go goya

"go goya, go goya, go goya" (to be sung a-la-Ricki Lake "go Ricki" style)

So I braved the goya again tonight. We visited to PILs on the weekend, as we hadn't seen them since the cherry picking trip. They have a grand little vege patch in the area that was where the granny flat that J and I lived in when I first moved up to Tokyo was (they pulled it down when we moved out when I was pregnant and decided I didn't want to bring up a baby with the rats, haha!) They have tomatoes, spinach, okra, eggplant, shishito (not sure what that is in English? are they just green capsicum??) red and yellow capscicums, and the mother of all goya vines running up the house to the 2nd floor balcony!! So we came home with a pile of fresh veges, including one very big goya. After my last failed attempt at goya champuru earlier in the summer, I was not too keen on trying again, but I took on the advise of Illahee and cut the goya really really thinly. Sooooooo thinly that I got cramps in my hands and up my arms from holding the knife for so long - one goya goes a long way when it is cut that thin, haha! Actually, after I scooped out all the seeds and flesh, I salted the goya then poured boiling water over it. I let it soak like that for a few minutes, and I must admit that this time, it wasn't too bad! (despite the fuzzy photo, it did look and taste yummy)

I think THIN THIN THIN was the key for this goya champuru success story. Whenever I thought I was cutting it thin, then I started to slice it even thinner just to be sure.

In other news, K has started telling me pee-pee when she has done a job in her nappy. Sometimes I catch her all quiet in the corner, and manage to get the nappy off and her butt on the potty just in time to catch the no 2 jobs. But she still hasn't done a No1 on the potty yet. But it is cool to see that she seems to understand a bit now about what it all means. We are reading "Hitori de unchi" which means "I can do poo all by myself". It is a flip-the-page book. It goes like this:

"Koro the dog is going 'aarrrrgggghhhhhh'"
(flip the page)
"Oh look, he did a big healthy poo!"

....................Seems to read nicer in Japanese, for some reason.

We both sit there grunting as we read it at bedtime, hehe. (yes, it is her bedtime book choice this month! I keep on trying to throw in a "Hop on Pop" or something, but she puts up a fuss, and knows that she wants the unchi book - let the kid have unchi!

I had hoped to have her toilet trained this summer, but that seems pretty impossible (I am pretty lazy about it all too, I admit). But hopefully we can get serious about it when we go home for Xmas, and come back to Japan with a (near)nappy-free K!