Hem, check 'em out

This is my favorite band of 2007. I usually pick a "song of the day", "song of the week", month, year...etc. I like superlatives. It gets out of control...favorite commercial of the month, favorite tree along our street, favorite shade of pink of 2007...crazy. They are brilliant musicians and she has a lovely conversational, sweet voice. She also has gorgeous, unruly, red hair. I think I was meant to have unruly hair, alas my hair is very...ruly. Look them up at http://www.hemmusic.com/
click on music and listen to the Eveningland album. It's my favorite. Try "Pacific Street" to start.

I just can't get enough

I just can't stop taking pictures of this little guy. He's a dream. He's changing so quickly, it really hurts my feelings. I guess the pictures help me feel better about it. I just don't want to miss anything. Reid is such a joy. He's a delightful baby.

Weekly Roundup

This is a happy baby. He talks all day long. If he's awake, he's usually cooing. It's adorable. He changes his voice inflection and has facial expressions just like he's talking. I don't know what he's saying, but it's wonderful to hear.

The base had an open house on Saturday and so we checked out some cool jets. Also cool is this baby wrap. I completely love it. Reid does too. He just falls asleep, hanging out with mama.

Or dad.

Reid is smitten with his daddy. I'll be holding him and Erik will come into sight, and Reid pretty much rubbernecks to see him. He'll follow him with his eyes, cooing and smiling. When Erik hands him to me for a feeding we have to get Reid to focus on eating...he just keeps staring at his favorite person, his daddy.

Reid and Erik are great pals. Erik has a way with him...and me. What a perfect man, that Erik.

Journey to Salmon-land

Fish fever was in the air this week and I was determined to get a little piece of it. In the summer here in Alaska thousands of salmon come in from the ocean and run up the rivers in hopes of finding their place of birth to lay their eggs. At the same time thousands of people head to the ocean and rivers determined to stop those same salmon and put them instead in their freezers and frying pans. As a current Alaskan, I was called to the fight. A few guys from the elders quorum at church were joining together last week down in Chitina, the chosen battleground, to see what they could slay. (see www.acme.com/mapper and search Chitina, AK)

I better add in now, that what they do in Chitina is called dip-netting, and it is hardly fishing, but more like fish-harvesting. But if the idea is to get as many red and king salmon as you can, then why not? I’ll explain in a minute…

The state of Alaska is really big, and I didn’t get off work on Friday, and I wanted to go flying anyway, so Jeremy and I took his plane out and I got some good cross-country flying time. It’s about a 3 hour flight, with one stop, so we got to Chitina around 10:30-11:00pm. But it wasn’t dark yet so we found our buddies camping spot and realized some folks were still out on the river. Rodney and his boat came in with some fish, and I went out again with him to pick up some others who were left on the banks a couple miles down the river. It was an old flat-bottom boat with an outboard motor and made me feel Alaskan riding fast down the Copper River at 1am!

People were tired and fished out by that time and ready to head home the next morning, so Jeremy and I didn’t fish much. Did I mention I left my fishing license in my truck at the airport in Fairbanks? But let’s not dwell on that.

Let me wind up with an explanation of dip-netting. The best way to do it is to take a boat out on the river and troll with your nets as you float down. You use a pole with a net on the end, not unlike the nets we use to fish leaves out of the pool with in California. As you float down, you wait until something jumps into your net, then you just yank it up on board and—blamo! You caught yourself a salmon.

People also used these very interesting contraptions called fish wheels. It is a water wheel with big nets powered around by the flow of the water that automatically scoop fish out of the water for you. I’ve included some pictures, pretty amazing. You just sit on the beach and wait for your bin to fill up with salmon.

After 3 days of fishing, Rodney (with the boat) had around 30-40 Salmon, weighing between 8 and 50 lbs a piece. Kings are the biggest and you are only allowed to catch five of those.

Although I didn’t fish myself, I had a great time flying and riding around on a 4-wheeler, and seeing the beautiful sights. Luckily no bears came to take our fish. We flew back on Saturday afternoon, and I helped clean some of the fish and by so doing got to take a big one home---so all is not lost, and I lived to slay fish another day.

