Picture For This Day

Soccer with the boys at yesterday's playdate.

Julie, Matt and Jon's mom, brought along soccer balls and a couple of portable goals.  Kiernan took one look at all of this and gazed longingly beyond the fence at the play structures therein.  I gestured to the kids kicking the ball.

"I don't want to play soccer," he said to me, matter-of-factly.  "I want to play on the play structure."

Fine with me.  He shed his shoes and socks and headed into the fenced area and had a blast.  As it turned out, most of the kids did the same, eshewing soccer for running about in the sand, climbing, going down slides, and randomly tackling one another.  The portable goals joined us for a time, and then they were dragged back out to the grass as a couple of kids decided to play soccer again.  Kiernan showed no interest in that.

Until I said it was time to go and started to gather our things.

"I want to play soccer now," he informed me, as he put on his socks and shoes.

You don't say.


Balboa Park: Encino, CA
January 4, 2011

Picture of This Day

Today was an early dismissal day.  Teacher training and whatnot.  So one of the moms set up a playdate at a local park for right after school.

Fun was had.


Balboa Park: Encino, CA
January 4, 2011

Independence

Kind of a goofy picture, but I like it.  I had to shoot it surreptitiously from across the room.

We spent the last week of December in a cabin with family.  Gammy and Grance and Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Mitch and Cousin Dorian.  One of the great joys of the week was watching how Kiernan and Dorian interacted. How they played and shared and negotiated.  They are so great together.  One of Kiernan's big challenges was dealing with the time when his younger cousin would take his nap.

The picture above captures Kiernan working this out one day.  He spent most of Dorian's nap just playing with Legos.  On this day he was playing with his cousin's new Lego bulldozer.  Kiernan loved this thing...as did Dorian.  No surprise, it was Dorian's newest toy.  But Kiernan so wanted to play with it.  That bulldozer was so, so cool.  So, on this day, Dorian said Kiernan could play with the new bulldozer while Dorian was asleep.  It was just such a great negotiation.

Kiernan spent most of Dorian's nap that day playing on his own with the bulldozer and another Lego dumptruck.  The adults were on the other side of the room, reading and writing in journals and playing Angry Birds and catching naps and going for walks.  Hearing Kiernan in playtime, doing quiet voices as his cousin slept...beyond beautiful.

After an hour or so he asked me to play with him.  We went into the cabin's kitchen and played, me operating the dumptruck and Kiernan commandeering the beloved bulldozer.  I felt so good, being the good dad playing with his son.  Sharing quality time.

After fifteen/twenty minutes Kiernan asked, "Is Dorian gonna be up soon?"

Yeah, I'm a good dad.  But at this time...just a placeholder.  Oh well.  Getting him to fly on his own is the point, right?

Right.  Sigh.

Picture For This Day

Playing this weird pig tossing game with his Grance, during our recent vacation.  I love his air of concentration here.  I also have to say that I love that Rance was successful in getting Kiernan into this game.  That just makes me happy.


December 2010
Big Bear, CA

Picture of This Day

As it turns out, our boy is into Legos.  Specifically Atlantis Lego sets.  Big time.

Happy New Year.  And love to you all!


January 1, 2011

Picture of This Day

Making friends wherever he goes.


December 29, 2010
Big Bear, CA

Picture For This Day

Concentrating on the directions as he assembles his new Lego Antlantis Exploration Headquarters, a birthday present from Sandi and Pap-Pap.  I love his focus as he does this.  The way it makes me feel as I watch him doing this, while pretending not to since he wants the final product to be a surprise...well...it's beyond my ability to describe in words.


November 30, 2010


P.S. Sorry for the crappy iPhone photo.  I just had to text this moment to his grandparents.

Rocking Number Six

The bulk of Kiernan's birthday celebrating happened over the holiday weekend, with his big party on Sunday.  I'll hopefully find some decent pictures from that event (translation: hopefully Brutha Mitch will send me some because the ones I took are pretty crappy) and post them.  This post is just about the birthday proper, which took place on Monday.  A school day.  These are a couple of odd pictures from that day, for you.

After school we gave Kiernan the option to choose what to do next.  Strangely, running straight home and doing homework was not his first choice.  His first choice, when he saw us there to pick him up, "Can I go to the play structure and play as long as I want to?"

Yep.

Just about every day Kiernan wants to head over to the play structure located near his old Kindergarten class and play with his friends.  Usually I say we can do this for a little while and then we head home.  So the difference this time was that he got to determine how long we stayed and played.  We watched him as he ran around with his friends and played a little tag, then, as is his wont, went into his lunch box and started working on his lunch.  He almost never eats any of his lunch during the actual lunch time provided in the school day.  Far more important things are on his list of things to do at this time.

Fearing "as long as I want to" would mean staying until the next school day, we gently reminded Kiernan that he had a couple of exciting things on the horizon.  1) He was going to get to choose where we went for dinner. 2) There were presents waiting to be opened at home.  Upon mention of the latter he immediately went and picked up his backpack and proclaimed that it was time to go.

As we headed out to our cars, we broached the subject of dinner.  We did this with some trepidation.  More than a week ago we had been at one of Kiernan's favorite places to eat, California Pizza Kitchen, and he had announced that he wanted to have his birthday dinner at CPK.  That was fine with both of his parents.  We can find plenty of good stuff to eat there, and Kiernan loves their curly mac and cheese.  In point of fact, CPK is about the only place that makes macaroni and cheese that Kiernan will eat.  In his defense it is quite good, but then again I think just about any recipe will seem "quite good" if an extra pound of butter is incorporated into it.

