52 Weeks of Us

52 of Him: Fourteen

The boy is totally about robots these days.  They go to the playground and to bed with him.  He cannot get enough of them.

Me:  What do you want to be when you grow up?
Him:  A robot driver.
Me:  Do they teach you robot driving at school?
Him:  Yes.
Me:  What skills do you need to be a robot driver?
Him:  It’s like Little Dragons, kicking and punching.
Me:  What would your robot driver name be?  Chicken feet?
Him:  No, that would be silly.  The robots wouldn’t like that.

We get our robots from the “robot shop.”  I wonder, if there were robot shops, what would they look like?  Who would shop there?

It’s actually a beautiful thing, the way he gives them names and makes up stories and conversations between them.  Some are “really nice”, like Wall-e.  They all fight sea monsters.  He makes them fly around making “sssshhhh” airplane noises.  The Transformers are a personal nightmare as he’s not quite old enough to transform them himself so this task falls to me.  I’m regularly admonished with “Mummy you didn’t do it right.”

And there are the questions.  “Why are robots made of metal?”  “Do robots have skeletons?”  As a parent, how do you keep coming up with the answers?  Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to invent something.

This week’s robot lexicon, it changes on a regular basis.  It’s probably changed since I wrote this down.  And no, I do not know how one came to be called “gray onion.”

robot_inventory

April 11, 2013
52 Weeks of Us

52 of Me: Thirteen

Springtime, where are you?  I sit here waiting for your warm glorious rays of sunshine to wash over me, to bring me out of this gloomy winter.  But it’s like I’m sitting here alone at a table for two and you’re the date that stands me up.

It’s April and I’m supposed to be in sandals and sundresses, not still bundled up in scarves and sweaters.

Come on Springtime, don’t leave me hanging.

 

 

April 5, 2013
52 Weeks of Us

52 of Him: Thirteen

I believe there is a special place in hell reserved for children’s gloves.  When I try to get his little fingers in all the proper holes, it’s like I’m trying to do an origami puzzle.  We’ve got some mittens, but he’s already figured out that the gloves mean he can still use his hands as normally as possible.  I offered up the mittens the other day when we went out, but no, he had to wear the ones “with the fingers.”

And they keep going missing.  Sometimes they turn up sometimes not.  Some have been lost and forgotten at school, others likely hiding out having a party with all the lost socks.  As I went out in search of replacement gloves for those that went missing, I discovered that, unbelievably, you cannot find children’s gloves at the shops in the middle of February.  They’ve already cleared them out to make room for shorts and swimwear.

So this is all we’ve got left.  My son walks around in a kaleidoscope of unmatching knitwear.

April 4, 2013
52 Weeks of Us

52 of Me: Twelve

Negative space.  The area surrounding the main subject, the positive space, in photography and art.  Negative space is an effective technique used to draw one’s eye and focus toward the main subject.  But negative space is just as important in giving a photo, or any piece of art, some “breathing room.”  Your eyes need a place to rest in a composition and negative space is what keeps an image from being cluttered with too many unnecessary elements.  When used effectively, negative space makes the overall image stronger and more powerful.

Is it like this in life as well?  Have our modern lifestyles become so consumed with the need to “have it all” that we no longer leave room for negative space, for breathing room, for rest?  Even though it’s that breathing room that actually makes us stronger, happier, more productive.

Sometimes I feel like I’m living inside a photograph cluttered with too many distracting elements and clutter, there’s no negative space, and therefore, no understanding of where to focus. As Tony Robbins says:

One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.

That’s me.  Dabbler.  Jack of all trades, master of none.  I’m feeling the need to focus and recompose, adding a bit of negative space back into the picture.

How do you create negative space in life in order to focus on and strengthen the positive?.

March 29, 2013