taking a sickie

L was awake at 6am this morning. He prob would have slept a bit longer if only I wasnt fussing over him, checking to make sure he could breath -- looked to me like his head was wedged between the pillow and J's body, and I was worry-warting ;(

Lots of wind and rain over night and this morning, so I decided to proclaim a sickie for the day, and had 3 cups of tea before 9am in my pjs. But we had to get changed into real clothes as J is off to China next week and needed his shirts dry-cleaned, so into the car and down to the dry-cleaners, and quick stop off at the ymca there to see if they do 一時保育 at the nursery there (they don't) before heading home.

It looked like it was gonna end up being a fine day, so I did a load of washing, which I have just remembered about now (it is hanging outside....and it has started raining again, oh well.)

Sandwiches in the living room for lunch, as we are on day2 of our 3 month trial of hikari tv. bring on the cartoon network. Did you know that Olivia is a cartoon!!??? But apparently even K can get bored watching tv all day, as shown by her actions just now of clanging about the money box, thus waking up a sleeping L, of course just after I poured a cuppa (altho, admittedly it is my 5th for the day now, so I probably really dont need it)

And now that everyone is awake, I guess that means my sickie is over for the day. Better do something. I am thinking of tackling the clutter in the living room -- wish me luck!!

Oh and we are looking for a one day a week day care option for K. She will go to "pre-school" (the Japanese bastarised version, which is actually a pre-pre-school one day a week thing) but I want to put her into day care for one more day a week, so that I can take L to playgroup. I am waiting to hear back from a few places, including the nursery school about 100m away (close would be good) and an international kindy near playgroup (they have a drop-in system, so I could put her in for just the 2 hours or so we are at playgroup). I guess in the end price will be the biggest deciding factor.

Happy New Year

New Year's Day 9pm : K wakes up in a sweat, eyes wide open, crying. She had gone to sleep with PILs as we were staying with them over the new year, but MIL had called out to say that K felt hot...too right - she was running a 39deg fever.

AAAArrrrrggggghhhhhh. Happy New Year.
And so it began.

K complained of a sore back of the neck, so I started to freak out that she had meningitis, but a bit of Internet searching (Dr Sears is my new best friend) and we decided it probably wasnt that, so we rode out the feverish night (with no meds cause didnt think to take bum bullets with us, bad mummy) with K seeing "obake" (ghosts) for about an hour as she wouldnt close her eyes to sleep. Lucky they were all friendly ghosts - she was describing them all to me. She was also doing a hysteric type of laugh. J thinks she was taken over by some spirit. Hmm. Anyway, she finally got to sleep and woke up the next morning unscathed and pretty much back to normal. Wonder what it was?? Perhaps she was just overtired from a BIG day of bike riding and a 3km walk in the afternoon?? who knows...

Jan 2nd. L starts to run a low fever, about 37.5. I figure it is teething related as he now has the white hard bit on his bottom gum. PM. L's fever peaks at around 39deg during the night. Of course, NO BUM BULLETS so poor boy has to suffer thru. I hook him up to booby-on-tap all night, as he doesnt sleep for more than 30mins. Want to keep his fluids up.

Jan 3rd. L wakes up still feverish, but after a morning nap, he is back to 37.5deg, so we figure he is all ok. Fever spikes again in evening, so come back home and take him to nighttime emergency centre, where they say he has adenovirus, which is basically a cold with sore throat caused by a virus, so no meds necessary. Characteristically, his fever will go up and down for about 5 days (ugh!) and may get a bit of diarhea. Still sleeping BAD, and now even snoring in his sleep as obviously finding it hard to breath right at night.

Jan 4. repeat of previous day.

Jan 5. morning same. By this stage I am about 5 days into sleep deprivation hell (lol) which is proven when I speak to mum on skype and she says my eyes look all glazed over ;(

By the afternoon L has returned to his usual genki self (the change amazing!!) but still a restless night sleeping

Jan 6th: FINALLY the regular peds are open for business after the new years break -- doc says he is over the worst of it, checks his chest but says it is ok, and the snoring is just part of it, nothing more sinister. Phew. Hopefully he will be back to normal by tomorrow.

