Category Archives: Thomas

This Is Seven

Inspired by a post I read on Ali Edward’s blog, I decided to interview each of my children. I was going to wait until their birthday’s but things change so quickly around here that I decided to just do it now. I’m sure the answers will be different in just a few short months.

I interviewed both boys at the same time but next time I’ll try and do them separately. You’ll see someone similarities in their responses. Samuel, for instance,was thrilled to discover that Candy could be considered a favorite food after Thomas added it to his list.

The most surprising part of this process for me, was realizing how excited they each were to answer my questions. They asked for more after I was done.

Today’s responses come from my favorite seven year old. 4 (and a half) year old answer will be posted tomorrow.

Thomas at Seven 

My favorite food: Candy and Pizza
My favorite movie: Harry Potter
The coolest person on earth: My family
My favorite thing to do at school: Choosing time and drawing
The thing I do most awesomley: Everything
If I could go anywhere in the world, I’d go to: Legoland and Disneyland
My favorite color: Yellow, gold and silver
When I grow up, I’m going to become: A ninja
The thing my parents are too strict about: Too much video game and TV time
My favorite band: The Beatles
The book I’m reading: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Three words that describe me: Funny, clever and strong
When I was little, I used to: Pee on my Mum and Dad
My favorite season of the year: Autumn
The snack I could live on: Candy and Pizza
The food that makes me want to puke: Tomatoes
My best friend: Kentaro, Aiden, Peter, Nick, Raiu, Max, Grant, Charlie, Carter
If I had one wish it would be: That candy would be good for you
My best memory is: When I was playing with Grant

Screw You St. Valentine, but Thanks for the Love Notes

For me, Valentine’s Day isn’t about love and flowers and chocolates (although I unexpectedly received some chocolates this year). o, for a mother of two school-age children who happens to live in America, Valentine’s Day is about making a last-minute stop at the store to buy packs of Valentines that are really just cleverly disguised advertisements for superhero merchandise. It’s about making your children write their name and, for Thomas someone else’s name, on 25-27 valentines over three evenings because that is just too many to do in one night after school. It’s about the crazy mess that is distributing said valentines to individual envelopes at 8am when you’ve already missed the first school bell. I also carpool so add one more child to the mix and that’s at least 75 valentine cards to be distributed before 8:30am.

Somewhere, St. Valentine is sitting up in the clouds and laughing at the chaos he created. It’s enough for me to come up with a Bah Humbug! alternative for this very special, most romantic, day of the year.

Still, this year did bring a couple of unexpectedly sweet Valentine moments thanks to a couple of boys who now have the ability to write and who have way more sentimentality than their mother.

Like this little surprise message from Samuel. Who says you can’t say it on a post-it note?

And he was kind enough to give me really long legs.

Thomas wrote a very special Valentine for his crush. Translation: To Sabrina. From Thomas. 2013.

It came complete with a photograph of himself, of course. I love that he calls out the day and date of their last playtime.

And then finished off with a heart.

Both boys have been working on letter writing at school so I also want to share a couple of special notes that we’ve received over the last few days.

From “your friend” Samuel. I’m particularly impressed by the hiragana.

And this one from “your son” Thomas.

Receiving letters from my boys may be my new favorite thing, but I don’t need them with a side of candy hearts.

 

Cargo PDX: The (Other) Happiest Place on Earth.

The boys and I took full advantage of our MLK holiday, first by sleeping in and taking our time getting dressed, and then with a no stress trip downtown. While our ultimate destination was Powells (by popular demand), I decided to take the boys on a little side visit to Cargo. They were hesitant at first but as soon as we walked in it was like angels started singing – or perhaps Buddhist chants would have been more appropriate as you’ll see below.

Thomas took it upon himself to try on every hat in the store, as well as a few masks, and then request a photo.

I think this one is Samuel although, honestly, it’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart even without masks on.

Then they both proceeded to pray to every single Buddha in the store. Yet somehow I missed getting a good shot of them both in action – blame low light and fast-moving kids.

Although there’s something I love about this photo of Thomas.

Cargo is not all about hats and Buddhas. It’s like one massive treasure box. Every corner you turn brings new surprises – furniture, toys, mirrors, Kimonos, lanterns, fake birds in cages…

The kids had fun but lacked the stamina to stay as long as I would have liked – especially not after I mentioned the word cookie.

So much fun, and we didn’t have to spend a cent… well, apart from the cookie.

Today’s Photo of Two Boys Getting Along

Back to work today after a relaxing long weekend that included swimming lessons, a day at the outlet mall where I didn’t buy anything at all for myself (we took some of Kei’s international colleagues) and a nice, relaxing MLK day with my boys.

