Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh my!

Oh, and lots of other stuff. And maybe not lions but sharks.

Over Thanksgiving, we went to Pittsburgh to visit with Fogg's parents and brother, sister-in-law and niece. Though the trip was great, traveling with an 18 month old can be stressful. Luckily we have an awesome kid and he did great on the flights. We had a layover in both directions and on the first flights he would play nicely and the second flights, he slept. Worked out nicely.

Oh, and before we left, it snowed a lot in Utah. So we went sledding before heading to the airport. Reed loved the snow, not so much walking in it (though I think it was the boots that he didn't like and the fact that the snow was up to his knees). But he loved the sledding and his snow outfit (so did I).

Ok, so we got to Pittsburgh late Sunday night, so our activities started Monday morning. After playing with Gabby in the morning, went downtown for a little shopping and lunch.
For dinner, we met up with everyone and Gabby and Reed sure did love each other lots at dinner.
The next day, Dale, Gabby and Fogg, me and Reed went to a really neat toy store. When we returned and Reed got his nap out of the way, we headed to the incline with Papa and Grandma.

After dinner, Reed read some books with Papa.

The next morning we went to the zoo. This was probably my favorite thing we did. There was almost no one at the zoo and by no exaggeration, there were probably only 10 or so other people there. And the price was super cheap. Though a little chilly, it was awesome. First we saw a tiger that I think wanted to snack on a little boy. Reed didn't even flinch when this massive cat came his way.

Then off to see some elephants, giraffes, monkeys and apes, and a grizzly bear. He liked walking a lot of it on his own. Then we went to the aquarium. Reed got to see a polar bear.

And a shark.

Thanksgiving day was filled with sitting around, playing, going through Fogg's old toys, visiting some more family and eating food. After dinner, Gabby and Reed had a great time playing together with Fogg's old cars.
We tried to get a good picture of Reed and Gabby and that was harder than you think.

But they had a good old time with the whoopi cushion.

Back home, Reed and I were just hanging out one day and I had to change his outfit. He didn't really want to put the new outfit on and really just wanted to run around with his diaper only. Then he got his snow shoes and wanted me to put them on him.

Then he wanted to put his mittens on.

I don't know, the silly things they like to do. Fogg was getting his new skis ready for the season and Reed thought it would be fun to stand on them. He looks so small.

We had our first Christmas party over at Nana and Papa Branch's house. A sort of nice family holiday picture.

And Reed just being sort of silly.

Dancing with Santa

With Nana Branch

Counting with Papa Branch

Carrying a bag after saying "ba-bye"

Trying on Papa's boots.

I think I'm caught up now. Back to the grind after the trip to Detroit and absolute craziness at work.

Cheers!

Nanny

With regret, I tell you of my grandmother’s passing. She was my mom’s mom and we all called her Nanny. She was a funny lady, sometimes on purpose, most of the time not. She was from Scotland, came over on the boat when she was a young girl. She was the oldest of 4 kids and her mom, though I never got to meet her, was apparently quite the spitfire. In fact, I’m named after my great-grandmother, Meg, and my Nanny. Her full name was Eleanor Cameron Cole (McNie). My middle name is Elinor. I feel especially close to Nanny and her family because of that.

Nanny lived 94 good, full and funny years. She had 4 kids and 14 grandchildren. She had 15 great grandchildren. In going through her things, my mom found a few letters that my brother and I had written to her long ago. They had the tone of appreciation for being such a fun and funny grandmother. For one particular holiday, she sent my brother and I both $10. I got a $10 bill and Gordon got two $5 bills. Gordon wrote in his thank you letter that he wouldn’t hold it against her that I got $10 but he got two $5s. She never ever gave her grandchildren different bills again. I wrote that I hoped she never died and that she was the best Nanny in a world of Nanny’s.

She would write us very silly letters. I’m sure that she thought that they were well written, understandable and entertaining. Well, she was kinda right. They were hysterical. All the kids and grandkids would get an absolute kick out of receiving a card or letter from Nanny. Once, I received a Christmas card for my cousin. She never received mine, so we aren’t sure where it ended up. She would draw pictures of mountains and skiers on my letters and cards. She would tell me that she was too old to learn to ski but that maybe I could teach her anyway. I’ll miss those letters though I hadn’t received one in quite some time due to her declining health in the past few years.

Her funeral was nice. We had lots of pictures of her and most of them were silly. Some were sweet pictures of her with her grandkids. My favorite being the one with me as about a 4 or 5 year old, sitting with my mom and Nanny on her front steps. We laughed about her funny ways. A cousin read one of the letters he received from her a few years ago. We cried cause we will miss her. She would have loved that my brother wore his kilt and that we all sat around talking about her and enjoying each others company. I got to see some cousins that I haven’t seen in quite some time, that would have made Nanny happy. We joked about putting a dinner roll in our bag, because she always did.

