Diffused Illumination

This morning's breakfast was quite an interesting event.

Kieran: Ooh! Can I do my homework early for today?

(They have weekly assignment sheets, he saw that tonight's was about math including identifying the higher number in different sets.)

Me: Um, sure, as long as you finish your breakfast first.

Kieran: Ok!

Some time passes, and I notice Kieran's *really* studying his United States placemat as he eats.

Me: What are you looking at, sweetheart?

Kieran: Look at these tornadoes! (old crayon scribbles)

Me: That's some creative thinking!

Kieran: No, these are REAL tornadoes.

Me: Ok, we can say that they're real on your map.

Kieran: They start in Western Canada, then go to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. There are some in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut too. There's one in Pennsylvania, but not in New Jersey. Oh wait, there's one in New Jersey. I think there's one.. yeah in Maryland, and 1 in Virginia too. Oh yeah, North Carolina too. There aren't ANY tornadoes in South Carolina, Georgia or Florida though.

Us: *uh*

I just had one of the most extreme tests of my patience as a parent in modeling courtesy and respect.

Kieran's initial take on President's Day is that we'll all run for president on that day (we talk about voting and the election process a lot lately)

I explained that it was a special holiday set aside to be thankful for the good people who have been our presidents.

Kieran immediately replied, "Oh yes, and George Bush is currently our President and he is a good one."

Damned near amputated my tongue.

Kieran's school is having a book sale, where the kids come in by class & during recess/after school to browse the various offerings then either write down the titles they're interested in and place orders or buy on the spot if they have the cash.

Any guesses what Kieran's only request was for?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Definitely not yet!

However, I've been mulling over having this Christmas be Kieran's first of a family tradition of hardcover series collections as presents. My aunt started me on one when I was around his age of black & tan hardcovers from various authors that I still have and read with Kieran. I still remember the anticipation of knowing another 'real' book was on the way for my birthday and Christmas, and still think of hardcovers in this way. Paperbacks are the fast food of literati.

The same aunt just agreed to buy the entire A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) collection (13) at once to stagger for Kieran's presents over the next few years.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! This will be immense fun to read both out loud as a family and for him solo. Kieran will read anything with pages in it, but we'll slow down and discuss these to build up his vocabulary and comprehension as well as talk about the darker side of the subject matter. We already have interesting conversations about death (over breakfast, even) and why people do bad things so this will tie in nicely.

( Labor Day with no rain?! )
It's very strange to have Labor Day again be associated with the wistful sadness of the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. With the timing of college classes either starting before or way after the holiday, this taps into my own K-12 memories and I used to get extremely nervous. I remember little about kindergarten except reenacting Star Wars on the playground, hermit crabs, someone barfing during the Pledge of Allegiance, the day I tied my shoes by myself, and wondering why they had huge pictures in addition to words on a test. I wonder what will stand out for Kieran.


* circa 1999 WTO riots, the one near the bus tunnel was spray painted with this & Meat is Murder. We've converted others across the country to our terminology.

Where Kieran learned roshambo: "Off the hook", Comcast Housemates.

This was on during Wheel of Fortune tonight (yes, that is still our family life at 7pm). I turned and said, "Kieran, is this the commercial you learned rock, paper, scissors from?" He replied, "Well, yeah" with an unspoken *and/or DUUUH* implied by tone of voice.

I vaguely recall seeing it a few times before but I'm still surprised he picked it up so well from that brief blurb.

( Cause there's bugger-all down here on earth! )

Instantly hooked on Galaxy Zoo, where even I of absolutely no brain left passed the exam and now get to classify galaxies with Kieran. If I start thinking about this in depth it completely blows my mind... I get to sit here on the couch with my son and classify actual galaxies which haven't been seen by human eyes before. Unbelievable. Come join the fun! Most tend to be rather unexciting blobs but I've had several pretty ones cross my path tonight.

Kieran was up at Grandma's house for 3 nights and didn't once ask about us except for the agreed-in-advance phone calls before bedtime. He is so getting sent up there more often now.

Grandma's pooped but had fun too. We enjoyed peace, quiet, each other, and the ability to sleep past 5:45 in the morning. It's certainly great to have him back home but I can't honestly say I missed him all that much. I guess this is a good sign for when he moves out for college?

The first step is admission, right? I bet a few of you have it too.

Tonight I sat on the couch and read for class and listened carefully for Kieran to settle down and fall asleep. Once he did I waited a few more minutes, then snuck in to give him a kiss. 'Happy birthday sweetie. I love you so much. Thank you for being a part of our lives', I whispered.

Then I hightailed it downstairs, grabbed a DDR dance mat, and did the rest of the easy songs on beginner mode we hadn't already gotten to. As and Bs on all, I have to kick myself up to basic mode now. I am so hooked on this damned game it's hilarious, but it's already resulted in some toning. IRC, the last comparable instant addiction I can recall, certainly never did that ;)

( Stop immediately if there is abnormal phenomenon in your foot )

Finally, the all-weather cure to insane amounts of 5-year-old energy & graduate school butt all at once!

Oh how lovely it is to not have work this week! Normally we'd be in Victoria BC but I have too much group project work in progress/due this week and let's face it; classwork while on vacation means it's not a vacation. If anything it's worse because you're stressing about how to get it all done while simultaneously trying to do the vacation thing. Ah well, there's next spring.

We were at my mom's for a long weekend, and had both a bonfire complete with roasted marshmallows for s'mores in her backyard and a brief & shining hour at our favorite tulip spot on Easter morning before the rain and massive numbers of tourists on buses arrived. Otherwise the weather was windy & soggy as usual so we really lucked out with the windows of time we had.

( Why we get there right when it opens )