My email to you for Sept. 1-7, 2013

Here is my email sent to you Sept. 7, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you today? I’m doing fine, though I miss and love you like crazy!

I so enjoyed my time with you on Thursday! We sure packed a lot into those two hours!

You certainly have a lot of energy, which is not surprising for a young boy, especially one who’s a Bignell. All of the Bignells – my cousins and yours – have a lot of spunk. Although I exercise daily, I must admit that all of the karate, football, spinning and wrestling we did wore me out! You are very strong and athletic, and I'm impressed!

I'm so very glad that you enjoyed the volcano we made! There are more “kitchen” experiments in the science kit, as well, including making a clock run with a battery made from a lemon or tomato! We will have to do some of those in the weeks ahead.

Putting together the Bionicles was a good time, too. It brought back lots of great memories of when we used to do that at Legoland or at my place in Encinitas. I hope you enjoy playing with your new Bionicles!

I enjoyed playing checkers, too. You really knew the rules well! When I was in fourth grade, I was a master checkers player. I was so good that no one wanted to play me because they always lost! So I turned to chess, but there were only a couple of other students who knew how to play that. I think you’re going to be a master checkers player, too!

Constructing the puzzle map was fun as well. You did a great job of putting it together all on your own while I worked on the Lone Ranger Lego kit, which I think is a mound that scorpions live in – there’s a little catapult on it that you can shoot the scorpions out of! Too bad we ran out of time to complete the puzzle (or the Lego toy).

Say, I don’t believe we looked at the football cards you received on Thursday. Which players and teams did you get? Also, did you see the first pro football game of the year on Thursday night? The Denver Broncos were playing the Baltimore Ravens. You may recall that Peyton Manning now plays for the Denver Broncos. He set a record by throwing seven touchdown passes in a single game! The Broncos won 49-27!

What books or stories did you read in school this past week? I read a neat book about autumn called “Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert. The book has pictures of leaves arranged to look like a person – called Leaf Man – and traces his movement across the landscape. It has a lot of cool pictures of Leaf Man in it.

We next get together on Saturday, Sept. 14 – a week from today! Your mother and I are still working out the times. We no longer have to meet at the visitation center that we have been at since last winter. I have not yet decided what we will do when we get together, but I have some ideas and promise it will be a lot of fun!

I look forward to seeing you then. I miss and love you very much! Be a good boy in school this week!

Love,

Dad

 

My letter to you for Aug. 31, 2013

Here is the letter/email I sent to you on Aug. 31, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I’m doing fine though I miss you like crazy!

I had a lot of fun with you Friday!

Your memory is very good, I must say – you remembered exactly where every chess piece went on the board and how they moved. You are on your way to becoming a master chess player!

You also impressed me with your cool karate moves. You’ve got quite a strong punch and kick! Keep working on those moves! I’ll keep practicing my Canadian karate moves, too! J

I’m glad that you enjoyed the Lone Ranger and Army Lego pieces. I’m sorry that the Army Lego Jeep was frustrating to put together – the instructions looked very complicated, so no wonder you didn’t want to follow them! I think, though, that I might have in one of my totes a Lego car that is very easy to make…I shall bring it next time, and we can build it together, okay?

Your knowledge of the states keeps improving, too! I think you knew twice as many on Friday as you did just the week before! I am still looking for that world map puzzle, though. I may have to order it online.

Speaking of online, I looked up and watched the Disney XD show you told me about – I thought you had said “Crash and Burn Scene” rather than “Crash and Bernstein”! I can see why you enjoy the show so much; the humor is exactly what you would find hilarious! I like Crash’s T-shirt showing a skull with headphones on it.

Too bad that you’re friend Milo didn’t come back to school this year. Losing a friend to moving always is difficult; when I was in third grade, my best friend Marc moved, and I had no idea where or if I’d ever get to talk with him again. He introduced me to “The Six Million Dollar Man” and we liked pretending we were “The Bionic Boys.” I was happy to hear that Richard and all of your other friends are back. You guys should have a lot of fun this year!   

