A poem about penguins for you

Read a poem today and instantly thought of you - it was Pablo Neruda's "Magellanic Penguin." Usually Neruda writes passionate love poetry (I can't wait to see what you think of it when you're older - much older, BTW!), so his penguin poem isn't particularly well known.

The reason it reminded me of you, of course, is because you really loved penguins after you turned five or so. I bought you toy figure penguins and a penguin stuffie; in fact, I think we even went to the Aquarium of the Pacific once just because I knew they'd have penguin stuffies there (Or did we get a stuffie seal pup there? I can't remember.). There also was a pegnuin video from the library that you really liked; one of the penguins was called Ringo, I think.

Anyway, here's the penguin poem:

Magellanic Penguin

Neither clown nor child nor black
nor white but verticle
and a questioning innocence
dressed in night and snow:
The mother smiles at the sailor,
the fisherman at the astronaunt,
but the child child does not smile
when he looks at the bird child,
and from the disorderly ocean
the immaculate passenger
emerges in snowy mourning.

I was without doubt the child bird
there in the cold archipelagoes
when it looked at me with its eyes,
with its ancient ocean eyes:
it had neither arms nor wings
but hard little oars
on its sides:
it was as old as the salt;
the age of moving water,
and it looked at me from its age:
since then I know I do not exist;
I am a worm in the sand.

the reasons for my respect
remained in the sand:
the religious bird
did not need to fly,
did not need to sing,
and through its form was visible
its wild soul bled salt:
as if a vein from the bitter sea
had been broken.

Penguin, static traveler,
deliberate priest of the cold,
I salute your vertical salt
and envy your plumed pride.

- Pablo Neruda

Recall reading 'Slide and Find Trucks'?

Am unpacking and repacking a number of your childhood books and belongings as I settle into my new place, and came across what had to be your favorite book as a 2 year old: "Slide and Find Trucks."

It was a great book in which I could ask you questions like "Which truck is red?" and then you'd look on the next page and choose among one of the four colors and slide a piece of cardboard to see if you'd selected the right truck! On another page, you had to decide which closeup of a truck was a cement mixer, car transporter, etc.; on another page you got to select the truck's name, and then finally decide which driver drove which truck.

You loved the book, and it was a wonderful way to teach you basic colors, letters, and other cognitive skills. Sometimes I had to help you pull the slider as they were a little stiff for such small hands to (Trust me, we moved those sliders so many times that none of them are stiff now!).

Eventually you memorized all of the answers, and you be the little jokester that you were deliberately picked the wrong answer! I always played along with you or would pretend to be all exasperated at your wrong answer, causing you to laugh to no end!

Thinking about our parents' lives before we were born

Your picture on the cover of my hiking books (All of which are dedicated to you.) and your name as my son continues to appear all over the place. This time, the cover for my first book is in my college's English Department newsletter. I attended UW-River Falls from 1984-89, graduating with a bachelors degree in education, double major in English and Journalism. At UWRF, I was the campus newspaper editor, the literary magazine editor, the Winter Carnival King, and was a national qualifier on the forensics (intercollegiate speaking) team. They were very happy days indeed - but never so happy as the days I spent with you.

For most children, thinking about their parents' life before them is both odd and fascinating. It's difficult to imagine your parents without you as part of their lives. But just as you are growing up now without children, learning how to be an adult, so your parents also had to grow up and learn what making your own way through the world involves.

I look forward to seeing what you will enjoy doing and will excel at when in high school and college. There will be much experimentation with different activities and interestest as you try to determine what you like and don't like, but ultimately you'll settle on some path that brings great joy and meaning to your life. Then you'll settle down with a beautiful woman or man and raise children of your own. And they'll then wonder with fascination about the life you once led before they were born!

The first time you ever had hot chocolate

Dec. 28, 2010: Kieran and Dad
prepare to take the sled for a ride down
an incline on the Pacific Crest Trail.

As researching material for my upcoming hiking books (which includes a section on winter hiking), I recalled a time we'd gone up into the Angeles National Forest so you could play in the snow - something we rarely got to see or do when in Southern California's desert (Though you'll soon be playing a lot in the snow now that you're in Minnesota/Wisconsin).

