This has been such a big week for us here at the Keller household. A BIG BIG week!
Firstly, Halloween, of course! Kiernen was Charmander, a Pokemon character, costume sewn by Mom, approved by Kiernen, fabric chosen by Kiernen.
Firstly, Halloween, of course! Kiernen was Charmander, a Pokemon character, costume sewn by Mom, approved by Kiernen, fabric chosen by Kiernen.
Those are some new friends we went trick-or-treating with, and they were pretty fun - we hope to be having some playdates with them in the near future! Zombie schoolgirl and fairy princess, I believe. Self-dressed! We did Malloween (T or T in the mall). K doesn’t have much tolerance for the whole thing - he likes to do a bit and then wants to go home and trade his candy for gifts already! While we were in the bookstore we noticed a 75% the already clearance prices - and spent about $3.50 and got a couple of more toys for his Halloween haul….
Silver the Hedgehog and King Dedede plush (Nintendo video game characters), a LEGO Frankenstein keychain (free from the LEGO store), a Doctor Doom bobble head and LEGO Darth Vader headlamp (total of $3.48 on clearance), and a Mario candy topper (we don’t eat the candy but K REALLY wanted the topper). Pretty darn good haul for about an hour trick-or-treating at the mall.
This kid is so flexible!
What I noticed this year was that Kiernen was feeling braver about accepting candy from the retailers, or getting candy to put into his bag himself. He can be pretty tentative, especially with adults, and except for one store where both adults were in large plush wolf costumes, he went right in and got the candy. And again, he could care less about the candy, but he DID want to do the trick-or-treating, in the costume, with friends - that part was important to him. Luckily our friends (who DID get the candy after) were also going T or T in their grandparents’ neighbourhood after the mall, so they were fine with K being totally done with the mall in a short time. Win win!
And our biggest day, even bigger than Halloween, was today, when we took the oath of Citizenship and became Canadian Citizens! We are official! No longer are we mere permanent residents, but now we are truly and officially Canadians!
One of our lovely fellow new citizens offered to take this photo of us.
And Kiernen….he really surprised me today. This whole day really surprised me, actually, with how BIG it felt, and how emotional it was - but I digress.
It was a long line to get the paperwork sorted - everyone has to present their PR cards and their landing documents and sign a paper that says we give consent to being photographed. And there were 81 of us today becoming citizens. 81!
Once we were all seated and ready, the clerk told us how the ceremony would go - how important it was for us to hear everything the judge said - and how we would stand up, say, “I, __our name__,” to the judge, because we were all agreeing to take the oath of citizenship. We went row by row, everyone saying our names individually. I let Kiernen know that he didn’t have to say his name, but that he could, and I sort of emphasized that he could. I went over with him what to say. See, kids under 11, they don’t have to say or do anything if they don’t want to. And usually in situations, Kiernen would feel shy….
But it came to his turn, and he raised his right hand, and he said, “I, Kiernen Keller,” and looked right at the judge when he said it, and I was SO proud! I got all teary and then almost forgot my own name because I was just beaming that he did it! SO PROUD. And he was proud of himself! Then when everyone had said their names, we all repeated the oath after the judge, in both English AND French, and it was so affirming and moving. And the judge had given such a moving and powerful speech about the responsibilities of being Canadian, and I know this isn’t about me, but it was SO emotional - and I really felt like yes, this isn’t just a piece of paper, much as a wedding ceremony isn’t just a piece of paper - this is symbolic of something big and important and REAL, and my big kid just took full part in it and really participated, and it was just….an amazing day. So you see that photo up there - that is what we all looked like the day we became Canadian Citizens. That is an important photo!
I know this judge must do this ceremony hundreds of times a year, but it felt like THIS was the most important ceremony ever, and it didn’t feel trite or overdone….and he was engaging and moving and I cried so many times as he spoke. And I was reminded of why I love Canada so much, and what I love about its citizens.
And I want to tell you Kiernen’s insights about his kind of schooling and all of this self-awareness I am seeing in him, and how he is coming out of his shell and feeling less afraid in ways, and oh! He even high-fived the judge, because the judge was that kind of awesome man who came down to the kids’ level and high-fived them and looked so proud, like they were his own grandkids….and when we ever-so-briefly saw some old friends at WIndsong, he high-fived them, too, without even having his usual requisite warm up time, and he said, “I am feeling more comfortable about talking to people and being around people,” and it blew my mind, because I am always having to explain to people how sometimes he feels shy….and I didn’t!
