Category Archives: P365

Project 365

A Big Weekend for Six

I think, if you asked Thomas right now, he’d say being six is great. Take this weekend, for example.

Friday – came home from school with an unexpected report card that shows how great he is doing in both Japanese and English classes. His strengths are Math (which he loves) and speaking Japanese. We’re so proud.

Saturday – Thomas had just jumped in the pool for the beginning of his swimming lesson when he held out his hand to me containing a baby tooth – his first to fall out. I was a little relieved because he already had his big tooth growing up behind. Well, I was relieved after I was able to get past the grossness of being handed a bloody tooth. Earned another mother stripe.

Why does no one tell you that having a child may involve having to find a bag small enough to hold a teeny tiny bloody tooth so that narrowly missed being lost at the bottom of the pool? (thanks for the help, LeeAnn). I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if we’d lost it or, worse, if Thomas had swallowed it – which was apparently a close call. So here’s my tip for mothers of six year olds everywhere – bring a spare little plastic baggie or two wherever you go for the next couple of years.

And, in case you’re wondering, the tooth fairy’s going rate is $1.

Sunday – Just your everyday, ordinary birthday party at the movie theater to see STAR WARS EPISODE 1!!! Thomas tells us it was pretty awesome – particularly the pod racing part.

That’s one big weekend for one small boy. No wonder it was so hard to get him out of bed this morning.

 

An Ishida Production

On the weekend, Thomas and Samuel treated us to a very special play. I’m not sure what it was called but let’s just say that it involved Super Hero figurines, a blue dinosaur and lots of catching bad guys. There was even a little audience participation where we were invited to come up on stage and find the bad guys. Needless to say, it was awesome!

Thomas and the…uh…dinosaur setting up for the big show.

Tickets have been collected and we’re ready to begin – right after one of the audience members pulled back the curtain. Please take note of the poster that was stuck on the wall to advertise the play. In fact there were many, many posters – I counted about 10. No one was missing this show!

One small complaint… the lighting for this show was terrible… and very orange.

A lot of the play involved watching the stars play with their superhero toys. At this point in the story, the good guys had managed to round up the bad guys and conveniently position them so they were all facing the audience. That’s some good direction.

Breaking the fourth wall…

Then the good guys gathered for the big finale, although I’m not sure who was keeping an eye on the bad guys.

Finally someone (it may have been a member of the audience) suggested that it was time to get ready for bed and that perhaps the play should wrap up, but not before the talent took a well-deserved bow.

They even cleaned up after themselves, although the posters remain many days later. I think they’re planning an encore performance.

A big two thumbs up for this production.

Someone’s Got A Case of The Mondays

Too many things on my plate today for a meaningful post so I’ll just share a few recent instagram pics from my new Tumblr account. I set up the account so I could easily share these pics through Facebook and Twitter – and keep them all in one place. It’s so convenient and easy to use and I’m hoping it inspires me to take more photos with my phone. I have been on a bit of a photography dry spell lately and I need something to get me out of this creative rut.



  1. Samuel (and his football) greeting me at the daycare fence.
  2. Window shopping on Mississippi
  3. Beautiful blue skies in Portland
  4. Ice covered car window in Bellevue
  5. Cool office lighting
  6. A storm descending on Seattle
  7. Sunset
  8. The blue tongue ring pop side effect
  9. Snow day humor in Bellevue

Here’s to a sunnier outlook for the rest of the week – literally and figuratively (apart from my dentist appointment on Wednesday – two fillings, ugh!).

P.S. I started this post a couple of hours ago and, since then, have had the opportunity to celebrate a little award (Best Interview Video) I won for a work video I produced last year. Cheers to that!

Today’s Photo of a Rainy Day Activity

My house is being invaded by Lego. The only time they are completely put away is when I have the cleaner scheduled and I warn the boys that tiny Lego pieces and Vacuum cleaners don’t get along.

The 2012 Lyrebird Images Desk Calendar

It started in 2010 as a fun end of year gift for my co-workers and grew in 2011 into a solution for the large number of teacher/family/friend gifts that I need to cover.

All it took was the time to sift through 12 months of photographs and choose 12 seasonally-appropriate favourites(!), some gorgeous templates from Paislee Press (because I’m too lazy to design my own) and a wonderful local photo printer that produced quality prints at a reasonable price before they, sadly, closed up shop at the end of the year. (I’m devastated).

PLEASE share suggestions for equally great and reasonably priced printers in the Portland area in the comments!

The best part about this project is that it provides me with the perfect opportunity to get my photos off the computer and share them with family and friends. It also gives me a chance to reflect on my photos from the past year and see where I need to improve (take more photos of “things”) and how I can make the calendar even better in 2013.

So, here it is, the 2012 Lyrebird Images desk calendar.

Today’s Photo of My All Grown Up Boy

I had the chance to spend some extra time with Thomas this weekend and was reminded of just how much I love this kid. Right now, Thomas:

  • Is smart, curious and always learning new things.
  • When choosing prizes at the arcade at one of the birthday parties, asked specifically for the Humpback whale and the Orca from the bowl of plastic fish – and then had to teach the guy behind the counter which was which.
  • Has a girlfriend – not a friend who is a girl, a girlfriend. Her name is Sabrina and apparently it’s the real thing because he drew a picture of her on the first page of his “weather book” right next to the pictures of him and Samuel wearing capes.
  • Is now counting his girlfriends. Sabrina is his second – “Remember Elizabeth Mum? She was my first girlfriend.”
  • Is six (often have to remind myself of that).
  • Still has all of his baby teeth but we just discovered a “shark tooth” growing up behind his bottom front teeth. I don’t know whether to take him to the dentist or let nature take its course.
  • Spent most of the weekend playing Lego and superheroes with his brother, with just a couple of small breaks to attend birthday parties. Samuel spent Monday telling his teacher how much he loved playing with Thomas on the weekend.
  • Told me he would like to spend our special Mummy/Thomas day on Friday playing Lego. (hmmm)

Did I mention how much I love this kid?

Today’s Photo of a Warm Welcome

This is what greets me almost every weekday at around 5:00pm.

As soon as our big red car is spotted driving into the parking lot, Samuel will drop whatever he is doing and race over to the fence to give me a big smile and a hello. Sometimes he’s so excited that he’ll jump up and down with excitement. Almost every day, he makes me give him a kiss and a hug through the bars before I say a brief goodbye so I can go through the building entrance to the playground.

It’s the best part of my day.

I think we’ve turned a corner with Samuel. It seems that as soon as he hit the 3 and a half mark he’s been more consistently happy, less combative and generally just easier to be around. It’s been a welcome change and just one more sign that my baby is growing up.

Of course if I call him my baby I am quickly reminded by Samuel yelling at me that “I am NOT a BABY!!”

I didn’t say he was an angel and that everything is perfect – just much, much better. 🙂

Today’s Photo of Wonder Woman and Batman

Wonder Woman and Batman. Wonder Woman tiara and bracelets designed by Thomas (cut out and stapled by me). The purple ribbon is a Magic Lasso. Angry expressions are part of the character (apparently Super Heroes are always angry/intimidating).

Here they are in the invisible jet – not that I can see them of course. I was instructed to take a picture of the empty “sky”.