For the past few days I have been contributing my own splash of colour to a Flickr pool started by Maine Momma. If you haven’t checked out her blog then you should definitely do yourself a favour and take a look. Her photographs are simply stunning and a great source of inspiration.
The Flickr pool is highlighting a different colour each day and today’s mosaic shares some of the photos that I have contributed to the pool. Go here to see some more dazzling colour – and great photography.
The new challenge for I Heart Faces is jump for joy. I will probably be disqualified because this is technically more than one image, but I just couldn’t resist. This was the first image that immediately came to mind and she is clearly jumping for joy in that puddle.
Note: adorable child on loan from a neighbor. There is no way you would see that much pink on one of my boys.
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.
Today’s I Heart Faces challenge is “Outtakes”. Pity I didn’t see it before I posted my project 365 post late last week because I’m pretty sure this would have qualified.
So I went back into the archives and discovered that I have many outtakes to choose from. That’s what comes from having two silly boys who love to make faces for the camera (or even not for the camera – who needs a reason?).
We had a great weekend, although it was busy which seems to be our normal state these days. Samuel and Thomas played well together and I can really see a bond forming between them. I love that they can now “talk” to each other and play games to make the other one laugh. Samuel has become Thomas’ little shadow and follows him around endlessly yelling “Toma!” (his way of saying Thomas) and then copies everything he does. The downside to this is that we have had to talk to Thomas about the fact that Samuel likes to do everything he does, but with less balance and control. It can be a recipe for disaster, especially given one of Thomas’ favourite activities is to walk along the top of retaining walls while we are out in the neighborhood.
I just love coming off a weekend when everyone was in a relatively good mood. In fact I don’t think we implemented even one time out the whole weekend. That must be a new record.
Oh, and my bathroom is getting painted today. Almost makes up for the fact that I was scrubbing down bathroom walls at 9pm last night. The end result will be worth it.
Looking forward to a week ahead that promises much productivity, a new episode of Lost, more early spring days and a few days closer to my girls weekend and an Aussie vacation. I think I may be sleep deprived – I feel almost giddy at the prospects.
Happy Monday!
Spring continues to bloom in Portland. Now that I pick Thomas up from school every day, I see many more of the back streets of the city, rather than just experiencing the freeway. This is especially true on nights like tonight when I am forced to take the back streets to avoid wet weather traffic – it took me two hours to get home!
Where was I? Oh yes, enjoying the spring flowers that are blooming in the back streets of Portland. I had never noticed how many cherry blossoms lined the streets until I was forced to look at them over and over again during my marathon drive home. Happy place. Happy place. Spring Flowers…
With spring also comes the fast growth of my oldest child. He has entered the silly season when a simple photo request comes with a funny face and and even funnier (nonsensical) story. I was thinking the other day about how I have so many more P365 photos of Samuel than I do of Thomas. This impromptu photo session reminded me of why that is the case.
Walking through the halls of Thomas’ school today and I spotted this rather tidy display of gumboots – evidence of rainy days and, thanks to a school veggie growing program, time spent digging and planting.
Samuel has always been very good at his greetings – waving and saying “hi” and “bye” to anyone that crosses his path. Lately the greetings have gone in another direction. He likes to sit on his little bike and push himself around the house singing “GOODBYEEEE! GOOOOOODBYE!” at the top of his tuneless voice while he waves and pushes himself into the next room. The blame lies with a revival of Yo Gabba Gabba in our house.
I asked Samuel to look up at me and he immediately gave me this cheesy grin which made me think 1. The kid knows how to perform in front of a camera and 2. He no longer looks like my baby – he is a little boy. Makes me sad and happy at the same time.
I had to run an errand in St Johns the other day and took the opportunity to walk quickly down to the bridge and take a few pics. I have driven past this bridge many times and taken photos out of the car window as we drive by at 50 miles an hour. Such a beautiful landmark that I’m sure has been photographed many times – but not by me. It was nice to be able to take my time and compose my shot without having to stop my children from running into traffic.
I picked Thomas up from school today and noticed that one of his teachers had already decorated the classroom door with a few Sakura (cherry blossoms). I also noticed that our sunny days have ceased for the time being and the rain is back. This decor reminds me that the sunshine WILL come back soon, although it didn’t quell Thomas’ requests on the way home that we move to a different country where it doesn’t rain.
I was cleaning out some files on my hard drive and came across these little treasures that I scanned a while ago. The scanner was not very good, but the images are clear enough that you can admire the fabulous Carol Brady hairdo on my Mum and porn star mustache on my Dad. I’m also pretty sure this is the last photo of my Dad with brown hair. I sent him grey shortly after.
It’s also strange how items like the wicker chair and brown floral tablecloth, and even the antiquated bouncer chair are burned so clearly in my memory. Crazy to think that these photos are nearly 35 (gasp!) years old.
It seems silly that I chose a mittened hand photo for this week’s entry for the I ♥ Faces photo blog challenge. We are enjoying an early Spring in Portland so mittens are the furthest thing from Thomas’ mind. As soon as he sees the sun he tells me it is warm outside and insists on wearing his Wiggles tank top, despite the fact that it’s still only around 50 degrees.
Still, although I am not a huge fan of Winter (we really don’t get along), I find four-year-old mittened hands holding cups of Hot Chocolate to be adorably warm and cozy.
Nicole Ishida Photography 