I want to tell you how he was, inside of his playing with plush, quizzing the other plush (his Dad was playing that guy) in math, for FUN, because he just likes to play those kinds of games. And how he wants me to get him DVDs of these educational shows we happened upon “because then I can learn more about lots of different animals”, and how cool it is to tangibly SEE how much this kiddo loves learning. And how he said something about “YouTube is sort of like my school,” because he learns so many new and amazing things just by clicking around on there….I want to tell you all of that but my brain is filled with the HUGEness of the event that happened today, and how emotional I am about it, and how amazing my kid is, and how he does have these big breakthroughs, and how self-aware he is becoming, and how grateful I am. So I might have to save it for another LR…. ;-)
This kid is so flexible!
What I noticed this year was that Kiernen was feeling braver about accepting candy from the retailers, or getting candy to put into his bag himself. He can be pretty tentative, especially with adults, and except for one store where both adults were in large plush wolf costumes, he went right in and got the candy. And again, he could care less about the candy, but he DID want to do the trick-or-treating, in the costume, with friends - that part was important to him. Luckily our friends (who DID get the candy after) were also going T or T in their grandparents’ neighbourhood after the mall, so they were fine with K being totally done with the mall in a short time. Win win!
And our biggest day, even bigger than Halloween, was today, when we took the oath of Citizenship and became Canadian Citizens! We are official! No longer are we mere permanent residents, but now we are truly and officially Canadians!
One of our lovely fellow new citizens offered to take this photo of us.
And Kiernen….he really surprised me today. This whole day really surprised me, actually, with how BIG it felt, and how emotional it was - but I digress.
It was a long line to get the paperwork sorted - everyone has to present their PR cards and their landing documents and sign a paper that says we give consent to being photographed. And there were 81 of us today becoming citizens. 81!
Once we were all seated and ready, the clerk told us how the ceremony would go - how important it was for us to hear everything the judge said - and how we would stand up, say, “I, __our name__,” to the judge, because we were all agreeing to take the oath of citizenship. We went row by row, everyone saying our names individually. I let Kiernen know that he didn’t have to say his name, but that he could, and I sort of emphasized that he could. I went over with him what to say. See, kids under 11, they don’t have to say or do anything if they don’t want to. And usually in situations, Kiernen would feel shy….
But it came to his turn, and he raised his right hand, and he said, “I, Kiernen Keller,” and looked right at the judge when he said it, and I was SO proud! I got all teary and then almost forgot my own name because I was just beaming that he did it! SO PROUD. And he was proud of himself! Then when everyone had said their names, we all repeated the oath after the judge, in both English AND French, and it was so affirming and moving. And the judge had given such a moving and powerful speech about the responsibilities of being Canadian, and I know this isn’t about me, but it was SO emotional - and I really felt like yes, this isn’t just a piece of paper, much as a wedding ceremony isn’t just a piece of paper - this is symbolic of something big and important and REAL, and my big kid just took full part in it and really participated, and it was just….an amazing day. So you see that photo up there - that is what we all looked like the day we became Canadian Citizens. That is an important photo!
I know this judge must do this ceremony hundreds of times a year, but it felt like THIS was the most important ceremony ever, and it didn’t feel trite or overdone….and he was engaging and moving and I cried so many times as he spoke. And I was reminded of why I love Canada so much, and what I love about its citizens.
And I want to tell you Kiernen’s insights about his kind of schooling and all of this self-awareness I am seeing in him, and how he is coming out of his shell and feeling less afraid in ways, and oh! He even high-fived the judge, because the judge was that kind of awesome man who came down to the kids’ level and high-fived them and looked so proud, like they were his own grandkids….and when we ever-so-briefly saw some old friends at WIndsong, he high-fived them, too, without even having his usual requisite warm up time, and he said, “I am feeling more comfortable about talking to people and being around people,” and it blew my mind, because I am always having to explain to people how sometimes he feels shy….and I didn’t!
I want to tell you how he was, inside of his playing with plush, quizzing the other plush (his Dad was playing that guy) in math, for FUN, because he just likes to play those kinds of games. And how he wants me to get him DVDs of these educational shows we happened upon “because then I can learn more about lots of different animals”, and how cool it is to tangibly SEE how much this kiddo loves learning. And how he said something about “YouTube is sort of like my school,” because he learns so many new and amazing things just by clicking around on there….I want to tell you all of that but my brain is filled with the HUGEness of the event that happened today, and how emotional I am about it, and how amazing my kid is, and how he does have these big breakthroughs, and how self-aware he is becoming, and how grateful I am. So I might have to save it for another LR…. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment