Surfer boy at SeaWorld's Arctic base camp

Posted a new cover picture of you on my Facebook site. It shows you dressed in your cool surfer clothes while at SeaWorld in San Diego during July 2011. The section is the polar area where we walk through this cool "base camp" in the Arctic and can see all kinds of aquatic animals from the Arctic, such as polar bears and Beluga whales. As going through the camp, we wind around this old 1800s ship that got trapped in the Arctic ice. It definitely was among your favorite sections of SeaWorld! The section the picture was taken is the supply room for the base camp explorers.

Jobs I've held in journalism, teaching

In a previous entry, I mentioned that these days I work as an editor and a writer. That's been my career for most of my life!

When I went to college, I studied journalism so I could work at a newspaper. My very first job was as a newspaper reporter in Red Wing, Minn. I covered Wisconsin news. I met your mother while I worked in Red Wing.

For several years, I also worked as a teacher. I mainly taught English but also journalism to grades 7-12 (and mainly eighth and ninth graders at that) at a school in New Mexico and one in Wisconsin.

But my heart was in writing and editing, so I went back into journalism and worked at several newspapers and magazines for several years in the 2000s. The biggest newspaper I worked for was The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif. I also was the top editor at two newspapers - the Prescott (Wis.) Journal and The Daily Triplicate in Crescent City, Calif. (You were born when your mother and me lived in Crescent City!).

Recall reading Curious George books?

We've read literally hundreds of books together before you started school, and among the most popular of them were the Curious George stories. One that you were particularly fond of that we got at the library was “Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory” (by Margret and H.A. Rey).

In the book, Curuous George discovers how chocolate candies are made while visiting the factory. He decides to help out, though, and of course chaos breaks out! Chocolate candies of all sorts start coming out of the machine superfast!

Ultimately, though, he saves the day because he can use both his hands and feet to catch the chocolates and put them in the box. I don't know if I would want to eat a chocolate touched by a monkey's feet - would you?

Would are some of the Curious George books that you recall reading?

My email response to your first email!

Here is my response to your first email, sent Sept. 25, 2012. I'm publishing it here just in case you do not receive it.

Hi Kieran,

It was so wonderful to hear from you after all of these months. I’ve missed you every day that we’ve been apart.

I chuckled when you said the email was long – I suppose it was for an email, but we’ve been apart for a long time and have lots of catching up to do. I write and edit books for a living, so whipping off an email that long was pretty easy for me!

I’m so glad you like kindergarten and school. Other than your family, there’s nothing more important than your education. Even when school may seem boring or difficult, always do your best, and in the end you’ll be a very happy person.

I’d love to hear about your school. Do you go to kindergarten all day? When I went to kindergarten, I only went half a day, in the morning, and got to eat lunch at home with my mom and little brother. What kind of crafts have you made in kindergarten? Who are some of your friends that you play with? What is your teacher like?

I’m so proud of you that you’re learning to ride a bicycle! You might remember that before you left California we went to a few shops and looked at bicycles for you, and you were very excited about getting one. Pushing the pedals was very difficult, but now that you’re older and stronger, I’m sure it’s a lot easier. What color is your bicycle? Do you have any fun do-dads on it? When I was your age, we used to put streamers on our handlebars, and some of the kids even had horns! A few of us boys put a playing card in our wheel spokes so that it’d make this cool thwap! thwap! sound when we cruised around.

You might recall the book “Lizzie’s Do’s and Don’ts” that we got from the library (“Don’t climb high in trees. Don’t put 10 band-aids on your knees!”). One of the don’ts was that Lizzie’s mom got upset at her when she took a card from the playing deck and put it in her bicycle wheel!

Have you read any good books lately? I bet your kindergarten teacher reads books to you at story time. I just read “Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type.” It’s about these cows that find an old typewriter in the barn, so they type a letter to Farmer Brown asking for electric blankets. When he doesn’t give them any electric blankets, they go on strike and tell him, “No electric blankets, no milk!”

You said you have several pictures of me. I am glad to hear that. Where did you get the pictures? I don’t recall you having a photo album. I’d love to look at the pictures with you; I probably can tell you lots of fun stories about what was happening when the picture was taken.
Well, that is all for now. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Love,

Dad

A year ago today we went to Viking Fest

Kieran the Viking

A year ago today we attended Viking Fest in Vista, Calif., a suburb of San Diego. At first you weren't too excited about going, mainly because you didn't quite know what a "Viking" was, but once we got there you sure had a blast! When the time came for us to leave, you even begged me to let you stay longer!

We got to see people dressed up as Vikings engage in mock battles and sword fights with one another. Then you got to paint and decorate your very own shield and sword. And I finally let you get a face painting like you always wanted - you chose to be a pirate!

You are, of course, Norwegian on your mother's side of the family. I'm all English and German with a smattering of Dutch.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures of you at Viking Fest.

Your first email to me!

Received your first email from you! This is the first time that I've "heard" from you since May 9 - more than four months now. Of course, someone else had to write it for you. I've published it here so that when you're older and able to read it, you can tell me if it really came from you ... I have my suspicions about that as the email makes a concerted effort to show how your current situation is perfect and didn't answer a number of questions or respond to a number of topics I wrote in my email. In addition, the wording isn;t entirely the way you speak, not matching your speaking patterns. Still, I will give everyone the benefit of the doubt for now and presume you really got to hear to first email to you and that these really are your words.

Dad:

I got your e-mail it sure was long.

I like my Kindergarten class and going to school.

I even go to bed early so I can be up to go to school early and play.

I have  a good breakfast every day.

I am learning to ride a 2 wheeler with training wheels and can’t wait for the training wheels come off and Grandpa can teach me to ride a 2 wheeler.

I still have several pictures of you and me.

Gotta go outside to play.  Bye.

Love,

Kieran

'Curious George Learns to Count...'

Remember this fun book, "Curious George Learns to Count from 1 to 100"? You used to look at it all the time. Curious George discovers all kinds of things that are needed for the city's big festival, and each time he finds something, he counts them. You then would count all of the things that George found - nine yellow ties and 24 blueberry pancakes and so on. There also was a neat two-page spread that showed the village Curious George lived in, and you used to marvel over all of the buildings and help George retrace his steps home. Thanks to all of the great pictures and counting opportunities, I always kept it in the car for you to look at on our long drives. I still have your book - it's in fairly good shape - for you to fondly look back on one day (And maybe even to read to your own children!).