Mukade

K and L were actually playing nicely together. We just got home from picking L up from daycare, and the two of them were on the sofa (lying side by side) watching a My Little Pony episode on the iPad. Little N was asleep in the carseat, so i jumped into dinner prep, (foolishly) thinking i might actually get it done by myself tonight before someone woke up or cried! All of a sudden, L's saying he sees a mushi. Then he comes over screaming saying there is a mushi down his shirt. I lift up his shirt to see a mother&&";43: mukade (about 7cm long perhaps) crawling all over his chest!!! Aaarrgh, now I'm screaming, so of course he gets more scared. Managed to get it off him, but he says the top of his shoulder hurts--there is a single red dot and it is red all around. I called J who googled it and said to put him under a hot shower (apparently over 42deg water will kill the venom.) so despite my desire to call an ambulance and have him rushed to hospital, we shower, then bath. (And L says it doesn't hurt, so I'm no longer sure if he has been bitten or not anyway now.). It also doesn't seem to be swollen or anything, so hoping he's ok.

Now I'm shitscared tho, wondering where "the other one" is--apparently they hang out in pairs. Ugh. And of course I can't sit on the sofa for fear of having one if those horrid creatures climbing over me, or worse Little N;(

Mukade suck!!!
Fwiw, the mukade is outside on the verandah in a ziplock bag. If you kill them by squashing them, they let off some smell to alert other mukade to come attack their predator--so dint want that happening. Will either throw out in Nama gomi or drown in oil, or boil to death in boiling water.

Still shuddering thinking about it:(

Grateful on Mother's Day

Today I am feeling grateful.

Grateful to my mum for being such a wonderful mum! She is the kind of mum I wish I could be, yet I fail to be like her in so many ways;( I admire her calm level-headedness, and her parenting style, and am grateful to be able to call her my mum. I am grateful to her and dad for being here during the first month of all my kids lives, to support me and J and help out with the older kids. I really believe that I would not have gotten through the first month (especially with L and now N) without their support .


I am feeling grateful for having three beautiful, healthy children grace their lives to me and J. Though they piss me off sometimes, and I am still so far away from bring the mother I wish I could be (see above!) today I am especially grateful for them being here with us.

I had some very sad news last night, news that still makes me well up with tears.
A friend lost her baby at 33weeks. Baby had been doing well, then seemed to stop moving, so my friend went for a check up and was told that the baby's heart had stopped beating. Their second child, a beautiful baby girl, was stillborn.
I cannot imagine how my friend must be feeling, or how she could get over such a tragedy, but she is doing her best to be positive and I am grateful to her and her family for being able to get through this difficult time. And reminding me that life is just so precious.

So today I am taking stock of my life and feeling grateful for being given the chance to be a mother to my three beautiful kids, and grateful to them for putting up with a mess-of-a-mother that I am......meanwhile I am hopeful that one day soon I will be able to be more like my mum and the kind of mother I wish (and believe) I can be.

Pregnancy: rage and suspenders

Am in the throes of pregnancy rage -- is that a real thing??? Well, it is either the pregnancy, or the massive amount of chocolate I have stuffed myself with the last week.

And I blame Costco and those mother-f&ing choc muffins! (My lack of will-power does NOT come into play, tyvm).

As I say am not sure if the rage officially comes from pregnancy or chocolate (am willing to test this theory out post-partum with another chocolate face-stuffing session, so will be sure to report back with results;)
But there have been a few incidents in the last day or so, namely:
* a stoopid woman driving a kei-car the size of a kids toy-car, who seriously nearly wiped me and my car out while trying to reverse into the parking lot beside me at the shops. There was no other car in sight (nine parked the other side if the empty carpark she was trying to get into) yet she came in on such a bad angle that she literally missed the back of my car by a cats whisker....just as I came back to my car do I witnessed it all. When I held up my hands to get her to stop, she was like , "it's ok, I'm watching where I am going" and I was like all raging back at her: "wtf lady, you are driving a bloody match-box car lady--you shouldn't be this close to my car to start with!!!??"

* Then we are driving down a narrow road, where you have to schlop off to the side to let a car pass if one comes from the other way, so I am schlopping left when one of the school kids who were playing baseball in the middle of the said road(this is right at an (albeit small) intersection, mind you), pitches the ball over the top of my car to the kid half on the road, half in the yard in front if me (and between me and the car coming the other way) so I rolled down the windows and have them BOTH a serving for bring such doofuses!!

