Category Archives: Motherhood

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.

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.

P365 Days 11 through 16

I begin today’s P365 post with another plug for the Iron Bartender Charity event

The event is next Thursday, Jan 21st. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I have it on good authority that there are some fabulous raffle baskets up for grabs. You can buy tickets at the door if you attend. I’m talking about Sunriver vacations, a starter wine cellar, a kayaking trip and some swee-eeet Blazers tickets (my husband will definitely have his eyes on those).

You can purchase tickets here. Plug over. 🙂

I took this P365 photo at our last meeting at the Doug Fir bar in Portland. Very low light so my ISO was cranked way up and it resulted in a lot of camera noise, but I think it’s pretty nonetheless.

Avert your eyes if you’re uncomfortable with potty talk. Yes, we have begun potty training with number two (no pun intended). He said he wanted to pee and then went and sat down and…well…did. Two nights in a row. He was so proud of himself, although he hasn’t done it since. I have my fingers crossed that the second child really is more advanced with this particular skill.

Samuel enjoying an afternoon snack. This kid spends a lot of his time eating so you’ll likely see more of these types of photos during the year. I like how it looks like he was caught in the act.

A little naked playtime after bathtime. Boy, Samuel is really going to hate me for this post in a few years.

Happy year of the tiger. We enjoyed a little taiko drumming and traditional mochi pounding (pictured) at an event at Thomas’ school. I am embarrassed to admit that I did not know that mochi was made out of just rice and water until a couple of nights ago. I still don’t like it although, with the speed that Thomas swallowed the mochi sample, I predict a visit the Japanese grocery store in our future.

And then today. This was the calm before the storm when the boys enjoyed a rare moment of playing nicely together at Barnes and Noble before we took a trip to doctor’s office. I took them for their swine flu vaccination and let’s just say that the older and more aware they get, the harder it becomes to jab them with a needle. Thomas insisted that Samuel go first – and then he cried. Loudly. Then it was Thomas’ turn and who can blame him for not wanting to endure the same experience. Nevertheless, I held him down (yes, traumatic for mama) and he was jabbed. And then he cried too until the nurse gave them both a cookie to help ease the pain. After the tears had subsided a little, Thomas declared that he didn’t want to go back to the doctor ever again. Good thing his birthday and annual checkup is not for another 9 months.

This P365 is a Hodge Podge

Thomas in the bath. He’s always had very long lashes and he inherited them from me. His father can claim the hair, eyes, nose, skin tone and…well.. everything else. I’m clinging to the eyelashes.

This was inspired by a photo I saw on another blog. I just love the red against the white tile. Of course our house is currently being overrun by dinosaurs so it wasn’t difficult to find a subject to photograph. The hard part was deciding between the triceratops , the anchylosaur or the brontosaurus. I love that Samuel calls them simply “Suarus”.

I just love it when little girls wear fairy princess dresses for no other reason than that they want to be fairy princesses for the evening. This one was also wearing her brand new ballet shoes.

I won an award – Not quite an oscar or a Golden Globe, but nearly as prestigious. This was a Jenny Sizzler Golden Facebook award. A couple of my friends play in a band and we take the kids along to see them once a month at a local pizza place. It’s very family friendly and a great night out – especially since it starts at 6pm and includes an easy dinner. On Friday night the band handed out their inaugural Facebook awards for, I guess, people who spend way too much time on Facebook. I guess that’s why I won third place. It’s a small honor, but I am definitely worthy.

We went to the Portland Japanese gardens today – our first visit in about five years. I forgot how calm and serene it is (apart from the children calling Mummy and Daddy every two seconds – oh wait, they were my children). Every time I see a garden like this, it inspires me to grow bonsai and rake rocks. If only it weren’t so high maintenance…

More Japanese garden photos coming soon. I may use them for my Mosaic Monday post this week.

I just realized how many of my photos in this post were in a vertical format. Very unusual for me, but it shows me that I should tilt the camera more often.

A Surprise Snowy Day in Portland

Just before the end of the year, Portland decided to surprise us with a 24 hour snowstorm. Thankfully I was working from home and didn’t have to suffer through the horrible traffic that resulted – some people were on the road for hours.

Instead we were able to enjoy the short burst of frigid cold. Well, for a few minutes anyway. Friends stopped by and we had plans to walk to the park but the snow storm picked up quickly and we made it two blocks before we decided that it would be a terrible idea. I was able to see Samuel enjoy his first real snowfall and have fun for a few hours with the kids. The snow had all melted within a couple of days and that’s just fine with me.

Here are a few images I captured. You can see the early ones where it looked like a few snowflakes would be a novelty. By the time the snow stopped at around 7pm and I stepped outside to grab some photos in the moonlight, we had been blessed with about 4 inches of the white stuff.

The Beginning of P365 2010

3 days in and going strong. I am going to try and publish my P365 photos each week. It got to be too much when I tried to post them each day last year, so we’ll see how this goes.

Note: Apparently I am drawn to the photos that tell a story rather than the best photo of each day. It’s just the way I roll.

Appropriate that this is one of my first images of the year. It was some whiny combination of “Mummy” and “Uuuuuuup”. I have to say that I prefer this neediness over the Daddy obsession of a couple of months ago. Doesn’t make it easier to listen to all day though.

A new year means trying out a new local coffee shop. This one has adorable miss-matched dishes, good food, a children’s playroom AND free Wifi. I think we’ll be visiting again.

Bowling today at Thomas’ request. It’s funning how the 10 pin bowling experience remains the same regardless of where you are in the world. The same shoes in the same patterns and colours, same dingy faded “carpet”, same musty, stale smell and the same desire to liberally apply Purell as soon as you leave… Good thing we all had a great time. The most enjoyable part was waiting for Thomas’ ball to slo-o-owly travel down the lane, bouncing off bumpers along the way. In terms of the time it takes to play a game, we definitely got our money’s worth.

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.

Happy The Elf

Meet Happy.

He’s the Ishida family Elf who acts as spy for Santa in the weeks before Christmas. It takes the whole Santa/being nice conspiracy to a new level… and I LOVE it. 🙂 Thomas was sad to discover on Christmas morning that Happy had gone back to the North Pole and will not be visiting again until next year, but those are the Elf rules. You can read more about Happy and his elf friends here.

Christmas Week

I am at home with the boys this week while school/daycare are closed. We’re doing our best to keep ourselves occupied and away from the craziness of the stores (although we did make one quick trip to Barnes and Noble yesterday to pick up an Elf – more on that later). Thomas and I even baked cookies yesterday. Of course I didn’t have the oven hot enough so they took twice as long as they should have to cook. It pays to read instructions properly.

I also got all my wrapping done and have everything we need for Christmas dinner apart from a couple of things I’ll be picking up the day before. I am officially ready for Christmas.

On the agenda for today… Samuel’s first haircut. We had to wait three years for Thomas’ first haircut so this is a bit of a treat. I’ll be back with photos of course, but for now I’ll leave you with some photos of two little boys who are definitely getting in the spirit.