Super Bowl Countdown III

Reid and Cowher had similar reactions to the NFL-admitted travesty instant replay review of Troy Polamalu's interception during the fourth quarter of the Steeler's defeat of the Colts in the AFC division championship.

Super Bowl Countdown II

(Blogger.com weirdness barred us from providing last night's update. Here it is in its entirety.)

K says that Reid needs a haircut. In fact, she says it all the time. But among the various species of Steeler fans, Reid's haircut fits in just fine.

Super Bowl Countdown I (That's roman number one)

Reid's love of football is well-documented, here and in the purchasing habits of his various grandparents. While college ball dominated (Roll Tide) the early part of football season, Alabama's late fall stumbles (of which we will never speak again), though fully eclipsed by their Cotton Bowl victories, have now given way to the big show. The Pittsburgh Steelers -- this parent's hometown team -- will face down the powerful Seattle Seahawks (led by the Crimson Tide's own Shaun Alexander) Sunday in Detroit in a game so overwhelmed by hype that anything I say would be utterly redundant. So, in the first of a projected seven-part series, we give you...Little Ben and Big Ben:

Babies Everywhere, Including Reid and Petra; A Boy and His Bike

First, some nice news from our relatives over in Egypt. You'll recall our visit to Cairo last fall, to attend the wedding of my cousin Ingy to a gentleman named Mohamed. Well, this morning, Ingy gave birth to a baby girl named Jana.

Next on the baby-riffic agenda is some of the first photography of Reid with his little cousin Petra.

Because I'm the go-to uncle and Reid is the type of cousin who will gladly come to your house and help his dad babysit while watching "Toy Story," the boy and I got to spend some quality time with Ms. Petra over at her place a week or so back and came back with this fine picture. K and I are closely observing Reid's behavior around the new little tyke-ette, so as to be prepared for questions and cuteness in the offing when we bring our own new little girl into the house. Reid was a perfect cousin, and was interested in making sure the baby was comfortable and happy. Then we watched Buzz and Woody, natch.

Finally, a funny story from Dr. Martin Luther King Day. K had to work, so the boy and I kicked it at the pad. We talked a little about Dr. King, even though I am completely aware that there is no way this will sink in. We logged some quality time playing with the Christmas-gift train, and then we decided to brave the cold and ride the 'bike.'

I had been talking about how cold it was, and Reid took the message to heart. Already wearing a sweatshirt, Reid added a scarf, mittens, the Elmer Fudd hat, and his big coat. "Ready?" I asked. "Yep."

Out we went, with the Radio Flyer Tricycle. We haven't really spent much time on the bike since Christmas, because of a combination of weather, travel and who knows what else. But the few times we took to the three-wheeled main, Reid was not that excited about it, mostly smiling and sitting there.

Really more of the same this time, though there was technically some locomotion. Reid either doesn't understand or doesn't want to bother with the whole pedaling thing. We worked together on the street in front of the house, while the dog blinked in the half-light sending little dog-telepathy messages about how nice it would be if we actually took a walk every once in a while. (Sorry, Dix.) I stood over Reid and helped him understand how pushing on the pedals made the bike go. I nudged him and pointed to his rotating feet as example of the connection between travel and pedalling. To all of this he nodded sagely and sometimes said "Huh?" without really wanting to hear any more information.

Then he decided that his best course of action was to push the bike while astride it, which is harder on a tricycle than on a bike, if you think about it. We pushed around a little while and Dixie made moves to taking herself for a walk sans-family. Reid and I headed down toward the yard where Dixie had made her stand.

I got about five paces ahead of Reid and then turned back to him. I said, "Come on, bud. Pedal."

He looked up at me and then dismounted from the tricycle. He held up a hand like he was silencing a crowd. He waited a beat and said, "I walk. Daddy. I walk."



Then we had hot chocolate. (Click on most of these pictures to see big versions.)

The Overdue Christmas Issue

Christmas, so long in coming, blew through the Henderson Rizk household like a tornado, leaving scraps of wrapping paper, tricycles, airplane ticket stubs and who knows what else in its wake. Reid, K and I traversed the Eastern seaboard apart and together, celebrating the holiday with friends and family.

First and foremost, as I would have wished if my parents wrote a blog about me when I was two, I must say that Reid's gift haul was awesome. Some of the highlights were the crazy fire truck positively bristling with latches, locks and sliders, each hiding a little chamber which can be filled with the tiny, easily lost detritus of toddler life. Reid also received a great multi-purpose gift, the Fisher Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm. Reid calls the Little People "my peoples" which is just about hysterical. The farm has a cow, a pig, a lamb, a chicken, a horse, and a farmer and makes the noises of all these mammals and birds (the farmer sounds include, interestingly, sawing wood and snoring). Another gift that I need to mention is a 70-piece, wooden railroad track similar to the ones which cost a great deal of money and are affiliated with a major British train-themed children's program.

