crashed there.

I slept in, which is one nice part of bringing your child to visit his grandparents. I was awakened by another surprise: my very good friend Jeff's face. That's him standing next to me in the picture. The one without the headband, "Stop the War" button, and tie-dyed pants. He crawled up next to me on top of the bed and said, "Good morning!" Or something. The mixture of groggy and surprise has prevented me from remembering exactly what he said. Suffice to say, it was delightful to see him, and I was happy that I'd remembered to pack pajamas.

We ended up spending a good part of the day with Jeff and Kathryn, who have been friends for a delightfully long time, and their amazing daughter Helen. I'll include more pics of all of us later. For now, just a couple more beach pictures:


The original plan was for Jeff and Kathryn to spend the day with us kicking around Williamsburg. We all met and went to school and lived together there, so whenever we can we like to spend some time there together. Once again, pictures of said adventure will follow, but first you must partake in Jeff and Christien's hunt for the missing squid (pictured above, and below). The beach in question is just down the way from my dad and Sandi's house, located on the York River. Dad and Sandi have a bunch of beach toys at the ready, and included in these toys are a couple of plastic squid creatures. As we packed up the toys, Jeff and I became convinced that the green squid was missing. Nobody else believed in the green squid, but we would not let it go. We were sure it had been covered with sand.


We never found the squid, sadly. And nobody really cared except for us. So these pictures are really useless, except that I love the scene. I'm about to turn forty, and before spending a day in Williamsburg here I am digging in the sand in November with one of my best friends from college.

These are the things that make me smile.

Oh, and don't worry. The ensuing posts about the trip will definitely feature pictures of Kiernan.

Matters

We are in Virginia this week, visiting family. Right now we are at my mom and stepdad's house in Seaford, having spent the first part of the week with my dad and my stepmom, Sandi. I'll work on those pictures later, but I wanted to get up a quick picture of Kiernan with his Nana, right now. The above photograph is from last night, the final book before bedtime. This particular book is an informational volume about kittens, a book that probably belonged to my sister Hope. During this visit Kiernan is really into reading Hope's childhood books. It's always cool to see him get excited about books that are new to him, and doubly cool to see how keen he is to read something that specifically belonged to his aunt. But I have to say...Good Lord these old books are crappy! Not all of them to be sure. Hope's childhood favorite (and one of mine), The Monster at the End of This Book, still rocks the house. If Kiernan uncovers The Pokey Little Puppy I'm sure I'll be pleased. But so many of the new books we read to Kiernan are just so much better. Tonight Kiernan found this book called I Am A Boy. This one was apparently one of my old books. Holy cow. Just awful. And the kids in the illustrations look like a bunch of ventriloquist dummies. It's really kind of creepy.

I guess Mo Willems has spoiled me.

At any rate, I happy we are here at this time. It's always good to have some time with my folks, and it's especially good for Kiernan to get to spend time with them. He's loving the opportunity to goof around with his Nana. This evening before bed they basically had a kind of hugging competition. Great stuff.

These moments of joy, however, are taking place in the midst of sadness. My stepfather, John, is away with our family in Texas during this visit. His father, Kiernan's Great-Grandfather Dunn, passed away today after suffering a heart-attack two days ago. He was a wonderful man; one need only look at the way his son has turned out to see that. I ask that you keep my stepfather and his mother and his sisters (as well as my mother and sister) in your thoughts and prayers at this time.

Also--and this should go without saying but I'm going to say it anyway--don't wait until the holidays to let those you love know what they mean to you.

Hang in there, Dad.

Wonder Aunt Power...Activate!

Form of...an awesome cool aunt!


Shape of...an ice sea anemone!

Okay, I have no idea what that second thing means. I just punched the button on my internal "Wonder Twins Form/Shape Generator" and that's what popped out. You can't strike gold every time.

My sister Hope just left on Saturday, and we're all still in mourning a little bit. Actually, a lotta bit. She was here for a week and we had a terrific visit with her. Kiernan clearly adores her--the way he would light up when he saw her first thing in the morning was just beautiful--and she clearly reciprocates that feeling. She was great with him, and was a huge help during a week when Wendy had to be out of town on business. Hope would get up with us every morning and help get Kiernan ready for school and then join us in the drive to school. She and I would then return to the house and I'd do some cleaning, a little bit of work, and then the two of us would talk for a bit. Then we'd head back out to pick up Kiernan from school and go on with our day. Rather than expecting to be entertained or anything like that, she totally wanted to focus on jumping in and being a part of our day to day routine. This made for a great visit, for all of us.

