Love Letters From My Child and Other P365 Adventures

Sometimes I really wish I was in Australia for the beginning of project 365. I really miss the natural light in this dark, dreary Portland winter. I leave for work in the dark and I get home in the dark, so I consider myself lucky if I am able to catch a worthwhile picture or two in between. Good thing I have a persistant attitude and plenty of stubbornness on my side.

Thomas brings home a ton of papers each week. Some of them are just tracings of letters (English and Japanese) while others are works of art worth keeping in the special portfolio that we bought for the purpose.

And then there are the few pieces of work that deserve pride of place on my cube wall at work. This one is officially the first love letter from my four year old, complete with hand-drawn love heart. Of course when I asked him to read it to me, he explained that he was most proud of the penguin sticker in the middle.

On Sunday we searched for things to do outside the house during the seemingly endless downpour. Sadly, hanging out at the mall was the only thing we could come up with that was free and, at the same time, allowed us to run a few errands. This little guy is one of the resident dogs that sit in the counter at the place where I get my shoes repaired. He was cute and the kids loved him. I am still resisting adding a furry addition to our family though. Stay strong Nicole.

Kei I bought a light reflector with part of the gift certificate we received from his sister for Christmas (thanks Mary). I won’t go into detail about how much effort it took me to get Thomas to stand next to the reflector so I could take a test shot. Let’s just say that four year olds are not the most cooperative of photo subjects – I think I may have even bribed him – and I didn’t even try it with Samuel. It was good test nonetheless, but I think I’ll save future use for objects other people’s children.

Tonight at bath time. I was home by myself and grateful that the boys were enjoying each other’s company. In fact they were having so much fun that I eventually had to drag them out of the bath. I won’t even begin to explain the trauma I went through to get their pajamas on.

Oh, and on the winter darkness depression thing, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve booked a trip home to Australia – and one with a wedding no less. Can’t wait for the photo opps!

At 20 months Samuel is…

…stubborn, demanding, frustrating and loud. But he is also adorable, chatty, smart, funny and affectionate. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the latter when he’s driving me crazy with the more challenging aspects of his personality. I can definitely say there is never a dull moment with Samuel around. Just a few things I want to remember:

Kisses – He LOVES to give big wet sloppy kisses and ‘uggs (Hugs). I love it that he won’t let me leave the house in the morning without a kiss.
Words – Samuel has a LOT of them. Tonight he said “Thomas! Brush. Teeth. Now.”
Adoration – for his big brother Thomas. He now asks (OK, demands) Thomas to play with him. It’s adorable.
Independence – I know he probably gets it from his mother but it can be a little much sometimes – especially when I am trying to brush his teeth.
Cheekiness – The kid knows how charming he is, and plays it to his best advantage.

I played around a little with textures for the latest challenge for

I don’t use textures very often, but I really like the effect it had on this photo. Ignore the obnoxious hat. I was hoping it would disappear after Thomas was done with it, but it’s amazing sometimes how lost items resurface when you have two curious boys despite your best efforts to hide them.

A Few Favourites from 2009

I prepared a post on Thursday night (yes, New Years Eve – what else did you think I’d be doing?). It included a whole bunch of favorite photos from the year and I had it prepped to post on Friday morning… or at least I thought I did. Seems the post has vanished into thin air. So I’ll try again and this will post a couple of days after the new year and will lose the poignancy of all the other “happy 2010” blog posts, but I can live with it if you can.

Here are just a few of my favorite family photos from 2oo9.

Looking forward to 2010 with more experiences, memories and, of course, more photos.

Scenes from Christmas

OK – we’re coming up on a week after Christmas and I think there’s something illegal about Christmas posts after January 1st, so I am going to post a few photographic highlights to officially bring an end to the season.

Decorating the tree.

And the house.

Relaxing on a sunny (but cold) Christmas eve.

Leaving cookies out for Santa – with a little message.

And of course the fun of opening the goodies and playing with some new toys on Christmas day. Our house is now overrun by dinosaurs.

Other highlights not captured in photographs:

Packages from Japan, Australia and Ohio that arrived just in time to much excitement. Great mail day.
Catching up with the cousins in Ohio via webcam
Taking some time to say hi to the Grandparents in Australia on their boxing day.
Sunshine streaming in through the windows to naturally light the tree ornaments.
A yummy dinner of prime rib with green beans, mashed potato and carrots – even Thomas and Samuel ate their veggies, although Kei was not feeling well so it ended up being dinner for three. (Kei enjoyed it later).

All in all a wonderfully relaxing family Christmas day. Now, excuse me while I search for some dinosaur storage solutions.

Letting it go…almost

Christmas is over for another year, but I am so far behind in posting photos that the christmas-themed posts will likely continue this week. I will try and post one per day so I can begin the new year refreshed and free of twinkly lights and creepy little elves that watch your every move.

One of my goals for this year to was to do at least one family thing each week that would help get us into the Christmas spirit. These ranged from simple things like watching a holiday movie (can’t wait until Thomas is old enough to appreciate Elf) and decorating the tree to larger family outings like our ride on The Polar Express and, in this instance, a visit to The Grotto for the annual Christmas Festival of Lights.

Thankfully the Portland winter has been kind to us so far this year and we were able to browse the grounds in relative comfort… well except for the crowds of people who shared the experience with us.

