4 posts tagged “harlan”
This picture of Harlan and his "girlfriend" Miwana just cracks me up. Miwana is a Japanese girl who lives in the same apartment building as we do. Until last summer, she also went to the same preschool as Harlan. He just looks so pleased with himself.
No, I haven't forgotten about sharing pictures from last year. Admittedly they are losing their significance as 2006 recedes, but I'm committed to finishing this "Year In Pictures" thing I started! Apparently we only took two photos worth keeping in June, and this was the better of them. This was taken on Mt. Diablo, about 20 miles east of Oakland. You can drive to the summit, and on the way up are lots of little campgrounds and trailheads. This area was a collection of cool cave and boulder formations carved out of the sandstone.
We took tons of pictures in May, but very few of them turned out well. This was mainly due to the very bright sun. Whether we were swimming in our apartment pool or camping in the Sierras, the sun was just too damn bright. But we did get this rare, picture of all of us together. This is on the Stanislaus River in the Sierras. The campground has some wacky Indian name, but it was a fantastic campground. Clean, peaceful and not too crowded.
I have now accomplished one of the big Fatherly Duties: teaching Harlan to ride a bicycle. None of those wussy training wheels, either, he just mounted right up and took off.
Forgive me a bit of father indulgence when I say Harlan is an athletic genius of Olympic proportions. He just turned 5 in November and he mastered the whole bike-riding thing after about 30 minutes of instruction and help.
Okay, his dismount consists of slowing down enough for him to leap clear of the bike, then watching as it crashes into the nearest object. And since he's still a couple inches shy of the minimum recommended height for the bike, he has a little trouble mounting up. But he'll get the hang of that soon enough.
At one point, I was jogging in front of him, having him follow me and my turns. I made a big 180-degree loop and was heading back the way we had come when I heard a panicked "Daddy!" Apparently, he had only made about 90 degrees of the turn, and I turned my head to see him headed for a metal picnic table with his hands completely off the handlebars. BLAM! He slammed right into the table, but somehow managed to jump clear of the bike at the last instant and land on his feet. His face was frozen in an expression of terror, but it vanished in an instant, replaced by a slowly widening grin.
I expect future major Fatherly Duties will include helping him catch his first fish, fire a gun for the first time, teaching him to drive a car, and helping him roll his first D&D character. You know, the important stuff.
