Ocean Beach

New haircut.

Dad, c'mere, look at this! Oh, wait. Never mind. I think it's ugly. (Dad liked it.)

[Yelled] I see you way over there trying to take my picture!

Windmill.

Speed. You can't tell because of a fast shutter but he's actually zooming past the camera, trying to foil Dad's attempt to get ready and take a picture. Heh. Dad's still got a move or two.
10/12/08

Concert

Dad plays the 6-string while Buster and Daisy sing -- not the same song -- and play their "guitars," which look suspiciously like stuffed animals. This is a historic photo, the first time the King Teen has ever been the most accomplished musician onstage.

Publicity shot. Perhaps we should have moved the box.
10/1?/08

Space Ninja recruit

Orders, sir?
10/11/08

Costumes: First look

Ninja

Kitty
10/4/08

Buster's space ship

On the launch pad

Buster shows Daisy the controls
10/4/08

Space ninja

En garde!

At ease
9/27/08

Ready

9/21/08

Boswick the clown

He's funny!

Really funny!

Daisy gets in on the act.

That's funny too!

I'm back in the audiene now and ... it's funny!

Boswick balances a ladder on his face.

Crash.

Dolores Park, 9/20/08

Jaded youth

9/19/08

Madeline

9/13/08

New bikes!

Whoa, lookout back there, Daisy.

Whoa.

Let's try this way for a while.

You can ride these things anywhere. Almost anywhere.

Only crash of the day.

9/1/08

Election worker tampers with voting booth!

11/4/08>

Whatever's happening here

it's probably not real good for Daisy.

8/30

Our 3 kids

Buster, Daisy and Piggie.

Daisy's birthday

Ready for cake.

Presents. Miles and Buster helping out.

Piñata. The hockey stick is a family tradition.

Buster takes a whack. What form!

After-party BBQ. On the menu: Olive the Other Reindeer and some green shark.

The kid who wouldn't laugh at anything

Who had the best Halloween costume at your school today?
Buster: There's this guy, and you can't make him laugh at anything. He had a ninja costume, and that was the best one.
He never laughs at anything?
Well, you can't make him laugh.
I'll be I could make him laugh.
No.
I'll bet I could.
How would you?
I'd tell him a joke.
What joke would you tell?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Butt.
Butt who?
Buttsy McButtbutt.

Don't know if it would work on that kid, but Buster and Daisy have been laughing for two days, and Dad just stopped.

Halloween card

Kindergarten must be taking. In the last few days, Buster has been spontaneously spelling things. He asks for almost no help. He just sits down and figures out what letters to use by listening to the sound of the word. The only question he asked in the making of this card was, "What letter sounds like 'uh'?"

Front

"Welcome to space heroes Halloween space card." Note the false start, crossed out with black marker. Because it's so hard to find a blank piece of paper in our house. We only have about 10 packages of it.

I think the space man in the circle is Buster. The four blue things are the name patches the four of us wear on our space suits.

Back

I think that's our rocket. It's some rocket, anyway.

(Click for larger version)

The inside is a message to Mom about something exciting that Dad bought for dinner: "Dear Jane, Guess what. King bought toasted ravioli. Love, Buster." The little drawing is the four pieces of toasted ravioli in the little frozen-dinner tray it came in. Not sure what that is above and to the right of it. Both kids reported that the toasted ravioli was lousy. And Buster doesn't call us Jane and King.

Grampaland

There's ice cream there.

Very funny, Grampa, but the last time you tried that trick you almost lost your arm.

7/24/08

Jacket

At his baby shower, the as-yet-unborn Buster received a gift of a tuxedo jacket for a small boy. It sat in his closet for five years before he discovered it and decided he liked it. The first time he wore it he paired it with a Terrell Owens 49ers jersey and a Batman baseball cap and ended up looking like ...

Chevy Chase

7/23/08

Gold country

Salon has an annual "retreat" on a family ranch in the Gold Country. You know, team-building, strategizing, blue-sky brainstorming, that sort of thing. Yeah, those aren't allowed. It's a great time, and because we were just barely back in the S.F. last year, this was our first year going with the kids, and their first semi-quasi camping experience. We slept in a house, but otherwise, pretty outdoorsy. It was two nights, and I figured there was a good chance the kids would be bored, unhappy, scared of various things or otherwise wanting to go home after about 30 minutes.

It took about 10 minutes for them to turn into Huck Finn.


Walking.

Running.

Eating lofa bread.

Being amused by Theo, daddy's former co-star, and Louis. Mostly Theo, no offense to Louis.

Helping Gary with the coooking.

Hitchin' a ride with Dad.

A little breakfast reading.

7/18-19/08

Plum patrol!

Our new house came with three plum trees in the backyard, and when we moved in it was harvest time. We'd have about 50 new yellow plums on the ground every day. Later, red ones dropped. They're good. Anyway, the kids volunteered for plum cleanup duty. The plums can get yucky, so they got some rubber gloves.

Got one.

Into the wheelbarrow, which has since broken from the heavy use. Sad day.

Transport phase.