In honor of that, I shall now post one of her favorite pictures of her nephew from her visit. She took this during the birthday party we attended over the weekend.


Cool picture.

The party was for Kiernan's friend Julia and was held at this cool little nature center in a place called Placerita Canyon. We got there and found the party just where Julia's mom, Brenda said it would be, at the Butterfly Garden. Kiernan immediately started exploring while Ranger Mary--our guide--prepared the craft project that would kick off the party. Kiernan was less than interested in settling down to do the craft project, which consisted of taking a cross section disk that had been cut from an old Christmas tree and gluing various bits of nature to it in order to create a "creature". These bits were mostly rocks and flora...Kiernan may have been more interested had the project included a little fauna. Oh well. He focused long enough to make a simple creature then dashed off to explore some more.

I love this picture of him settling down to do the craft. I love that Hope caught this moment, because this captures a thing he does that really makes me happy. When we're reading together, or just hanging out, he'll often drape his arm over my shoulders. For intance, I often read the comics to him from the paper. I hate the comics, have hated them since Calvin & Hobbes [rightly] deserted their pages years ago, but he loves me to read them to him, so I do. I like to lie down on my stomach while reading them, and he often sidles up to me and throws an arm over my shoulders. It's such a cool buddy move.

After this Kiernan spent a little time jumping off a bench while we waited to go on a nature hike. Hope's pictures might give you an idea of the action.

After this bit of jumping, in preparation for the nature hike to come the kids lined up to make trail mix for themselves. Each kid got a zip-top bag and got to scoop one spoonfull from five or six containers of trail mix ingredients. Plain M&M's. Raisins. Assorted nuts. Peanut butter M&M's. Something else I can't remember. The kids were limited to one spoonful of each selection in creating their trailmix. The genius move on Julia's mom Brenda's part was putting a spork-like utensil in the Plain M&M's container. She knew that anybody in their right mind would try to Bogart extra M&M's, and she was prepared. Genius.

The nature hike was next, after a quick stop at the restrooms. Well..."quick" may be the wrong word. We are talking about twenty toddlers here, and four port-a-potties. So let's just say this "bathroom break" took a bit of time. Time enough for Kiernan to polish off his entire bag of trail mix. Oh well. Onto the trail!

The hike was cool. Ranger Mary stopped every few steps to explain something about Poison Oak or coyote scat ("On the trail we don't call it 'poop'..."--giggles all around). The highlight of the hike was when she stopped to show each and every kid a trapdoor spider that had set up shop along the path. She crouched down and took out her knife and gingerly opened the spider's trap door. Then she allowed each child to file past and peek in at the spider. The kids loved this part of the adventure.

After we arrived back at the Butterfly Garden, Ranger Mary started bringing out creatures for the kids to see. She brought out a snake for them to look at. Also a tortoise. Also a tarantula. After the tarantula we took a break for cupcakes and some amazing concoction Brenda had created for the parents called "dirt 'n worms" or something that was basically cake, pudding, and gummy worms in a bowl. After licking the icing off his cupcake, Kiernan was happy to dig into this other dessert.

Ranger Mary then brought out an owl for the kids to see. That was amazing. A real owl that she had adopted. The kids thought this was just fine, but the adults were clearly mesmerized, asking questions and pretty much forgetting they were at a six-year-old's birthday party. I love moments like this.

Finally we all filed into the gift shop and picked out party favors. Kiernan got a long yellow snake (plastic) and some weird insect encased in goo and housed in a plastic egg. I'm not sure what we're going to do with that thing. I'll keep you posted.



All in all the party was great. Julia's parents, Brenda and Michael, did a great job hosting the party at a new and interesting place. Good on them for pulling that off. I know I could never have done that. Wendy could. Not me. I'd be constantly thinking about the coyote that had left that scat, asking myself, "Why would a coyote--or anybody really--leave his scat right in the middle of the footpath? Isn't that just embarrassing? Unless he was taunting us. Setting a trap for us."

Oof. I know. I watch too many movies. Or too much "Looney Tunes" in my youth. Who knows.

