Category Archives: Thomas

Going Dark

I haven’t had much to say around here lately. Actually, I supposed I HAVE had stuff to say, just not the time to say it.

I still don’t have time to put together anything deep and meaning so, instead, I will share  my stream of consciousness on a Monday morning. You’re welcome.

  1. I joined the gym. Week #1 went very well (4 visits!) and I’m looking forward to quickly becoming addicted to exercise (hah!).
  2. Autumn is definitely here – the leaves are falling from the trees and I’ve dusted off my winter coat. Our Summer was so short that it’s hard to get used to the fact that Winter is just around the corner.
  3. Although I am still firmly in denial, the end of daylight saving over the weekend threatens to pull me kicking and screaming into the new season.
  4. Sunset is at 4:50pm today. A moment of silence please.
  5. Samuel woke up in a great mood today – maybe the end of daylight saving is not such a bad thing after all.
  6. He went to school as Superman.
  7. It hurts to laugh thanks to my Yoga class on Saturday. It’s a good hurt.
  8. I ordered our takeout Turkey yesterday. Bring on Thanksgiving…
  9. …but not before I get on top of a couple of Xmas gift projects. Suddenly feeling very far behind.
  10. Thomas spent a good part of yesterday practicing his writing and drawing on the iPad. Moved a request for one of my own up to the top of my Christmas list.
  11. Catching up on Damages on Netflix. Fantastic new favourite show that I can watch while running on the treadmill – for about 10 minutes anyway (I’m easing myself in…).
  12. I hate ending a list on an odd number.

So I leave you on this Monday morning with a photo that is completely unrelated to the rest of post. Seems appropriate.

The theme for this week’s I Heart Faces challenge is “Black“. Because I had already exhausted my small Halloween photo collection,  I had to go back a couple of months to find this photo that I took on the day we visited the Zoo right before Karin and Mayumi went back to Japan. I love how the sea lion looks like he has his own space in our family picture.

Happy Monday – here’s to being a couple of hours closer to Friday!

Early Pumpkin Picking

We did the pumpkin patch early this year for a few reasons:

  1. I was trying to avoid going after the Portland rain has set in and the pumpkin patches become on massive mud patch, trampled by thousands of people.
  2. The weatherman promised we would have a sunny day… and then said it likely would not last. When you live in Portland, you make the most of the sunny days, especially in October.
  3. I wanted to get the Pumpkin Patch thing out of the way. It’s one of those American traditions that I have embraced (and enjoy) but, if I leave it too late, I feel as though it’s infringing on my ramp up to Christmas. I realize that Thanksgiving is in the middle there as well, but I can’t wait until December to begin thinking about gifts and Xmas music. And, thanks to my annual takeout Turkey dinner, Thanksgiving is one of the easiest holidays.

We skipped the Pumpkin Patch last year. Having just returned from a couple of weeks in Japan, it was just a little too much. This year we decided the more the merrier and invited our friends Amelia and Alison (and their Mum Suzi). Our destination? Plumper Pumpkins Patch.

I promise Samuel was there – he just started the day a little camera shy.

And a little tractor shy. He and I walked behind the very-slow-moving vehicle.

The best thing about plumper, besides their good selection of carve-worthy pumpkins, is the number of kid-friendly activities they have available. We spent at least a couple of hours exploring corn mazes, sliding down hay bales and saying hi to some farm animals. I tried not to think to much about the fate about to befall the dozen or so turkeys.

Oh, and before you peruse the rest of the photos, I want to point out one small thing… Neither of my children are wearing sweat pants – the first time this has happened in…well…ever! Sure, it was mainly because I was yet to do the laundry and I refused to allow them to wear pants with holes in the knees, but I consider this a HUGE accomplishment. They’re both very attached to their “soft pants.”

Bonus point to Samuel for managing to dress himself in pumpkin colors. The perfect choice for blending into corn mazes.

Hay ride.

Obstacle Course and string maze (harder than it looks).

Races down the hay bale slide (faster than it looks).

Farm animals (smellier than they look).

And the duck races.

Finally, after a run through the kid-size hay maze, we were ready to pick out our pumpkins.

Not those ones, of course, they’re just pretty to photograph.

Then it was off to lunch where the impatience of a long wait for food was eased a little thanks a little invention from Steve Jobs that we like to call the “sanity saver”.

A fun day with friends. Now to find a little time to carve my pumpkin. I think I might carve a ghost design this year.

Five Things Friday: Things I Love

Quick FTF post today. See what I did there? With the abbreviation? 🙂

1. School pictures that are actually worth paying for.

2. Photos that perfectly portray the personality of a three year old who loves to jump (complete with the tongue sticking out for concentration).

3. Photographing fun charity events.

4. That an Aussie won said charity event.

5. The weekend is only hours away.

Plans for this weekend include a little apple tasting at the Portland Nursery (something we planned to do last weekend), more organizing and running errands and, I hope, a whole lot of relaxing with my boys.

