Living Wide Awake

I rarely see my name in print and only remember one instance; my name is on the back cover of the DVD for Vengeance Trail, a low budget Western at Blockbuster. I did work on some Aero-Acoustic research projects at Georgia Tech Research Institute that were published, but I seriously doubt if my name was mentioned. Recently, I have been quoted by my friend and pastor at Mosaic, Erwin McManus, in his latest book called Wide Awake. It's quite an honor and quite humbling.

On page 135, Erwin tells the story of how I was training him for high-fall stunts on a short film he was starring in called "Such Great Heights." On one fall, he took his eyes off the mark and landed off center, causing his feet to wrap off the edge of the high-fall pad and smack the ground. I happened to make an offhand comment that "you always hit what you're looking at" and Erwin, in his amazingly relevant way, was able to make a profound example of the whole experience.

Now, I probably picked up the pithy wisdom from mistakes I had made in stunt training over the years. I once over-rotated on a 45 foot high fall and whiplashed my neck so hard that I had to get acupuncture because my chiropractor and an orthopedic deep-tissue massage tech couldn't relax the spastic knot in my neck. Another time, I laid down my street motorcycle when I was taking a turn too fast and out of fear took my eyes off the turn ahead, placing my focus on the ditch that I so desperately desired to avoid. I also know that skateboarders, race-car drivers and helicopter pilots always look as far ahead to the horizon that they can in order to make the most streamlined maneuvers.

I'm glad that I could pass on something that I have learned. It's far wiser to learn something from somebody else's experience instead of learning it the hard way, but alas, I am still on that pursuit of wisdom. I do hope that Erwin's ankle doesn't hold any grudges.

In any case, Erwin McManus is talking through each chapter of Wide Awake at Mosaic through the end of November. If you would like the book, I still have a few copies to give away so please email me. Or you may join our gatherings at one of seven locations and receive a free book and meet the author.

If you want to know more, you can "Look Inside" at Amazon or click on this overview.

Ian

Ian is Joe the Plumber too!

I decided to make a commercial for the "I'm Joe the Plumber" contest at JohnMcCain.com. What do you think?



BTW, if you didn't catch the earlier announcement, we started a political blog at hoteyre.blogspot.com.

Ian

Kiran Laughs

Pleasant happy baby. She's been smiling for a month now, but last night she started laughing for the first time. Fortunately, daddy was there with the video camera to catch it.



Clarice

Developing a Maternal Instinct

No, not me. I've got my maternal instinct intact now that I'm the mother of two children.

And not Ian. He's done a great job as Mr Mom for Jackson and now Kiran.

Jackson's the one who is beginning to demonstrate a maternal instinct. Last post was about how he naturally gravitated toward toys that involve motion or building. He's definitely all boy. But this morning he did something so sweetly maternal. I was walking by his room this morning as I was getting ready for work. When I peeked in on him, I saw him standing near the portable heater (don't worry, mom, it has an outer shell that doesn't fully transmit the heat...precious fingers are guarded from burning). He was holding one of his plush dogs right up against the heater. I didn't think that was too safe so I went in to move the doggy away from the heater. He protested mightily as I tried to remove the doggy from his hands, and shouted "No! The doggy has to stay!" I eased my grip on the doggy, but I told him that it wasn't safe so close to the heater. He inched away from heater a bit, but stayed quite close. A lightbulb went off in my head, so I asked him, "Is the doggy cold?" "Yeah," he replied. Then he refocused on the doggy, gently stroking its head, murmuring, "I know, doggy, I know. It's okay. Is your body warm now?" I think I had a grin on my face for at least half an hour.

It reminded me of an incident a week ago. Jackson was playing in his little friend Alaina's room last week. Ian was with him and called me to see what they were doing. Jackson was cradling a teddy bear and murmuring to it. Ian told me that Jackson had told him that the teddy was a baby named Kiran. Jackson had told Ian that he was feeding it (albeit through his shirt). Then Jackson upended the teddy over his shoulder and began patting its back.

Sweet, sweet things that children do. Now I'm looking forward to seeing what my little girl is going to do in a few years.

Clarice

No, buddy, that's a girl's toy

I was working at the practice today. It's our tradition to let the kids pick a little toy as a reward for their "good behavior" in the dental chair. A little four year old boy was going through the treasure chest trying to decide what he wanted. When he finally picked a pretty pink bracelet, his mom blurted out, "No, buddy, that's a girl's toy!" Poor little Mikey had to choose an alternate, a military figure with a parachute attached to his back.

