Killian's First Gingerbread House

It is not edible, I am told:

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bobbie had to work with the accountant today, so I spent the entirety with Killian.  He spent the morning watching a little TV while I swept and mopped the kitchen floor.  He wanted to help, so I taught him how to use the mop (the iRobot only works if you keep up on the major mopping) a bit, which he was really excited about.  After that, he saw some of the neighbor kids outside and wanted to go out to play.  I turned him loose with the neighbors' kids Kiera & Lauren who had their cousins, Jack and Caden, over as well.  The five of them had a blast while I talked with their moms, Maja and Elizabeth.  I suckered the moms into watching Killian while I popped into the house and vacuumed in exchange for hanging up some Christmas lights above the garage for Maja.  

Once that was done, Killian was ready for lunch, so we popped into the house and had some.  Even with an offer on the table to drive up to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and french fries, Killian asked me to make some at home.  Surprise, surprise.  I did and we shared a meal, which was really pretty fun & nice.  While he was finishing his (daddy always wins the meal race), I did the dishes and then he wanted to go back outside and play some more.  

By this point, Kiera & cousins had gone inside, but Lauren & some other neighborhood kids, Ross, Avery and Donovan were out playing, so Killian ran the cul de sac with them while I repaired the holiday decorations on our house and lawn and put up a few more.  After awhile, Rich came over and the three of us rode up to Lowe's together to check out the discount Christmas decorations.  I picked up two strings of icicle lights for roof line decoration for this year or maybe next depending on my inspiration over the next four days.  On the way home, we picked up pizza for us and Bobbie and had dinner.  Dinner was followed by a little TV, bath time and then bedtime.

Not really an amazingly out of the ordinary day, but certainly an amazing ordinary day.  He was really great all day and seeing him play with other kids really brings out how much of a really good kid and person he is.  I am a very lucky dad.

I Loves Me Some Bitstrips

A frequent occurrence in our household.  Click on the image to move through the strip.:

Christmas Pageant 2008

Killian's preschool Christmas pageant. Killian chimes in at about the :40 seconds mark and the performance starts around 1:30 in.

The good:  It stars Killian.

The bad:  It is a 4 year old preschool group "singing".  Prepare yourself for this before watching.

The ugly:  They are singing some modified version of Jingle Bells called Jesus Jingle Bells (just found a link to the lyrics --> http://www.dltk-bible.com/jingle_bells_jesus.htm). I have much to undo.

Disguised as an Ass

Killian performed in a Christmas pageant at his preschool today. There wasn't much to it. The 4 year old class (his) performed 3 songs, followed by the 3 year olds who performed 4 songs and then the 2 year olds did 2 songs. They were all in some sort of costume. The 4 year olds were dressed as a manger scene (thus, Killian's donkey attire), the 3 year olds were... something and the 2 year olds were in angel costumes.

I'm really glad that I was able to attend, even though it was at 11am on a workday. Killian was quite the ham and got several laughs from the audience starting as they were walking in and he was loudly proclaiming that he was "supposed to be a donkey" so that none would be confused by his attire, apparently. During the performance, he kept making physical signing gestures to have the microphone brought to him such that his singing could be heard better. During their final song, he proceeded to repeatedly let the teacher know that it was his turn to sing into the microphone next, even though they were singing as a group. Apparently, he perceived that the girl who had the microphone physically closest to her was "having a turn" at the time.

All told, it was both pretty cute and awful somehow simultaneously and we filmed the performance, so maybe I'll get some video of it up somewhere online or steal some snapshots from the video footage to post.

New Dog

We brought a dog into our home this weekend to foster and make sure that she is a good fit for the family and existing pets. Killian loves her, of course, and she seems to be a pretty good fit so far. She's very laid back and affectionate. She is a mutt, about 1.5 years old, about 30 pounds and approximately knee high. The name she came with is Zarina, but there's a pretty good chance we will try to change that. My biggest concern at this point is that she has been attempting to get out of the back yard by climbing or going under the fence. Granted, she's only been at the house for 2 days, so hopefully with some exercise and time this issue will dissipate. I will try to post a picture here soon.

