My Kai

Kai saw the paragraph I wrote about Jasmine for her Anchor Center School graduation. He wondered, in a carefully casual way, how I would describe him. I was a caught off-guard and said that I had had a few minutes to think about it before I'd written that all down. I have some quiet time, so I can organize a paragraph's worth of thoughts. It's impossible of course to write down even a small bit of all the amazing things I think of any of my children, but here's a little bit.



When Kai entered my life, the entire world changed for me. I became acutely aware of the fragility of life and the amazing size and strength of love that I possessed in my heart. These feelings were, sometimes still are, overwhelming and frightening and magnificent. Theo and I found a deep resonance in a quote from Elizabeth Stone, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” I don't know that my epiphanies since his birth are appropriately grouped with a description of him, but he heralded a more vivid and meaningful life.



Kai can immerse himself into stories and worlds of imagination, traditional romantic sensibilities, humorous and fantastic realities. He has an appreciation of the asthetic elements of pose and figure beyond his age. He's not afraid to pour into these worlds his heart and intelligence without reservation. Kai has an amazing memory and a strong will that, when directed to a task, is truly amazing.

He engages his imagination and intuition toward projects with wonderful results. Writing comic scripts within the Alice environment, he shows off both his great comedic timing as well as the behind-the-scenes technical programming talent. His power of concentration is remarkable. Kai also shows off a natural talent for mathematical and scientific concepts. The ability to both abstract the natural world and predict its workings is a rare quality.

When he engages his enthusiasm it is irresistably contagious. Anyone who has watched him, knows that he is a people person, especially with the ladies. He turns on the charisma, opens his heart and shamelessly flirts, eshews aloofness for earnestness and engenders genuine affection.

Go Ask Your Mother

Kids: Whoa! What's THAT?!

Me: It's a fish head.

Kids: Cool... Wait, woah! AAAAGH!

It's a FISH HEAD! A REAL FISH HEAD! EEEEeew, I touched it! You touched it! That's it's eye! Eeeeeewww! Mom!! You didn't tell me it was real! That's a FISH HEAD! Mom! A real fish head come look! Touch it! It's so gross! Yuck, it's all slimy! Mom! You touch the eye, it's a FISH HEAD!

Amazing how many of our conversations go this way.

Jasmine's Flintstone-Model Automobile

I missed the weirdest part where twenty identical Jasmine's came out of the car doing somersaults.

Interest Fair -- Rowan and the Toads

Kinda like a Science Fair, but not so many measurements. Rowan studied our fire-bellied toads with a happy emphasis on toad mating (more on the toads at Macro). We made recordings!

Jasmine listens to the mating call of the fire-bellied male toad.

Rowan whistles while he waits for student and parental passersby to come and listen to horny toads.

Next Teen Heart Throb?

He's trying.

I love that shade of green on him (looks good on Jae too). That ear though -- it is begging to be photoshopped.

Elf, gelfling, vulcan, imp, fairy prince .... so many possibilities. Mwahahahaha.

Single Critique from the Master

Beautiful pose. You are too cute to be moved, lest you waken. But you significantly dilute the effect by not blocking the whole of the stairway.

Jasmine's Science Experiments

Hypothesis: Kai cannot be distracted from a DVD.
Materials and Methods: 40 lb hyperactive, 5 year-old, Durabrand DVB620 DVD Player, randomly chosen rated-G DVD.
Experimental Method: See documentary photography below.
Results:No signs of consciousness from test subject.
Conclusion: Hypothesis not disproved. More experiments should be conducted. Preferably with a motion camera.

The Princess Bat

The Princess Bat, featuring the images of Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on its lavendar and pink surface, is actually much more dangerous than you would think.

Dog Day

About once a month guide dogs come to visit the kids at the Anchor Center. Jasmine isn't always keen on dogs, primarily because of the chance that they might bark. She feels a little better with leash in hand.

Easter Kidnapping

Well, the bunnies are at it again. They wanted a significant ransom, directions regarding which way to turn once you get to Albuquerque and baskets that had wheels (like the suitcases). The SWAT team was able to take this one out (why would you kidnap someone when you have such an absurdly large head?), but were worried about the inevitable bad press. Jasmine ended up giving him a good twack in the head with her cane and escaping while the SWAT team was discussing options with the PR team.

Actually, this was part of an Egg Hunt put on by the Mariott for Anchor Center School for Blind Children. You can see some pictures at the Denver Post photo gallery (though you'll have to click on "next screen" to get to the set of pictures).

The Science Fair

When it came time to decide upon a science fair project, Kai happened to be "in a mood". Nothing was fun, nothing was interesting, everything was dumb and why couldn't he just go play a video game, etc. I asked him to write a list of his favorite 10 things so we could get a science project he'd like. To demonstrate he was not going to have any of it, he listed things like TV, Nintendo, reading, ... and then "blowing things up." Now that last item, I could work with.

The project ended up being about pressure (with some sneaky education on the Ideal Gas Law). We blew up plastic bottles with the bike pump. Didja know an exploding bottle Aquafina water bottle with 110 lbs of pressure can blow through a cardboard box? Cool, huh?

Kai learned valuable lessons: explosions can be passed off as educational, mom will show you how to use the power tools if it is part of your homework, blast shields can be repaired with duct tape, and repetition is actually required for scientific experimentation, and you can still ham around for the camera.

Origami Bit My Son

I made Rowan a "Venus Fly Trap" from one of my favorite origami books: Origami to Astonish and Amuse, by Jeremy Shafer. It's a great moving model and fun way to wait for our real Venus Fly Traps to finish stratifying.

School Front Dancing

Jasmine and our friend Renee were waiting for their siblings to get out of class. They spent their time dancing and strutting. I cranked up Dr. Noize (see previous post) and opened the trunk to get the full blast of the speakers. I'm trying to help advance the "juvenile delinquent" reputation of our children.

Dr Noize!

Way back, New Year's Eve, I took the kids to their first live concert. Before the event, Jasmine played with intense sunlight on her T-shirt's sequins. They loved it, so their teenage rock phase should be fun.

Doctor Noize (aka Cory Culligan) is an absolute blast. He is a local kids' musician with a CD (samples)and book out along with a T-shirt. We now own them all as well as learning all the lyrics to the Banana song. :) To the delight of all the kids, he has parents come up and embarrass themselves in front of their children.

Valentine Roses

I'd actually intended to post a couple other things next. I'll get caught up, really I will. Theo titled the right photo Stem Smell Research. Puns force themselves to the front of the line.

By the bye, a rabbit, definitely a rabbit.

Rabbit or Walrus?

I say rabbit, Kai thinks walrus. This is a picture from NOAH back in July/August of 2008. One of those pictures you find while trying to find something else. :)

Caption James

If I study them carefully, I will know all their plans.

What do you think about having another?

I have studied too much.