Author Archives: Nicole

P365 DAY 338 – DECEMBER 4th 2008


Thomas really “gets” Christmas this year. He understands the concept of Santa and, thanks to the old “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” movie, Thomas now knows everything there is to know about the man in red. (and Kei is totally cashing in on the “Santa doesn’t bring presents for naughty boys” thing). 

A couple of days ago he showed me the contraption in the photo above. It’s the bottom half of his Duplo helicopter which has a pulley attached underneath. Now it’s a sleigh, with Santa sitting on top and a “reindeer” pulling it through the sky. Genius. As a result we’ve been playing “Santa” for the past week or so. A welcome change from The Wiggles.

The only downside is that a regular present delivery schedule has left toys spread all over the house.

P365 DAY 337 – DECEMBER 3rd 2008

Thomas developed a taste for “chocolate milk” while we were in Australia. Not just any chocolate milk – good old Aussie Milo. And we found a store that sells it in Portland so we now have a permanent local source for Thomas’ sugar fix.

P365 DAY 336 – DECEMBER 2nd 2008

Kei usually puts Thomas to bed at night while I look after Samuel and, honestly, I think putting him to bed is a skill. This kid has become so manipulative. I used to be able to stop him at three books but the other night he managed to stretch that to five (pleeeeease). Then he asked for some water, had a bad dream and at one point stood at his door and said it was time to get up and he just wanted to have some “quiet time” in the playroom. Time I started putting him to bed: 7:00. Time he finally went to sleep: 9:15.

P365 DAY 335 – DECEMBER 1ST 2008

Samuel has not been sleeping well. It’s probably too much information, but the poor kid has been a little backed up. His tummy has been hurting him at night and I finally got tired of walking up the stairs to soothe him every 10 minutes so I lay him down on a blanket on the floor. Perfect opportunity to take some photos of him while he’s sleeping.

P365 DAY 334 – NOVEMBER 30TH 2008

Another weekend and another birthday party (how did we get so many friends with children?). This time it was Garrett’s first birthday which meant a lot of kids squeezed into a small playing area = chaos.

Of course there were presents – LOTS of presents. I didn’t have the heart to tell Brenda (Garrett’s Mother) that he probably won’t play with half of them. There’s such a thing as too many toys. Over stimulation. We gave Garrett a book – it’s become my thing. People expect a book from the Ishidas now.

Our friends Corey and Jen were there – the same people from Thanksgiving a couple of days before. It was the perfect opportunity to retrieve all the items we had left at their house when we were there for dinner. Forgetting things has also become my thing.

It was difficult to truly capture the chaos of many toddlers and babies on a small rectangle of carpet with my 50mm lens – but I tried. You’ll have to take my word for it.

P365 DAY 333 – NOVEMBER 29TH 2008

 

I don’t know… do you think he’s teething? Nothing poking through yet but he’s definitely on the verge. He’s also been sick and constipated which all adds up to very little sleep in the Ishida house – at least for me and Samuel.

Yes – I’m talking about you kiddo.

P365 DAY 332 – NOVEMBER 28TH 2008

In hindsight, it was probably a little crazy, but Kei and I decided to take the boys to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland. We should have expected it to be crowded. It was mild and dry evening in Portland which is a rare event in November so it seemed most of the city was out to see them flick the switch on a 50 foot Douglas Fir. It was a nice family event though and something fun to help get us in the spirit.

Warning – low light means blurry photos but I think it contributes to the atmosphere.

We took the Max (light rail) to avoid having to find (and pay for) parking.

Did you know that it’s perfectly acceptable to park your stroller in the handicapped space? It’s true! Ok, maybe not, but the train was practically empty. Really.

Thomas had to ride on Kei’s shoulders to see Santa and I held Samuel as long as I could before I handed him off for Kei to carry him in the Bjorn. That kid is heavy! The result was a daddy who was definitely carrying his share of the load. 

I should mention that the tree was lit just after 6pm so we were there from about 5:30. It’s very dark at 5:30. In fact it’s now dark at 4:00. Sad, but true.

