Category Archives: Samuel

He’s Four!

My baby turned four on Saturday. FOUR!

I say this every single year, but I’m just not sure how this happened. How did that teeny tiny little boy turn into a four-year old?

We celebrated quietly with birthday cake, hot dogs (birthday boy’s choice for dinner) and, of course, a few presents which included a new backpack and a batman lunchbox that he’ll use when he starts Pre-K in September. We’re hosting a larger party with his friends next weekend.

At four, Samuel…

  • Still gives the best hugs and kisses on the planet (and becomes extremely upset if he doesn’t get a hug and kiss goodbye).
  • Can be the most stubborn person I know (wonder where he gets that from?…)
  • Is incredibly observant, pointing out almost everything he sees in the world around him – and has a million questions for us to answer.
  • Still wants to hold my hand.
  • Is currently all about the sounds that letters make and words that rhyme.
  • Is obsessed with ninjas, superheroes and pretty much anything that his big brother is interested in.
  • Would rather play with his brother than do just about anything else.
  • Is sweet, frustrating, loving, smart, wonderful, angry and happy – sometimes all within the same 5 minute period.

While I miss my baby, watching him grow up is a wonderful adventure.

T-Ball and Inner Peace

This is what I posted on Facebook over the weekend:

Batter grabs the ball while he’s running to base. Runner hit in the helmet by a flying ball. Thomas runs back to home to drop off his bat politely rather than just dropping it. None of the kids know where to run. First T-ball game is nothing if not entertaining. You never know what’s going to happen.

I wrote a post last year about how I never feel quite as close to being an American mother as I do when I watch Thomas play T-Ball. There’s something uniquely cultural about this sport that draws families together to cheer on their six year old’s as they blindly run from one base to another – or don’t run to base and have to be led there by hand, which happens about 50% of the time during the first game of the season.

This year Thomas is playing for the Giants. I’m a little disappointed that he’s not playing for a team with a more colorful uniform, but I like San Francisco so it’s not all bad.

On second thought, now that I’m looking at those purple uniforms in the background, maybe a whole season of black is not so bad. As you can see, I’m focusing on the important things.

By the way, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing cuter than a bunch of miniature t-ball players on a massive baseball diamond.

Thomas is number 10 this year and, according to him, the best player on the team (no self-esteem issues with my child).

The kid loves to run… after he works out where he’s supposed to be going. Good thing there’s no winners or losers in six-year-old baseball.

The only problem we have this year is that Samuel is suddenly old enough to feel left out. He’s already asked to play T-ball next year. In the meantime, we spend the game hanging out by the fence in his ninja mask and taking breaks every now and then to find a little inner peace. (I promise that I did not set this up).

It occurred to me that next year we’ll have to juggle swimming lessons AND two games of T-Ball each Saturday. I think I’ll be looking for a little inner peace of my own.

The Weekend in Pictures

T-Ball season began with a team photo opp – which I missed because I was doing the grocery shopping with Samuel. Instead I captured a couple of photos of the boy when he got home. He’s playing for the Giants this year.

And then I managed to get a picture of the two boys together. I promise they were happier than they look in this photo. You should also know that Samuel declared it to be pajama day (thank for the hand-me-downs Thomas) and we’re still not sure how he got that big scratch on his head. Something to do with a toy flinging itself at him…

We ate hot crossed buns while sitting out on the front lawn because the sun finally decided to show itself in Portland (Hallelujah!).

And of course a little sidewalk chalk drawing. I believe this may the first time we’ve opened the chalk box this year.

Works of art included a blue ninja and a yellow ninja…

…and an octopus which I don’t have picture of – though it was a welcome break from the ninjas, thanks Thomas.

Easter Sunday morning began with a play room easter egg hunt – which I didn’t manage to get in photos but I’m not sure they would have accurately conveyed Samuel’s level of excitement each time he found an egg, anyway. The Easter Bunny also left a couple of new books and some lego guys – I like that he understands the fleeting enjoyment of chocolate as well as the need to manage sugar intake

In the afternoon, Kei and I spent some time digging a hole in the backyard to prepare for our sure-to-be-beautiful patio, while the boys occupied themselves on their Daddy-built ninja training course. My hands were too dirty to grab any photos of my own hard work so instead I’ll share a couple of took last week when I sent the boys outside on a very rainy weekend to preserve my sanity. This digging session lasted about 10 minutes.

After a while I left Kei outside to continue the digging while I ventured in to finish up some laundry and then cook some delicious Brussels sprouts with Panchetta. I don’t usually post photos of the food I cook, but I couldn’t help myself. Delicious!

After dinner, the boys did this. Whatever “this” is.

