Photo Shoot

Brothers, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

It's always interesting trying to get the perfect Christmas card shot. Especially when there's a squirmy toddler involved. Throw in a few dogs and it's a downright fiasco. This won't be this year's winner, but it was too cute to collect dust.

Justin was out for Thanksgiving week and, as always, it was wonderful having him here. He pushed his little brother up and down the hall on his toddler car only about 3,569 times. They made faces, played peekaboo and rolled on the floor together. And we did all those other wonderful holiday things like decorating cookies, playing Scrabble and building a giant working model roller coaster out of K-nex.



I would like to add that Anne playing Scrabble is almost unheard of. She prefers to provide advice and criticism safely from the sidelines. John, on the other hand, has long taken pleasure from beating young children at Scrabble with miracle words nobody has ever heard of placed on the triple word score. Happily, Anne won - put us all to shame. My dad may have been a bit jilted after I made him remove the word "porn" from the playing board.

We don't get to see Justin again until spring break and, by then, Five will be here to add a whole new element to the family dynamic.

Deck the Halls

Decorating cuteness, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

Decorating a Christmas tree provides an entirely new challenge when a toddler is in the picture. My tree, as a result, looks a little top-heavy this year. All my glass balls and fragile decorations hang above the three foot mark. Below the mark are all the hardy ornaments that can be pulled and prodded by curious little fingers. That said, we are having "gentle" lessons, learning to pat the tree nicely and point to the ornaments rather than trying to CRUSH them with our pincer grasp. The big shock to anyone who knows me should be that my tree is decorated (and it's not even December!) Scott and I are famous for marauding through the woods a week before Christmas to pilfer a sapling that would make Charlie Brown proud. Maybe it's the new house. Maybe its this pregnancy thing (I've also been baking a lot lately - very uncharacteristic). But I was gung ho to get the tree done this weekend. Haven't done a lick of shopping and don't plan to set foot in a store this year. No Black Friday for me. So, if you want a gift, send me your Amazon wish list. I intend to purchase every last item online and have it sent, gift wrapped, direct from the store; or bake it. I may be decorating trees a month early and clipping cookie recipes, but a pregnant woman has to draw her boundaries.

Sawyer seems to be picking right up on this whole Christmas bit. Indeed Santa holds some sort of magical power over all children. To distract Saywer during the decorating process, I handed him an old Santa Claus Pez dispenser. I told him it was Santa, said Ho-HO-Ho. He walked around chewing on it for about 20 minutes and then discarded it. Before bed, I busted out The Night Before Christmas. When we got to the page with a pop-up Santa Claus, Sawyer scrambled out of my lap, bee-lined across the room, picked up the Pez dispenser and started running around the house saying 'Ho-HO-ho.' He got it. That fast. Blew me away.

Scott was charged with documenting the decorating process. He snapped away wildly, but when I downloaded the photos, there was hardly a single photo with my face in it. I'll spare you the details. Here's me, with six weeks of baking to go:

Happy Turkey

turkey small, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

Hope everyone is having a joyful holiday. Got the opportunity to 'interview' a pardoned turkey here in the Northern Neck for the newspaper this week (desperate for stories).

This organic 18-pounder wasn't so lucky:







Scott thinks his new oven is absolutely brilliant. Based on the results, I would have to agree.

I want I want I want

Per request - I have compiled a Christmas list for the Pierce Posse.
Scroll down to bottom of page and click on links to get ideas.

First kiss

Scott taught Sawyer to kiss.
It had never occurred to me that you had to 'teach' kissing. Maybe I'm just not Betty Crocker enough or something.
So, for a while there, Scott was the only one getting Sawyer kisses, or so he said. It was all fairy tale legend as far as I was concerned. Everytime he tried to show me - nothing. My kid doesn't perform on demand.
So, it struck me as odd when Sawyer came up to me recently while I was sitting on the floor with him, put his face very close to mine and started going "mmmmm."
My first reaction was to lean back: 'Dude, you're in my space. I need at least three inches and I can feel your breath.' (Definitely not Betty Crocker enough).
But - hit me over the head with a frying pan - I suddenly realized that Sawyer was trying to kiss me.
I leaned forward and pecked his pursed little lips. He followed up with the obligatory "mwoa" kissing sound and trotted off happily, leaving me in a melted puddle on the floor.

Siberia

Sawyer fire hat, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

A recent conversation between me and Sawyer:
WSP: carrying a shoe into living room; "Shoe."
Me: "Yes, that's a shoe."
WSP: holding shoe out toward me; "Shoe."
Me: Uh-huh. "Shoe."
WSP: shoving shoe into my face; "Shoe."
Me: "You are already wearing shoes Sawyer."
WSP: continuing to shove shoe in my face; "Shoe."
Me: taking shoe. "Thank you."
WSP: Walking away happily; "Tee Hoo."

Uh, does anybody else understand what just happened?

Baby

People often ask me whether Sawyer understands that I'm having a baby. For the last 7 months, the answer has been, no, he doesn't have the foggiest idea what a baby is or, for that matter, what a belly is. He certainly doesn't grasp the concept that there is a baby in my belly.
But, to my utter astonishment, Sawyer picked up my shirt the other day, pointed to my stomach and said, "baby."
I was so glad he didn't say, "too many donuts."

Country Boy takes on City Boyz

wsp slide 3, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

This is one of those photos that just captures everything I love about my son. He's timid, yet adventuresome; happy, even when he has a cold and looks dapper in flannel. At the park on Sunday, he was put to shame by the Tovsky twins who are obviously regulars (see photo of Chase below for proof). Not only have they mastered the slide, they understand that the swing is supposed to be fun, not torture. Sawyer got the hang of the slide, but he still needs some practice on the swing (as evidenced by the violent shaking and gripping fear).





















Here's some more great photos of the kids.

Too Much Panda

too much panda, originally uploaded by Reid Pierce.

Scott turned, gulp, 40 Friday and since I don't have a photo of him to post I thought I would share this photo he took at the zoo. He really wanted to do something special to celebrate, like buy a Harley and drive it across country or go City Slickers style and wrestle cattle on a range out west. He had to settle with a weekend in DC where we met up with the Tovskys of Philidelphia, Penn. and Randall-Kims of Reston, Va. I sent Scott to get a haircut in preparation for the big event, but the hairdresser must have forgotten to use scissors because he can still tuck his hair behind his ears (can you say mid-life crisis?). Then we put on the duds and headed out for the most expensive meal of our lives Friday night in Old Town at a place where the bar tender makes his own tonic and maraschino cherries and the chef sends you delectable "gifts" between each course. The entire meal took four hours to eat. The next day we took the kiddos on a trip to the National Zoo where we saw, among other things, pandas, hippos, elephants, zebras, gorillas, lions and monkeys. Sawyer was really into the whole experience and was able to pick out the animals, unlike our trip to the San Diego zoo when he was nine months old. My favorite was the lion that roared and looked like he might attack us at any moment. Sawyer's favorite was an anteater that ran across the glass cage right at his eye level. Scott's favorite was the gorilla in the window who kept puking and then slurping it back up over and over again. If we'd had a camera, Scott could have made a million dollars, or at least gotten a million hits on You Tube. Happy Birthday Babe. Maybe you'll get to lasso a bull on your 60th, after all, 60 is the new 40. More zoo photos here.

Brother

I love this recent post from my brother's perspective : Uncle Ross's Blog.