As much as I already miss my baby, it is so nice now that Samuel is old enough to “play” with Thomas. They keep each other occupied while I get ready for work by doing things like… lying on the floor and banging on the heating vent. Yup – that killed a whole 10 minutes.

I took advantage of my day off to hang out with a couple of work friends who were also off work in the middle of the week. It’s a rare event that we are able to catch up like this away from the stress and craziness of the office – and even rarer that we get to see each others’ children.

My friend Wendy loves to bake and she certainly delivered a tasty brunch – with, I’m sure, more calories than I need to know about.

Then we talked about work and being parents (and juggling work with being parents) and just let the kids play. It was a lot of fun and a wonderful opportunity to catch up with two fabulous ladies without the stress of pinging email in the background.

Santa purchased presents for Thomas months before Christmas – way back in August. So of course he didn’t really know what Thomas wanted for Christmas. Until December when Santa met Thomas and he clearly said he wanted Slinky dog for Christmas. And then he repeated that wish over and over and over again.

So it was clear that if Thomas was a good boy then Santa should bring him Slinky Dog. And Santa definitely planned to get a Slinky Dog for Thomas in time for a Christmas delivery. On Christmas eve Thomas reinforced his excitement about Santa’s imminent arrival as well as that of his very own slinky dog.

Unfortunately a winter snowstorm in Portland and a sudden rush on slinky dogs in city made that goal difficult to achieve. So Thomas woke up on Christmas morning to a letter from Santa with a picture of slinky dog, saying that the elves were disorganized this year and a special package was due to arrive in a couple of weeks.

Finally that package from Santa arrived and Slinky Dog meets all expectations. The only problem is that Samuel likes it just as much as Thomas. We have witnessed the early onset of sibling rivalry.

A little story

Kei was putting Thomas to bed a couple of nights ago and they were reading a book about space.
At the end of the book Thomas said “I would like to go into space one day.” and Kei said “Thomas, if you work hard enough, you can do anything you want to do, including becoming an astronaut.”
Thomas: “I think I would like to be Santa when I grow up.”
Kei: “If you work hard and you’re a good person then you can even be Santa if you want to be.”
Kei turned off the light and Thomas lay in the dark until his eyes adjusted.
Thomas: “Dad? Dad?”
Kei: “Yes Thomas?”
Thomas reached out and took Kei’s face in his hands and said “I want to be you when I grow up.”

And a photo of some bubbles – because I like photos of bubbles.

Kei picked up the camera.

And I tried to act like it wasn’t aimed at me.

It’s snowing again as I type this. Seriously. Yes, it’s beautiful and fun and all that and I’m sure there is someone living right near the equator somewhere who wishes they had just one cold snowy day they could enjoy, but I am now officially over it.

Not that you would know from these photos. We had some fun walking around in the snow on Saturday. And I have to admit that it was just the right amount of snow. Not so much that it would prevent us from driving or walking, and just enough that it looked pretty and we could scrape together enough to build a decent snowman (well Thomas and Kei did anyway. I am not really into getting my hands cold and wet).

I collected the acorn pods for the eyes.

And of course took a LOT of photos.

And dodged flying snowballs

The light was also very good – nice and soft and not too grey. Is it weird that I now take notice of the light everywhere we go?

And the melting snow also made for lots of puddles to jump in.

And just take a casual stroll through.

I even managed to get a family portrait to help fulfill my 2009 goal to take more photos of myself.

It’s 2009. Really.

2008 was a big year for The Ishidas. A major house renovation (that is still not completely painted), a brand new addition to the family (welcome Samuel), a trip to Australia and a bunch of other events that have quickly become a blur amongst the business of the year.

So into 2009 we go.

Why not start it with a party? A low key event with friends from the neighbourhood (trans. daycare) and a number of blurry photos thanks to low light and insufficient Christmas lights. I’ll only subject you to a couple.

I think I counted 7 kids and about 16 adults.

It was fun, and a great way to see in the new year.

And when everyone left I took a photo of myself to make sure I have a place in the photo albums this year. It’s an unofficial new year’s resolution. I don’t really believe in New Years Resolutions. I mean you forget them after a month and then feel guilty for the remaining 11 months of the year. I would rather spare myself the trauma and instead eat all the leftover Christmas chocolate guilt-free.

Happy New Year.