Category Archives: Children

Growing Pains

For this week’s I Heart Faces photo challenge of “smirk” I chose a little photo I found hidden on my hard drive. I just love that this picture shows Thomas enjoying his favorite drink – hot chocolate, of course – while we spent a few moments together, just the two of us. We’ve been doing a lot of talking lately and this photo is the perfect reminder of how calm those moments can be without the distraction of toys and TV and little brothers.

We are now back in the full swing of preschool with rushed mornings of trying to get out the door in time to avoid the dreaded “tardy slip”. Thomas is in a new class with a new teacher this year. About a third of his class is returning for their second year of preschool while the rest are new. Despite the fact that I thought this might make the transition back to school a little easier, it seems to be the returning kids who are having the most difficult time adjusting. On one day early last week, I found myself standing at the back of the classroom with four other parents who were trying to peel their crying children from their legs and I realized that we were all here for our second year – the first year kids were quietly sitting on the mat listening to the teacher. I suppose the effect of having a bunch of new four year olds invading your space can’t be underestimated.

I was offered another glimpse into Thomas’ mind while we were talking over dinner late last week. He said to me “Mummy, do you worry?” and I said “Yes, sometimes. Do you worry?” “Yes, I worry that no one will want to sit with me at school and that I’ll be all on my own.” So then we went into a conversation about how the other kids are probably worrying about the exact same thing and waiting for him to come and sit next to them.

I love it that he’s growing up and becoming more and more able to express his thoughts and feelings, but I hate it that he has to start worrying about things already. Shouldn’t you at least be able to make it to first grade without these stresses? I supposed I assumed that we would have a few more years of that childlike innocence that everyone talks about.

I hope this is the only time he sits in a Police car

This week’s I heart faces challenge is “vroom vroom” and so I immediately thought about this photo I took a few weeks ago at our Neighborhood Association block party/meeting. The police dropped by to fill us in on the happenings in the neighborhood and let the boys take turns sitting in the police car. He stopped short of putting on the siren, but allowed them to push a few buttons and hold the steering wheel. It was very exciting moment for them (ok, and I may have been a little interested as well).

Here’s an unsolicited tip – don’t go to a neighborhood association meeting unless you want to know all about every single crime that could potentially affect you or your home – especially when you live in an urban area like we do. Now, for better or for worse, I know about every burglary, shooting and petty crime in the neighborhood and have been obsessively checjking the locks on all our doors and windows. Sometimes too much information is not necessarily a good thing.

Wordless Wednesday: Goodbye Summer

More words coming soon. For now I bid a fond (hopefully premature) adieu to Summer as the Portland rain moves in.

All photos taken on the iphone with hipstamatic – it’s an addiction.

Shades Of Some Sort

OK, so these are not officially shades but I just couldn’t bring myself to post a photo of Samuel in his freebie orange pampers sunglasses (the pair we got with his swim diapers). Let’s just say that I thought this photo was a little more classy for the latest I heart faces photo challenge “gotta wear shades”.

This past weekend was our first really hot weekend of the summer and my little water baby in the photo above showed his love of the sun by spending most of the weekend in the blow up pool in the backyard. My other baby (the almost 5-year-old one) showed his love for the hot weather by getting wet under a water spray at the baseball and then taking off all of his clothes. I wonder if you can get away with that after you turn five…

A Record of Favourites

It’s been a little since I’ve taken out my camera to simply record our everyday lives so on Sunday, the first day of August, I decided to record each of my boys’ favourite things – right at that moment.

Samuel – Frozen blueberries. When this child finds a food that he likes he really latches onto it. This month is frozen blueberries, Trader Joes turkey meatballs and watermelon (when I remember to buy it). Diapers have not been much fun.

Thomas – Star Wars (as if there was any question). We went to Target on Sunday and he was literally jumping up and down with excitement when he saw the figurine that he REEEEEEAAAALLY wanted. Thankfully he had enough money in the piggybank to cover it. We’re planning a trip to the local Star Wars store in the next couple of weeks where he will be free to choose his own birthday present – with a spending limit, of course.

Oh, wait! I have one more boy with a favourite thing. This was totally unplanned, but when Kei asked me to take a photo of his brand new golf club (yawn!) I realized how perfectly it fit with my theme of the day.

So I present my other boy with his brand new toy…

This weekend includes a meeting with friends about a charity golf tournament that is near and dear to my heart (I plan to share details soon), a get together with a couple of fellow pre-school parents, a desperately-needed visit to the hair salon, a Japanese festival and a little R&R (if I can fit it in). Bring on Friday afternoon!

Purple

It’s funny how Monday’s are so much easier to deal with after a fulfilling weekend. Mine was packed with a special photowalk at an amusement park (at 5:30am!), a fun five-year-old pool party where we discovered our little water baby (Samuel – we’ll take you to the pool again soon, promise!) and a wonderful pot luck get together with good friends. And to top it all off, I have downloaded the first episode of Mad Men. Sometimes Monday’s aren’t so bad.

This week’s I ♥ Faces photo challenge is “Purple” and, well, there’s not a lot of purple in my world. I have never been a very big fan of the hue and, with two boys, purple does not make much of an appearance in our closets.

So to meet the challenge, I unashamedly borrow the daughter of a good friend who has declared purple to be her favorite color – right down to the specially chosen first pair of glasses.

Now off to watch Mad Men. I’ll be back with photos from my weekend adventure soon.

Playing

This week’s I ♥ Faces challenge is all about play – not something we are short on in our house. I didn’t fully appreciate how powerful the concept of play is to a child until I gave birth to my own. Thomas can actually get very upset when he doesn’t feel as though he has a chance to play – although admittedly his distress is strongest when this realization happens to coincide with bedtime.

This week’s photo was taken on our recent group family trip to Netarts on the Oregon Coast. It’s always wonderful (and a little frightening) to watch the boys interact with other children their own age – especially children that they don’t see on a regular basis. It’s fascinating to see the different personalities shine through as you observe them playing together (or alone, as Thomas likes to do on occasion), watching them resolve conflicts (sometimes with parental involvement) and just generally enjoy each others company in a completely neutral location, rather than at someone’s house.

I was reviewing photos of our trip when we returned home and, when Samuel saw this one he was horrified and exclaimed “Oh No!”. How dare that other child touch his face! I adore the colours in this photo and the way Samuel is looking directly at the camera as if to say, calmly, “Mum, why is he doing this to me?”