Picture For This Day

This is a terrible picture, but a lovely moment.  House cleaning day a few weeks ago.  When we first started doing House Cleaning Days, we'd get Kiernan to clean up his room in advance of vacuuming and that would be the extent of his involvement.  As it turns out, however, he likes to help with the dusting.

When I was growing up, dusting the furniture was one of my chores.  Seems I passed something on to the lad.  He loves to be the one spraying the dusting polish stuff on the furniture.  He really looks forward to this.

Nifty the things kids latch on to.


August 30, 2010 or so.

Picture For This Day

Decided to include this just for fun.  It's from a week or so ago, and I allude to the moment in this post.

September 16, 2010...or thereabouts.

P.S.  This will make little to no sense to most of you, but I'll include it anyway.  The seeds for my amusement at this moment were planted a couple of years ago when my friend Tom showed me this goofy image pulled from the Internets:

At the time I found this picture hilarious.  I still chuckle when I see it, but I also find my brow furrowing ever so slightly.

Quote For This Day

I was getting Kiernan ready for bed the other night and we were joking about something or other.  I don't even remember what.  Bionicles or what book we were going to read or something.  He said something goofy that sent me off into a faux rant:

"That's it!" I mock-yelled, storming out of the room.  "I quit!  I'm done!  I quit!"

I've threatened to quit a couple of times in texts to Wendy.  Last year when Kiernan started to show interest in Bionicles because his friends Oliver and Aidan were evangelizing for the toys.  This after Kiernan had collected seventeen thousand Gormiti toys, the previous thing they evangelized.  I threatened again a couple of weeks ago when Oliver started showing Kiernan his Pokemon cards.

My last "I quit" was just done resonating when Kiernan called from his bedroom, loudly and joyfully:

"You were appointed Dad for life!"

You see?  Good things can come from letting your five-year old read Calvin & Hobbes.

Dukedom Gross Enough

Yesterday was the first Library Day of the year.  Unlike last year the kids actually get to check out books and take them home.  He was quite pleased to reveal to me the book he'd chosen for the week.  We're not big fans of Capt. Underpants around here...wait, let me revise that: the adults in the house are not big fans of Captain Underpants.  We spend enough energy policing the potty words as it is.  And he seriously doesn't need any help or encouragement to find new ways to use them.  But they have the books in his classroom, so what can you do?

Plus, there's really no getting around the fact that these kids just love potty-speak.  It's just endlessly fascinating to them.  The other day before my volunteering stint in Kiernan's classroom, I looked through the bookshelf while the teacher got ready for the kids to return from recess.  I happened upon a book about a mole doing an investigation.  What was he investigating?  Why who pooped on his head, of course.  The little fella spent the entire book with poop on his head.  Amusing, I have to admit.  Disgusting to be sure, but amusing.  I chuckled and the teacher asked what I was reading.  I told her and she said, "Oh I forgot about that book!  I'll have to read it to them later."

Great.

I'm only slightly complaining.  I love how much Kiernan loves books.  As we walked to the car after school he couldn't get his head out of his new library book.  Captain Underpants.  Oy.  Oh well...he's reading.

Plus, anyone who has ever been around Wendy for any length of time (especially trips and holidays) will instantly recognize where this comes from.

Love it.

[BTW: The blue dot between Kiernan's eyes in the picture at the top is a sticker he received for doing something or other properly in class.  That getting a little sticker he can put on his face motivates him is another one of those sweet little signs of innocence I'll never quite get, and dread losing.]

Picture For This Day

Greetings from Popsicle Day!

Every Tuesday one of the grades sells popsicles after school as a fundraiser. Last year this was so much easier to patronize as Kindergarten gets out a half hour before the other grades at the school. First Grade, however, gets out with all the other elementary kids, so the line at the popsicle stand is much longer.

On this day we got to the front of the line only to find out they were out of fudgesicles. I'm not gonna lie, there were some tears. Kiernan was upset as well. As we walked away disappointed, one of the mothers who was helping by trying to sell farther down the line picked up on Kiernan's sadness and proclaimed that she had on fudgesicle left. As Kiernan hadn't opened his cherry popsicle yet, she suggested an even exchange.