Nanny, we all love you and will dearly miss you. We have so many memories to take with us and we are thankful for that. Take the low road back to Scotland Nanny.

Thank you for allowing me to express my memories of Nanny. I also apologize for some very delayed posts. Hopefully soon I’ll get to posting pictures of our trip to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, general Reed funny-ness, and our first Christmas party this year.

Soapbox

Please allow me a moment to step up on a soapbox and speak my mind. I don't do this often, as I'm usually afraid that I'm going to offend one of few readers. But this I feel cannot be ignored and the frustration has built up so much in me that I have to get it out. This is a subject that I feel strongly about and it needs to be addressed.

I heard in disgust yesterday on the radio about a couple who have started a website that you can go vote if they should keep their 16 week fetus or abort. Say what?!? My mouth literally dropped, my jaw hit my steering wheel (I was driving at the time) and I actually gasped. I was so appalled by this story, I felt sick to my stomach. It was so beyond me that this couple is considering terminating a child that they already know is a boy! Not only that, part of the story indicated that this is a third pregnancy, the first two resulted in a miscarriage. Wouldn't that make this couple, who have been married for 10 years, want to absolutely see this pregnancy through? If you care to read more about this sad excuse for a couple, here is the story.

Ok, please allow me to tear this whole thing apart. Why, why, why in the world would these people even CONSIDER an abortion? Is there a terminal illness with the child? Doesn't appear to be the case (and what would it matter anyway in my opinion). Are they just selfish and irresponsible? Well, it seems to be the case. There is a comment in the story (in the link I posted above) that states that this couple didn't bother to invest in birth control and haven't started planning or purchasing anything for a nursery. Seriously, is that why this couple is doing this? I'm sure part of their reasoning for putting their child on the chopping block is for this very reason - that people are talking about it, and blogging about it, and probably interviewing them and making them famous, even at the expense of this child.

I am so absolutely angry with this entire thing. My first reaction was, should I vote to save this child? I can't just leave it up to the rest of the country, I must contribute my small amount to saving this little boy! But then do I even dignify these people by being involved? Luckily, the article indicates that so far the vote is 78% to 22% in favor of "give birth". The point, this couple says, of this website is to encourage people to take part in voting, a simple human right. Funny, this child may not get that chance... My second thought was, well, if you really don't have money to take care of this child, I will donate baby clothes (got plenty of boy clothes), money or other needs that this family may have. But then, in almost the same breath, I thought that this couple doesn't deserve to keep this child. Absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, this is what needs to happen: This woman needs to be detained and watched for signs that she may abort. She needs to be in custody until she gives birth to her little boy. Then that little boy needs to be immediately removed from that woman's presence and placed with a family that has been longing to take care of a little boy. She does not deserve to feel the joy of holding her newborn child, hearing his first breath and cry, cuddle with his little body. She deserves a much harsher punishment for this consideration. It seems that the country will vote for "give birth" and without a doubt she should not be raising this little boy, think about what other sick things she may come up with during his childhood. Clearly, his best interest is not in her mind from the start, is that really going to change based on a vote on the internet?

As you can tell, I'm furious about this prospect. I want to go to this couple, who live in MN, and give them a piece of my mind. I could post all of this rage that I've posted here on the comments of the story, but figured this was a better venue for my thoughts.

I really, really hope that this couple has read my blog post. If you are, please listen to me - do NOT abort that child. I have a little boy and the world would be a darker place without him. A life is a life when it is conceived and you are considering killing a human being that is far enough along in his development that you even know he's a boy! If for some sick reason this country votes for abortion, I plead you to give birth and I will come get him to make him my own. And if the country does vote this way, I'm moving to another country, cause this is a country I can't live in. Have you heard his heartbeat? Isn't that enough? There are plenty of sickos in this world that decide to hurt, abuse, rape and murder innocent people, including children, don't be one of them.

Thank you for allowing me to post this, it brings me little comfort to let this out, these people are still doing this and it angers me. Stepping off the soapbox now, but please comment and share your thoughts on this if you feel lead. Also, should I vote and participate in this demoralization of the human race? And I hold MY little boy just a little closer today.

Smart Cookie

My little dude has really shown some smarts in the past few days. Though he has been uber-sick, he is using his down time to learn new things. Reed got a cold about 10 days ago and then it turned into a pretty nasty ear infection. Fogg was out of town for a dirt bike trip starting Thursday morning. By that afternoon, the babysitter reported that he hadn't really ate anything, not napped and just sort of wandered around crying. I took him home that night and did everything I could to get him to eat and get ready for bed, but it was all done to crying. He slept for 3 hours then was up at 9pm. I got him to sleep by 10pm but then he was up again crying at 11pm. I tried everything, but we were up then until 4am. He finally crashed after lots of meds and a long night being up. First thing in the morning, I got him to the doc to find out he had an ear infection close to rupture it was so full of puss. Gross. He is doing better now after two doses and lots of pain meds and rest. He is still a little clingy and lethargic and not eating tons but we are working on it.