I include all three of these toys together because Reid has united them as a massive multi-toy. How? Well, the people and animals from the farm are periodically corralled together with the trees, houses and other accessories from the train track and herded into the various sections of the latches fire truck and driven around the family room. If I ask nicely, Reid will permit me to keep the train itself out of the firetruck omnibus toy transportation system so I can build complex and usually incomplete configurations with the wooden toy track and then attempt to impress my son by crashing the train. He feigns interest and continues to point out various sights to the farmer, chicken and trees in the firetruck.

Of course, the most outstandingly important gift this Christmas was a tricycle, which in our house is a "bike." Weather, travel, the unfortunate tendency of the sun to go down before 5 pm this time of year and a dozen other factors have conspired to keep the bike on ice in the weeks since Christmas, so we're really hoping for a renaissance of this particular gift when the spring comes around. Reid did really seem to like it. He rode it a bit outside Christmas morning but tired, I suspect, of the squadron of parents and grandparents standing around our street shouting for him to pedal, as if he knew what it meant to pedal something. As I said, we'll try again after the thaw.

The next phase of our Christmas holiday was Reid's visit to Atlanta with his grandparents while mom and dad spent a recuperative couple days attending screenings of long-form dramatic presentations in darkened rooms which non-parents of toddlers call 'movies.' Quite an interesting phenomenon. Also, we simultaneously ate food in a restaurant, as opposed to trading off eating and Reid-feeding like tag-team wresters. Oh, and there was also the silence. It went like this:







So good.

Then phase three began. In this phase we met up with Reid in Alabama, and attended an anniversary party for K's aunt and uncle there. The party yielded that nice picture at the top of the post with Katrena, Reid and Reid's cousin Samantha, who apparently was offended by something Reid did moments before the photo was snapped. The event was quite nice, and featured a bunch of young kids, all of whom were girls save Reid. He was quite the player, let me tell you. Happy anniversary, Richard and Pam.


Next we drove to K's aunt Kathy and uncle Don's house. Little did we expect, Reid found himself completely overwhelmed with gigantic things toddlers love. Above, Reid scrambles about on the garaged fishing boat out behind Don and Kathy's house. Reid is carefully selecting a fishing lure from uncle Don's carefully organized selection while aunt Kathy looks on.

Don and Kathy's also featured Reid's first ride in a dump truck. Don took Reid and me around the neighborhood, and Reid got to hear his voice through the citizens band radio and basically bounce all over the front seat while surveying Leeds, Alabama from a startling height.

But things pretty much went off the toddler-coolness scale when Don managed to coax some life into his four-wheeler. I don't recall for certain, but I think he needed to jump it or something, but eventually he was able to get the thing revving and Reid and he cruised around the property like lords of the modern-day manor.




So happy new year. After returning from Alabama on new year's eve, we laid low and K and I rang in the new year by going to bed early. Party animals, I tell ya. The next day, my sister went to the hospital and delivered a beautiful baby girl, Petra, who joins Reid, Daniel and Brianna as the generation who will take care of us in our old age. Good luck, kids! You're gonna need it.

Preview of Christmas

What a holiday! Things here and around Reid's world have been amazing these past few weeks. The biggest development was familial: Reid's cousin was born on New Year's Day, joining his two other cousins, Daniel and Brianna, who is only a couple months old.

The buildup for Christmas was really something, and it appears to have paid off. Weather and travel have kept us from really getting into our biggest gift, the tricycle known around here as "bike." We plan on taking the bike on the road, as pedaling inside the house, on mommy's nice Egyptian rugs, is somewhat difficult.

Another big favorite, and a surprisingly strong performer in the post-Christmas play-period, has been a firetruck positively bristling with latches, locks and little chambers. We assume this, like another latch and locks toy we received earlier this holiday season, was designed to ensure that Reid has a fall-back career as a second-story man. This toy, combined with a new wooden train like (but not as expensive as) the one that Thomas the Tank Engine rides around on in the Barnes and Noble, as well as a Fisher Price Little People Farm, has represented the bulk of Reid's Christmas toy playing so far. So we're all patting ourselves on the back for buying such good toys.

I've got a lot more to talk about, but it's late and getting back to the work schedule is going to be hard on Reid and his parents. Here's a shot of the Christmas morning unveiling of the Latches Firetruck. Enjoy.