But that coyote should be ashamed of himself. Seriously.

Little Big Foot

Last weekend was heavy on the social obligations for Kiernan. On Saturday he attended a play that was a fund raiser event for his pre-school. On Sunday he attended the birthday party of a friend of his whose mother works with Wendy. On Monday he attended another birthday party, this one for a friend of his from school. I will post pictures and do write ups of the two birthday parties presently. I doubt I'll be able to post pictures from the fund raiser. Sorry about that. Nobody had a camera at that event. Not a soul. Can you believe it? And really nobody was even paying attention. Not at all. Unbelievable. The temerity of these people. These California elites. Seriously. That's the reason you won't be seeing any pictures from it. It has nothing to do with the fact that I was required to appear in a bull costume and crawl around on my hands and knees for an hour.

Nothing at all.

Anyway, I'll get to those events in upcoming posts. First I wanted to quickly post a couple of pictures that I find amusing. The first picture is from the party on Sunday, which was a birthday party for Kiernan's friend Julia. Her parents organized this great party at a nature center in a canyon not too far from where we live. It was a great idea, and something I don't think I could handle in a million years, but somehow they did it. I have plenty of pictures from the party, all thanks to the preparedness of my sister, Hope, who is in town for a visit. I'll post some of those later. Right now I just want to post one picture that really struck me...


On its own, not that big of a deal as a picture. We've just arrived at the party and the first organized activity is not yet underway, so Kiernan is exploring the environs. No big deal. Except that the instant I saw this photo when I was transferring pictures from Hope's camera to my computer, I thought of this...

The quintessential, some might say iconic, photograph of Sasquatch.

That's all. No further commentary. Future generations can make whatever observations they want about a boy and the size of his big foot photo.

Hope 2008

See what I did there? I bet you thought this post was going to be about Barack Obama. Well, it's not. It's about my sister. Gotcha! Tee-hee.

My sister Hope is visiting for the week, taking advantage of her fall break to spend a little quality time with me and her nephew. She can't stand Wendy, so she is refusing to spend time with her. Kidding! Wendy is out of town on a business trip for most of the week. Got you again, didn't I? Man, this is too easy.


That's a shot from Hope's first night in town, a picture she took of us in the middle of one of our pre-bedtime rituals. This may not look like it, but what is going on above falls under the heading of "jumping on the bed". Most nights, after Kiernan has had his bath and has been dried off and has brushed his teeth and picked out his pajamas--which, as you may be able to see, always must be mismatched--Kiernan insists on a few minutes of jumping on the bed. This used to be just what it sounds like. We'd retire to the master bedroom [sounds grand, doesn't it?] and Kiernan would jump on the bed for a few minutes. A little exercise to get him riled up before it's time to try to get him to sleep. Incidentally, this is one of Gammy's favorite things about our parenting, and she fully supports it. Yep.

Over time, "jumping on the bed" transmogrified into other things, some related to jumping, some not, but all still kept under the "jumping on the bed" event heading. The two unifying principles of these events are, 1. They must involve Guinea Pig; 2. They always involve Kiernan watching what he is doing in the mirror. Before he climbs onto the bed he makes sure the bathroom door is shut so that he can take full advantage of the full-sized mirror on the door. I swear I've never seen a kid who liked to watch himself in the mirror as much as Kiernan does. I mean it, Narcissus has nothing on this kid.

A few weeks ago the "jumping on the bed" event became a competition between Kiernan and Guinea Pig. Kiernan would direct me (or Wendy) to lie down at the end of the bed, crossways. He would hand over Guinea Pig--'GP' or "Ginzers" for short--and then stand next to me. Then he'd say, "Ready...Set...Go!" Then he'd jump/dive into the pile of pillows at the head of the bed. GP would "jump" at the same time (parentally assisted, of course), and as soon as they both landed Kiernan would immediately ask, "Who was higher?" Upon being answered he would then ask, "Who was faster?" This permutation did, at least, have something to do with jumping, even if it was not what is classically referred to as "jumping on the bed".

The newest wrinkle, however, has nothing to do with jumping. It's really just falling. I have to lie across the bed, facing the mirror. Kiernan climbs on my back and says, "Go up!" I push myself up. He falls off onto the aforementioned pillows. He finds this endlessly hilarious and really would do it all night if I'd let him. Sadly, business must intrude. I have a lot of things I have to get to once I get him to sleep. Most notably, collapsing.


