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

First Day, Version 5.0

First day of second grade. Second Grade! What? When did that happen?

Oh. Today.

I spent the last two weeks praying for the first day of school. Now it's here and suddenly I feel lost in my house. What am I going to do without somebody to show me dinosaur pictures and quiz me about their sizes and types for the next eight hours? I miss my boy.

Thank goodness for Monkey. She's the cat we're fostering for a friend of mine and she came and snuggled up next to me as I was cooling off from my run this morning. This is particularly sweet as she only got here a couple of days ago and has spent most of her time under the bed trying to figure out what this Murawski family thing is all about. She tends to only come out when Wendy--The Cat Whisperer--is home. So, it was nice. Bittersweet as it reminds me of Cali, and how empathetic she could be. I really miss her. It's nice to have a cat in the house again. I'll post some pictures of her when doing so doesn't reveal the underside of my bed.

So. Our boy is a Second Grader. Do you capitalize that? I never know.

It's Mom's first day of school too, and we're very proud of her too. She got us up and out the door early, anticipating that dropoff would be crowded and finding a parking space would be tough. Also she wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to carry the fifteen bags of supplies to the car. Those are supplies for Kiernan's class, incidentally. The school sends home teacher wish/need lists hoping that parents will grab a couple extra things as they do their back-to-school shopping. So that the teachers don't have to pay for school supplies from their own salaries. I mean, we can't have our tax dollars supplying our classrooms. No. That would be foolish.

I'm glad Wendy wants to contribute. I really am. I believe in that. But she doesn't just get a couple of the things on the list. Oh no. She makes that list her business. I can always tell there's gonna be some damage when she gets home from such a shopping trip and refuses help carrying stuff  into the house. "Hey honey, I'll be right out to help--" "No. No. NO! I'm good. I've got it. Really." The woman really shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a dollar store.

Wendy was right to plan ahead by leaving early for the first day, today. It was a total zoo at the school. It felt like a concert, the place was so packed. Kiernan was cool until he lined up with his class and prepared to do the Pledge of Allegiance, which I like that the classes did outside. Every school day in Kindergarten started with the Pledge, outside at lineup. For some reason the First Grade classes did the Pledge inside every day, so I rarely saw it. I like it outside. I like to participate in that.

At any rate, he started to get a bit concerned before the Pledge. I think the weight of becoming a second grader was finally becoming real to him. A new classroom. A new teacher. Some new friends. His class roster looks great; it looks like a good class. Luckily his friend Oliver is with him. It was just that moment. That moment when you realize you're crossing a threshold. You could see it in his eyes. I suppose we'll be seeing that in his eyes every year. Some of it is fear of the unknown, the new. Along with the understanding that moving forward means leaving something behind.

I saw it last year. And the year before. I'm thankful for it. And it breaks my heart a little bit every time.

Grow, big boy. We love you and are so very proud of you.

Picture For This Day

Swimming at his friend Oliver's house. Mom let him steal a few extra moments of fun at the end of their Saturday playdate. Is there any question why Mom's the best?

Saturday, July 16, 2011
Calabasas, CA

Pictures of This Weekend

Wendy took Kiernan and a couple of friends to the movies this weekend. The movie they saw...

...was the Winnie the Pooh movie. They all had a blast.

Of course, the movie Wendy wishes she could have taken them to was...

...some other movie about a wizard or somesuch. I don't know. I've only read up to the Alcatraz book, so I can't say. Luckily the boys were fine with Pooh.

Where was I during all of this? I was helping a buddy of mine move a bunch of stuff across the Valley for a yard sale this weekend. So I missed the trip to the Pooh movie. Drat. Don't feel too sorry for me though. I did get to see the hugest sunflowers of all time, as they lived at the home of the folks that were keeping the yard sale stuff.

Also, don't be too concerned for Wendy. I sent her off to see that wizard movie late this afternoon. So all is well.

Night of the Author

I've taken too much time off, so it's time to get TCK moving again. I'll start with a quick post about Author's Night.

One of the end-of-the-year activities at First Grade was Author's Night, where the families were invited to see  samples of writing from over the course of the year. We came in and found our First Grader there at his desk with a shoebox full of his writing. This was especially exciting as writing is not his favorite thing in the world to do, to put it mildly, so to have a chance to sit with him at his desk while he paged through the stories and letters he wrote over the course of the year was pure pleasure.

Later he would take us over to the Writer's Corner to show us more of his writing that had been posted in the classroom.

After that all the parents went to the auditorium to wait for the kids to come in and sing a couple of songs to us, including "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of Music complete with hand signs. Great.

Finally we all went out to the lunch area and had a huge potluck. I didn't even have to cook, as Wendy decided to make some of her amazing cupcakes.

One more shot of the author with his beautiful mom.

May the Slides Be with You

A couple Sundays ago, after he attended a showing of the children's show Ferdinand the Bull by Creative PlayGround at the Theatricum Botanicum, Kiernan stopped off with his mom at our local bowling alley for a fundraiser run by a friend of mine for a group called Yes iCan (International Child Abuse Network). We attended the event last year, and had a great time supporting a great cause. Unfortunately I couldn't make it this year, but luckily for me Wendy and Kiernan went to represent our family.

They didn't have time to bowl, but Kiernan got to meet some folks he recognized from a long time ago, and a galaxy far, far away...

Stay Cool

Today Kiernan received his yearbook, on this his last Wednesday of First Grade. He came running out of the classroom to greet me and his friend Oliver poked his head out the door and yelled, "Kiernan! Miss White wants to see you!"

Kiernan went running back in and emerged a few moments later with his yearbook. I promptly put it in his backpack and he asked if we could go play at the play structure, which is something we let him do almost every day for a short period of time. It's good to blow off a little steam after school.

We headed over to the play area and he pulled out his yearbook and started reading it. In no time at all he was joined by friends, the kids he plays with after school most days.

I pulled out the book I'm currently reading, and tried to get a few pages turned. I found that I couldn't. What he was doing was too interesting. So I got a couple pictures and listened as surreptitiously as I could.

Little things like this are so great to me. Won't make much sense to most people, but they just tickle me. He was going through the yearbook, page by page, methodically. One of his friends wanted him to jump to the pages for their four classes of first graders. Kiernan didn't. Instead he went page by page. "These are the eighth graders he said," studying the page. He noticed a familiar face. "She's been in our class before!"

How to explain why this tickles me so? I have this thing about delayed gratification. I understand getting your yearbook and jumping to the index, finding your name and looking up the page numbers. I get that. But I prefer the anticipation of going through the book page by page. Wondering if you'll see yourself, or someone you know. He was taking his time. Finding the older siblings of his friends on the playground and calling them over. "Jennifer! I found your brother! Come look!" "Jaden! Here's your brother!" Remarking about various teachers he knew and kids he'd seen here and there.

Eventually he got to his class, and was excited about a candid picture of himself with a couple of his friends from another classroom. I just loved watching the process. The way he took his time.

Picture of This Day

On the last Tuesday of First Grade, Kiernan arrived at school to find a bunch of his friends inside the classroom helping the teacher by decorating signs for the fair/festival to take place on the last day of school, Friday. Note the cardboard boxes in the back of the room. Teachers packing up for the end of the year.

I love how he walked in before school, saw his classmates working on something, and just jumped right in. Usually this precious time before school is for running around outside.


June 21, 2011

Picture of This Day

Today is the last Monday of First Grade. My goodness, where did this year go?


June 20, 2011