2nd place ain't so bad

I have pictures yet to be uploaded as part of the Tanana Valley State Fair report, but I wanted to quickly share (for my loyal readers) that I won 5th place in my division in the Recycling category, and 2nd place in my division in the Quilting category. I was hoping for a blue ribbon, but I guess that I'll just have to try next year, wherever we are. Check back for pictures, because the Grand Champion in the Recycling category will blow your mind, not necessarily in a good way though.

Good Morning, Baltimore!

I have so many funny pictures to share and funny stories to tell about Reid enjoying time with Gramma and Grampa, but frankly I have been too busy enjoying said company myself to upload the pictures to my computer so that I can post them. But keep checking up on the blog, because soon you will be delighted with stories of my wonderfully nutty mother and how amazing she is as a grandmother and pictures of my Dad wearing suspenders. You don't want to miss it. Oh, as a tease, here's a quick story. Apparently, Reid loves Musicals. Mom, Annie, Reid and I went to see "Hairspray" the other day. I figured I'd give it a shot and if it didn't work out then I'd just hang out in the hallway with him (or actually, I'd send Annie out in the hall with him because she had already seen it.) He was a dream. The first half of the movie he just slept in my arms, the second half I nursed him and then when he was done he sat on Annie's lap and enjoyed the rest of the movie. He loved it. So, here's hoping that it'll work out just as well when Erik and I try to go see "The Bourne Ultimatum." I meet Erik in Baltimore on Wednesday (I don't think I can even express how excited I am, so I won't try to) and I've looked forward to enjoying this Bourne movie with him for a long time. We'll see if it works out.

I have something to say

Hello. This is Reid using telekinetic powers to write this post...I'm very gifted. Just wanted to let you know what I'm up to. I am getting very good at focusing on things and then using my hands to grab them. Here you see me grabbing a toy, but I'm also quite adept at grabbing my mom's hair. She tells me that this grabbing business is one of the reasons that she has decided NOT to pierce her ears. Foremost is that she doesn't really think she's an "ears pierced" sort of gal, whatever that means. Mom's nutty, but I still like to make her feel like the luckiest person ever by giving her smiles and cuddles.
I can focus on objects really well. I follow my mom as she goes about trying to get things done. As you can see, my hair is growing out nicely. Mom tells me how handsome I am all the time. She's always kissing on me and telling me I'm handsome just like Daddy. I'm pretty crazy about Daddy, so I'm glad that I remind Mom of him. I like snuggling with Mom, and lying on her lap while she's at the computer, and giggling when she kisses my cheeks. I don't like messy diapers or when Mom eats salsa (which also leads to more messy diapers).

I am getting so strong. I when I'm on my tummy I can lift my head up 90 degrees and use my arms to push my chest off the floor. I am starting to wiggle my legs around too and Mom thinks that crawling isn't too far away. When I'm on my back I wave my legs back and forth, and pretty soon I think I'll be able to roll over. I like tummy time, but as you can see, it's exhausting! I am a good eater and a strong, healthy boy. I'm going to get my first taste of rice cereal when we see Dad, but I probably won't really start on solid foods for a couple more months. I'm getting very big and I grow out of clothes quickly. Every time Mom does laundry she has to put more clothes away in a bag of stuff that my someday baby brother will wear. I sleep about 9 hours each night and Mom calls me her little angel for that. I can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa Traynor and aunts, uncles, and cousins. But most of all, I can't wait to see DADDY! I get to see him in 2 weeks. That's all Mom talks about. Mom also tells me about all the family and friends that love and support us. She says she's so grateful and I like to see her so happy. We'll both be even happier when we get to see Dad.

p.s. Mom says to remember that "So you think you can dance" is on tonight. I think it's going to be good.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do

I LOVE this show. It is so inspiring for me. I love watching people do something amazing, something that the ordinary person couldn't do, something they've worked for years to be able to do. When I watch this show, I feel the itch start creeping up my body. I feel like I could just stand up off the couch and dance like I just saw them do. Oftentimes the dance fever catches up to me and I waltz around the room with Reid. Thinking about his reminds me of a funny and adorable story. William, Annie, and I grew up watching "The Chipmunk Adventure." A friend made us a VHS tape of a couple cartoon movies (the Brave Little Toaster was on it, too) and we watched the chipmunk movie SO many times. To this day I bet we could still quote most of the movie. I can't wait until Reid is cartoon-watching age so that I can find this on DVD and pretend that it's for him. One time I was watching it with my niece Sarah. She was about 4, and there's this one part where the chipmunks and the chipettes are singing and dancing. It's kind of a competition, boys against girls. The song is really contagious, and as we were watching Sarah started to get a little antsy and squirmy. At one point she just couldn't take it anymore and jumped up. She started to boogie and it was the cutest thing ever. I'll always remember that.