I headed to the pharmacy to get the antibiotics filled and while we waited we went over to Cracker Barrel for brunch. I gave him the triangle golf-tee game that they have on all the tables and he took out all the tees and put them back in. He figured out which end had to go in. Luckily he is so proud of himself, he claps.

I have a new picture frame and put pictures of the family in it. Reed walked up to it, pointed to himself the day he was born and said "baby". So then I said, "where is Dada?", he pointed right at him and said "dada". I said, "where is mama?", he pointed right at me and said "mama". It must be noted that is one of the first times he has said mama in relation to actually me! I was thrilled!

I was on the phone with Fogg this morning while he was getting ready for his last day dirt biking, and when I said good bye and hit the "end" button, Reed looked up and said "ba-bye" and waved at the phone.

The best story happened this afternoon. I needed to change his diaper and said to him sarcastically, "go get a diaper!". He ran out of the room (with his left hand swinging and the right one static), then returned with a diaper! He handed it to me than sat down, than laid back and put his legs in the air ready for me to take off his pants and change his diaper! What a smart little cookie!

He has been helping me with laundry by putting items in the washer, than transferring it to the dryer and then taking things out of the dryer into the basket for me to fold.

Clearly he is learning so much every day and I hope that I'm putting the right things in his head! Thanks for letting me brag about my boy for a bit!

Cheers~

Stop It

Twice in the past week, weirdo's have posted comments on my blog. I'm getting pissed. I really don't want to have to go private but if too many more of these freaks keep putting things in the comments I will be forced to lock this down. First, I will be changing my comment structure and I will need to approve comments before they are posted. Second, I have a few words for the people who decide not to seek legitimate employment or are sick in the mind:

• Please get help for your issues, I'm not the one to do that, so please remove yourself from the internet and seek counseling.
• Nope, don't ever want to buy something from someone who posted a sales pitch in my comments. Not sure what kind of people do, but I'm surely not one of them.
• It's NOT ok to look at my kid on my blog when you are a sicko. Period.

So, please, pretty please, all you wackos on the internet - STOP IT!

Me and Jane

Hey there everyone, Reed here again. Today I got to go to the Dinosaur Park with my friend Jane. Too bad our mom's had to tag along... It's one of the last nice days of the year, so we really wanted to run around outside.

We loved looking over the railing at the ducks and geese. Jane really likes to talk, she was yelling "duck!" at all of them. I just liked to watch them.

Then we went over to the playground. It was sooooo fun. I went down the slide once and then the second time around Jane and I raced to the top. She won. The second time I won.

I sure do like sliding down!

One time, I almost tipped over!

Then we found this AWESOME swirly slide! I would stand at the top then sort of jump into the slide to go down. It was SOOO fun.

Then our mom's made us sit on this thing that looked like a really big lizard and it had two saddles. They took tons of pictures. I was not so happy about it, but Jane liked to smile.

Aren't I cute?

Then we walked all around the park doing different stuff. We also got to ride in the wagon that Grandma and Papa got me for my birthday.

At the end, we went to this digger part. Jane's mom showed us how to brush the sand off so we could see what was below it.

Then we got to try it!

We got distracted and wanted to climb up the rocks! Both of us made it to the top!

After that, we went to lunch. Our mom's talked a lot, so Jane and I started making a fuss so they would pay attention to us instead. Plus, I was getting kinda tired. We left and the next thing I knew I was home in my crib taking the rest of my nap (I must have fallen asleep in the car, I didn't even get to say good-bye to Jane!). When I woke up, Dada was home from his conference (he went to learn about avalanches and stuff).

Well, see you all later!
Love, Reed

Charlie Brown

Or is he a ghost...

Good grief, Charlie Brown!

Loving his first sucker!

At the Harvest Party with (from L to R) Reed, Carden (scarecrow), Ashton (superman) and Brooklyn (pink jailbird?).

Hanging out with a Monkey (Liam) and a cheerleader (Jane)

Liam is trying to steal the coveted play phone from Jane. Reed looks like he's about to get into trouble.

How cute, reading a book together.

Reed doing his yoga. He will do this sometimes, it's pretty funny.

We got a new toy from the neighbor kid (at just the right price of *free*). Reed absolutely loves it. He drives his cars all over it, making noises.

He thinks that the ramp is a slide and will try to go down it.

Oh yeah, and it snowed!!! Bring on ski season!