But in general, J takes the cake at the moment for being such a great target for my rage. I organize places to go with the kids (little events, even just going to the shops or a walk to the park or something) but I swear he just acts like such a dead-sh&t, seems totally removed from the family unit (like, walking on his own one step behind us, with us being me holding both kids hands) or just acts uninterested in anything;(
Then last night K was so excited to show him some things we bought for her upcoming birthday party, but he couldn't even sit through looking at them all (like a few minutes) and when I called him out on it, he was like "so I get in trouble for not looking at every single thing?" What he doesn't get is that it happens all the time -- he tunes out, appears uninterested..
I totally can't even be bothered talking to him. (End rant;)

As for the suspenders, I'm surprised I didn't think of this before (at least by pregnancy #2)!! What a great idea to hold up those maternity pants with the elastic waist-bands that keep slipping off my enormous belly.!! I will be making much use of my new suspenders for the next month, even if they really do make me look like a circus clown ;)

Hazy Sunday BBQ

J's friends came over today for Lunch.
They arrived over an hour EARLY-- I was still in my pj's having spent the morning making salads and side dishes and cleaning out the kids playroom while the kids totally trashed the living room. I then never even got a chance to clean up the living room before they troddled upstairs. Talk about bring totally caught out. Who the hell arrives an hour early (other than the PlL but I expect that from them at least now)

There were three families who came and we basically spent the whole day eating and drinking--our planned bbq was brought inside thanks to the eerie yellow hazy sky that blanketed Kanto today.
Pre-lunch we snacked on carrots/cucumber/paprika sticks, cheese, sun dried tomatoes and corn chops. Lunch was roast chicken, Italian sausages (chicken and apple, and habanero and cheese), roast potato and onion, green salad, Greek salad, Chinese cabbage salad, corn bread rolls from Costco. Post lunch was pizzas, followed by another round of cheese&biccies with grapes; soy-beans; mussels in garlic butter; popcorn...

We didn't get around to eating dessert until 6pm!

When everyone left at 8pm, my kids wanted more food--I managed to persuade them to eat up bread rolls and leftover chicken;)

Talk about a mammoth day. I had to sit on the sofa (as in could not move) for about 40mins around 2pm after having standing up all day, ouch, my back!!!

And while I am enjoying my cuppa to wind down now, another night of bloody baseball on TV is haunting me, haha. When will the World Series it whatever it is be over??

Defeats the purpose

Have several of J's friends coming over tmr for a bit of a barbie. Want to get some prep and cleaning done but L is in clingy mode. Even putting Doraemon on --he won't watch it unless it is from my lap!! Totally defeats the purpose, right?! Lol.

I don't even have a cuppa (can't get up to make one) to get me through the trauma of having to sit through an episode of Doraemon :(

TGMF and manuka

There Goes My Friday (night)...
J usually goes to the gym Fri nights. And sometimes Tues nights. I kinda expect to have to do the kids bath-bed routine myself, and when I don't fall asleep with them, enjoy an hour or so of English sitcoms or tv-dramas. Currently just limited to NCIS LA (since Glee finished on nhk, and I haven't been faffed to turn the computer on to stream Mad Men, and am pretty current with Downton & Good Wife) .
But still, I enjoy my English tv time.
Not tonight though. It's been HOURS of bloody baseball. In general, I actually enjoy watching most sports on tv, but think baseball is more boring than watching toenails grow. I kept on expecting it to end, but it is still going!!!

So I have up on my tv time, and spent the night researching New Zealandish Manuka honey -- its a welcome present for the PIL (my folks will be here in April) and J also wants some for a business colleague. But gee it's confusing!!! All the UMFs and MGOs and I still can't make a decision about which is the best buy. They now also have Australian Manuka honey too!! plus we saw it at costcos today for about 3000yen (500g jar of 10+; same brand selling at an online Aus store for just over $20.) so am wondering if we don't just buy it here and be done with it!
And anyway--I can't even touch the stuff as it gives me an allergic/asthmatic reaction so I'm happy if my parents keep that luggage space for more important items. Like easter eggs, and dedicated coconut, and decaf tea bags, and tinned spaghetti and baked beans;)

Having troubles commenting on my own blog;(

From the iPhone. Boo-hoo! Will try to fix it. In the meantime, thanks to Gaijinwife and Kyushukel for the recent comments-- you must have inspired me to at least try blogging again;)

Have just uploaded the blogger app for iPhone, trying to find my way around that for now.