Happiness ensued. Until we were walking to the car and he saw his best friend Oliver with a cherry popsicle. "I should have stayed with the red one," he confided to me.

Sigh.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Woodland Hills, CA

Hey, here's a silly bonus pic. As I tried to get a shot of him eating his after school treat (have to send pics to Wendy as she's out of town on a business trip, dontcha know), he started acting slippery. This is the shot I got, which he found hilarious...

Quintessential

This weekend Kiernan acquired a new cousin due to some efforts by his Aunt Amy and Uncle Rich. At Wendy's behest we sent off a bunch of pictures welcoming him to the world. Well...the external world, anyway. Since Kiernan's friend Teddy was over for a playdate, he got in on the action.



Congratulations to Amy and Rich, and welcome to the world, Quinn Collins Casey!

Dentist Recommended, Mother Approved

Yesterday was checkup time at Kiernan's dentist. I'll make this quick...it went well.

I never realized when I was growing up how much parents have invested, especially emotionally, in dental checkups. I know, big surprise. Add this to the long list of things that should be obvious that continually dawn on me as I get further into parenthood. I just didn't consider, as a child, that the results of my various checkups were a source of angst and pride for my parents. Just never occurred to me. I remember how crushed I was upon the news that I'd gotten my first cavity. I was totally focused on how that made me feel, and not at all really aware of how my mom must have been feeling as she broke the news to me that summer. Yes, part of my crushed feeling was that shame a child feels upon disappointing his parents, but as far as awareness of how she actually felt about it...that didn't really enter into it.

From this side of the fence it is so different. We go to the dentist with Kiernan for his checkup and we are in suspense far more than he is. Granted he is only five (and three-quarters...ahem), so he's far more interested in the cartoons showing on the flat screen television mounted on the ceiling. As the hygienist works on his teeth I find myself in absolute suspense. When she praises Kiernan for his oral hygiene, I feel a sense of relief accompanied by joy. And pride. My boy has good oral hygiene! Hooray!

Kiernan barely hears it. He's trying to listen to Dora the Explorer above him. A show he never ever requests to watch at home. But, you know, it's the tv. We all tend to go a little bit blank when we fall into its tractor beam.

Anyway, the checkup went exceedingly well. Just a tiny bit of plaque on one of the new molars growing in in the back of his mouth. Not a big deal and easy to let happen as those things are just barely coming in, which is exciting too. The hygienist taught us how to augment our brushing to take care of those. Eventually the dentist herself came to check out Kiernan and praised his teeth as well. Very nice.

There was something for everyone on this visit to the dentist. I was particularly pleased as I've become quite...um...let's be nice...insistent...upon using an actual sand timer for brushing so that we go the full two minutes. Two minutes is a lot longer than you think it is when you're brushing a five-year-old's teeth, or when he's doing it himself. Starting to be faithful to using the timer made me feel I was being annoying and anal, but it's been a good policy, especially as he takes over more the actual brushing responsibilities himself. So Kiernan got some cartoons. I got some validation. What was in it for the mother, you ask?

Well, the dentist had some advice for us concerning Halloween. I expected her to warn us all about eating too much candy, which she did. What I did not expect, was this: "So when it comes to Halloween, you really should eat more chocolate than candy, okay?"

Permission to eat more chocolate. It's a shame she's only a pediatric dentist.

After the appointment we went out to dinner at a restaurant of the patient's choosing. Of the alternatives presented to him, I wanted to opt for a cool Japanese restaurant called Musashi, one of those places where the chef comes and cooks at your table. But I knew he wouldn't choose that place. The only things they serve there that he will eat are rice and miso soup. That's it. And of those two choices you can only really bank on the former on any particular night.

No, I knew he would choose an all-you-can eat soup and salad place called Souplantation, which I think he hears as Muffinplantation in much the same was as Ginger hears "Blah blah blah" no matter what you say to her. That was fine since I am a big fan of soup, even if I did have a hankering for some Japanese. To the cavity-free go the spoils.

