Category Archives: Children

Believe it or not, Summer is almost here

So the weather may not exactly scream Summer in Portland right now, but school will still be closing next week. Thomas’ last day of his first year of pre-school is next Tuesday and I am in a little bit of shock over how quickly it’s come, but how much we’ve progressed in such a short time.

Last September was tough – lots of crying and “mummy, I don’t want to stay heeeere….”, but we persevered. This morning as I drove Thomas to school as he talked to me about how much he loved going to school, sang songs to me in Japanese and talked excitedly about how he was going to play Star Wars with his best friend who he insists on referring to by his (very long) full name. He even walked into the classroom by himself without needing me to stand beside him as he answered the question of the day (sort of like a secret password). Thankfully he came running out of the room as I walked away because he’d forgotten to give me a hug. Glad to know he still needs a hug from Mummy.

Thanks to a September birthday, Thomas will be spending another year in pre-school and I am grateful for the extra year of socializing and playing and napping and snacking before the really serious work begins.

As a a farewell to the school year, I share a few of my recent P365 photos taken in the halls of the school that Thomas has come to love.

We catch the elevator every day and, of course, Thomas insists on pressing the buttons. I realize that walking down a flight of stairs would be less lazy but, honestly, this saves us precious time as we turn up late every single day. It’s something we’ll work on next year.

The aforementioned stairs in what is one of the oldest school buildings in our city.

And of course the boy who is growing up way too quickly. It’s a good thing he’s staying in pre-school for one more year. I don’t think I am emotionally ready for a kindergartener.

A Fascination With Feet

This week’s I ♥ Faces challenge is a special “barefoot” challenge to raise awareness for Souls 4 Souls. Thankfully I have a foot fetish of sorts in that I love taking pictures of feet (I was going to put that in the title but thought it might attract a different type of reader).

Given the weather in Portland lately (yawn, I know!), we have experienced many bare feet around here. In fact, our recent trip to the coast was more gumboot weather than bare foot weather.

Exhibit A:

It was also a little Lord of the Flies. Only one family in our group of six was blessed with girls and they were unable to make it at the last moment due to illness.

That left five families with eight boys between us – not including Dads of course. That’s a lot of testosterone in one location and not a tutu in sight. (Wow, if this post doesn’t attract at least a couple of questionable characters, I’ll be surprised).

I’ll be back with more photos from our mini-vacation soon, but for now I’ll share some more feet just for fun.

And if you get the chance, check out Souls 4 Souls and see how a small act can make a big difference.

Easter A Few Weeks Late: Mosaic Monday

Thomas was relieved to hear that the Easter Bunny would find us all the way across the other side of the world in Australia. Until he thought about it a little and  worried that E.B. might not make it to The States in time to deliver eggs to his friends. Of course the Easter Bunny has the same magical powers as Santa Claus, so when he understood this he was comforted enough that he could relax and enjoy the feeling that comes with the promise of chocolate.

On Easter morning, the boys woke up to dusty bunny footprints peppered around the kitchen and living room. The Easter bunny was kind enough to leave a chocolate wombat for each of the boys in a basket, but they were expected to work for the rest of the booty by searching for eggs around the house.

After a quick chocolate breakfast, It was Mummy and Auntie Emma’s turn to hide some eggs in the backyard. Thomas showed his competitive side by running around and grabbing as many as possible while Samuel had to be encouraged. I’m not sure he was fully aware of what lay inside the shiny foil wrappers.

It was so wonderful that my children were able to experience an Aussie Easter, complete with sunny skies (although I remember rainy camping trips at Easter in my childhood – must be the drought), chocolate Aussie animals (instead of bunnies) and, most of all, their Grandparents, Aunt and Uncle.

Side Note: I am aware that Easter was over and done about a month ago. It’s just taking me that long to get caught up on the photos I took during our vacation. And don’t get me started on my mother’s pleas to see the pictures I took of my brother’s wedding. They’re coming soon, I promise. It’s just that with work and pre-school and daycare and Kei’s school and everything that goes in to making sure my children are fed and clothed and in a (reasonably) clean house, I haven’t had time to sit and edit photos. Or even take many, for that matter. Yes, my P365 project has skipped a few days but I figure that, with the thousands of pics I took in Australia, I am more than making up for it.

Home Again..

We returned home about 7:30 last night after a marathon flight from Australia. Thankfully the return trip was a lot less eventful that our trip over (more on that soon). We’ve now had a chance to catch up on some sleep but I think we’re all going to suffer jetlag for a few days. Thomas finally went to sleep at around 12:30am after declaring many times that “NOTHING was working” to get him to sleep last night. (Turns out that singing “Hey Jude” helps. Must be the repetition of na na naaa nanana.) He woke the rest of us up at 11:30am. I’m a little nervous about bedtime tonight but hoping that the long sleep was more catching up than time adjustment.

You can judge by the lack of blog posts that internet access during our visit was not ideal – in fact I was completely offline for the last four days (gasp! horror!). Actually it was a nice break, but I am now ready to catch up on the more than 1000 blogs in my reader, many facebook messages and, of course, start posting on here again.