Going up north to the farm and the lake sound like a good time. What did you all do on the farm and lake?

I forgot to ask you on Friday how you liked the Titanic book you took home last week. One of the neat things about first grade is that you’ll learn to read and soon will be able to read the book all on your own!

I’m very excited – we get together again on Thursday (Sept. 5)! I miss and love you very much and can’t wait to see you again!

Love,

Dad

My email to you for July 27, 2013

Here is my email to you for Saturday, July 27, 2013, in case you do not receive it.

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I sure had fun with you on Friday! I’ll write more about our time together in an upcoming letter.

What have you been doing for fun this summer (Besides getting together with your dad J)? I would love to hear about your bicycle riding, friends that you’re spending time with, and summer school. Unfortunately, I have not received an email from you in two weeks. Perhaps you could have your mother resend those emails to me.

Have you seen the Lone Ranger movie yet? I haven’t seen it, so if you have, don’t tell me what happens! But it is on my list of movies to see this summer. With all of the fun adventures we went on as pretending to be Sheriff Jack, the Deputy and the Lone Ranger, I am certain I will be thinking of you the entire time I’m watching it.

Speaking of movies, did you know that three new “Star Wars” movies are going to be made? The next one – “Star Wars VII” – is supposed to come out in 2015, just two years from now. The actors and actresses who played Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are supposed to be in the new movie. It should be a lot of fun to watch!

Did you know that you actually can see the desert city where “Star Wars” was filmed? It was built many years ago in Tunisia, a country in northern Africa. Many people travel there every year to walk through it. Unfortunately, it one day may be buried by an advancing sand dune, scientists say!

Monday is Grandma Bignell’s birthday. We are having a big birthday celebration with cake and presents. Your cousins Bryan and Rebekah and your Uncle Chris and Aunt Susie all will be there. We wish you were allowed to be there, too. In fact, I think I know what Grandma Bignell’s wish will be when she blows out her birthday candles.

With the arrival of the month of August, school will soon start. You must be very excited about entering first grade! When is your first day? Do you know yet who your teacher will be? What kind of school supplies will you need (Maybe the list for those supplies hasn’t come out yet, though!)? Getting school supplies and new school clothes always was one of my favorite things about the month of August while I was growing up.

Well, that is all for now. I miss and love you more than anything in the world and can’t wait to see you again in just two weeks, on Friday, Aug. 9. Be a good boy, and I will write again next Saturday!

Love,

Dad

My email to you for week of July 6-13

Here is my email to you for the week of July 6-13, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you today? Hope you are doing well. I had so much fun with you yesterday! I’ve also attached the photos of our time together as I promised.

I am so glad you liked the “Star Trek” guys and the Enterprise. Having them take the pod to an alien planet and explore it, just like we used to play, was a good time. There are other “Star Trek” pod characters we can get, so I will look for them in stores and bring some along the next time we get together.

Putting together and playing with the Lone Ranger Legos was fun, too. There are a whole bunch of Lone Ranger Lego sets, so I will look for them as well. We have to find one with Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s faithful companion. I sure hope you get to see the movie soon.

You have really gotten fast – Catching you was really difficult when we played football! I am so proud of you that you working on your baseball and soccer skills and getting better at them. When you were younger, we had a T-ball set, and you were very good at hitting the ball. You had very strong arms and could hit the ball a long ways! You also could throw a great spiral with the football. Always focus on and master the fundamentals, and you’ll do really well playing any game.

You’ve also are really learning the states! I was amazed at how many of them you remembered when we put together the puzzle. Would you also like to learn where the countries of the world are, since you asked about Greece? I shall have to find a world map puzzle for us.

The air rockets that you shot off at school sound like a great class project. How high did your air rocket go? I once had a model rocket that looked like the Enterprise from “Star Trek.” It went about 40 feet in the air. When you are older, we will have to shoot off some model rockets at Grandpa and Grandma Bignell’s farm.

