Picture For This Day

Took this picture after our recent trip to Colorado. We're on the shuttle bus from LAX to the Van Nuys bus terminal. Wendy and Kiernan reading in the late afternoon sun.

August, 2010

Picture For This Day

This is from a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what date exactly, but I know it's from before Kiernan started First Grade, because those bags behind him are full of supplies for his class. Why this picture? I don't know. I love pictures of him reading. Also, I really like the light in this picture. And the reflection.

Okay...the real reason is he's reading 'Calvin & Hobbes'...and I love that. Yes I feel conflicted about it...but really I love it.


Sometime in the late summer/fall of 2010.

Picture For This Day

Going through a bunch of pictures and I found this one. I can tell it was taken by Wendy, as it uses a flash and I almost never do that. I just cannot stand the way most flash pictures look, so I avoid using one at all costs. But this picture is just beautiful. A wonderful picture. Good job, Wen!

This is from a couple of weeks ago when we were in a major fort phase. The family room was dominated by a fort for a good week, and every blanket in the house was pressed into service. This shot is from inside the fort.

I include a picture by Wendy as she is out of town, visiting with her sister and mother in Colorado and waiting for the arrival of the family's newest member. Wendy will be back home tomorrow, and we can't wait. Both because we miss her, and because I had to make waffles again this Saturday morning. Again! Oy. I need her here to make some pancakes or french toast for the boy. Seriously.

Have a great weekend.

Picture For This Day

Wendy and Kiernan were out shopping last year and found this tent on sale, so they picked it up. Months later I finally decided to try and set the thing up. This was part Labor Day goofing around with my boy, and part frustration after a camping trip I'd planned for this weekend with a friend of mine fell through. Kiernan helped me set up the tent, saying at one point in the process, "Dad, this is a great collaboration!"

I plan to work camping into our lives this upcoming year. And not just in the backyard.

Oh...not for nothing but how old does he look in this freaking picture! Sheesh.


Monday, September 6, 2010

Picture of This Day

On this, the third day of First Grade. You can just see the maturity developing.

Wendy is out of town, visiting Aunt Amy in Denver and looking forward to the birth of Amy's first baby. As is my wont, I try to capture a picture to send out to Mommy. As the class lined up I requested the "I Love You" hand sign. This is what I got. So this is the picture Mommy got on her phone.

Today after school Kiernan's new teacher told me and Oliver's mom (Oliver is in the red shirt above) that the two of them are very well-behaved in class. She told us this without prompting, which was a great thing. Just yesterday I was wondering about this with Oliver's mom. The two boys are so crazy around each other sometimes. Were they like this during school? To say the two of them act like a couple of apes on speed when they're around each other after school would be to understate. It's very cool to hear that they act like civilized boys in class. Hopefully this continues.

I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised. We saw the same story play out in Kindergarten. And, you know what? I'm gonna include a bonus pic at the end of this post. It's from Kiernan's most recent playdate with Oliver. The shot is the two of them sharing a snack and reading together. During a playdate. I provided the snack. The reading together was their idea.*

Great kids.


*Be assured they also beat the ever loving crap out of me in an epic pillow fight during this playdate. Lest you think these things are all intellectual pursuits.

First Day, Season Four

Yesterday, September 7, 2010 was Kiernan's first day of First Grade! Very, very exciting.

We had to get up a little earlier than usual because the school day starts a half hour earlier than it did in Kindergarten. Also, as it was his first day he got to choose a special breakfast: waffles. As I am the waffle expert in the house this meant I had to get up when everybody else in the house got up; usually I can sneak in some extra snoozing since I don't require makeup or playing with Bionicles in the morning.

After waffles we headed outside for the traditional first day of school photoshoot.


Kiernan is not always cooperative when it comes to having pictures taken. Which is why a large number of the pictures I take of him tend to be candid and casual shots, not posed pictures. I prefer catching moments like that anyway, instead of asking for a pose. But even then, if he catches me snapping a picture of him while he's doing something he may hide his face or turn away from me because he just doesn't feel like having a picture taken. Of course it varies and there's plenty of times when he's a total ham and wants us to capture a moment. It just seems like a lot of times we really want a picture he doesn't want to stand still for it.

No problem this morning. The coolest thing of all, though, was when we were heading outside to take the traditional first day shot (like last year's, or the one before that) and he said, "We can take it with Guinea Pig, right?" Wendy and I looked at each other with this beautiful mixed feeling. He's still our cute little boy who will not go to sleep without his GP (or, rather, his coterie of guinea pigs now: Guinea Pig, Tiny Pig--pictured, left--Linny Pig, and Shiver Pig), but you cannot help but wonder as a parent how long this is going to last. Every first day picture has had Guinea Pig in it. How long before he rolls his eyes at the thought of that? How long will we be able to get away with the first day picture at all?