My favorite pic is the third one down, where it looks like I am heavily under the influence of some sort of controlled substance. I'm not, other than a glass of wine or several. What you see in this picture is my body preparing for the aforementioned collapsing after a day of being pummeled by toddlers. Yes, I meant the plural there. Remind me to tell you about my experiences picking him up from school, sometime. I swear I must have the term "jungle gym" tattooed on my forehead in some sort of ink only visible to children.

Hope loves the top picture best of this series. "Look at him! He's posing while he's falling!" She believes this is clear evidence that Kiernan knows exactly how cute he is. I think he's just being accommodating. Helping out the photographer.

I'm sure that's it.

A-Mason Photos...2008

As promised, awhile ago, here are the photos my brother Mason took during our visit to Virginia for my sister Hope's wedding. He took the pictures as Kiernan played at the beach on the York River with his friend Grace.

I'd prefer to post all of these pictures separately, because I'm so crazy about them, but there's just too many for that. So I felt a slideshow was the best way to go.

Enjoy.

[The music is a Duke Ellington piece called "Isfahan". There's no great mystery or story here. It just happens to be the song that iTunes was playing as I did the final upload of this slideshow. I don't know a thing about the piece, other than the fact that it felt just right as I watched the show for the first time and I could listen to this piece of music all day long.]

First Day II...Electric Boogaloo

Kiernan had his first day of school last month. Actually, this was his second first-day-of-school, as this is his second year of preschool. He was held back because he just couldn't cut it last year. It turns out mastering the names of all the planets and most of the major moons of our solar system just isn't good enough out here in California.

Kidding.

His preschool, CSUN Lab School (which I talk about in detail here), allows him to experience two years of preschool before he goes on to kindergarten. He is there every weekday for two-and-a-half hours a day. It's a great experience, a great chance for him to socialize with other kids and to get away from us for a little bit every day.

This year's first day of school was strikingly different from last year's, when he was starting at CSUN Lab for the first time. He had gone through a transition class that summer before starting school, so he was more or less prepared to separate from us for school. Still, the first couple of days were difficult. He eventually got into the swing of things and did very well, developing friendships and enjoying himself a great deal. This year there was no difficulty with separating on the first day of school as just a couple weeks before he had attended the summer session. The only real problem with this second go round was that a couple of his main friends had moved on.

Last year Kiernan was in a group of friends who called themselves "The Police" due mainly to the fact that "Synchronicity" was their favorite album. [Actually, truth be told, Kiernan prefers "Ghost in the Machine", but he didn't want to rock the boat.] Okay, okay. They called themselves The Police because they liked to pretend to be police every day during outside play. They'd designate a specific area/piece of playground equipment as their police station and then they'd set about putting bad guys in jail. They were very particular about who could and could not be in their little group, and Kiernan was quite proud of being included since he was clearly the youngest member. The whole thing was probably cute in action, but having never seen it firsthand, it always struck me as disturbing just hearing about it. I mean, what in the world are four year olds doing establishing cliques already? Seriously.

At any rate, most of The Police have moved on to solo careers, including the most important of Kiernan's school friends, Kevin. That was a devastating loss.

All of this is to say that it was fascinating for me to watch Kiernan that first day of school. Several of his older friends were gone, and a couple of them had been replaced by younger siblings. Cassidy was in a different school, replaced by her little brother Michael. And Elliott had moved on as well, replaced by his little brother Ian. That first day Kiernan went to sit in the reading area with Ian, and it just hit me how much older Kiernan looked. I suddenly went back to last year, when he was the little boy tagging along with the older boys. Now he was the older boy, opening a book and reading it with the little brother of one of his friends from last year. In the space of what seems so short a time he has gone from tagalong to big kid.

I dug out last year's pictures of the first day of school just to do a little comparison. I will get in trouble for a this year's pictures because Kiernan's socks apparently look ridiculous. And also none of the pictures of him at the door on that first day are that great. But for comparison's sake I think it's worth it to post them. It's also cool to see his three best bedtime friends--Meow Meow Kitty Cat, Guinea Pig, and Pooh Bear--in the exact same positions. I swear I did not pose them that way.

















[The pictures on the right, in the blue shirt, are from 2007. The pictures on the left, in the brown shirt, are from 2008.]