Gigantic Download of Reid-Related Photography

For the first time since he was born, K and I will together be apart from Reid for longer than 36 hours. In February, we spent a whirlwind day and a half visiting the Gates in New York City. In May 2004, we celebrated our anniversary with a similarly short trip to a resort in Virginia.

We're going to Italy for a week.

I'll say that again, because even I don't believe it. We're going to Italy for a week, and Reid is staying in the United States.

It's going to be pretty hard to leave Reid behind, but we're focusing on something we haven't had in a long time: sleep.

But there's still a lot to miss.

This first trio features abstract art by Reid. The first is Untitled, blueberry pancake on hands, 2005. The other pair is an installation piece called Inexplicable Stacked Toys. Seriously, Reid one day was in the living room, quiet, carefully placing these Sesame Street stamps on top of the other toys from his collection. He was talking nonsense as he did it, 'bladeblah, froop y Cookie Monster.' He carefully stacked a half dozen Sesame Street stamps on other various characters, Woody from Toy Story, Fisher Price Little People, et cetera.





This next series was shot in Sag Harbor, New York. Reid, Katrena and I had a wonderful weekend visit to a beach house there with our friends Debbie and Ken. Through what I can only call providence, Reid managed to avoid destroying anything in this beautiful but un-baby-proofed house. In fact, the biggest imact Reid had on the place was the hours of good times he had on Ken's perfectly maintained lawn. (By contrast, our backyard looks like something between a vacant lot and a shut-in's house.)

Check out this view.



Katrena and Reid had an opportunity to tramp down the grass by playing an old-fashioned game of ring around the rosie. Reid frequently audited Katrena's 'all fall down' method, compelling her to redo the falling portion of the circle.







Reid had a wonderful time, setting sail on the gentle waves of Sag Harbor on his dragon-cruiser.

Partners In Gardening

Bonnie and Clyde...Batman and Robin...Salt and Pepa...Aviva and some weirdo? Throughout history there have been dynamic duos. But the other day at A and A's new house, Reid and Aviva were up in the treehouse, knocking back some fresh garden tomatoes and reminiscing about the old days, like before Aviva's first birthday. Those were the good old times, weren't they?



Seriously, within five minutes of me taking this picture, Reid went in for a hug down on the woodchips while Aviva was standing on slightly uneven turf, and the pair went down diapers over teakettle, which both children found horrifying but the adults thought was hilarious. Oh, also, Reid threw himself headfirst down the sliding board and ate some woodchips on his landing. So, we're not counting on the gymnastics gold in the 2024 Olympics. Bronze? Sure.

Reid's First Concert

Despite my long and colorful history of attending (and even reviewing) rock shows, I was completely unprepared for the Wiggles. Fortunately, my only 'purpose' there, if I in fact had one at all, was to keep my son from disappearing into the wild tangle of toddlerhood that was surrounding us at all times. Seriously, thousands and thousands of screaming children.

Reid took in all in stride. For the first 40 minutes of the 75 minute concert, he looked like this first picture, shocked and amazed. He was dazzled, clearly, and didn't take his eyes off the stage.

After this strange sustained period of calm, Reid said a single word. It is important to note that we were both (yes, we both went) unnecessarily exhorting Reid to enjoy the show, pointing out to him that there was Anthony, Jeff, Greg and Murray, the Wiggles, and their friend Dorothy the Dinosaur, and there went Captain Feathersword, etc. We wanted to believe, and to be sure, that Reid was enjoying his first live musical spectacle, and that we weren't fools for bringing him to a gigantic basketball arena for a concert when he was barely in 2T.

Well, with a single breathless exclamation ("Jeff!") Reid arose from one of our laps and started dancing wildly. He shimmied, wiggled, even, and had a ball.

Hysterically, I took seriously the admonition on our tickets that no cameras would be admitted. (I recall a Radiohead concert in the early camera-phone era when thousands -- seriously thousands -- of phones were confiscated and left in a gigantic pile outside of Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.) So we bought a crappy CVS disposable camera and that is what yielded these even shakier-than-normal images. Reid's cousin Samantha also took in the show, and her mom snapped this outstanding shot of the Wiggles in action. Enjoy.

These Boots Were Made For Firefighting

We like firemen a lot. Fire trucks, fire hats, fire boots, fire coat, all the rest. There isn't a guy who's the fireman, it's just the wonderful, red, crashing concept of the fireman and all he does that somehow intrigues Reid.

But we don't generally drill down the collectible path with these things. It seems to me that Reid works differently than most toddlers (or maybe we work differently than most parents), in that his fixations aren't as thoroughgoing or product-based as other kids. Right now he likes Bob the Builder, for instance, among other things. We own one Bob the Builder related toy (Legos), one Bob the Builder coloring book, and that's it. We've got a DVR and we can pull a couple episodes off the local television stations without much problem, so we aren't really interested in getting videos or anything like that. (We only watch about an hour of TV a week with Reid, so the Wiggles and Bob are about all that he gets to see.) If he sees a dude in a hard hat, he's Bob the Builder, and that's probably fine.

So why am I showing pictures of Reid in fireman boots, hat, and coat?

One need only revisit Halloween 2004 for the answer to that question.

You'll all recall that Reid's mom was out of town on travel in the critical pre-Halloween weeks, and as the linked item above demonstrates, my single-parenting prowess, about which I alternately crow and cower, failed me in the hunt for Halloween costumes late in the game last fall.

This year, travel or no, Reid will not be in an indecipherable blob of a costume which horrifies him to no end. He will not look like a Komodo Dragon on baby formula and peaches. No, my friends, he will be a fireman.

Courtesy of internet retailers of various reputation and reliability, Katrena has, almost entirely while she was 'working,' assembled Reid an incredibly realistic and well-insulated collection of fireman gear.

If anyone's got any cats to save from trees, burning bakeries, things like that, you can give us a call. At least once a week, when I have failed to adequately conceal one or more elements of the fireman costume, I am forced to walk the dog, with a toddler, dressed up like a fireman, in a flannel-lined outfit, sweating profusely, and discussing firefighting techniques.