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.