L won a giraffe!!

Seriously;)
We never win anything. Most recently, we tried to win tickets for Disneyland by collecting the points off the bread (only bought yamazaki bread for two or three months, and must have sent in at least a dozen forms)...but nada.
I think the last thing I actually won was a Paula Abdul LP, or was it the Bobby Brown LP - cant remember which came last, since I was in about 7th or 8th grade!!

So after we went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, answered the sticker quiz and put our entry in the box we all forgot about the competition...until the doorbell rang at 7:50pm last night and the postie delivered L his very own plastic giraffe model toy. He was totally taken with it-it slept with him, ate breakfast with him, rode in the car with him to drop K off at school...not sure what happened to it after that, though;)

K was kinda pisses she didn't win anything, but we put her entry into the draw for the main prize, so I guess that was out fault for aiming high. I still think its a rort that most competitions in Japan make you choose which prize you are going for. No such thing as runners-up when you've only got one chance;(

So yeah, don't know if I am "back" blogging or not(can only access my blog thru iPhone as forgotten my password, and blogging from an iPhone is kinda painful!!) but for some reason (for the first time in a long time) I felt like posting--all thanks to a little plastic giraffe.
How Random;)

David Bowie And Nike

"ch-ch-ch-changes♪"
The months of April and May have brought us many!
* k turned 5. No longer a baby at five years old;( you can see the difference in her too -- my little baby girl all grown up(;;)
* k started pre-school. She is nen-chu. She LOVES it, wants to leave the house before 8:30 most mornings to get there early;)
* L turned 2! My, how those two years have flown. And he has FINALLY started sleeping through the night - by which I mean 7:30pm until 4:30am! We stopped nursing overnight, but still had a sesh at 4:30am, then 5am, then 5:30am ...(You get the picture:) until I got sick of it and either gave him the iPhone or got out of bed myself!!
* and then come May, and we finally stopped that morning nursing session too, after we came back from GW holidays. Weird (bittersweet) to think my boobies are done, packed away for good now.
* L started day-care. He cried for the first 5 days when dropped off (had to come home the first day before lunch he was inconsolable) but by day 6 he goes off without any tears, and seems to enjoy playing with the other kids, and even gave his teacher a big kiss when leaving yesterday.
* and me? Well, I got a job. Yep, a real job. In-house translating. Is it weird that I love hearing the click click of my high heels as I walk? Lol.

Yep, lots of changes and still trying to work out our daily rhythm, but to tell you the truth, it was easier to make the change than I thought - For all the worry about is it the right decision to go back to work, put L into daycare etc etc, it all seems to be working out. I guess Nike does give right advice - "just do it!"

82

I get a mention on gaijin wife's blog (http://gaijinwife.wordpress.com/) And I get 82 hits here today!! That's enough to get anyone back blogging:) lol.

Some days I should just stay out of the kitchen

today I

* made my favorite almond cookies, was hoping to shape them into hina-sama shapes. K and L helped cut out pig shapes, hearts and flowers and I made just two (prince and princess) Hina samas. So glad I didn't waste my time shaping them -- all the biscuits Mergd together to form one big flat mess on the trays in the oven ;( not sure what went wrong, as it was kinda my fail-safe recipe....not anymore,right??,

* made mini quiche (since had the oven going anyway making failed biscuits) with broccoli and tuna, in wanton wrappers for cases. shouldn't have strayed from my normal quiche fillings.....K didn't like it, as I expected;( And the quiches all stuck in the muffin tray and came out looking like a big mess.

So it was a kinda epic fail day in the kitchen.

In other random news:

**Cleaned the kids room, living room, kitchen only to have them messed up even more than when we started about 5 mins later:( sigh. But I guess that is a daily thing, right? )

**Got halfway through the mountain of clothes waiting to be folded and put away. was gonnna do the rest once the kids were asleep, but after an EPIC three hour nap from BOTH kids, bedtime was pushed back til close to 9pm... So I am now sitting under the kotatsu watching dead boring Japanese tv instead of folding.

**I've gone caffeine free! Decided last week to try it - was drinking cups of tea all day long, and the cookies that go with the drink of tea got out of hand, so that my clothes are now all too tight - a problem in winter, unless I can find some potato sacks;(
am actually feeling a bit better without the caffeine/all-day-long drinking, and enjoying my camomile, rosehip and decaf teas. I have drunk coke, and eaten chocolate though, so not fully de-caffeinated yet, but it is a process, right?!
actually, it IS a process, as I am hoping to go sugar-free -- starting March, I am gonna attempt my no junk food/chocolate diet, and try to cut out sugars from my diet. I think this will be challenging. But hoping that I can do it!