Showing Some Respect

I'm feeling pretty sure that I'm really going to like and respect Killian as he gets older. Not just as my son, but as a good person. My reasoning is two simple things he said to me when I was cutting the grass while he was swinging the other day. At one point, I encountered a fist-sized rock which I had to chuck out of my path. Unthinking, I just tossed it toward the back of the yard. No biggie, but he said "That was a good throw, daddy. Good throw!" That may sound meaningless, but the fact that he thought to congratulate me on something so negligible was really touching. Later in the cutting event, I managed to hook the hose stand with the lawn mower chassis and topple it. I let the lawn mower power down to stand the hose back up and he said "That's ok, daddy. You didn't mean to do it. It was an accident. That's ok." Again, he was simply minding his own business swinging back and forth prior to that and I didn't give any verbal clue that I was angry or anything. He just thought to let me know it would be alright. I've seen him behave similarly toward other kids when playing. Just a sweet kid right there.

This Kid Keeps Growing

So I had to raise the seat on his bike yesterday and it's already looking to small for him ("It will grow with him" my foot). I took a wild shot at removing his training wheels as well. He was excited about it rather than scared, which was nice. He didn't really have the balance however so they went back on about 10 minutes later.

He is a Lazytown *fanatic* as of late. Between that and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Jungle Fury, he really needs no other entertainment. He recently got costumes for both; Sportacus for Lazytown and blue ranger for MMPRJF. I need to take and post pics - he *LOVES* them. Suffice it to say that they have served as pajamas on more than one occasion thus far. Looks like the MMPR mask is causing some irritation under his nose, however, so it is currently banned from wear until we determine whether it is the culprit or not.

In other news, he went underwater at the pool voluntarily for the first time yesterday. He was so proud of himself that he had to call a bunch of people (daddy at work being one of them) to let them know. Additionally, we got new back wheels for his "tractor" since the others had worn to holes in them after cruising around the cul de sac for the past several months. $18 a piece for the wheels (pricey, but not freakishly so) and $35 for shipping (Ouch!).

He maintains the status of being really good over the past several weeks while mommy is dealing with her treatment troubles. Gotta love that kid.

What a Kid

Wow, what a great kid [brag, brag, brag]. He has been in a really spectacular mood over the past several weeks and really fun to be around. In addition to just being well behaved, he has been especially loving and cuddly. It really makes your day when he snuggles up to you to watch TV. It's just plain awesome.

He and I went to a friend of mine's birthday dinner tonight. Bobbie stayed home because she was really nauseous from the treatments. He had a really fun time playing with their daughter (she's 3) and just hanging out at a new place in general. Their neighbors had a full sized trampoline with the protective netting around the outside and that was a real treat for him. He loved it. It was fun for me as well because I rarely get to see this friend anymore. It's a good 40 minutes to get to their house, so Killian and I had a fun and talkative ride on the way up and he crashed on the way back so I had to wake him up for a bath before bed. You can always tell when he's definitely tired because he is ready to get out of the bath as soon as you're done washing him. Typically he wants to play until he's a prune.

He has also been dealing with Bobbie being sick in bed over the past month really well. I was pretty worried about how he would take it since up to that point it had been pretty much all mommy all day for a long time. He's had a rotating crew of helpers to keep him entertained throughout (mom & Glen, dad and then Bobbie's mom) and that has been helpful I'm sure.

Wee Rider

In an effort to actually get some exercise, I picked up the WeeRide Co-Pilot bike trailer for Killian. It's awesome. He loves it and I get a chance to ride at speed as opposed to just trying to stay balanced at his 12" cycling speed. It's tough to tote 40-ish extra pounds behind me, particularly in my current state of ultra-fitness, but it's not difficult to ride. It really only hurts when heading uphill. All said, I would definitely suggest the trailer. It was very easy to assemble and is easy to attach and detach from my bike with a quick-release bolt. I think it will serve to help him drop the training wheels from his own bike sooner as well since he can pedal along with me, though he can't steer or stop.