Then, a couple of days ago Kiernan announced he wasn't interested in going to CPK for his birthday dinner anymore.  What was his replacement choice?  Burger King.

Ugh.  Facepalm.

Wendy and I went back and forth about this.  I absolutely hated the idea that our kid was choosing fast food for his birthday meal, and Wendy was none too pleased either.  But what are you gonna do?  It's his birthday.  He should get to choose his own meal.  Plus, he was a pretty good sport at my birthday meal last Friday when I chose a restaurant where the only thing he could find to eat was croutons.  Uh-huh.  Not joking.  As a lad myself, I always chose my mom's incredible skillet enchiladas, but then I was a child of discerning tastes.  It seems my boy has not quite reached that point yet.  So we took a deep breath and headed to Burger King.

In the parking lot Kiernan dropped his next request.  He wanted me to run home and gather up all his presents so he could open them at dinner.  At Burger King.  Sorry...I couldn't do it.  For some reason that was a bridge too far.  The mental image of us opening gifts in that setting, while Kiernan ate chicken bits shaped into crowns...it just filled me with a mixture of disgust and sadness.  So I had to say no way.  But I was willing to compromise.  If he wanted to, we could take the delicious BK food home.  He went for that.

So not only did he choose fast food for his birthday...he chose take out fast food for his birthday.  Sigh.  I don't get it.  To me that's like going to Paris and having dinner at McDonald's.  But what do I know?  At least we were going home.

Where my mood improved considerably.  We threw a blanket on the floor in front of the fireplace and had a picnic in front of the fire.  Yeah, it was Burger King food, but at least I could have a glass of wine with it, which apparently you can't do if you actually eat at Burger King since their new product, The BK Big Wine Sipper, hasn't yet been rolled out.

He started tearing into his presents, which was a lot of fun.  I like watching Kiernan open presents.  Sometimes he does that thing I imagine most kids do, that give-me-the-next-present thing where it seems they can't tear through them fast enough.  More often than not, however, he wants to stop to read the book he just opened or open the package and explore the new toy or game.  This can be crazy making at Christmas, when there's a crowd waiting to open the next present, or when the services of Dad are required for technical assembly.  When it's just him opening the presents in front of the fire, it's cool though, especially since this year he's so into Lego sets and Bionicles.  I get a great deal of joy when I see how excited he is to open those packages and unfold the directions.  The way he concentrates on putting together those things is just so arresting.  Yeah, it can get frustrating too, but mostly it makes me proud.

One of the most interesting gifts he got this birthday was a rock collection from our family friend, Pat.  This was such a nifty gift because it was so personal, something Pat had owned for a long time and was passing along to someone he thought would appreciate it.  Boy was he right.  Kiernan opened the box and he just lit up, mouth wide open.  He was just so excited to identify the different rocks in the collection and point out which rocks he already knew about and work his way through pronouncing the ones he did not.  "Obsidian!  There's Obsidian!"

It was just a lovely moment, capping a wonderful birthday.

Let Slide

We celebrated more than one birthday this past holiday weekend.  One of the greatest gifts given was the gift of solitude.  That is to say, Kiernan was invited to a friend's birthday party on his dad's birthday, and said dad was excluded from said event by one amazing mom/wife.  Said dad might risk coming across as disingenuous by saying he was sad to miss the event, but it's probably best he just admit he loved going to see a shoot-em-up movie starring The Rock instead, all on his lonesome.  Especially since said shoot-em-up movie was showing at a theater at which said dad could sit down to a lovely beer beforehand.  Sometimes it's good to live in California.

Oh.  Sorry.  Back to the blog at hand.

I wasn't there, so I can only speak in the pictures I found on this memory card from the camera.  Kiernan went to the birthday party of his friend Ryan with his mom and Gammy.   The party was held at a place called Scooter's Jungle.  It's a play place.  Imagine a blow up slide on steroids and you'll come close.  So here's a picture from the event.  Kiernan on a slide...with Gammy.

This picture is all you need to know to understand what I mean when I say the following...Kiernan has the greatest grandparents in the history of grandparents.

Oh...and his mom is pretty great too.

Wendy may get annoyed at the inclusion of this picture.  It's a weird blurry picture.  But it says so much, and I loved finding it on the memory card.  It's so perfect.  Kiernan's active, fun, happy mom.  Also, I've got to say...I think she looks hot.  This picture makes me smile.  Kiernan and his dad are lucky boys.

Finally, a picture of Kiernan with a couple of friends.  There on the right is the birthday boy, Ryan.  I think that's his friend Jon, on the left, but I could be wrong about that.  Regardless, I love the faces here.

Picture For This Day

At Kiernan's school, birthdays are celebrated on a monthly basis.  That is to say, at the end of each month the entire grade--in Kiernan's case 1st--gathers at the lunch area on a day late in the month to celebrate all the birthdays of that month.  Parents of that month's celebrators bring in cupcakes and drinks and there is a big to-do.  The kids-of-honor wear crowns and stand on a table in front of the assembled and there is much singing and frivolity.  I took this picture as the first grade kids lined up in front of the lunch area in preparation for the festivities.

If I had to caption this picture, I think I'd just throw up my hands and fall back on that wonderful French turn of phrase...joie de vivre.

The best thing about being one of those annoying people who takes pictures all the time?  You get life lessons in constant and sustainable installments.  My boy teaches me something every day.  Sometimes months later.  And for that, I am so thankful.


November 2010