**and I haven't forgotten my 101 things....although I think I still have about, uh, 101 things to complete. (sigh) if only the kotatsu wasn't so cozy...........

Honey, honey

As if a full day of headaches, cramps and listlessness was not enough...I am now having an allergic reaction to porridge!
Ok, it was actually the manuka honey (bloody kiwis!!) that I mixed in with it.
Am having a cup of tea trying to calm down and breath through it.
I have had this once before, after drinking an energy drink that had royal jelly in it. While in Korea, on holidays with my parents. I couldn't stand up, and it took a couple of hours to get over it. It was really bad.
This time seems mild- my heart is not racing as fast as a horse in the Melbourne cup anymore, so it looks like I'll get through it ;)
And i wont be touching the $15-a-jar manuka honey again - all the more for J, I guess.

Where in the world?

* possibly the coldest day yet this winter, and we walked 30 mins from house, through a shopping arcade to go to an indoor kids play area (L has never been let loose in such a place so he wanted to look at everything but we were rushed so that they could go to a paying play area-- he was happy outside where it was free, haha)
* oh and DH (D= dumbass) said not to worry bout taking the stroller so I got to carry 14kg boy on my shoulders most of the way there AND back! (D(umbass)H put him down after, oh, 2 seconds?!!) So glad I wore a dress and boots;(
* the kids learned about road safety - after they were dragged across the road two times on a red light :(
* DH was given an extra blanket (ie, total of 2 blankets and a futon) bcoz he looked cold, meanwhile me and two kids had one blanket between us, and two futons apparently made of lead- couldn't move under the f*ckers!)
* two over tired kids that didn't get to sleep til after 10pm;(
* one sleepless mummy
*snacks, snacks and snacks galore - followed by comments anout the kids not eating meals properly.
* snacks offered NOT LESS than 2 mins after brushed kids teeth
*DH chose a restaurant for dinner - only to be given a sermon the morning after about choosing a place on B1 level, where we were sat at the back of the restaurant -- we should have chosen a place that has better emergency escape routes!!
* I was graciously offered an old cardigan circa 1994 - the sleeves were droopy enough to look like bloody furi-sode on a kimono!!) And D(umbass)H told me it looked nice!!!!! Wtf! For once I refused and was listened to so I didn't have to bring it home to sit with the other hand-me-downs and XLs I get bought (when will realization that I am actually a size smaller than MIL hit home??)

Where in the world? At PILs for the weekend, of course!!
(Why does it all sound petty when I write it?? haha.)

What we are all about at the moment

A quick catch-up in no particular order:

Am loving L and his quirky way of repeating everything we say at the moment. since being in Aus over Xmas his language skills have really taken off! He now "counts" to ten (before jumping off the sofa), says "ohayo" in the morning when he wakes up, asks "why" (this is a new one' he likes to say why why why),

Am, on the other hand, wanting to wean him. We no longer nurse during the day most days ( although if home, we might have a pre-nap session) and he doesn't nurse TO SLEEP at night, but when he wakes up during the night, I nurse him back to sleep. SO OVER IT. I wonder if his last teeth are coming through though, as he has been a bit grumpy/ clingy again lately? Hmmm.

K starts Pre-school in April, going into nenchu. Just realised I have shitloads of stuff to get ready. And it will be bento everyday, so have started doing trial runs- to see how she will eat a cold packed lunch, and just what size bento box she needs.

I want to do a 101 things update took although it seems that all I manage to cross off is a pedicure or three!

I am wondering how long I can continue eating a choc muffin a day before I need a whole new wardrobe (pants are getting a bit きつ~い)

And that is all I have to blog about right now....

Just noticed...

Day three of a head cold - runny nose, snffles, sneezes, headache and, I admit, an all-round grumpy mummy.

J just rings at lunch time today and asks me how I am feeling!!??

Apparently he just noticed this morning that I might have a cold.
*Apparently* he thought that my grumpiness last night, was just normal me!!

Don't know whether to laugh, feel embarrassed or just pull out the fry-pan...hmmmm,
Watch your head, J!!

Frogs and trees...

