Category Archives: Samuel

Beach Scene

Today’s I Heart Faces challenge reminded me of how I haven’t yet posted the rest of the photos from when the Kellers came to visit.

I chose this photo (with much difficulty) from the hundreds I took that day for a few reasons:

  • It’s black and white – not what you would expect from one of MY beach pictures (usually full, bright colour).
  • It shows Samuel taking his time, doing his own thing and enjoying the water – key aspects of his personality that he’s shown us over the past few months.
  • I love how everything seems so peaceful and quiet, even for just a few moments.

We had a wonderful weekend filled with extended childcare options that allowed us to see a movie, a 40th birthday celebration with a view of Mt Hood, a family hike/carry to a beautiful hidden waterfall and a meeting with a 500 pound sturgeon named Herman.

This week promises work, work and more work – oh, and some golf for Kei.

Happy Monday.

Stages in Child Development

There are many ways to break a parents’ heart – as experienced first-hand in the Ishida House.

How to do it at 2 years old.
“I do it myself”
“Go Away Mummy!”
“Leave Me Alone”

How to do it at almost 5 years old
“If you don’t let me [insert request here] then I’m not going to love you anymore”
“I’m mad at you and don’t like you very much”
“I’m going to take my heart out of my body so I don’t have to love you anymore” (I blame this one on an, otherwise wonderful, book we’ve been reading).

Good thing it’s balanced out with the occasional hug, kiss and “I love you”

Shades Of Some Sort

OK, so these are not officially shades but I just couldn’t bring myself to post a photo of Samuel in his freebie orange pampers sunglasses (the pair we got with his swim diapers). Let’s just say that I thought this photo was a little more classy for the latest I heart faces photo challenge “gotta wear shades”.

This past weekend was our first really hot weekend of the summer and my little water baby in the photo above showed his love of the sun by spending most of the weekend in the blow up pool in the backyard. My other baby (the almost 5-year-old one) showed his love for the hot weather by getting wet under a water spray at the baseball and then taking off all of his clothes. I wonder if you can get away with that after you turn five…

Surprise!

I went through my photographs looking for an appropriate image for this weeks I heart faces “suprise” photo challenge and this image jumped put at me. What’s less of a surprise is the crumbs that are so clearly visible around the mouth. It’s a common sight in our house, and on this boy in particular.

We had a fun weekend which included a gathering with girlfriends to discuss charity golf tournament marketing strategies, a Japanese Obon festival at a local Buddhist temple, brunch with some new pre-school parents (feels nice not to be the new kid in town anymore) and chocolate bananas cooked in the backyard fire pit. (yes, chocolate bananas!). Oh and I managed to squeeze an (overpriced) hair appointment in there as well.

I also woke up this morning to discover that my one and only crush managed to get himself married over the weekend. Let’s all have a moment of silence please.

A Record of Favourites

It’s been a little since I’ve taken out my camera to simply record our everyday lives so on Sunday, the first day of August, I decided to record each of my boys’ favourite things – right at that moment.

Samuel – Frozen blueberries. When this child finds a food that he likes he really latches onto it. This month is frozen blueberries, Trader Joes turkey meatballs and watermelon (when I remember to buy it). Diapers have not been much fun.

Thomas – Star Wars (as if there was any question). We went to Target on Sunday and he was literally jumping up and down with excitement when he saw the figurine that he REEEEEEAAAALLY wanted. Thankfully he had enough money in the piggybank to cover it. We’re planning a trip to the local Star Wars store in the next couple of weeks where he will be free to choose his own birthday present – with a spending limit, of course.

Oh, wait! I have one more boy with a favourite thing. This was totally unplanned, but when Kei asked me to take a photo of his brand new golf club (yawn!) I realized how perfectly it fit with my theme of the day.

So I present my other boy with his brand new toy…

This weekend includes a meeting with friends about a charity golf tournament that is near and dear to my heart (I plan to share details soon), a get together with a couple of fellow pre-school parents, a desperately-needed visit to the hair salon, a Japanese festival and a little R&R (if I can fit it in). Bring on Friday afternoon!

The Up Side

Every day lately seems to be a struggle with Samuel. Independent spirit is a gentle way to describe him. “I. Do. It. Myself!!” is on repeat. He becomes frustrated and angry when I try to brush his teeth, put the lid on his sippy cup, help him put on his pants, etc. etc. and I don’t even want to talk about what happens when his blood sugar drops a little below normal.

He likes to torment his brother, hit (me and others – something we’re working on) and throw tear-filled tantrums.

But he also tells me he loves me about 10 times a day (often for no reason at all), can’t leave me without a big wet kiss and a cuddle, breaks out into an enormous grin without too much prompting, says sorry easily (especially when he thinks he’s going to be put in time out) and is constantly trying to make me laugh.

I know he knows that all of this makes me more tolerant of his bad behaviour, but I just can’t help myself. The kid is a charmer and he’s adorable.

I guess you could say he has me wrapped around his little finger.

Drive-By Blogging

Too busy to write an essay but here are a few things I am thinking about:

You MUST see this movie. It’s animated (but definitely not for children) and set in a suburb of Melbourne. Voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. In short – one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and instantly on my list of all time favourites.

I also saw another great movie over the weekend (I love it when my Netflix queue comes through with the goods). A wonderful period drama that makes me want to learn more about Queen Victoria… and speak with a british accent. Melbourne also made an appearance in this one in the form of Lord Melbourne, the person after whom the city was named.

Thomas picked out Samuel’s clothes yesterday and they were both dressed by the time I came downstairs. Just wanted to share this newly discovered benefit of the sibling relationship. Of course I then had to go back and re-dress Samuel so that his pajamas were not underneath his shorts and his legs were through two different holes of the pants. Still, it’s progress.

Kimonos courtesy of Obachan, all the way from Japan.

Speaking of Japan, my third and final chance for the World Cup bowed out this morning. I still don’t care, but it would have been nice to jump on the bandwagon if they had won.

The next photo is for my sister-in-law. Her name is Emma and I think the illustration looks a little like her. Random.

And, finally, a photo to celebrate the fact that we had a temporary foray back to ice-cream weather on the weekend (although the pic is a couple of months old). I have my fingers crossed that the sun will shine throughout my four day weekend.