Kirk blAug

Jupiter has coined the term which this post is titled by. Chris and I did not quite know what he meant by it at first. We have since found that it is a term that is used to describe the person that he wants to raise a child with. One day he was talking to Chris about how he and his dad partner would have a little girl together. He did not name anyone specific for that role. We were curious as to whether it was meant for a boy or a girl. But that is just it. It could be either one, which makes it great.  The "dad" part of the title is meant for him, but the "partner" part is, I think, genius in many ways. It could mean a female counterpart, a male counterpart, or even a counterpart who does not fit into either of those. Boyfriend or girlfriend might make an assumption that I do not think needs to be made. Wife or husband reeks of old world patriarchal roles that I have sometimes seen put one person above another in a nonsensical hierarchy that need not apply

We decided to enroll Jupiter into preschool. He is developing fine all on his own, but we want to see if he strives in an institutional environment. Chris and I have discussed and agree that we should not leave any options off the table as to how he will be educated going forward, so this will be a good indicator to help us decide how to proceed when the time for kindergarten comes. It is a two hour and forty-five minute class three times a week. It has already shown to be disruptive to his exploratory time. This morning he was telling me that he wanted to go to the Science Center. I told him that we would try to fit it in, but we had other priorities that needed to be complete before we could go. Well, time was short and Jupiter dragged along this morning, so we did not go to the Science Center. Today is his second day of preschool. He seemed to like it yesterday. I barely got a goodbye from him as he was already deep into playing with the other kids. I think it will be good to sp

I snapped this photo of Jupiter the other day at Suson Park . It was a fun day. Chris had told me about a "Farm Fun Friday" which was going on that day and included a hayrack ride. Jupiter loves hayrack rides, or "tractor rides" as he calls them. It was a great idea. We both enjoyed it. There were also a lot of farm animals to see, which are featured there every day, so we will likely go back. In this photo, he is bored and waiting for the tractor to come back so that we could get on the hayrack. I was not thinking about it when I took it, but later something about it reminded me of the Smashing Pumpkins music video for their song 1979 . After looking at the Wikipedia article on the song, I realized it must be the look of boredom and loneliness. From Wikipedia : The video follows a day in the life of disaffected suburban teenagers driving around in a Dodge Charger. It is based on a concept Corgan created, featuring an idealized version of teenage life, w

Yesterday Jupiter did a little of what I was talking about in my last post. He changed it up a little. I did not tell him about my post and he does not read very much yet, but to be honest he was the inspiration for that post. I have shown him how to put his underwear on about a thousand times, by my count. Sure enough though, he came out of his room with his underwear on backwards as usual. At that point I said something along the lines of, "Dude! You got your underwear on backwards again. Is it a special holiday or something?" Only this time instead of going back to his room to try it again again, he said, "Yep!" There I was delirious and confused about what just happened. So I did the only thing a person can do. I took off my shorts and my underwear. I placed my underwear in their full and backright position. I then zipped back up, informed my friends and followers of the rule of the day, and went about my business as usual. I have come to determine one pro and

Jupiter has been wanting to make music lately. When he shows an interest in something, I typically look for ways to foster it. In this case Chris and I found a music class aimed at three and four year olds. It is called Music by Leaps and Bounds and is a once a week 45 minute session. It includes singing, dancing, playing simple instruments, learning about different variations in notes, and more. Jupiter's first day was yesterday. He was a little bit apprehensive at first but by the end of the session he seemed to be enjoying himself. I was supposed to leave for the first 30 minutes of the class and come back for the last 15, but since I had never left Jupiter alone in this sort of environment before, he asked that I stay this time. After class I asked if it would be okay if I leave next time and he said it would. He has so far learned about making long sounds with the triangle and short sounds by hitting two wooden sticks together and it seems that they add new instruments and dy

We recently moved Jupiter's bookshelf out of his room and into the play area so that he might have more encouragement to read. He likes to look at and read books a lot and I thought that he might benefit from it being in the area that he spends more awake time. He had been spending time reading during nap or bedtime and not getting enough sleep. One day I asked him if the books were distracting to him and preventing his sleep. Later that day he told me he wanted the bookshelf out in the living room. I think this arrangement has turned out for the better. I also thought that as Tsunami gets older they will probably like to share their books with each other so that they can both read all the books. Right now we pick out the books which we read to Tsunami and sometimes Jupiter picks them out for him too, but soon he will have his own book interests that he can share with Jupiter. Any suggestions to add to the shelf?

Today Jupiter, Tsunami, and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden with the membership that we received from Antijen and Uncle Tom for the holiday. I asked Jupiter to choose between going back for another round at the Sculpture Park or the garden. When he choose the garden, I was skeptical that we would have any fun and tried to convince him to go to Sculpture Park again since it is January and I suspected nothing much would be in bloom, but I think he actually had the right idea. The Missouri Botanical Garden was actually much bigger than I had thought from looking at it from the outside. I had been there before to go in the Climatron, but there was still much to see outside even though flowers are not in bloom. Lots of interesting trees and other plants, plenty of peaceful walking paths, and flowing creeks were all over the place. Jupiter had to make sure to try out a bunch of rocks that were just off the path to see which ones were good for sitting and which ones were not. Tsunam

Today has been a very busy day. I took Jupiter to his gymnastics class today. I thought it would be a nice chance for Jupiter to get a healthy dose of his normal routine and for me to get away from the hospital for a couple hours. When we actually got to gymnastics, he just wanted to leave to go see his new little brother. I can tell Jupiter is very excited about his brother at this point. He just wants everybody to come home and for things to get back to normal. I can sympathize. Being in the hospital is nice because of all the help we get from nurses, but being home will be good. We get to go home tomorrow. Jupiter has been excited about riding in the car with Tsunami ever since we put the baby seat in Chris's Prius during one of the false alarms from earlier. Every time we get in her car he asks us, as if he needs reassurance of the reality, "Baby ride back here with me?" Needless to say, he will like having a travel companion.