Nevertheless it was a fun family Christmas outing and I got my fill of pretty lights for the year – and, of course, many photos of the pretty lights.

Wearing Pajamas and Meeting Santa

In October (yes, October) I purchased tickets for the Polar Express. I am not ashamed to say that I was more excited than my kids to take part in this new Christmas tradition. And I was even clever enough to purchase tickets for a trip in early enough in December to avoid possible weather cancellation. In fact the week after we took our trip they closed down the freeway for a couple of days due to ice.

The day we took our trip on the Polar Express, though, it was unseasonably sunny. So much so that taking photographs was a challenge – well, beyond the usual challenges of two unwilling participants.

This is Samuel saying “go away!”

Kids wear their pajamas on the Polar Express, just like they do in the book and movie. It was the perfect (and rare) opportunity to dress them up in their flannel pajamas and little dressing gowns (or bath robes in American).

Int he process of dressing them I realized I may have the cutest kids on the planet (and I know every mother thinks that).

Ignore the obnoxious Wiggles hat. He has a much cuter hat that he never wears but I’m choosing my battles.

We left in (I thought) plenty of time, but ended up arriving about only 10 minutes before the train left. I hate being late and that last 30 minutes in the car was tense.

But we did make it and quickly found our seats. Samuel refused to take off his coat for the first 30 minutes or so.

And then the fun began. First, some hot chocolate and cookies. (I only managed to get a shot of the back of one of the servers).

And the story was read over the speakers. I came prepared with our own copy of the book to follow along but left it in the car in our mad rush to get to the train.

How did a photo of me get in there?

After about 45 minutes we reached the North Pole and there was someone familiar there to greet us.

He boarded the train and went around greeting each child.

Mine were a little freaked out by the whole experience and refused to sit on this strange man’s lap. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Each child received a bell as a gift.

After some carol singing and another hour or so, we arrived back at the station. It turned out to be about 15 minutes longer than perfect, with the kids starting to become a little stir crazy.

As we walked back to the car for the long drive home, it really felt like Christmas had come for the Ishidas.

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. 🙂

Lighting the Tree

Last year we braved downtown Portland for the big tree lighting. It seemed doable given that one child was immobile and we felt we could contain the other. It was fun, but not something we felt comfortable tackling this year so we tried something new and attended a tree lighting in a local neighbourhood… well, almost. We were actually eating dinner in a restaurant next door when they flipped the switch. Never mind, though. Apparently the outlet was easily accessible to children so a toddler managed to switch the lights off a little later in the evening and we were able to experience the tree lighting all over again.

But, just like last year, I was able to get a bunch of blurry, Christmas tree-illuminated photos.

The only difference between this year and last was that the tree was a little smaller and we were surrounded by lots of great friends.

Oh, and that apparently my oldest child was having far too much of a good time to stay still for many photos. Here he is checking out some lights in a pet shop window with his friend Liam. I don’t think they were even Christmas lights.

And my attempt at a group shot. I waited too long – some of the kids had already left and one was overtired and not interested in having her photo taken.

This was the beginning of our Christmas celebrations. Coming up next, a ride on the Polar Express – really!

Ducks!

As we approached the rhodedendrun garden, it occurred to me that our last visit was when Samuel was just a couple of weeks old. Such is the life of a second child. By the time Thomas was Samuel’s age he had been to the zoo numerous times, fed the ducks at least a couple and seen so many fun, interesting things. Not that he remembers any of it of course.

Samuel, on the other hand, was in awe of the waterfall. Poor kid has never seen a waterfall. I blame it on the sheer effort it takes to get two kids out the door.

He was all about feeding the ducks of course. We had the inevitable fight over the bags of duck food and who got to throw the most. Thomas used up his bag early and tried to get in on some of Samuel’s stash. Samuel responded with loud screeches. That kid is no pushover.

It took him a while, but he eventually learned how to get the food in the water, instead of at his feet, on his clothes, on his father…

And the entire time, I looked through the camera viewfinder and prayed that I wouldn’t end up in duck poop infested water fishing out one of my children.

It seems the squirrels at this park are well fed and not in the least bit afraid of people. I took this photo immediately before the enormous squirrel tried to carry my child away. OK, maybe not, but he did try to get some imaginary food out of Samuel’s hand.

And then, fo course, it was time for a snack. And a game of keep the food away from the squirrels. Thomas did his part by roaring at them whenever they came close. The squirrels had little fear, though, and almost took off with Samuel’s PB&J.

Finally, after the duck food was gone (and much Purell was dished out), we headed home. A beautiful day in the park and a good day for ducks – and squirrels.

Pretty in Pink – Portland, OR Family Photographer

Regular readers of this blog will know about how much I covet the color pink. In a house full of boys, I am surrounded by blue and red and brown – no pink.

So when I had the opportunity to photograph our good friends who seem to be single-handedly keeping the female population alive, I was secretly hoping for just a little splash of the good stuff. This is what I got…

Heavenly.

We started the shoot indoors where I managed to get a few photos before a four year old ran out of patience and we decided to take it outside.

After we got there, though, she turned into the perfect little model.

And look at this adorable face.

We headed to the park for a little fun. Late November photo shoots in Portland are risky to say the least. Thankfully we found an hour between rain showers – and even some dry swings.