We had a fun time today, Reid and I. Things have been going pretty well this week despite K's absence. It is interesting to note (and I'm knocking on wood here at my desk) that the past two trips K has taken have all coincided with a surprising and disturbing illness in Reid. The first time, a dreadful pre-RPOD trip she took to Bosnia in July triggered a nasty bout of what I will only refer to on the HardlyBorn as "The Big D," because it's a family blog. Let's just say everybody was getting a lot of baths and pedialyte that week. Then the last trip, when RPOD was born, brought a fever and cold.

This time, things are going well. I mean, the house is still a mess (I'm just one man), but the boy is reasonably clean and remarkably well-fed (our recent string of feeding failures has ended), nothing has caught fire or completely ceased to function, and to the best of my knowledge, Reid has only ingested one third of one page of a Target circular. Maybe a half.

Speaking of food, in addition to the baby in a bag trick Reid pulled off in the shot above, we also had a spectacular lunch of some pasta I found in a cabinet and some sauce from a jar. Frankly, I was thinking that my recent success getting Reid to eat had something to do with a bizarre selection of food (kabobs, tacos, eggs). However, today's pasta and sauce meal, a tried and true family favorite that Reid routinely has rejected recently, was accepted heartily, as you can see.