Here's hoping

It seems like a dumb idea to write about this when odds are that it's not going to happen, but I am excited about it irregardless (that one's for you, Erik) and I could care less (also for you, Erik) if I end up feeling silly for mentioning it. There is a great company called American Crafts (www.americancrafts.com) that produces lots of great scrapbooking stuff. I really like all things crafty, and scrapbooking has become a superfun hobby for me. It combines so many of my favorite things: pictures of my favorite people and places, fun papers and accessories, designing, memory keeping, writing, remembering, etc. I think it makes a special picture even more fun to look at. I've debated about the value of scrapbooking and whether or not it's actually a big, fat waste of time. But again and again I come to the conclusion that looking at a scrapbook is 100% more enjoyable than looking at a photo album. And some memories are just too precious not to preserve them. Anyway, back to the point, American Crafts is adding members to their Design Team. I don't think that it is a paid position, I think that they give you boatloads of product in exchange for creating cool things out of their products. I saw the information on their blog (http://americancrafts.typepad.com/) and set a goal to apply. Erik is really amazing for me. Two years ago I would have daydreamed about applying, but now I'm finally getting better at doing more and not living in my head so much. Actually submitting a couple things to the fair was a big step for me and I hope to keep the ball rolling with this. Odds may not be very good, but I'm utilizing my strength as the most powerful transmission tower in the universe (for you "the Secret" fans out there) and thinking positively. I decided to mention it here in case this sounded fun to anyone else, you should go for it! Also it'll be a good motivator for me to actually apply if I say here on the blog that I am going to. Here's hoping! In any case, check out their website. I love their stuff. I love how it's smart, graphic, and clean. Lots of scrapbooking lately is so messy and cluttered. I love how their company's aesthetic is simple and leaves the focus on the picture, which is the point of scrapbooking anyhow.

oh, and the little jokes to Erik are things that people say that drive us nuts. Irregardless isn't a word, and if you could care less that means that you aren't at rock bottom of not caring, so it's a silly hyperbole. Here's a cool website I found about lots of common errors in everyday English. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html So interesting. I like to listen to Vince Guaraldi jazz (the Charlie Brown composer) and read these to Reid (who's laying on my lap) so that we can both get smarter.

I think I'm backwards

I have been struggling for the past couple of weeks with a particularly puzzling decision. The trouble is that I'm horribly backwards. Major life decisions are easy peasy. Cake. I knew that Erik was the one on our second date. (Although that isn't really saying much, because that decision was a no-brainer. The second date story is a good one, by the way. I'll share it sometime. If he had proposed that night, I would have said "yes", but good thing he didn't know that or there probably wouldn't have been a 3rd date. Decisiveness can sometimes look a lot like fatal attraction. I haven't seen that movie, but I think it has a dead bunny in it somewhere...scary.) But still, the biggest decision of my life was the easiest one I've ever made. So far, the hardest, might possibly be my latest internal debate: to pierce my ears or not to pierce my ears. Admittedly, I'm about 15 years late in even considering this. It's not that my parents wouldn't let me and now that I'm an "adult" I can choose for myself, they probably would have let me in 4th grade or something if I had wanted to. But I never really wanted to, I didn't get it. The same way that I don't get why people put pineapple on pizza. I just don't think it makes sense. Why don't you just have some pineapple on the side? Same with earrings. I think some are very pretty, but why do you have to put them in your ears? Doesn't really make sense. So in my 25 years of life I never wanted earrings until I saw these. The $8700.00 diamond pair from Tiffany's up top? No, this $8 pair on the left. I saw these on this great site http://www.etsy.com/ It's a little like ebay, but for handmade items. Like a huge online swap meet. So these are the earrings that started this endless internal struggle. They're just so cute. They look like tiny Golden Delicious apples, and I love apples. That was another hard decision. It took a lot of soul searching to realize that apples are my favorite fruit. I use to think it was strawberries, but nope...apples. So the struggle with whether or not to pierce is very complicated. Of course it is. I think in my head of passages in the Book of Mormon and the Bible about women and their nose jewels and the tinkling of their feet. I think about past civilizations and the traditions of adornment. Why do we feel the need to adorn our bodies. Is it to celebrate and show gratitude for the gift of a beautiful, healthy body, or is it to call attention? Where's the line between beautifying and adorning? Is one bad and the other good? This silly decision has become a big mess. Erik helps me sort out all the jumble in my head (what a brave man, that Erik) and he commented that no one is going to think I'm making a statement by piercing my ears. True, but I don't really think about what others will think, I think about what I think...why do I do the things I do? I don't think of someone else's decisions the way I think about my own. And it's not really that I'm indecisive, I'm just trying to live a thoughtful life, one that shows intent. And that's where the trouble lies, sometimes it takes a bit of thinking to figure out just what I intend. So we'll see. Maybe the next time you see me I'll be wearing earrings that look like cute little fruit. Or not. I think I've got at least another week or so of thinking to do. I've already started to think about the pros and cons of alternatives to public schooling. I need to give myself a head start if I want to make the right decision by the time Reid starts school.