Just too cute!

This picture makes me smile. He was just cooing at me and making spit bubbles. Too cute.

I'm pretty sure that babies just don't come any more perfect than this little guy. He really is an angel. These pictures can't quite capture his sweet and loving temperament, but I think you can see what I'm talking about. p.s. He's almost completely outgrown everything 0-3 mos. These jeans (while a little long) are 3-6 mos. and they fit him! It's all happening too fast! I don't want to miss any of it. Oh, and did you notice the dimple in the first of the second picture? He has the most adorable dimples, they kill me.

Wonder Baby

I believe that some sort of an explanation is in order. This blog has been collecting dust for about a month now, and if there ever was a month that I had fun stories and pictures to share, this past month would be it. The thing is, however, that in the past month I have been doing all the never ending stuff like feeding the baby, changing the baby, laundry, etc...and trying to get as much as I can of the stuff that unfortunately will end someday, like holding my little treasure Reid. A much as I love holding him, I think I like watching Erik hold him even more. Erik is an ideal father, these two are going to be great friends, I can tell. They are kindred spirits. Reid is so mellow and easy-going, just like his dad. He is absolutely an angel. Most of the time the only protests we hear are little whimpers when he's got a mess in his shorts. However, sometimes it's a little louder than that. I guess I'm not a very good baby burper. That's a very bad thing we have come to discover. I burp him half-way through eating and at the end of the feeding, I get burps each time, so I assume he's done. Right? Wrong. We have had a couple of occasions to realize that our little angel can wail like a banshee when he's got burps still painfully stuck inside of him. It's really tricky, though, because how do I know that he still has burps left? Now, in order to preempt the return of the banshee, I burp him every couple of minutes as he eats. It seems to be working.

This photo was taken on Tuesday night, after a struggle to figure out what the heck could possibly be making my angelic and sweet-tempered little man so upset. I had just fed him, so he couldn't be hungry. I just changed him, so he couldn't be messy. Could he be hot? I took off his sleeper. Does he want a pacifier? No. Would swaddling soothe him? No. So I just kept burping him. I think that a good rule of thumb for newborns is after going through the checklist, when push comes to shove, just keep burping. He wailed while I burped and after about a half an hour of this loud and disheartening ordeal he let out a burp that sounded painful to even expel, so I imagine that it was even more painful in his sweet little belly. After all that commotion, he was pretty tuckered out, so I just plopped him in his new swing and let him relax (also to give me a chance to relax, listening to your precious little one scream in your face is a little unnerving). I tell you what, this swing is heaven sent. I just put him in it and the silly jungle sounds and plush birdies lull him into peaceful slumber.

This picture is just for fun. Reid is losing some of his hair, and I predict that the new hair that grows in will be lighter than the dark hair he was born with. He has cradle cap, and I read in "What to expect the first year" that you can help get all the flakes off by rubbing vaseline onto his scalp and then shampooing it off. So I gave it a shot and massaged the goop in, then washed it out. I guess I didn't get all the goop out because as I was coming his hair afterwards, it kept sticking up instead of laying flat. So with his baldness on the top and dark hair sticking up everywhere else, to me he looked like the most adorable baby chimp. Do you see it? I thought it was so cute and had to get some pictures of my sweet little monkey. His eyes are still a little steely bluish gray, but I don't see any brown in them. I think he's going to luck out with blue eyes like his dad. I also think that he's going to end up with light brown/blond hair like Erik had as a little boy. But don't worry, he did get a few things from me. He doesn't like being told what to do, being ignored, or being trapped...just like his mom. When I swaddle him, I always keep his arms out because he goes to sleep faster. If I tuck them in, then my 95% asleep baby squirms and squirms until he's free, and at that point he's about 5% asleep. And when he nurses, he doesn't want any help, he just wants to do his own thing and eat as he pleases. You know, I don't blame him. I completely understand his need to be free and unrestrained, he gets that from me. I just love this little guy.