After dinner Kiernan worked on the last of his homework for the week. In First Grade the homework is given out as a packet on Friday, and is due the following Friday. No homework is to be done over the weekend. It is parceled out over the course of the school week. The final assignment was a creative writing assignment about an adventure, in this case a trip we took a couple years ago to Hawaii. Kiernan and I worked on the brainstorming for the piece early in the week, and he completed the actual writing with his mom. She let him choose the medium for writing his final draft.

Picture For This Day

My mom texted me this blast from the near and far past yesterday.


Thanks Mom/Nana! We love you.

Picture of This Day

I realize I've posted a couple of pictures like this one, and one quite recently, but I love this image. Kiernan reading in the sunlight in the late afternoon. It's like the heavens smiling down upon the reader. Even if he is reading Calvin & Hobbes. Again.

I love how much he loves Calvin & Hobbes, since it's my favorite of all comics EVAR. The Far Side comes second. It's not particularly close, but it's close-ish. I say "close-ish" because while Bill Watterson finishes easily first--so far ahead he can afford to relax for the last few yards and break the tape at a trot--after Gary Larson there's really no one else.

Anyway, I love that he gets it. I love that he responds to the humor and the art. And the vocabulary is a huge benefit because of the way Watterson writes. We just have to be careful, because Calvin is...um...shall we say, less than a role model. Many of his words and most of his attitudes are not what we want our son adopting. But there's no doubt that reading this--just as reading anything of value--expands his mind.

Tonight it got me a little bit, though. Just before today became tomorrow I took Kiernan to the bathroom for his middle-of-the-night potty run. As I steered him back to bed he asked me, "Daddy? Is the Bogey Man a real thing?"

I know where he got that. Sigh. How do you answer that in the middle of the night?

Well...you just let him know you're looking out for him all night long. Always watching out for him. Then he takes a deep breath, gathers his blankets around him and goes back to sleep.

That's being a dad.

The Hidden Fortress

I'm going through pictures from the last few weeks--er...months--when the posting was just a tad light here at The Creeping Kid and lifting out some shots I like to share with you. As I'm working back from the present, there'll be some thematic overlap. A couple of days ago I posted a PfTD that Wendy took of Kiernan in a fort. She took this took this picture when I was off on a long hike. My family had given me the weekend off, basically, and I'd elected to use the time trying out a couple of nearby hikes that were new to me.

So in this weird and short little post I'll put up a couple more fort pictures that I particularly liked, and a couple of hike pictures. Yes, the two hike pictures have nothing to do with the main focus of this blog--Kiernan--but I thought I'd share them anyway. It's worthwhile to know what the parents are up to from time to time.

But first, how about another fort picture?

This is Kiernan suspended on the infrastructure of the dining room table. I'm telling you, this fort was substantial. It took up almost all of our big family room, taking over our favorite chair (the reading chair), most of the dining room table chairs, and the dining room table. Luckily we eat almost all of our meals outside now, either at our cool outdoor table on the back patio or in the tent I set up with Kiernan a few days ago. So the monopolization of the family room by Fort Keirnan was no big deal. For a few days anyway. Until it began to drive me nuts and I just had to vacuum.

There was no fort for a week or so after that. Now the fort has reappeared in Kiernan's room. But that's a picture for another post.

As I mentioned above, I was off on a hike when the above pictures were taken. The hike I took on day one was absolutely wonderful. It ended up being between five and six miles of hiking (perhaps a bit more, as I "explored" some trails that weren't strictly a part of the hike). It's been awhile since I've gone on a hike this extensive, and I've never done it alone, so this was a nifty adventure.

The hike I took on this day was the La Jolla Valley Loop, and it was gorgeous. Not overly difficult, but strenuous enough to make me feel it. Here's a shot from early on...

One of the beautiful things about hiking, especially here, is that you can get out in the middle of nowhere after not so long a drive. It's cool to see the above picture when I think of how crowded and crazily populated this area is.

The hike involved some zigzagging up the canyon, working my way up past a waterfall (dry this time of year), combined with walks through huge open grass fields, all punctuated by sweeping views of the Pacific as I made my way around the back side of the loop. Here's a shot of one of those:


Took me about three and a half hours, and it was time very well spent.

Thanks to my family.