The Countdown

I'm getting a little out of control with the slideshows there (assuming they're working). Well, Killian is scheduled to make his triumphant return home on Friday after almost 2 full weeks away at the grandparents' with his cousin Erin. I personally can't wait. Sure, there are positives (sleeping in, leaving doors freely open, playing Rock Band at the house), but I miss him dearly. In fact, we were just talking about that at lunch today among the working guys. In any case, it was good that he wasn't around for his mom's first two weeks of treatment. He hates to see her sick and would have been constantly asking to wake her up. That will no doubt happen much over the next two weeks, but it will be worth it to have him back in action. We've had a few chances to talk to him over Xbox live video chat in his absence, which was a lot of fun. Good investment those cameras.

Corrections + Bonus

I was told that the photo slideshow from the 2nd 4th Birthday below wasn't working. I hope the change I just made corrected it. Please let me know. As a special bonus, here is a slideshow from the 1st 4th Birthday party as well:

2008 starring Killian

Here's a 2008 slide show of Killian so far this year. I will have to remember to update it here and there.

Killian's 2nd 4th Birthday Party

His grandparents threw him an additional birthday party on the official day today. Here are some pictures:

4th Year Celebration

We celebrated Killian's 4th birthday on Saturday. Here he is pimpin' his new hog with his rebellious powder blue Thomas the Tank Engine helmet.


Needless to say, this gift was the hit of the party among the kids. He was really good about taking turns with it. The party was quite the success, despite the torrential downpours. In fact, they helped bring the temperature down to a tolerable level rather than the humid sweatfest that was the earlier part of the day. He received several other presents about which he was excited. The other two immediately sought after by him were the game Elefun and a Diego Rescue Pack set.

His grandparents took him to spend a couple of weeks at their house the day after his birthday while Bobbie undergoes her cancer treatment. However, he is apparently going to have a second birthday party at their house on his official birthday tomorrow. Two for one birthday deal... how can he go wrong?

That's spicy!

As usual, I spent the day with Killian yesterday (Saturday). It was officially "retarded hot" outside, but we accomplished quite a bit. He had his first karate class at 9am, a birthday party for a friend of his at 11am, and a grocery shopping trip with me & Rich.

The karate class was pretty fun and he did pretty well. I wish I had thought to have brought my video camera, but I'll make sure to catch it next week. He did pretty well. It was a 30 minute class and he stayed pretty focused for about 20 minutes and even toughed out the last 10. They learned a standard punch, an elbow and a block as well as a standard fighting stance. He was pretty cute in his gui, I'll give him that.

The birthday party was fun, but painful. They held it in a park picnic shelter. It would have been great, but it was unbearably hot out yesterday. It was the second birthday party with a pinata that we've been to this month which is pretty cool. The kids seem to dig it. They had a water balloon fight at the end of the party which was a big success as well.

After the shopping trip, where Killian was very excited to be pushing "his own" little shopping cart that Lowe's Foods has for kids, we hung out at Rich's house for awhile. Killian tried some DORITOS Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch flavor and he learned that they're a little hot. After discovering that, he proceeded to blow on them to cool them off. Laughing when I saw it I asked him "Did that work?" and he said "No. They're still hot." but he kept blowing on them and continued to eat a few more. Just one of those things you learn from kids. Sometimes what seems obvious may not be so.

Historical Paulblog

More for my organization sake than anything, here is a list of some posts from Paulblog that have somewhat significant references to Killian (along with some irrelevant information) to start things off:

February 5, 2008
February 4, 2008
November 12, 2007
October 28, 2007
October 17, 2007
April 10, 2007
January 14, 2007
October 22, 2006
September 17, 2006
August 15, 2006
August 9, 2006
April 23, 2006

About this blog

People want to blog about their kids. I get that. I really do. They are a HUGE part of your life. In many ways, they become your life. However, just as I don't want to have to constantly read about other people's kids just to keep up with other things in their life, nor do I want to laden my other blog readers with such information. So, I've decided to dedicate a blog specifically to my daddy chatter and thus "Killian & me" is born.