I captured this photo while we were out for dinner on Sunday night at a very nice Portland restaurant. It was the type of place where we prepped the boys beforehand about there being no yelling, running around or otherwise drawing attention to themselves. And they both behaved beautifully, even after one of our phones ran out of battery and they were forced to share.

I asked them afterward what they thought about the restaurant. Samuel said the view of the city was the best part. Thomas liked that the servers dressed in suits and ties. When you live in Portland, that’s something you don’t see every day.

The Blahs

It seems I’ve hit that time of the year that I refer to as “the blahs.” I think the darkness sucks up every little bit of motivation that I might otherwise have to leave the house and… do something.

So, this weekend, I spent a lot of time indoors doing laundry, cooking and otherwise just wasting time. It was not at all productive and now I feel guilty and like I wasted a couple of days when I could have CHANGED THE WORLD. Not really, but leaving the house for more than grocery shopping may have helped my state of mind a little. I am grateful that I still had a teeny little burst of motivation when it was time to take down the Christmas tree last week otherwise I’m pretty sure it would have stayed up until May.

Not that the weekend was a complete loss. The boys started swimming lessons on Saturday. Thomas took to it again like a duck to… well, you know. Samuel surprised me by actually staying in the pool, the entire time. We last attempted swimming lessons with him about 18 months ago and gave up after a few lessons because it felt like a waste of time and money for him to sit on the edge of the pool and watch the other kids swim. This time he seems a lot more motivated and, although he didn’t participate fully in the games, he did stand in the general vicinity of the other kids and may have even listened to the teacher a few times. Baby steps.

The boys also spent a surprising amount of time outside on Sunday afternoon despite the freezing temperatures. I’ll never take a frozen puddle for granted again. That, and digging a hole in a pile of dirt, kept them occupied for hours.

This week, my goal is to get rid of the blahs. I have a ton of work to do at my day job so I’m not sure if that will help… but I am determined to take out my camera at some stage and capture a little more of our lives right now and I may even do some (gasp!) exercise. It’s about time I started using that gym membership. The more I exercise the more motivated I will be to exercise, I just need to get started.

To close, I’ll share a photo I took on another frozen weekend. Samuel found a piece of ice in the backyard and declared it the “BEST DAY EVER!” I wish I had this kid’s enthusiasm… and fashion sense. Bathrobe and gumboots = awesome!

Christmas Begins NOW!

I like to get an early start on the lead up to Christmas – which means that I start the day after Thanksgiving. Oh, there’s a little preparation in early November, due mostly to my crazy decision a few years ago to make most of my own Christmas presents (and by “make” I mean send them off to be printed), but the majority of my Christmas Cheer begins  as we finish the Thanksgiving leftovers.

And what better way to kick off the season than with a quick trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express. This time Kei was able to join us (he was sick last year) so it was a true family adventure – one that came complete with an almost-running-out-of-gas-induced-ulcer on our way through The Gorge. (Thank you tiny little general store that charged us 50c per gallon above prices at gas stations 10 miles away).

This year’s trip was a little different in that we took the “matinee” train at 11:30am. Our other trips took place after dark which is about 4pm in the NW at this time of the year. An 11:30 train ride had a couple of benefits – better lighting for photos and the ability to actually see outside the train window. The downside is that a little of the magic disappears when you can clearly see how fake the “North Pole” really is.

We arrived in Hood River about 45 minutes before we due to board the train which gave us an opportunity to walk on some (unused) train tracks…

…and grab a quick family photo using the self timer on my camera.

And then more photos on (unused) train tracks…

Confession: I saw Samuel looking up at the Polar Express poster in the same way that the kid in the poster is looking up at the train, but I wasn’t quick enough to catch it so I made him do it again for the photo opp.

With tickets in hand, it was finally time to board.

Finally, after a 45 minute ride, we reached the North Pole – Santa’s factory at the North Pole to be exact. Santa looks like he’s lost a few pounds since last year.

Soon enough, Santa jumped on board and the kids proceeded to tell him about the very special presents that they want for Christmas. Honestly, he’s going to have to be a little creative because those very special presents went out of stock EVERYWHERE last week and, so far, his elf is resisting the desire to pay a 40% mark up on eBay. Santa may be writing a letter of apology.

For now, they’re satisfied with the bell they received on the train.

It was still daylight when we got off the train so we walked around town, making sure we visited our favorite Toy Store before heading home. One 90 minute white-knuckle drive in torrential downpour later, and we were safely back in Portland and officially in the holiday spirit.

Merry weeks-leading-up-to-Christmas!