Now I just need to find a little time to download pics of our trip, including the very important photos from my brother Ben’s wedding. Needless to say it was beautiful and I basically cried from the moment I saw my new sister-in-law walk out in her dress to the very late ride home in the taxi to the hotel. What can I say? Weddings make me emotional (as does Oprah. I blame the new hormones I grew when I gave birth to my children).

Side note: I caught up on Lost last night before going to bed at around 2am so comments on key plot points are now allowed.

I’ll be back with more photos soon but in the meantime I’ll share some P365 pics that I took before our trip.

A few days before our trip I went on a mummy-son date with Thomas to see an original production of “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus” performed by the Northwest Children’s Theater. We caught a free early read-through of the play a couple of months ago so we were eager to see the fully-costumed version. It was a LOT of fun and I hope they are able to take the show on the road. Of course photos were not allowed in the theatre so I had to make do with a pic of the beautiful building. The theatre itself is over 120 years old and is just stunning.

Thomas wanted to take a little time for some drawing on the steps outside the theatre before we left. Part of the play required us to learn how to draw the pigeon and Thomas wanted to practice while it was still fresh in his mind.

We all went out for dinner on the Sunday night (starting our vacation early) and I broke out the wide angle lens. I rarely use this lens mainly because I am too lazy to change from the 50mm. Turns out that I miss the wonderfully distorted portraits that I can get with the wide angle. Must remind myself to switch lenses more often.

I’m also apparently to lazy to wipe Samuel’s mouth.

One of the last nights before our trip is well summed up with this photo – frantic and fast.  I’m not sure if there will ever be a time when I find myself prepared for an overseas trip days in advance of our departure. I was doing laundry to the last moment, dropping something off at the office (and leaving two of our passports there – LONG, traumatic story that was part of our eventful trip over) and shoving things into bags almost as we walked out the door. I’m dreaming of the day when the kids can do their own packing or, at the very least, keep themselves entertained while I do it for them.

So tomorrow we get back to reality – school, daycare and work. I’ll be back to post more after the jetlag lifts and I am able to emerge from a monsterous pile of laundry.

Catching Up: P365

It’s been a crazy busy week (funny, seems I say the same thing every week). The good news is that I have been maintaining my photo-a-day habit and have a few more to share.

The first one is from a dinner-date with my two boys while Kei was at school. It started off in the way the photo seems to suggest – all calm and peaceful. It ended with two boys running around a restaurant while I managed to inhale my dinner and then make a promise to myself that I would think twice before taking the boys out alone for dinner again.

I used a funky preset on this next photo (taken at work). I try to limit my use of presets that drastically change colours, because it is so easy to get carried away with them, but I really like the colour green that was brought out in this one and I am a huge fan of anything that will make ventian blinds look more interesting.

Driving home from a quick trip to Seattle for work – 3 hours up and four hours back thanks to terrible Seattle/Tacoma traffic. I think I took this photo about 3 hours into the return trip while I frantically searched the radio airwaves for anything that was not country or christian music. (apologies to fans of either genre – just not my thing). Isn’t it a human right that you be able to access NPR from anywhere in the country? Well, it should be.

Samuel and I had the rare opportunity to spend some time alone together. He baked me a cake out of plastic easter eggs and then made me sing “Happy Birthday” over and over again while I pretended to blow out the candles.

Dinner at the Japanese Izakaya again. I think that officially makes it twice in two weeks. The food was fabulous but the kids were difficult. I fear our days of eating out together as a family may have to take hiatis until the boys are… well… eighteen… I remember feeling this way with Thomas at around the same age that Samuel is now and, while it took us a little while, we did eventually work up the courage to venture out of the house to eat again.

Back with more soon. I have some more catching up to do.

Feeling Poorly

We had all been doing so well and seemed to have avoided many of the illnesses that have been rampant over the past couple of months. Sadly, though, this new epidemic has hit three out of the four of us so Thomas, Samuel and I have been home today. Of course, given that I am sick I haven’t been the best caretaker. We went to the doctor this morning and have one confirmed ear infection. The rest of the day has been spent trying to track down our prescription (still don’t have it), napping and watching a lot of TV.

I am also behind in posting my P365 photos so I have quite a few to share from the past week.

Taking advantage of the warm weather with a walk to the park on the weekend.

And what’s a weekend without a visit to Ikea? This time we picked up a run and some cushions for a little reading area we have planned for our freshly painted landing upstairs.

And Kei is clearly happy about the purchases – or his cheap Ikea lunch.

My three (hilarious) children.

The kids have been taking showers while our downstairs bathroom is being painted a beautiful shade of chocolate brown. OK, it doesn’t sound beautiful but trust me, it is very spa-like and sophisticated – and much more attractive than the lavender walls and pale yellow ceiling than the previous tenants decided to bestow on us. It only took us four years to change it…

I’m not sure why I like this photo so much. It’s clearly out of focus and the framing is all wrong, but there’s something about the way Samuel is covering his face and Thomas’ smile in the background that I just love.

I’m not sure how many Star Wars figures Thomas now owns but it feels like they are taking over the house and he keeps asking for more. I guess he just needs enough to make a conga line.

