We went to the coast for a couple of days of camping fun with friends. The morning started with hazy skies.
And continued with blue skies…
And hanging with friends…
And climbing trees…
And then…
So now we adjust to fitting a broken arm into our plans for a new school year and a five year old birthday party.
More words coming soon. For now I bid a fond (hopefully premature) adieu to Summer as the Portland rain moves in.
All photos taken on the iphone with hipstamatic – it’s an addiction.
“Don’t. Take. My. Picture!”
“See? Sometimes we do play well together…”
“And then the moment passes.”
“OK – you’ve got 5 seconds and then I want to see the picture on your camera and we’re not all going to look at once so you’d better get used to it.”
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”
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…
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!
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.
I have nothing fun to say today. Work is incredibly busy and is sucking every single creative word and thought from my body.
Don’t get me wrong – I love that I have a creative job and that I can spend more than an hour choosing a colour palette (happened today) or conjuring up ideas for a fun video (last week and the week before), I just feel a little drained.
But then I come home and my two year old is standing at the door saying “mummy, mummy, mummy!” before I can even turn the key and my 4 year old manages to get Star Wars Cantina running through my head over and over again (to the tune of Copacabana).
Let’s just say I have a life that pulls me in many (mostly good) directions. The following P365 photos just reinforce that fact…
Tonight Samuel said “my best friend is Thomas”. I think they had a good day together.
Where I spend a large proportion of my time. I took this at about 9pm on a Friday night during an emergency video editing session. Oh, and I don’t work for the post office. That was just a random box.
Dancing with Thomas at our local kid-friendly pizza and music joint.
Same night. This is obviously not my child, but I just love this photo of my friend’s daughter. That’s my friend in the background as well as her other daughter.
The closest thing we got to a family portrait last month.
And finally, a rare quiet moment.
Today is the last day of the school year. I have been looking forward to this day for a few weeks, not because I desperately wanted Thomas to finish his first year of pre-school, but because it means that both children will be attending the same daycare for the summer and I will be able to shave about 90 minutes from my commute each day.
I am hoping that this extra time (and a little stress relief) will help us get back on track. The past couple of months have been challenging for a number of reasons – rain, work challenges, cranky toddlers, sassy pre-schoolers, and did I mention rain? I think we’re all suffering from a severe vitamin D deficiency and a sunny day would go a long way to helping us get back on track.
We went out for dinner tonight and, as we left the restaurant following a quick but impressive rainstorm, we saw this…
It reminded me to look on the bright side and consider the many small wonderful things that are happening in our lives right now.
I am also grateful that I stumbled across these pictures tonight. A reminder of that special brotherly relationship.
Also a good reminder to never let your guard down with a two-year-old.
Nicole Ishida Photography 