This was a few years back now. We were driving down to Long Beach and stopped at Pyramid Lake for a bit. As usual, I took photos, and this one’s a favourite.
at Pyramid Lake
HRG
Painting outdoors
Definitely another runner in the family
Sunset walk home
We took the last bus home one evening after swim class at 6pm. It was exciting to be on the bus as it got dark and to walk home with all the cars lit up. A little different than what we’re used to in the daytime. As always, an adventure. Simple but fun. Just how we like it.
Spin Art
Last week we finally managed to meet up with some friends we hadn’t seen in a while and they so sweetly brought along a gift for the kiddo which he was so excited to open… a Melissa & Doug Spin Art kit!! They remembered how much he enjoyed it the first time he tried spin art and thought he might like to make more at home. So sweet. Thank you!
Needless to say, it took some convincing to get him to leave it at home so we could go off on our play date. After we got home from an afternoon of fun, he immediately asked to do it. I told him I’d help him set it up right after I put everything away and popped into the loo but wouldn’t you know it, by the time I got out he was already deep in the throes of spinning his art! I loved that he was too excited to wait and that he was SO enthralled by the process and the effect of different techniques. Love watching him experiment and create! It was great that the kit was easy enough for him to set up on his own and get started with.
A day so well spent with a delightful ending to cap it. Thank you friends!
Beloved
Perspective
Chuckling while I remember something that happened a few days ago. As HRG walked away from the table after lunch, I reminded him that I’d like him to leave his used dishes etc near the sink. He sighed, stomped back and said, with great emphasis, ‘Why do I always have to do everything?!’
Reminded me of when I was a kid and was fairly certain of the same thing. Ah, perspective!
Another one down…
Another drive full of photos. To date, I think I must have at least 6TB of images from my life here, married and then with child. The funny thing is that years fit on my first few drives, which were not that big- 250gb/500gb and so on but now I get through a TB in about six months between work shoots and personal work. I shoot a lot. 😀
Unfortunately, I can’t get a new drive quite just yet so to upload the images filling up my cards I have to either delete images on my drives or upload them directly to my online photo host. Only issue is that I typically like to do that with images that I’ve already worked on (culled and edited) so I’m having a mental resistance to doing it out of order. I’ll just have to figure it out. Do you ever get weird like that or is it just me? Oh. Just me? Okay. No worries.
So, lately the kiddo is just not into school. He goes to playcare three times a week. He has been more sick, we all have actually, since he started there in August, than we have ever been in our life previously. When people said that happens, I thought they were exaggerating. As it turns out, they may have been downplaying it! Ha. One thing that’s happened in direct response to that is that I am paying a LOT of attention to the food we’re eating and how well they support our immune systems. I know he gets sick a lot because he’s being exposed to all these bugs at a new and social space, and it’s necessary so he can develop his immune system but good lord, how many times can one person get a cold over and over and over and over again before they lose their minds? My answer- not that many times! In my case, at least! HahahahacrazyHA!
Anyway, my point was that we are spending many mornings debating why he should go. When he’s sick, it’s a no brainer. Obviously he should stay home until I can’t stand it any more he’s feeling better. I’m definitely not one of those ‘tough it out and quit yer belly-aching!!’ mums although I was sure I would be when I was younger. Ha. Seriously though, I want my boy to take good care of himself. But when he’s not sick, and he can’t or won’t tell me why he doesn’t want to go to school then my mind tends to either believe that something so monstrous he hasn’t got the words for it has happened to him and he should never again go anywhere without me, or I have to force support him to go so he learns that sometimes you have to do stuff even when you don’t want to. Sigh. This parenting thing is WAY, way harder than it looks. (Thanks for making it look so easy mum and dad!)
Especially when I ask myself questions about my choices. It’s just so complicated and the ramifications so long reaching. At least it seems that way. Nothing is insignificant apparently, so every parental choice has got to be the RIGHT one. Right? Except… right for whom? My belief is that it has to be right for the child in question, and to a slightly lesser extent (depending on the scenario obviously) it also has to be right for the parents and family of said child. Which just complicates things even further it seems like. Ugh.
A few times I’ve told him that it’s fine for him to stay home but we have to go and tell his schoolmates that he won’t be coming today. And then when we get there and I tell him it’s time to go, he says, ‘bye mom, see you later’ and happily goes off to play. Then I’m all, huh?? Okay. So, clearly he’s working something out and I just have NO idea what it is. He’s trying to tell me something and he may as well be speaking Martian. I suppose time will tell- I’ll either learn to understand or he’ll figure out how to tell me in a way I can understand. Hopefully that won’t take too long.
Fishies!!!
Guess who got a bike from Santa?
hapa, nyumbani 