Thanksgiving Fun

Unfortunately, Reid didn't do a lot of sitting still at this Thanksgiving celebration, so we are lacking in the traditional "Reid poses with a turkey" department. Also, the first phase of the Thanksgiving meal was particularly delicious this year, so K and I were much more focused on devouring home-made ravioli. And so was Reid. (Thanks uncle Tony!)

What Reid did have time for was a little holiday jam session with some of his cousins. Reid's style is, well, a sort of jazzy, asymmetrical thing, like Thelonious Monk, just, without any kind of rhythm. He does have a good hat selection, though.

One of the things we've really come to learn about Reid here at the height of his life as a two year old is that you can't say anything around him. Nothing. Everything becomes part of his vocabulary. It's a challenge for all the grown-ups in Reid's life to steer clear of their traditional colorful commentary. But now, there is an immediate consequence. You'll hear it, and know that he has integrated it into his vocabulary. I'm not a 100% certain of what the ramifications would be if Reid went to his preschool and worked blue.

Anyhow, later this same weekend, Reid conducted a little light construction work at the Carnegie Science Center. He insisted on keeping the hard hat on for most of the afternoon, long after the other children had knocked them loose. He's a stickler for on-the-job regulations.

Longing for Spring? Not Quite

We joke sometimes that Reid is a surprisingly robust example of the power of pre-programmed genes. I am not a sports fanatic. As a kid, I played a few sports in a desperate bid to fit in, but my pear-shaped physique and simple lack of coordination put me on the fast-track to the Computer Club.

Fast forward two decades and it doesn't seem to make sense that Reid, not surrounded by weekend football marathons, not with a dad that lives and dies baseball, not in a town with basketball worth remarking on, loves all sports. He runs around our house improvising baseball bats out of whatever is available, hitting any kind of ball he can gets his hands on. It's all ball all the time.

Football is the leader, and Reid has a football jersey he insists on wearing over any clothing he has on (including pajamas) whenever he sees it (this was a gift from Grammie and Pawpaw). We went to some baseball games, because it's a memory K and I would like to give to Reid, but he was too far away to make sense of anything. Didn't matter; he loved it, and he loves baseball, too.

This is all a means of telling you about this movie. Reid has been learning a lot of songs, and it's quite funny to hear him sing one with his charming omission of entire verses, amusing elisions and other comical Reid-edits. He has a book of standard children's songs ("Hush Little Baby" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Row Row Row Your Boat") which, for some reason has "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Reid loves the song. Somehow uniting his love of all sports with his enjoyment of song is too much to bear. He just loves it. Also, he is learning to count, which the movie highlights. Click it and enjoy.

Whaaa?

I haven't said much about it on this venue, but if anyone doesn't know (and I feel like we've told everyone, and we're about halfway there), we're expecting an addition to the family in April next year.

We just had the sonogram, and if anyone's interested, there's a (thus-far less photographic) blog over here which traces a few notes here and again about the new pregnancy.

I suspect that once the baby is born, Hardly Born will morph into something more like a bizarre photo-journal/travelogue of our family of four (and a dog) visiting relatives, getting tossed out of restaurants for the excessive displacement of food to the floor, figuring out how to accomodate passengers in the car (creative uses of what we used to call the back-back, probably) and other various rowdy escapades.

Oh yeah, it's a girl.

If you're surprised to hear this news, well, we haven't talked in a while, or the last few times we hung out, we were both real tired. Give us a call, and we'll fill you in.

What's Up, Homes?

Reid got a hat that matches his sweater. Isn't he just about the coolest kid you've ever seen? Today is his Pawpaw's birthday, and of course it's Veterans Day. So a big happy birthday to Pawpaw, and a thank you to all the Veterans in our life: Pawpaw, Baba, Pap-Pap and even Reid's great uncle Reid, who he hasn't met, but is his namesake. Also, any we might be forgetting.

Because it's Veterans Day, Reid and I are kicking it in Arlington, hanging out with the people who don't have jobs, and can sit around in coffeeshops and bookstores all day. Aren't they lucky? I know I'm lucky for a day to spend just goofing with Reid. We went to the coffeeshop this morning, and then to a bookstore (and the Home Depot), and then we met Mommy in town for lunch. Napping the car led to another trip to the coffeeshop (for Daddy), and now we're heading to a playground. The life, no?

Can I Have a Little Privacy?

Reid is probably going to regret this years from now, but I have no choice but to post these pictures. Reid is using the potty regularly these days.

Just like a grown-up.

Happy Halloween, Continued

I finally got the old camera behaving well enough to get a good shot of Reid trick-or-treating last night onto the HardlyBorn. (You can click the photo to see a gigantic version.) As we've foreshadowed countless times here at Rizkerson.com, Reid was a fireman last night, boldly wearing humorously large boots and insisting on frequently lowering the eyeshade while stumbling around our old neighborhood urging homeowners and renters to "Chickachee," which is Reid-speak for "trick or treat." (For a fictional account which we believe approximates Reid's emotions toward firefighters and their vehicles, see here.) We picked the old neighborhood because our own neighborhood is a proven extremely lame trick-or-treating location, or PELTOTL. Our neighbors reported that ten people came trick or treating last night.

Reid instead headed over to our old stomping ground, a neighborhood known as Arlington Village. There, we visited with some old friends and brought Dixie along to hang out with her old dog friends. A wonderful time was had by all.

Unfortunately, that wonderful time drew to a close around 4:30 am. It is impossible to diagnose exactly what happened, but Reid was wide awake at this time and somewhat traumatized. During trick or treating, he encountered some witty homeowners who dressed up as witches (or Dumbledore, in one case), and scared the be-Jesus out of him. This, combined with no nap yesterday (too psyched for costume party and jazzed from visit to pumpkin patch), inevitable chocolate intake over strenuous objection of yours truly, and late bedtime post-revelry, led to a light sleep situation and nightmarish visions of 'monsters.' In short, we've been up since 4:30 am, and Reid needed to be reassured that there were no monsters anywhere on the second floor of our home before going to bed tonight.

Happy Halloween.