Tuesday 26 January 2016

4/52

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Playing in the "purple playground".

There's this playground that we walk past every other week. It seems forgotten, even though it is surrounded by apartments. Jimmy likes it because most of it is about the right size for him.

On Saturday, the few-day-old snow was still untouched. That is, until Jimmy and Daddy played there and took these lovely photos.


P.S. The blizzard that hit the East Coast completely bypassed us and with a warm Sunday, the snow has started to melt.


Tuesday 19 January 2016

Last week, in photos...


Hanging out after seeing the doctor, who confirmed that Jimmy needed medication for conjunctivitis.


Hanging out, driving the trolley with the funny-little-car, as we went from one place to the next, waiting to his prescription to come through (for those of you who don't know, medical centers fax prescriptions to a designated pharmacy and then patients pick up their medicine - not always efficient).


Jimmy took this one! The bunting was made by my mum (aka Granny) and was a Christmas present. It's nice to have a picture of this corner of the living room and it's all the better for being taken by Jimmy.


Also taken by Jimmy and not as blurry as last week.


A combination of mandarins and lozenges helped me through this week as I have a sore throat that triggers a nasty cough and it's been hanging around for far too long.


Jimmy helped with fold some laundry. He just wanted to take part and be like me - he usually puts away his undies and today he folded 3 washers (the bottom 3). Sometimes I am amazed that Montessori style learning can happen spontaneously when we allow Jimmy the space to copy us. And yes, the clothes were placed in their 'home' as you see them because Jimmy did a really good job.


Daddy helping Jimmy distribute his eye gel medicine around his eyes, by telling him to move his eyes around while keeping them closed. The conjunctivitis is almost gone and Jimmy has been really good about us putting the gel on the insides of his eyelids, but that doesn't mean he likes it.

Monday 18 January 2016

3/52

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Up high on boxes.

It's been cold. So very cold and we have stayed in doors all weekend. Jimmy has handled it well, with only a little cabin fever... Grrrrr!



Tuesday 12 January 2016

Last week, in photos...

Drawing inspiration from here, here, and here, I'm hoping to share a little of my week using photos. Hopefully I'll manage five photos as a minimum, and hopefully I'll manage to get them up before Sunday, but I'm not going to be upset with myself if it goes up on Monday...


Speaking of Monday: First day back at work for the new year required coffee. Real coffee and a peanut butter cookie.


Honey-soy chicken for dinner. It was excellent, but there was not enough for leftovers, for lunch the next day.


Jimmy rediscovered one of his favourite books and we spent at least two days reading it over and over again.


My new diary arrived! It's tiny but so bright and cheery and I love the pictures. It's a little perfect.


A recent Jimmy-photo of me. I know it's blurry. Don't care.


Cutting with the kitchen scissors. Jimmy is getting good at cutting.

Monday 11 January 2016

2/52

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: A strange horned beast!

There may have been some Daddy in that beast but the horns are all Jimmy. Thanks for taking the photo Michael!



Friday 8 January 2016

Snowballs!


On Saturday we had a mission: we were going to take the bus and go to the library. We may have missed the bus... and we may have taken the scenic route to Arrow... and we found snow!


Snow, even nearly one week old snow, and it was excellent for making snowballs! (And stomping in.)




Monday 4 January 2016

1/52

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: playing in the tallgrass.

Michael's done it again! He's captured Jimmy's cheeky, joyous smile. My boys... Pure love.

Last week, I mentioned that Jodi, who writes Practicing Simplicity and started The 52 Project, would be wrapping up the project... well, she changed her mind and I'll keep linking in with her each week, as long I get my photos up in time. (Thanks Jodi!)

Saturday 2 January 2016

A new year...


We did our usual quiet New Years thing of going to bed sometime around midnight. We slept in too. It was nice.

After breakfast we tied up the living room, filing paperwork, getting rid of old receipts, last Christmas' wreath, and anything broken with no sentimental value.


The only thing missing from our New Year's clean up was the opening of windows, for a little fresh air - but it's a little cold outside...

A much needed new seal for the coffee pot has been ordered, a new diary too, and my eyes are feeling like new, which is even better than good seals and fresh paper.


In addition to cleaning in the home, I'm going to do a little work here, planning some new things for a new year, rethinking how I use this space to suit our lifestyle and photographic opportunities, and fixing a few problems that I have only recently found (ops!).


The beginning of this year feels especially important, and cleaning up our living room to reflect the freshness of the year felt nicely symbolic, although we did not stress the matter and I'm not going to hold on to it too much. But like spring cleaning, New Year's cleaning feels important.

As for New Year's resolutions, I'm keeping it simple: read four books; go home. It sounds simple enough, but I didn't manage to read four books last year, and we didn't go home when we had originally planned. Hopefully this will be the year.

And perhaps it's the lengthening of the days, but I feel a sense of hope and lightness. And while I have no evidence for the fact, I think this year will be better than the last...

Friday 1 January 2016

52/52

a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2015

Jimmy: Little boy, big park, big city...

While in Chicago, Michael and Uncle Jim took Jimmy to Millennium Park and I stayed in our hotel nursing some awful conjunctivitis. The three of them had a great time and almost had the park to themselves because of the wet weather. Jimmy didn't mind that the park was a little wet - he had a awesome time.

Thanks to Uncle Jim for taking this beautiful photo. And thank you Michael for contributing many other beautiful photos of our little man over the year.

I'm still in disbelief that today is the last day of the year... Jodi, the lovely lady who writes Practicing Simplicity and the woman behind The 52 Project, is wrapping up the project and is using other means of documenting her children. I am going to continue posting a weekly photo of Jimmy, because I like the format and simplicity of one (or two) photos once a week, especially as it allows family and friends overseas and home back in Australia to see this little guy is growing up.

See you in the new year!



UPDATED: Originally I gave photo credit to Michael, but the photo was taken by our friend James M., who we call Uncle Jim. The credit has been corrected.

A long December...


Happy Solstice? Merry Christmas? Meh...

But: Happy New Year?

Yes please, December 2015 can end now thank you.

The year hasn't been entirely awful, but it's probably one of the toughest years I've had in awhile.

Signing a new 13-month-what-were-we-thinking?! lease was a huge low for Michael and I.

There are friends and teachers I'm never going to see again and am not sure I have properly mourned.

We've missed out on new additions to friends families, but also been able to help new parents here.

So, it hasn't been all bad...

My sister was visiting over Christmas/New Years and Michael's mum visited just as I was starting my new job. Plus our trip to Chicago was timed so that we could catch up with close friends from Brisbane and meet their son.

Our nearest daycare turned out to be a really good match for Jimmy - he loves it there.

My work is good, but I'm having skin issues like never before (I'll tell you about it sometime).

Michael's work is frustrating but funded...

But December has been the pits because I've been sick for more than half of it and I can't believe that I only realised this the other night. Between some very nasty gastro and very aggressive conjunctivitis, plus a cold like thing I came down with around Christmas Day, I have had to take a huge chunk of time off work and wasn't able to enjoy Chicago half as much as I would have liked.

So, bye-bye December, bye-bye 2015. I know 2016 will not be without its challenges but as I write this, coughing up my lungs (it's linked to the conjunctivitis or a cold - I no longer care), I realise that I am so totally over 2015.

Call me an optimist, but I'm hoping that "maybe this year will be better than the last..."

(Both photos were taken by Jimmy, who is starting to take photos that are not his feet or the carpet.)