Downtown Portland is so pretty at night, especially at this time of the year. I have to make a point of going back sometime soon to take more photos.

This is what we were waiting for – the top quarter of it anyway. Thomas was most excited about the star on top of the tree “It’s yellow mummy! I like yellow”.

Christmas. The Gifts Are Done.

How did Christmas sneak up on me so fast? It’s not fair to have Thanksgiving as a floating holiday. If it was on a set date I would be prepared, but having it just four weeks before Christmas this year, totally threw me.

So…I am a little late with printing my scrapbook. It’s supposed to arrive late next week and then I have to ship one copy to Australia and one to Japan. Mail was fast last year, but not sure if it was that fast.

Nevertheless, here are the final products. The scrapbook is going to my mother and mother-in-law and the baby book is a gift for Samuel (and myself).

Stories of 2008

Samuel Baby Book

I used the Paislee Press Happy as a Lark album for the baby book. It was such a quick and easy solution as I love the results. Such a modern, simple design.

I am also avoiding the scrapbook page guilt this year – you know, the feeling you get when you don’t scrap every great photo you have? In addition to my scrapbook, I am printing a photo book with the results of my photo-a-day project. Of course that won’t be printed until next year so I can get through December. So far I’ve uploaded and organized photos through the end of October but I still ahve to go back and add text to some of the pages. That’s where my blog posts are going to come in handy. 🙂

I have one additional treat for my family (also photo related) but that one’s going to have to wait until after christmas on the off chance one of my brothers drops by this blog.

Off to wait patiently for the mailman.

Nicole

 

Dreams…and Facebook

No, not the kind where you aspire for something great. The kind where you are having intermittent sleep thanks to a sick baby and your brain heads off into very strange places during the few moments of shut eye.

Last night I dreamed about my ex boyfriend’s family. My ex boyfriend died many years ago and I actually kept in touch with his dad and step mum for a few years after the event. I have not thought about them for a very long time so it was weird when I had a dream that they were on Facebook – yes, Facebook. So of course this morning I wasted a good hour or two looking them up on Facebook. The 7 year old sister is now in college (class of ’10!!) and it was so weird to see her as an adult.

Of course this little trip down memory lane led me to look up a few other people from my past – specifically a group of guys from high school. These were my boyfriend’s friends but became mine due to the fact that I spent every hour of the day with my boyfriend – watching them play video games, hanging out and drinking, smoking pot… yes, I did it a couple of times but it made me so antisocial and stuck in my own head that I didn’t partake very often. And it was much more acceptable in Australia than it is in the US.

It was interesting to find out little tidbits of information about these people – at least two are living in London, another has a child in his profile picture – but the big question is this… Do I open that door and invite them to be my friends? Do I want these people, who I have not spoken to in about 12 years, to have access to information about my life right now?

I am so completely different from who I was (my last name alone will mean a detailed message in my invite) but I am happy with where I am right now. And there’s part of me that wants to share that with people who knew me when I was a teenager. There’s also a very nosy part of me that wants to know what everyone else is doing. Is this person married? Did that person do what they thought they would?

I don’t know… Anyone else had good or bad experiences linking up with people through Facebook?

P365 DAY 331 – NOVEMBER 27th 2008

This year we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our friends Jen and Corey. I like to call it an orphan Thanksgiving where the Ishidas were adopted for a day. Jen’s parents were also there along with Jen and Corey’s two boys – three year old Riley and three month old Colin.

Jen cooked the turkey perfectly and Corey made the sides. I was asked to bring a green salad and I made sure it was a GREAT salad. We also had some cranberries from our organics delivery so I made fresh cranberry sauce for the very first time. My contribution was small but memorable.

It was wonderfully relaxing and a great opportunity to catch up with some friends that we usually see only in large groups amongst the noise and chaos of about 10 kids. It was also very dark which is why I was only able to get one or two photos – including this rather sweet one of Jen’s mother with her newest grandchild.