Dumpage. This was accompanied by much mechanical beeping.

"Heh-heh. Work away, silly humans."

7/14/08

When leopards attack

their daddies.

I'll wait in the jeep while the leopard tries to eat the giraffe.

She survived.

Pix taken late June

Buster's muscles

[Making muscle gesture]
Look at my strong heart.
Yeah!
It looks almost like a real man's.
Well you are a real man.
Nah.
You're a young man, and that's the first step.
Well, I am able to have a conversation with kids when they're not doing the right thing. And I use a quiet voice, and they're kind of long.

He means with his kids, Tiger Ethan the tiger and Lilka the rabbit.

Watch this

Bonk!

Hitting yourself in the face is funny.

Cornmeal pancakes

Cooker

Girl

Result

Yum

Mission walk

Bike wheel tree

St. Francis Fountain

Duck

Whee!

Another tree

Pop!

Sporty

Super

market

STL cont'd, one more time

We're back in St. Boogie, in late May or something. We will get through all these pix.

Maryanne's House o' Style

Ooh-la!

Magic House. Big Legos.

Construction site

"We're gonna have to run conduit. We'll just run conduit. Now where's my assistant with those bricks?"

There she is.

Yeah, I had to drive this dork around the job site.

We have at last exhausted the STL trip.

First day of kindergarten

Before

After

Preschool graduation

We interrupt the St. Louis trip, if it's possible to interrupt a month-old post about a 3-month-old event, to cover Buster's preschool graduation last Friday. Graduation? Man, when I got out of preschool, we got $20 and a new suit.

In they come, looking serious. Buster, collars popped, is behind Jordan and ahead of Julian, who's behind Zavian. No guarantees on name spellings here.

Ready. Leilani in the background.

Good morning song. Azia in the pink dress.

Smile song. "Ha-ha-ha!"

Uh-oh. Shades on. That's Gabe in white and Isiah next to him.

Yeah, boy.

All of a sudden, the performers transform. Now they're backstage security. How postmodern. What's up, Julian.

My son ... the Oasis member?

Alphabet rap, with sign language accompaniment.

Just missed the final pose, but fortunately Julian held it.

"My name is Buster Paris-Kaufman and the school I'm going to is Paul Revere, and this is the best school ever I'm really gonna miss it." Standing in the background is teacher Comelia.

A certificate and a handshake from teacher Navarro.

For this I did all that practicing?

Ah, some cake, some stickers and a hug from Mom. All right.

STL cont'd, still

At the zoo. Barbara's got Daisy

Two Daisies

A smooch for one of them.

The chimp's jealous?

Ted Drewes with Uncle Matt

Yum

STL cont'd: Grant's Farm

Buster and Talia in red

On the tram

Elephant

Talia and Daisy at the bird show.

Ummmm

Feeding baby goats, in various ways

This is more like it

Camel

And then time for hanging out with friends

Matthew

Taylor, wearing Daisy's hat. With Jon

King's hat. She's a hat taker, that one

"You know I'll get it back, large, ridiculous man."

STL cont'd: City Museum

Daisy's not too sure she wants to ride the little train, but she tries it for one trip through the dark tunnel and ...

Yeah. Didn't like it.

Buster did.

And some climbing.

Cave exploration.

Sliding down the giant slide with Dad.

Back to the train.

I'll just be over here eating a grilled cheese.

I got some chips!!

Whatchootalkinbout.

Onward!

STL cont'd: Memorial Day party

The Derschmukes hosted a viewing of the Paris-Kaufmans.

Buster's first time playing Wii. That's Van on the left. Guess whose turn it is.

Daisy and Bennett
- - - - -
So Buster, A.J. and Van kept kind of disappearing behind the garage, and Dad was wondering what they were up to. So he snuck over, reached around the corner with the camera and ...

Then, perhaps bravely, perhaps foolishly, he stepped out into the open, which turned out to be ...

... his final act.

On the lam

But a heart o' gold. A present for Mom

STL cont'd: Indiana

Daisy's new friend

OK, Miss Saucy

Grandad Jim is the funniest man in the world

Reflective

Stee-rike!

Crr-rrack! (The pitcher took the pitchers)

Jump on Dad's back (that's Dad's neck lower right)

Having your hair pulled to get the knots out isn't so bad when Grandad Jim makes with his famous "Little Piggy" routine

It's not a trip to Evansville until you've made pancakes with Grandad Jim. Right?

Right

STL cont'd: A.J.'s birthday party

Taylor

Buster's got the drop on me, even with the wrong eye closed.

What.

A pensive birthday boy, feeling the weight of the world now that he's 4.

Trip to St. Louis

4 a.m., waiting in the dark (camera flash notwithstanding), in pajamas, for the SuperShuttle.




STL, we are here.

Happy birthday, Grandma

Front

Back

Piñata

Gabe's birthday party

Everybody

Clobber Daddy.

It feels like St. Louis!

-- Buster, upon going outside to check this crazy-hot San Francisco weather.

"Smells like St. Louis too."

Lasagna

and art

Drama club