I felt like something sweet after dinner.

j remembered the "Country ma'am" biscuit stash in his bag from when we went camping months ago and kindly offered them up for us to eat, as long as I hadn't already gotten in to them. Lucky for me I am good at keeping my hands off what I perceive to be other people's chocolates/sweets so I hadnt touched them:)

He brought them downstairs and we dished out one each. K, L and I ate ours in a flash. J's was still sitting on the table, the rest of us eying it off....when he finally went to eat it, the three of us were just like pavlov's mutt. J just laughed and said "蛙の子は蛙ね"

I nodded, yep, "the leaves never fall far from the tree" ??

I rephrased....." the acorn never falls far from the tree" ?????

So I googled "The APPLE never falls far from the tree"

Hahaha, at least I knew it was something to do with trees;-)

Insomnia?

Fell asleep with kids tonight(and last night) at 8:30pm.
Woke up when J came to bed at midnight.
Am still awake at 1:49am.

Same thing happened last night.

Why is sleep so messed up for us all?

So it's been a month since my last post about L's sleep lack-of-schedule.
I think we have pretty much transitioned to one nap a day, but still it varies each day....
Lately a nap after lunch ha been working but we still get a couple of days a week where he'll pass out sometime in the morning. Being out in the car tends to put him down. Example from this week:

Sat - asleep at 12:30 in the car seat, slept until i woke him at 2pm
Sun - lovely 1-3pm afternoon nap that I might have indulged in too:-)
Mon -asleep at 11:15 am, in car seat, eta 5mins from home! Slept until 1pm, in car seat which I brought into the genkan with him asleep in it!
Tues- out to it from 12:20pm after morning playdate. Asleep in stroller until
Wed- asleep at 9:30am, while in ergo doing shopping. Awake at 10 after unsuccessful attempt to move from back to car seat:(. Afternoon nap 2pm-3pm
Thurs- asleep 1-3pm, in stroller

Kinda random, right??I know the movement of vehicles sets him to sleep but still!!! At least Mon was the only day he fell asleep before I could get him lunch.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring? Am guessing that I will be needing an afternoon nap the way this is going-- wonder if I can get K on board??(altho napping her means super late bedtime at night ***so*** not worth it! Better off catnapping on lounge while she cuts/draws/watches tv ;-)

'ni-night zzzzzzz

What time today?

L seems to be playing a little game. It is called - screw the schedule!

the last few weeks he has been dropping his morning nap and going down just once a day. Then we went on a road trip holiday and for 5 days he took a morning nap at 10:40am until noon ( or when we work him up for lunch) then an afternoon nap around 3:30ish. Then we came home, and he still wanted to sleep in the morning, but not so keen on going down in the afternoon. He even had a three hour nap sleeping right through lunchtime the other day!
THEN yesterday, he woke up at 6ish, and fell asleep in the car at 9am, sleeping until 10:45 ( which was kinda handy as we were driving across town, and the roads were a bit heavy). Then we had a huge day out with friends and he was playing all day, and crashed in the car in the way home at 6pm, and slept through the night from then....until stirring early this morning, eventually up at 5:30am.

now I thought he would sleep by 9am again this morning, and even threw him in the stroller as opposed to the winne the pooh trike for a walk with R, but wouldn't you know it, he is STILL going strong right now, at 10am!

so do we try for a 10:45am type morning nap today? What to do? What to do?
I just wish he got the memo about the new nap times,and that whatever they are, he would STICK to them! Lol

Cancelled

Due to approaching typhoon, K's once a week half day pre-school is cancelled for today. She is bummed.
so am i-- I was planning on checking out a sports gym a couple of stations away that seems to have a child minding facility for members. I thought I could join up as a morning member and go swimming while K is at pre-school on wed mornings. depending on what age they take kids to loo after, I might even be able to leave both kids there and go another morning too?? How cool would that be!! I am really itching to swim some laps.

But i guess i'll have to go check it out another day now......Watch this space!

Looking for toothpicks

To prop my eyes open.

L had "woken up" 4 times already by 10pm....gave up counting after that. I know I got a bit of sleep in somewhere between then and when J woke me up when he came to bed at 11:30pm. Also had a patch after I checked the time at 2am. Other than that L was pretty much attached at the boob ALL night :-( couldn't shove that dummy in for love nor money haha.

I know I have said it almost daily but it is totally his teeth-- I can see one of those back double-headed teeth (molars?) just breaking through. Poor tyke. Just wish this teething would be over soon -- I feel like I am gonna be running on empty today ( which is why I think I deserv to have a cookie for breakfast!!)