The “Snackin’ Safari” game with the elephant springs sure was neat, wasn’t it? Getting the food cards to stick to the suction cup is difficult to do, isn’t it? I think the game might better if the elephant trunk and the cars had magnets on them instead, don’t you?

Have you tried on the new shirt yet? It’s pretty cool how it says “California Lifeguards Association” on it! Since the Long Beach T-shirt I got you was a little big, this time I got you one that was a size smaller – I hope it fits!

Hopefully the Pokémon cards also will help your set that you have. I’m afraid I don’t much about Pokémon – maybe you can explain more about it to me next time!

Well, that is all for now. We next get together on Friday, July 26, and I can’t wait to see you! I love you and miss you very much; I think about you every day!

Love,

Dad

My email to you for June 8, 2013

Here is my email sent to you on June 8, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I’m doing fine, though I miss you more than anything! I am looking forward to seeing you in just two weeks, on June 21. We also should be able to start seeing each other every other week after that.

How has your first two weeks of summer school gone? What stuff is the teacher covering in our classes? Have you read any interesting books in class? Are many of your friends back in summer school, too? Do you have new classmates for summer school? So many questions, I know! But you are the most important person in the world to me, so I want to know everything about you!

I purchased some new fun “Star Trek” stuff for us to play with when we get together. Some of them are the Lego characters. Another is a set of models of the spaceships from the show. The models snap together, and we should have a lot of fun building and playing with them. Have you seen the new “Star Trek” movie yet?

There are a whole bunch of great movies coming out this summer that I’d bet you love to see. “Monsters University” (the follow-up to “Monsters Inc.” – remember when we used to go on that ride at California Adventure?) comes out on June 21. “The Lone Ranger” (Remember when we used to play Sheriff Jack and the Deputy?) comes out on July 3. Finally, “Disney’s Planes” (It’s like “Cars” except the main characters are airplanes!) comes out on August 9. Hopefully, you will get to go to each of these movies, as they all sound like lots of fun.

Now that’s summer here, I bet you’re enjoying spending time outdoors! I didn’t receive a response to the email I sent to you last week, so I will have to ask again how the bicycle riding is coming along? I bet you’ve got it down already! If not, don’t worry – you’ll get better with practice. Be sure to wear a helmet when you go bicycle riding, though; if the bike crashes, and you don’t have a helmet on, you could get hurt!

I will be outdoors a lot as well this summer, hiking trails in the Northwoods. My latest hiking book is doing well, so I’ve decided to write a follow-up to it. There are some neat trails that go over ancient volcanic rock, to waterfalls, and past beautiful lakes and rivers in the Northwoods. I always liked going hiking with you in the Angeles National Forest when we were together and sure wish we were allowed to be together this summer to explore all the neat places Minnesota and Wisconsin have to offer.

I found a new book you might like to get from the library! It’s called “Interrupting Chicken” by David Ezra Stein. It’s all about this young chicken who keeps interrupting everybody! Do you know of anyone who interrupts someone? It’s not very nice of them, is it?

Well, that is all for now. I miss and love you very much and can’t wait to see you on June 21!

Love,

Dad

My email to you for May 25, 2013

Enjoying Grandma Bignell's chocolate chip cookies
on May 24, 2013.

Here is my letter for May 19-25, 2013, in case you don’t receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you doing today? I’m doing fine and very happy because I got to see you again yesterday! I had so much fun – but then you’ve always been a great kid to be around!

I’m glad you liked the football player action figures. I shall have to look for some more of them, especially since you like the Chicago Bears and there are a couple of their players that you can get as action figures. I’m sorry to report to you that one of those players, Brian Urlacher, has retired and isn’t playing next year. That’s good news, though, for my favorite team – the Green Bay Packers – because Brian Urlacher was very good at tackling our quarterback!