So there you have it – a perfectly boring, perfectly sunny weekend in which we actually made progress on a couple of things around the house. Weekends like this don’t come around very often.

Did Someone Say it Was Good Friday Today?

May I Vent for a Moment?

Today is Good Friday which means I am at home balancing trying to getting a little work done with looking after a child (daycare is closed).

If I were in Australia, I would be enjoying the beginning of a four day weekend, perhaps heading out on a family camping trip like I did almost every Easter as a child and waiting excitedly for the Easter Bunny to drop by.

This is one of the downsides of leaving my home country and moving to one with painfully few public holidays (although the Stock Exchange is closed…).

Happy Good Friday to all who are celebrating. To make it feel at least a little like a holiday, I’ll share just a few pictures of a very damp Easter Egg hunt hosted by Kei’s employer last week.

Thomas chose not to have his photo taken with “the guy in a bunny suit”, as he loudly declared in front of a bunch of very small children who, until then, probably thought he was the real thing. Good thing he still believes in the tooth fairy though. She visited Thomas for the second time that very evening.

The “hunt” lasted about 30 seconds – along with the window for photos due to attempts to protect my camera in the downpour while trying to get a shot in every now and then.

For Thomas, the most important part of the hunt was calculating the combined number of eggs – complete with mathematical equation. The kid loves math which causes me to wonder if he inherited anything from me at all.

That’s it. I told you I didn’t take many photos.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Good Friday and a wonderful Easter. Have a fluorescent cupcake on me. Cheers!

Random Photo Monday

…Because I feel bad about spending last night watching Mad Men instead of taking a few minutes to edit some photos. (OK, I don’t feel that bad.)

…Because I haven’t had a chance to sit down and document a weekend that featured a visit from the Easter Bunny (just a guy in a bunny suit according to Thomas), buckets and buckets of rain and another lost tooth.

…Because I don’t feel especially inspired to take photos when I, a) can’t take my camera outside because it will get wet and b) have zero natural light to work with due to the dark clouds that refuse to go away.

…Because these are the photos that I happen to have sitting in my photo library.

Enjoy a few wonderfully random photos that have nothing to do with what we did this weekend.

Adventures in Hiking, Zumba and Color Blindness

After my incessant whining about snow last week, it seems the Portland weather gods decided to throw us a little love in the form of a couple of sunny weekend days. I could take a moment now to whine about crazy allergies, but I’ll spare you that trauma and, instead share a few favourite photos from a full weekend.

Saturday began with optometrist appointments for the boys. It seems that, although Thomas inherited very few physical traits from his mother, he was lucky enough to receive the X chromosome  from me that carries the deuteranope type of color blindness. Thankfully it will only affect him if he decides to become an electrician or wants to drive a car in Romania. Here’s what Thomas sees.

While Kei was at the optometrist with the boys, I was lucky enough to take a quick Zumba class with my friend LeeAnn. No photos to share from that experience (you’re welcome) but I did learn a few things about myself:

  • Even when a class is fun, 30 minutes will feel like three hours if you’re unfit.
  • I am much more coordinated in 4/4 time than in 3/4 time.
  • The attitude of the Zumba teacher is directly related to how much you will enjoy the class and want to go back for more. My only other Zumba experience involved a middle aged male instructor who counted our steps throughout the class and chose Hava Nagila for his soundtrack (not that I have anything against the song – just doesn’t belong in a Zumba class)
  • On the subject of music, every song has it’s place, and for this one it’s in a Zumba class when everyone’s shaking their booty. (And that’s the ONLY place it belongs in my opinion).

The sun came out on Saturday afternoon, so I sat on the front porch with this…

While the boys did lots of this…

Thomas also had an opportunity to try out the new bike he received for Christmas. One of the things I miss most about Australia is the great weather at Christmas that allows you to ride your new bike immediately. Thomas only had to wait three months…

Is it just me or does Samuel look like a teenager in this next photo? Moving on…

On Sunday morning, Kei and I were treated to a decadent (toy) brunch at the Thomas and Samuel cafe. Hmmm…wooden sushi…delicious!

Here they are deciding on the menu.

After brunch (and major cleanup) we decided to head out for a family hike through Forest Park, during which we saw:

  • About 1000 dogs – with Samuel telling me how much he hates dogs as each one passed by and not for the reasons you might think. He doesn’t like it when they lick him. Sometime being irresistible is a curse.
  • About 1000 joggers
  • A couple of hiking hipsters.
  • A couple of hiking hippies – complete with the lingering odor of an organic smoking substance that we then had to try and explain delicately to our six year old.
  • A man hiking while reading a book at the same time.