I took the day off today to look after my sick children and my sick self – although every mother reading this will know how impossible that is. First thing in the morning we headed to a clinic for an ear infection diagnosis and a couple of prescriptions. That was the quick part. It then took us another couple of hours to find out that we couldn’t get the prescriptions – 30 minutes of which we spent hanging out in the toy section of Fred Meyer while Thomas picked out the things he MUST have for his birthday. Of course September means nothing to a four year old.

As for Samuel, he saw the ball aisle and it took everything in my power to prevent him from picking up every single one and announcing “ball!”.

Kei finally picked up the prescription at about 5:30pm after another 30 minute wait and about three more phone calls but, after Thomas asked for a second dose of ear drops, I realize that the wait was probably worth it to ensure a pain-free sleep for my babies.

Here’s hoping everyone is able to go back to daycare and school tomorrow and that we’re fully recovered by the weekend so we can really relax and enjoy it.

Car Boot Diaper Changes, Old School Buses and a Grown Up Night Out

This week was busy – crazy busy. For 7 months I have been on the planning committee for the 2010 Portland Iron Bartender Event and our hard work all paid off on Thursday night. I will have more photos to share as soon as I have a moment or two to edit them.

But before the Iron Bartender, I had to get through the week… Here are my P365 photos.

On Sunday we made a pilgrimage to the Japanese grocery store to stock up on noodles, sake, saba (mackerel) and natto. I would have loved to take some photos of the rows of shelves stocked with my favourite foods but a little sign out front said no photo or video and I’m too chicken to break the rules.

Instead I resorted to a picture of Samuel waiting in the boot (trunk) of the car for his diaper to be changed while I was rained on. The trunk of the car seemed more practical than squeezing myself into a public bathroom that may (or may not) have had a changing table. Samuel didn’t seem to mind.

I spotted an old school bus after my impromptu playground photo session on Monday. It gave me the perfect opportunity to play around with a few vintage photo edits.

Have I mentioned how much I love Ikea? One of our latest purchases was a couple of ghost night lights – so cute!

I pick Thomas up from school every day and every day we make the same walk down this long corridor to the car. It’s where we begin our “tell me about your day” conversation that often continues in the car. My commute home each day takes a long time now that I make this extra stop – anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes – but I never get tired of the extra time that Thomas and I have together.  The way he talks sometimes is so grown up that I forget that he has only been on the planet for four years.

One of the Iron Bartender competitors from Thursday night. It took me a long time to choose one photo from the 300 or so that I took over the course of the evening, but this one captures the vibe. So much fun! I’ll post more photos from the event soon.

Samuel got an owie at school yesterday, right above his eye. He has been so clumsy lately that I suspect he is having a growth spurt. Samuel is taking it in stride but I am a nervous wreck.

Making Our Own Fun

Kei and I bought each other a new TV and Blu Ray player for Christmas. Which meant we were able to give away our 150 pound tube TV and regain our peace of mind now that there is no longer the danger of it falling on one of our children. Not to mention the fact that I am ecstatis that we never have to move that thing again. I shiver to think about the time we nearly dropped it pulling it out of the back our rented station wagon the day we bought it.

A new TV also meant a trip to Ikea – because a sleek, shiny, sparkly flat screen is just calling out for a piece of minimalist, hard-to-assemble, swedish furniture.

I. Love. Ikea. I have been known to visit on one of my rare days off without a real purpose – to simply browse the many aisles of the “marketplace”. I dream of a day when I can visit without my children and, ok, and my husband, whining and crying to leave.

Good thing they have play areas for the kids every few feet, although it did slow down the shopping experience somewhat.

After about 2 hours of browsing and lunch and more browsing, we finally made it to the labyrinth. We were close to naptime so while Kei searched for our box of unassembled goodness, I managed to keep the kids entertained by chasing them up and down one of the aisles.

Our Ikea trek was on a Sunday (one of the worst days to visit the store) so this was literally  the only square footage that was not crammed with people.

We kept this up for about 20 minutes. It’s amazing how easy it is to keep those boys entertained when there is limitless room to  scream and laugh and run without running into other people.

So in summary, these are some of the highlights of  my life at 34 – a new TV that makes up for the fact that I rarely see movies in a theatre anymore, dreaming of three hours uninterrupted in a furniture store, lunch for under $4 (!) and chasing two little boys until they are exhausted enough to take a nice long nap.

Not bad at all. 🙂

Sweet Dreams

My latest photo challenge entry for the I ♥ Faces photo blog.

This week’s challenge is Sweet Dreams

Although I do have to mention that there were not many sweet dreams in this house last night. Samuel is sick and woke up almost every hour. I am sick and took some medication, which made getting up with Samuel difficult – although Kei definitely pulled his weight there. Thomas apparently had a bad dream and so ended up in our bed (ALWAYS my side) at 4am. He slept soundly for a little while and then began kicking and wriggling so I walked him back to his own bed after about an hour.

So I suppose this weeks photo challenge was chosen to torture me and remind me of a time when people actually did sleep around here… 🙂