Meh. I don't want to think about that right now. Yuck.

So off to school we went, all nervous and excited. We got there early, and good thing too since we had to park a good ways away. It seemed like every family brought at least five cars. The other reason we wanted to arrive early was the fact that the school this year has a different layout. Kiernan's school now includes middle school kids, and because the middle school and elementary schools are using the same site, new bungalows had to be brought in and new slabs laid over the summer. Just a month ago Kiernan's teacher-to-be still didn't know where her classroom was going to be. So we approached the school grounds wondering what it all would look like.

The First Graders are all in four class bungalows, connected in twos, so that Kiernan's class has a doorway connected it to another First Grade class. The four bungalows are pretty snug together, so that it seems like the First Grade is set apart, sort of its own little community in much the same way Kindergarten was set apart last year. I'm not sure if this impression will hold as we spend more time at the school, but that's my first impression. I'm happy with this, because I've been a little nervous about the introduction of middle school kids to the campus. The administrators assured us last year that the two populations would be separate, but I was having my doubts about this as I saw the construction progress over the summer. The way the bungalows are set apart reassures me, but again we'll have to see how it plays out.

It was cool to see Kiernan dash into his classroom and check it out. See where his desk is going to be and find out who was going to be in his class this year. He's most excited that his friend Oliver is in his class (that's Oliver with him right over there-->) , and also his friends Sylas and James. He knew those three going in, but found out a couple of others when he got into his classroom for the first time. The classroom looked great. For as little time as they had to set up for the first day of school, the teachers did a fantastic job turning generic modular classrooms into homey little spaces.

In short order the warning bell sounded and we all went outside for lineup. The kids then marched back into their classrooms without us. And that was that. We parents watched the doors close, then looked at each other. Happy. Proud. A little lost. A little shell-shocked. For me it was bittersweet, as these moments usually are. Like any parent I now understand all the jokes about summer finally being over. The last couple weeks were particularly taxing and I began to wonder if school would ever get here. At this moment, however, it suddenly seemed that summer had been far too short.

He marched into his classroom without a tear, with nary a complaint or concern. He's ready for school. My boy is a bona fide First Grader. How about that?

Moments from Uncle

These shots would normally wind up in PotD posts, but I've been lax on that, so I'm putting them together here. I'm a bit annoyed at how my phone pictures turn out, so I'm gonna look to improving that. We'll see how that goes.* I have my fingers crossed.

At any rate, these shots are from a recent visit by Uncle Mason, Pap-Pap, and Sandi. This first shot is Mason with Kiernan in his summer school art class.


This next shot is one I took after dinner that night. We eat outside most nights. As we cleaned up, Kiernan and Mason grabbed the sidewalk chalk got their flower child vibe on.


Finally, out of sequence, I include this shot from the same night. As the rest of us finished up eating, Kiernan snuck his way into his uncle's lap. I texted this picture to Kiernan's mom, who was on a business trip. She loved this picture, but she did exclaim, "Hey! Wait a minute! That should be my lap!"



*I also intend to get some pictures from the other camera up soon. As I've promised. Also I intend to get a really decent camera and learn to take really good pictures. As I've promised. We'll see how this goes.

Picture For This Day

I took this picture at Kiernan's request.


July 25(ish), 2010

Photoshoot of This Day

A little experiment here. We'll see how it goes.

Kiernan has become fairly assertive when it comes to the use of my phone. When we're sending a text to Wendy, he often wants to type it out. At first I was resistant to this, as I felt it would take forever for him to hunt and peck out each message. But then I paid attention to myself while texting and I realized that while I was typing out words quickly, I was spending a lot of time fixing typos. Kiernan took far longer to find the letters, but made far fewer mistakes. So...it was a wash.

Yesterday he wanted to send his mother a picture of his Bionicles, his current obsession. Usually he sets up the tableau and I snap the picture, but this day he wanted to take the picture and send it himself. He did so, and after that he wandered the house shooting other pictures. I wanted to read some news, so I let him.

He returned to me a bit later and handed me my phone with about a hundred more pictures on it.

I've decided to share these pictures. Actually this represents two photoshoots. I've removed the straight up dark pictures of nothingness. Many of these pictures will still be tough to make out. There's a lot of pictures of his Bionicles, and of his drawings of said Bionicles, and of various weird bits of normalness around the house. But I find this charming.

Enjoy. There's a hundred or so pictures in this slideshow, so you may want to come back and look at it from time to time rather than sit through the whole thing right now.

August 6, 2010
Winnetka, CA

Picture of This Day

Last night Kiernan requested I set out an outfit for him to wear to summer school today. It was a simple outfit, blue sweats and a cool blue Phineas & Ferb t-shirt. This morning he decided he wanted to go with a different look.


"I wanna be in camoflage so Nicholas doesn't see me this time!"


July 26, 2010