Clearing the Baffles; The Rapid Passage of Time

The countdown began in earnest when K and I stood in the doorway of our mostly-neglected guest room and realized that this was to become Reid's new bedroom.

Panic ensued soon after.

But first, I'll explain what 'clearing the baffles' is all about: Leftover snow pictures!

Global warming being what it is, there's a chance that the snow we had on February 12th will be all of the white stuff we see from a winter which featured the warmest January on record in the national capitol region. So I figured we should get our money's worth of high quality Reid photography.

Despite K's qiuzzical expression, I knew exactly what Reid was doing in this shot. I had been shoveling the walk, and the passage from our porch to the car, and removing snow (which was simply the best packing-snow for snowballs I've ever seen) from the car, and I was piling it in the middle of our little postage-stamp of a front yard, making, essentially a wee-tiny snow mountain. Reid wanted to climb this mountain and doing so, he posed for a picture with K. But he also flexed his muscles like, I would imagine, the king of a very small snow-mountain would do. Unfortunately, Reid's 'muscle-flex' looks a lot more like the gesture of an angry toddler. C'est la vie.




When I was young, we had a beautiful twilight snowstorm I still remember. There is a picture in a frame somewhere in my house of me standing outside the front door of the house my mom still lives in wearing an absurd 70s snowsuit and grinning from ear to ear. The sky is the pearlescent gray of bountiful snowflakes lit by streetlights. The flakes are enormous and enhabit the air around me like lazy insects. I don't recall if we built a snowman or anything else, because I'm sure it was cold and getting dark. I was beaming though, and I'm certain that I was refusing to go inside, as I was enjoying my snow so much.

As K, Dixie and I were winding down with the snow adventure a few weekends ago, Reid was just getting started. Like the first hours with a new toy, it seemed nothing could drag him away from the snow. We pulled a couple little containers out for him to play with and they kept him happy for a good while. He was sitting right in the snow, though, and we didn't even have a snowsuit, so his jeans, the pajama-bottoms he was wearing under them, his two pairs of socks, coat, sweatshirt, t-shirt and football jersey (naturally) were all beginning to soak. Eventually we were able to break the snow's spell with the promise of hot chocolate.

Okay, that's it for snow-photography and story telling, maybe for the year. Who knows?

In the meantime, we've got our new room to talk about and a movie(!) of what life is like with Reid, and why I'm turning into a pretty good sprinter (big fat daddy weight class).

The Last Thing the Snow Man Remembers...

During our monster snowstorm Saturday night, we had thunder and lightning, which is weird. The power went our briefly, then returned. A few minutes later, it went out with an ominous pop outside. Dixie was seriously freaked out, pacing around in the darkness as I went up and down the stairs searching for flashlights and batteries. She doesn't like instability at night (and she better get used to it, if the next baby is anything like Reid).

By the next morning, Dixie was concerned that suddenly the entire outside had converted to a cold, unforgiving place where her normal endless desire to go back and forth through the backdoor was rewarded with cold paws and nowhere to walk.

Dixie regained her composure by the time the snow stopped falling and we all went outside to play in it. Reid and I worked on a snowman for a little bit while K struggled to get into clothing and shoes for a snow-outing.

The snowman we built was more suited to Reid's dimensions than mine. As you can see, I completely dwarf the two-foot snowman, while it's just Reid's size. Reid knew enough about snowmen to insist on using a carrot for the nose. K was forced to retrieve one from inside the house. A round of photographs were taken with Reid proudly showing off his first real snowman. As you can also see above, Dixie was circling ominously, attracted to one key aspect of the snowman.

A few minutes later, we knew Dixie was back to her old self when we caught her making her move. With the precision of a puma, she took the head off the snowman and went to work on the carrot. It didn't stand a chance.

Falling In A Winter Wonderland

Well, the snow did come, and Reid awoke giddy with excitement. Since we don't go to school on Sunday, it seems that his absolutely bonkers reception to the snow this morning proves that children just love snow, like it's somehow hardwired. It could be also that he connects the white weather with Christmas, since he kept shouting 'Christmas' this morning while looking out his window.

We were able to keep from going outside as soon as we awoke by throwing a significant obstacle in Reid's path: pancakes. Eventually, though, we knew we would end up outside playing in the snow.

I'm going to stretch these pictures out over a few days, so stay tuned for Reid's first snowman and what Dixie did to it.

In the meantime, the official family-approved caption for the photo below is "Reid makes his first snow angel." Awwwww. The black-market Daddy-only caption is "I've fallen and I can't get up."

Snow Coming Soon?

Winter here has been a bit of a bust, frankly speaking. Reid's memory of snow, if there is one, is dimming by the day. It's mostly a fair-tale thing seen in books at this point. His eyes lit up this morning when we reported that our city's (mostly unreliable) weathercasters had virtually guaranteed a snowstorm Saturday. Look for some pictures of Reid in the white stuff soon, hopefully.

In the meantime, a funny story before I forget it. For months, K's gotten a lot of mileage out of this little gimmick she uses. Reid is frequently demanding band-aids, in a hurt little voice, for imaginary or very minor injuries all over his body. A scratch he can see, and see frequently, will become a major fixation and the subject of intense band-aid lobbying. K's gimmick is to produce a 'magic' band-aid from somewhere on her person and go through the elaborate steps of kissing the wound, opening the bandage and carefully applying it to his hand or arm or whatever. This has doubtlessly saved us from using hundreds of dollars worth of band-aids, since K's magic invisible band-aids are free and imaginary.

So the other day, Reid informs us of the need for a band-aid. (My approach is to laugh it off, by the way, and say that he doesn't need a band-aid. At least I don't say, 'Walk it off!' and clap my hands like a gym teacher.) But K's there so she goes through the whole 'magic' band-air rigmarole. Then she finishes and puts another kiss on the (very minor) scratch and says, "Ok?"

Reid doesn't miss a beat. "There's no band-aid there, mommy."

I can't contain the laughter and must leave the room.

Super Bowl Countdown VI

Well, the hype has been hyped and the Joey Porter remarks have flown fast and furious in the Motor City. Here in Washington, even the anti-Joey Porter columns have been written (Wilbon!). It's time to play the Super Bowl.

Reid would gladly have spent some time outside foiling photography by never standing still while playing 'football,' which is the name he gives to the game most observers call conclude is merely 'running around.' However, the weather didn't cooperate, soaking the National Capitol Region in random, on-again off-again drenching downpours, complete with thunder. In February.

Nevertheless, the Steeler t-shirt photo session is the gift that keeps on giving. Check the spiral on this one, Big Ben!

Super Bowl Countdown V

It seems we're getting down to the bottom of the barrel in football pictures. I did a photo search for other gridiron photography and wasn't shocked to find that Reid rarely stands still for a picture when he's wearing his football gear.

Here's a final shot from this batch. I think tomorrow we get ourselves a Troy Polamalu jersey-- and then try to make Reid fall asleep so we can take his picture.

Super Bowl Countdown IV

Look, just so you understand the labor involved, Reid's mom and I thought it would be a good idea to give you just a little taste of what most of the pictures from our football photo shoot ended up like.

Or, if you want, you can imagine your favorite Steeler coursing down the sideline, a virtual blur as he enters the end zone.

Incidentally, Reid is getting a haircut soon. We promise.