I premade hot cocoa/chocolate for us to keep warm when up there and put it in the equivalent of a Thermos bottle. We didn't open it until back in the Jeep Patriot for the ride down the mountain. By then, you were a little chilled, so I changed you into warm, dry clothes.

And then I offered you a cup of hot chocolate. You took a sip, and your face absolutely lit up! You drank it quickly and asked for more. Though only 3 years old, you were so careful not to spill it lest you no longer have any to drink!

I think you enjoyed three whole cupfuls that drive down the mountain. And then, tuckered out from a day of playing in the snow, the warmth of the Jeep's heater, and all of the hot chocolate in your belly, you slipped off into the most peaceful-looking sleep I'd ever seen you enjoy.

OK, answers to yesterday's "Caillou" trivia:
1. Grandma
2. Gilbert
3. Brunette (black or dark brown, though the books showed her with red hair)
4. Rosie
5. Rexy (his blue T-rex dinosaur)

Remember 'Caillou' books and programs?

Do you remember watching "Caillou" on television? You started really paying attention to it when you were in your two's and then fell absolutelyin love with it during your three's and just as you turned four (mainly because Caillou himself was four - in fact, you used to say, "I'm four just like Caillou!").

We had quite a few Caillou books that I purchased for you or checked out from the library. You always enjoyed reading them, especially those you could interact with by pulling tabs or lifting flaps (Flap books by far were your favorite books as a toddler and preschooler!).

Because Calliou was made in Canada, not all of the programs were available in Southern California. So I sometimes would go on YouTube and find new episodes for you to watch!

Caillous toys were just coming out as you were starting to outgrow the series. And they were darn expensive! So I made Caillou "action figures" for you by printing out pictures of the characters and taping them to old blocks you no longer played with.

OK, time for some "Caillou" trivia:
1. Which character narrated the program?
2. What was the name of Caillou's cat?
3. What color hair did Caillou's mommy have?
4. What was the name of Caillou's sister?
5. What stuffy did Caillou once lose at a museum?

The top rated Beatles songs

Listened to my usual schedule of Sunday radio programs, and one of them played the Top 20 charting Beatles songs. I know you would have loved listening to it, too, while we played together and enjoyed breakfast. I didn't catch the first part, but here is the "countdown" of the top songs:
7. Help!
6. I Feel Fine
5. Yesterday
4. Get Back
3. Can't Buy Me Love
2. I Want to Hold Your Hand
1. Hey Jude

A good list, but I wouldn't say so those are my seven favorite Beatles songs. Of course, the countdown was of songs that made the Top 40 charts (so they had to be 45 rpm singles), and there are a lot of great Beatles tunes that only appeared on albums (or what you call now CDs). Here's my list of favorite Beatles songs:
7. Come Together
6. She Loves You
5. I Want to Hold Your Hand
4. Let It Be
3. Hey Jude
2. Strawberry Fields Forever
1. Yesterday

What are you favorite Beatles songs?

County fair memories of dad

Yesterday your cousins Bryan and Rebekah went to the county fair; sure wish we were together so I could take you there as well. It's a small little thing, really, nothing so fancy as Disneyland, but it's still a lot of fun.
As a little kid, it's about the only place I ever went to go on carnival rides! For me, a kid living on a farm miles away from anyone else, during summer the fair also was a rare chance to see other children and possibly even friends. One day should you ever read my fiction, any scene set at a fair almost certainly is a memory of mine from the county fair.

I remember that one year I saw a booth in which they had iron-ons and could make T-shirts for you. They had this great Beatles iron-on of the "Let It Be" cover. This was in the days long before the Internet, and Menomonie (the town outside of which was my parents' farm) had few stores, none of which would carry such stuff. So I saved up money the next summer before the fair arrived in hopes that the same booth would return with the same iron-on and T-shirt. It did, and that T-shirt was my pride and joy!

Maybe next summer we'll finally be together for the fair!