And so, during that 2 hour period, all Portland demographics were well and truly represented.

Oh, and I’m not sure what Thomas was doing here but I really like this photo for some reason.

Of course we stopped for a snack along the way before checking out a few birds at the Audubon society.

And then Samuel posed for me in his sunglasses that came courtesy of the optometrist the day before. LOVE this photo – such attitude.

The end.

Well, not really but that’s all the photos I was able to upload at 11pm last night due to the return of Man Men (welcome back – I missed you).

This week is Spring Break, which means very little for our family as we save up our vacation time for a trip to Australia that I’m just a teeny bit excited about. Still, it looks like we might finally have a chance to enjoy daylight saving hours and perhaps some sunshine.

Kidgistics and Bullet Points

I’ve been running around a lot this week moving kids from one place to another (i.e. kidgistics) while Kei works some extended hours. Between messed up work schedules, after hours photo sessions and public school late start days, it’s been a struggle to get into any sort of routine. So I thought I’d blog today in the same way that I’ve been approaching everything this week – in bullet points and random thoughts.

  • Thomas got a perfect score on his second-ever spelling test. So proud.
  • He’s also getting very serious about karate – I think it might have something to do with a current Ninjago obsession. Never underestimate the influence of cartoon Lego characters.
  • I started gathering activities and books for our marathon plane ride to Australia. I know our trip is still three months away but I need to something to keep my mind off Portland’s miserable beginning to Spring.
  • I also started ordering gifts for Samuel’s birthday in May. Again, I’m early but all I can say is 10 straight days of rain, people! It makes you do crazy things.
  • Speaking of crazy, we experienced a 30 minute hailstorm on Sunday.

  • I love the fact that, if I start reading a book to Samuel or Thomas while I’m waiting for them to start school, I will attract at least another 6 or 7 kids who just want to hear someone reading a book. I feel like the pied piper. (told you this was a random list)
  • My three year old corrected my pronunciation of “Banana” this morning. I need to get him to Australia – and quick!
  • Um SPIDERS!!!! (thankfully on the other side of the world but a little too close to my parent’s house to let me feel entirely excited about our trip).
  • The boys indulged me with a photo together on Sunday (this is a rare occurrence). It’s a little out of focus but I love it.

  • Of course I had to take this one first…

  • On the entertainment front
    • Walking Dead finale – lots of blood and gore, but AMAZING! Almost can’t wait until next season.
    • Good thing I have Mad Men starting this weekend to tide me over.
    • Saw Hugo on the weekend – very sweet film. Imagine it would have been amazing in 3D if only we had unlimited babysitter credits that allowed us to see movies in an actual theatre.
    • Speaking of theatres I have my tickets to see the Hunger Games on Friday – So excited!!

And with that brain dump out of the way, I leave you with one more photo from the sky somewhere over the middle of the country. It reminds me of what a blue sky looks like – although I could do without the snow.

Today’s Photo of a Little Artist

What a crazy Monday it’s been – one that’s left me very little time to post anything of substance. I’ll just tell you that we are coming off a weekend that included a visit to the Children’s Museum AND the Zoo in the same day, I’m getting ready to travel to Austin for SXSW on Friday for work and I am drowning in the demands of my day job.

With that, I’ll leave you with a couple of totally unrelated, yet totally cute, photos of my little Artist.

And in case you’re wondering if Samuel is now enjoying having his photo taken, here’s another photo taken later that same night. This is more typical of the reaction I get any time I try to point a camera in his direction. “DON’T! TAKE! MY! PICTURE!”

Today’s Photo of Action Figures Saying “Please”

We skipped swimming lessons on Saturday morning so Thomas could recover from a cold. Instead, we stayed inside all day while the rain bucketed down outside between short bursts of sunshine. Good thing the boys decided to play well together which likely saved my sanity.

At one point, Samuel asked me to help him build a “house”. He put down the floor and I helped a little with the walls before Thomas jumped in with ideas for a roof and other architectural details. (Wooden blocks = best TOY ever)

Then I noticed that they started lining up their assorted action figures.

(Side note on action figures. It seems we started with one or two and now have an army of Wookies, Jedis, Stormtroopers, Ninjas, a full set of Wiggles and, of course, a wide variety of Superheroes. I’m not sure how they multiplied so quickly.)

Of course, I was curious. Was this a line for weapons? Wise words from Yoda? Some secret Star Wars/Superhero clubhouse?

No, this was a line for the Popcorn stand. Fantastic!

And as each action figure asked for, and received, their popcorn (using “please”), they would be moved out of the way and the other figures would move forward one space in the line.

It was a tedious process but no one left empty handed. I had no idea popcorn was so popular with the small and plastic.