I laughed to myself. Neither Ian nor I have ever said that to Jackson. His first toys were all gender neutral, although I will admit that they were mostly blue or green in color. I was being practical. We expected to have more children and I thought gender neutral toys would be more economical if we had a girl in the future (which we do). At day care, they offered gender neutral toys, but they also had a wide assortment of dolls, pretty dress up clothes, and cooking utensils mixed in with the trucks and blocks and balls. Jackson has naturally gravitated toward the trucks and blocks. It's so clear to me that he likes the things that little boys are expected to like. But I've also realized that it really doesn't matter what kinds of toys he likes at this age. He has plenty of time to develop his masculinity. And it will come. There's something very, very boylike written on his soul.

Clarice

Jackson and Kiran

When he's not making her flinch, he makes her smile.



Clarice

Toe-may-toe Toe-mah-toe

It's been rather interesting explaining Kiran's name to people. Quite often they hear Karen, or they think of Kirin (the beer), or the Kieran (the Irish boy's name). We're quite happy with the name. But we did have a bit of a disconcerting week in her first month.

I found the name Kiran on one of the baby names websites. I had entered the word "light" in the search box to see what would come up. The pronunciation at Baby Names World indicated KEE-ran, with an emphasis on the first syllable. We really liked it. We also thought it was a small tip of the hat to Ireland in honor of Ian's parents who both hold Irish passports (but are now US citizens).

We polled our blog audience way back in June to see what folks thought and got some.....interesting responses. Many liked the series of names that started with Kira***, so that confirmed its presence on the top 5 list. Then to double-check pronunciation I asked a colleague of Indian ancestry if she was familiar with the name and how she would pronounce it. She said that she had heard the name before, and that it was a good name, and that it didn't really matter how the name was pronounced. That pretty much settled it, except for some last minute doubts on the day she was born.

About three weeks after Kiran was born I took her to an event. A friend who had seen her birth announcement came up to meet her and then asked me how we were pronouncing her name. I said KEE-ran. She nodded and said "Oh, okay, because the one woman I know named Kiran pronounces it kee-RAHN (with the emphasis on the second syllable)." I looked over to see my colleague of Indian ancestry, who was within earshot. She must have seen the big question mark on my face because she looked at me apologetically and said, "Yeah, it's actually supposed to be pronounced kee-RAHN." "Oh," I uttered. I went home and rather despondently told Ian that we were pronouncing our daughter's name wrong. He looked a bit disappointed for a moment, then said "Well that actor from Beverly Hills 90210 pronounced his name EYE-en instaed of EE-en, like the rest of us. Some say toe-may-toe, some say toe-mah-toe." That made me feel a bit better, but I still didn't want to be the ignoramus parent who couldn't pronounce my kid's names correctly. But then I decided, heck with it, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe, I'm going to pronounce it the way I want to. So for about a week, when people asked me about the baby's name, I would rattle off, "It's a Hindi/Sanskrit name that means 'ray of light'. It's officially kee-RAHN, but we call her KEE-ran." People seemed content with that, although it was a mouthful to explain every time.

Well a few weeks later I ran into a group of international students from India. They were asking me about the baby and about her name. It dawned on me that they could probably tell me if I was on track or ignorant, so I told them that we had chosen a Hindi/Sanskrit name that was spelled K-i-r-a-n. "Oh!" they exclaimed in unison, "KEE-ran!! It means 'ray of light'!" I was so happy to know they knew the name and that they pronounced it the way we had chosen to pronounce it. To triple-check, I told them that I had been told that it should be pronounced kee-RAHN. "Oh, no!" they declared, "only Americans pronounce it that way. In India we pronounce it the way you do." Yipee! Not the ignorant parent after all.

So now I confidently call my daughter KEE-ran. Now we just have to deal with helping people learn how to spell it.

Clarice

Jackson at Two-and-a-Half

He loves fire trucks. What is it about little boys and fire trucks. And he's starting to want to demonstrate strength.

He's learning to put his clothes on. He came home from school like this. We don't quite understand why nobody pointed out that his pants were on backward.

He's got a mind of his own. He was quite adamant about drinking from both cups at once - one with milk, one with water.

That's our boy.

Clarice