Playing the Scooby Doo game was great fun, too! You were quite good at tapping out the bricks. It reminded me a lot of our Don’t Break the Ice game. I bet you remember the Scooby Doo haunted house that we used to have. Maybe I should look for that and get it for the next time we’re together.

I think I most liked the Cat in the Hat card game that we played, though. You were excellent at walking like a penguin, and thank you for showing me how to skip properly! I will bring that one with me next time!

The “Star Trek” transporter Lego set is neat with how the light flashes and then our character sins around so it looks like he’s beamed down to the planet with the Kirk Rocks. There aren’t too many “Star Trek” sets left to get, but I will look for more packages with characters – hopefully we will get the Gorn! Maybe you also would like a Lone Ranger Lego set?

I liked playing “zombie” with the finger lights, too! We used to play all the time with those and the “Star Trek” lights we got out of cereal boxes. We’d sneak through our green house in Lancaster, pretending it was a wrecked ship that we searched for survivors, hoping no monsters attacked us. But they inevitably did – and turned one of us (usually me!) into an alien zombie.

Playing with the micro cars was a good time, too. They fit perfect on that fold-out van set, didn’t they?!

I’ve been a little surprised that you haven’t wanted to read books the last several times that we’ve gotten together. We used to read books all the time together. Is there a reason you don’t like to read books anymore?

I know that you want to see me more, and I want to ensure you that I also want to see you more. I love you more than anything in the world and want to see you every day and have fun and new experiences just like we always did. Let me assure you that I am working very hard at ensuring that happens.

Well, that is all for now. You take care – I next will see you June 21 (and hopefully even sooner!)!

Love,

Dad

My email to you for May 11, 2013

Here is my email sent to you on May 11, 2013, in case you did not receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you doing? I’m doing fine. I had so much fun with you yesterday! I can’t wait to see you again in just two weeks on the afternoon of May 24.

Thank you for introducing your stuffie penguins to me! They look like they’ve received lots of love and affection from you, and that’s cool. I remember how much you enjoyed the penguin cartoons that you would watch on the DVD player when we made those long drives from Palmdale to San Diego. It was always a great pleasure of mine to hear you laugh and giggle from the back seat!

Putting together the “Star Trek” legos was a lot of fun, too. You did a great job of following the instructions. We still have the Klingon ship and the transporter to build. There were a couple of other “Star Trek” lego models at the toy store, so I shall pick them up for the next time we get together. I think there were some other characters we can get as well. They also had Lone Ranger Lego sets, so maybe we’ll do those when we run out of “Star Trek” kits!

Is your wooden car model holding up well? If the wheels ever fall off, you just have to use some wood glue to put them back together. You did a very nice job of painting the car!

You were very good at playing War! I shall have to find some additional games for us to play. Have you ever heard of the game “Operation”? You have to pick up little pieces out of a “body,” but if you touch the body it buzzes and you don’t get the piece. Whoever has the most pieces at the end wins. I bet you would like that game. Speaking of the body, the next time we get together I also will bring the human body book with the skeleton that we can put together.

I am glad you enjoyed the book about Egypt, too. It had a lot of interesting pictures, didn’t it? One of your favorite places to go when I lived in Encinitas/San Diego was the Museum of Man, which had a whole section of Egyptian mummies and sarcophaguses as well as a great children’s area for learning about Egypt. We’d take the trolley there, and on the walk over from the trolley stop would look around in the sculpture garden and sometimes have lunch in the open air cafeteria next to it. Their gift store was a lot of fun, too – if I remember correctly, we got you some Egypt and Darwin toys, there. Anyway, the museum was one of your favorite places, and you’d even beg me to go there!

We had so much fun that we didn’t have time to do everything, like play with the Hot Wheels car, the map puzzle, or the sticker play book. Maybe next time!

Well, that is all for now. I love you and miss you like crazy. I’ll write again next Saturday and will see you on May 24!

Love,

Dad