A picture of you at 10 weeks old

You might remember that I mentioned Grandma Bignell gave me all kinds of pictures of you from when you were a baby and when you stayed with them. Here's one of those pictures at right!

You are 10 weeks old and laying on the bed in the master bedroom at our house in Crescent City, California. That would have been at the beginning of May 2007.

Crescent City gets a lot of rain, so sunshine there is rare. I remember coming home one night from work when it was one of those rare days in which the entire sky was cloud-free. It was about the time you were 8-12 weeks or so.

I took you outside and pointed at the sky. Your eyes followed my arm, looked up at the blue sky, and you gasped in awe! You couldn't stop looking at it!

Remember hiking the poppy reserve?

Three years today, we hiked the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve! The poppy is California's state flower, and at one time fields of it covered whole swaths of the state. But as the state become more populous and more houses and businesses and farms were placed on the land, the poppy fields began to vanish. One place where a large field was preserved was west of where we lived in Lancaster.

In late March and early April of every year, the poppies bloom, turning the landscape orange with blossoms. It's an awesome sight, and I always tried to take you there to enjoy it.

You were just a little over over 3 years old when we took this hike! And yes, there was a visitor center at the park, where I'm certain you got a little something!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our hike!

Celebrating Easter one year ago today

Although this year we celebrated Easter on March 31, last year (in 2012) we celebrated the holiday on April 8 (which is one year ago today!).

We were living in the condo in Palmdale, and we had spent all day Saturday together. When you woke up Sunday morning, I mentioned that the Easter Bunny had left something for you at the front door! The Easter basket was a good mix of toys, candies and clothes that Jane and me had picked up for you just the week before on our drive from Wisconsin to California.

After a little breakfast, we went to the Easter Egg hunt and festivities at City Park in Lancaster, Calif. Following the egg hunt, one child had very few Easter eggs in his basket and was afraid that he wouldn't receive a reward for turning in the eggs (All the children received some candy and a little toy for turning in the eggs), so all on your own you offered to share some of your eggs with him! Jane and I was so very proud of you for being so generous.

Here's a whole bunch of photos from Easter 2012!

My email to you for April 6, 2013

Here is my email for you, sent April 6, 2013, just in case you don’t receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you doing? I am doing fine, with the exception that I miss you very much. I have great news, though: We get to see one another a couple of times this month! We will be getting together the afternoons of April 12 and April 26. That’s next Friday (April 12) and then just two weeks after that! I can’t wait to see you again!

The snow is beginning to melt and the weather to warm up, so I think I am done snowshoeing for the year. But that means I’ll soon be able to start hiking again! I always enjoyed the great hikes we took to the tops of mountains, through desert canyons, and to cool places like Vasquez Rocks (You always called them the “Kirk Rocks”!).

Speaking of the Kirk Rocks, did you know that there is a new “Star Trek” movie coming out? It will be released in May, and you even can see it in 3D at IMAX theaters. I can’t wait! In the meantime, I’ve been reading lots of “Star Trek” books to satisfy my hunger for Captain Kirk’s adventures.

How are your reading classes going in school? You must have gotten through most of the alphabet by now. Have you read any interesting stories? I always liked reading to you when you were a preschooler. You’d curl up on my lap in the comfy living room recliner, and I’d read to you a whole bunch of books we got at the library and a few that we purchased at the book store. Some books you liked so much that you wanted me to read them over and over! You always enjoyed flap books, too.

Grandma and Grandpa Bignell say “Hi”, and so do Uncle Chris and Aunt Susie. They all have some Easter gifts that I had planned to give you March 29 when we were to last get together. But since the date for Easter changes every year, what’s the difference if you get them on April 12 instead? J They all are looking very forward to finally being able to meet you in person and enjoy looking at old pictures I have of you.

On Easter, Grandma Bignell gave me a whole bunch of old pictures she had of you when you stayed with them in 2008 and of when you were a baby. I’d never seen most of the pictures before! I’ve scanned them all into my computer and will have to show them to you sometime.

I recently read a very good book that had a lot of very pretty pictures in it. It was called “Bear Wants More,” by Karma Wilson. One day Bear wakes up and realizes that he slept all through winter and that it’s now spring! And you know what a bear who has slept all winter is when he wakes up? He’s HUNGRY! So all of the animals of the forest try to help Bear find enough food to eat so he won’t be hungry anymore. Do you know how they do that? You will have to read the book and find out! Maybe you can find the book at your school library or at the city library when you mom takes you there.

That is all for now. I miss and love you very much and can’t wait to see you next Friday!

Love,

Dad

A baby picture of you at 11 weeks

Here's a photo of you when you were about 10-12 weeks old. You are in a bouncy baby carrier that you absolutely loved to sit and sleep in. You especially loved the blue bunny rabbit hanging from the handle bar. In fact, I still have that blue bunny rabbit; I cut it off for you because you wanted to play with it when you'd outgrown the carrier!

The picture is taken at our house in Crescent City, Calif. You are on the bed in the master bedroom. To the left of the bed would have been your bassinet where you would sleep at night during the first few weeks of your life before you moved on to the nursery.

The white and brown cat sleeping on the bed was named Merlin. He was a little skittish but always liked being around he. Should you start crying, he'd get very agitated and coming looking for me to help you! That's one loyal cat!

Playing airplane at the park

Do you remember playing "airplane" at the park in Lancaster, Calif.? At the park off of Avenue K, we'd sometimes pretend to be airplanes, holding our arms out at our sides like wings and trying to remain balanced as we walked the curb around the wood chip pit surrounding the climbing rocks.

It was a great exercise for your young body because you learned how to keep your balance.

To make it even more fun, we had to avoid "crashing" into each other! But you didn't want to blink or you might "fall off" the curb into the wood pit!

Of course, sometimes you liked to crash into me just for fun!

Photos of you when you were a year old

Over Easter, Grandma Bignell shared with me all kinds of pictures she had of when you were about 10-17 months old! You lived with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell from December 2007 to September 2008 on their farm outside of Knapp, Wis. In September 2008, you came back to California to live with me in Santa Clarita.

At above right is a picture of you with Grandpa Bignell and your cousing Rebekah. She is six months older than you and in kindergarten, too! The picture was taken at Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's house.

I am so glad to have all of these pictures of you. While I had a few, I now have tons of them!

Grandma Bignell also shared with me old family pictures of her grandparents and other ancestors. I have a website listing your family tree, but it's only of your grandpa's side of the family - researching that has been so time-consuming that I haven't had time to post your grandma's side!