Innovation...

I am married to a very unique problem solver.

To say that Reece thinks outside the box would be an exaggerated understatement. His tendency to seek out quirky solutions started at a very young age. As soon as he learned to talk, he would yell for his mom when he was ready to get out of his crib. If his mom wouldn't come, he exchanged the word "mom" for "Cyndi," her first name.

Needless to say, that got her attention.

When he was a little older, he, like most children, hated practicing the piano. But unlike most children, he went to extreme lengths to avoid it. As the sound of perfectly rehearsed music filled the house one day, Reece's dad went to the basement to praise Reece for his excellent practice session. Instead of a boy at the piano, he found a boy playing video games. The source of the music? A tape player with a recording of Reece playing the piano.

Our first Christmas as a married couple, we lived in a small basement apartment in Provo. We knew we would be moving to Salt Lake City at the end of the month, and both agreed it would not be practical to bring in a tree. Though I didn't admit it, I was secretly devastated. Reece picked up on that fact and decorated the pole that kept our ceiling from crashing down on top of us. When I got home from work that day, he couldn't wait to show me our "Christmas Pole."



That same year, we returned from a trip to San Diego to find a clogged toilet. We searched high and low, only to discover we did not own a plunger. So Reece covered his hands and arms in Saran wrap, grabbed a frisbee and went to work.



I could go on, but I must get to the latest of his antics.

Early into our long, torturous drive from St. George to Provo this weekend, we began to notice a signature "Lola Special" wafting from the general direction of her diaper. After a long battle, the child had just fallen asleep and there was no way I was going to wake her up to rectify the situation. We plugged our noses and drove on until we reached my sister's apartment, where Reece changed perhaps the most offensive diaper we have experienced up to this point. The thing weighed close to 20 pounds. I will keep the description at that.

But what to do with it? There were no dumpsters in sight, but we couldn't keep it in our car for fear it would kill us all before we got back to the freeway.

Reece looked at the diaper, then looked at me. With the face. The one he makes before he is about to do something he knows I won't approve of. It was at that moment I realized how he was going to dispose of the bomb.

Before I could call out to stop him, he turned towards my sister's building, took a step forward and threw it into the tree right next to her window.

If I didn't think it was so funny, I would have killed him.

So that's that.