A Taste of My Own Medicine

Both of my children love photographs. And who can blame them? They’ve both had virtually every significant moment of their lives caught on camera since birth. Thomas, in particular, has shown an interest in taking his own photos and we have quite the collection from our trips to Australia and Japan as well as some shots from around the house. It’s so interesting to see the world through his eyes.

Thanks to a husband who never throws anything away, the boys are now proud owners of their very own point and shoot digital cameras.

Samuel adopted our very first camera that looks a lot like the toys cameras they sell for children now, but less sophisticated. It doesn’t have a preview screen so he’s getting used to looking through the viewfinder and pressing the button at the same time while holding his superhero action figures. Quite the achievement for a three year old.

Thomas has our second camera – the one that we bought before we left Australia about 9 years ago. This little canon traveled to Hawaii and then across the states and back. It captured some of my favorite memories, including the birth of my first child, and started me on my love of photography. I love it that Thomas is now picking up where we left off.

And he’s off to a good start. We went on a photo walk late yesterday and every time I turned around I saw this…

A taste of my own medicine perhaps? Can’t wait to download the photos so I can share them with you. I’m pretty sure he took about 20 photos of porch pumpkins.

Sharing this photo for the latest I Heart Faces challenge – Hands.

Falling into Autumn and Trying to Get My Groove Back

When did I begin referring to Autumn as “Fall”? I got to work this morning and began a conversation about the sudden turn in the weather (read: rain, rain and more rain) and found myself saying “Fall” without a second thought. On days like this, I feel as though my Aussieness is slipping away and I need to put the Wiggles on for the kids, stat.

Good thing we’ll be getting a little dose of Aussie again in a few months thanks to an impending visit from this guy…

(Photo unashamedly stolen from my brother’s facebook page. I think it may be a Grandpa Geoff creation).

Thankfully he’ll be bringing his Mum and Dad with him because I’m not sure my Aussie accent will get much of a boost from the gurglings of a seven month old.

So why am I not posting a whole bunch of my own photos here today, you may ask? Well, it’s because I haven’t really taken any. The camera has been taking a short break while I try to manage life and work and everything in between. I just haven’t felt inspired to pick it up over the past couple of weeks.

Honestly, I think I was feeling a little burned out after our busy Summer and the thousands of pics I’ve been going through from Newport, not to mention the photos I’ve been taking for my day job.

I’m sure this hiatis is temporary and, actually, it’s making me feel as though I might need to pick up the camera for more every day shooting. I’ve been great at taking photos of the big moments – the vacations, birthday parties, first day of school – but I have been missing many of the details our lives right now.

Like the fact that we are so deep in our superhero obsession that both boys went off to school this morning while wearing superhero underwear and listening to the Batman theme song in the car. I’m pretty sure there’s no better way to prepare your kid for a successful day at school.

Happy rainy Autumn Monday. May the force be with you (ooops, wrong phrase).

Then & Now

The best thing about keeping a blog is the ability to look back and see how much we’ve changed. Of course, it’s a little bittersweet to realize how quickly my babies have grown – and it makes me want another one – at least until the next time Samuel throws a tantrum because his SOCKS ARE THE WRONG COLOR!

Good thing my brother booked his trip to come and visit us at Christmas. He’s bringing his wife along but it’s my teeny nephew Charlie who I am most excited to see (sorry, Ben and Emma, but it’s true). I’ll just need to soak up all the baby goodness I can over those two short weeks.

So here’s my quick look back at THEN (May, 2008) and NOW.

THEN

NOW

THEN

NOW

Now I’m just torturing myself.

Inspired by @TaraWhitney who posted a link to a five-year-old picture of her family on Twitter this morning.

Crazy Busy

I’m coming off an insanely busy weekend. Here’s my recap in 200 words or less:

Saturday (all day) – Portland Creative Conference. Inspiring, fun, informative, amazing drummers.

Saturday night – Parent’s night out. Dinner at Simpatica with my husband. AMAZING food and great conversation without interruption. Kids in bed at about 11:30pm.

Sunday morning – Small bowling birthday party for Thomas. Sensory overload. Lots of sugar. Great fun for all.

Sunday afternoon/evening – Catch up. Prepped food for the week. Laundry (even did one load twice – you don’t want to know why). Did NOT go to yoga (wah wah!). Bed too late.

And so here we are on Monday morning with the promise of another busy week. I have a short work trip tomorrow (just for the day) and then the premier of Glee! tomorrow night (champagne purchased).

Best get moving.

Before I go, though, I do need to wish my Mother a very HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY. She celebrated it somewhere in the UK on Saturday so I don’t feel too bad about not posting this on her actual birthday since I’m sure she’s having a wonderful time.

If you’re keeping count, that’s three family birthdays in the last 2 weeks. We celebrated them all with a joint candle-blowing moment while my parents were here a few weeks ago.