I am SO over all this sickness. It has just been one thing after another since november - granted, only colds and tummy bugs etc, thankfully nothing more major for the kids(touch wood) but still, I have spent the last few months planning and cancelling catch-ups, morning teas, playdates..... I feel like I am starring in my own tv show, "The Canceler". Add to that my very long and recurring battle with plugged ducts (think we are over that finally) and cracked nipple (70% healed?? ) It seems everytime I am on the verge of being healed, L gets sick and goes into overdrive on the comfort nursing. :(

I had really hoped we could start the new year on a good note healthwise.

Right, L is still asleep after our morning peds visit(prob catching up on lack of sleep from last night) so I am gonna make myself a cuppa and sit back for a bit longer and bludge rejuvenate while K watches Tamagotchi.

half-here

I am here (as in - back in Japan, and back in the land of faffing off all day in front of the computer, as opposed to shopping, long coffee dates with friends, sunday roasrs with the family and simply enjoying the great Aussie lifestyle) BUT I am not really here (as in - am in the middle of youchien hunting. Application forms come out on the 15th, and I need to visit schools before then to see what they are like. Case in point - went to one yesterday which was high on my list, only to "see for myself" and realise that it is not what we are looking for. sigh. So back to square one, and researching schools further afield, making times to visit and getting the sproglets out and about to actually visit the schools. Going to one this morning.)

Still not even sure if we will be putting K into 3-year or 2-year program.....

I feel a bit like the John Marsden novel we read at high school ("So much to tell you") but cant see myself blogging for a bit longer yet.

can you guess what we are doing this weekend?

mummy to K: "let get everything cleaned up and packed so we can go ****** when Daddy comes home"

K to mummy: "oh, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"

mummy to K: "are you excited"

K to mummy:"Yes"

Mummy to K:"Why"

K to mummy: "because you and daddy are going to get the candy, and I am going to school"

mummy to self: wtf? lol

So can you guess where we are going this weekend (hint: it has NOTHING WHAT SO EVER to do with candy or school ;)

yay for J

Must give J a big thumbs up. He rang on his way home from work, asking if I was going to the pool tonight (he remembered!!!) and that I should get ready to go once he gets home. Very nice!

So despite my not really being that excited(really feeling the natsu-bate and lack of motivation , etc etc), I did head off to the pool and swam:

45* freestyle (900m)
20* breastroke (400m)
5* kickboard for some kick-a*se leg workout

Met a lovely lady in the change room afterwards who spoke very good english- had lived in the US for 5 years, and visited Aus 5+times. The people are the y are really so friendly! Wonder if she would have been so friendly if she realised I was going commando, thanks to forgetting to take a pair of undies with me (yikes!!) I put my togs on before I go, bcoz seriously, I have quite enough trouble jumping my way into them, and I really dont want to do that before an audience.

also K had her 2nd swim lesson today - she did crack the sh*ts a bit in the morning, saying she didnt want to go (*sigh*) but she was perfectly fine once we got there. I was very proud of her!

warming up for Hawaii

The hotel we stayed at on the weekend was quite good - it was very family orientated (kid seats in restaurant, baby bath chairs, kids yukata, rice for the kids at dinner, even tho we didn't pay a CENT for either K or L), and of course the kids pool and regular pool were great fun! It was kinda cool in the water (ok, the kids pool was pretty darn cold, but the regular pool was ok). But K had an absolute ball, so it was worth it.

We arrived at the hotel around 2pm, they let us check in an hour early, and we hit the pool (good timing as the rain had just stopped) for about an hour. Then back inside for a bath (onsen water, too, which is a plus) before dinner.

Dinner was ok, nothing to really write home about. A bit lacking in volume (I ended up eating L's rice too!!)

Breakfast was all-you-can-eat and I did! Another quick swim from 9am (too cold for me in the morning, so J had the honours) before another quick bath before 11am checkout. Had a quick look at the waves around the surf-spot at Chikura, but flat, so we just had a bit of a play at the 道の駅　before making our way slowly home.

For less than 15,000yen for all 4 of us to stay (thanks Japan's version of lastminute.com) it was a cheapie but fun weekend away.*


So yeh, it was a kinda prelude for the possible hawaii trip (GW - totally sponsered by MIL, of course!! as if we can afford a week long vacay in the land of the rising sun, long cloud......umm, what is Hawaii the land of? Loco Moco perhaps?




* except for the altercation that occured after dinner, back in the room when I asked J to brush K's teeth before bed. He was almost passed out after 1 (yes, ONE) beer with dinner, and wouldn't get up to brush her teeth. I asked about 10times, but he refused (seriously) so I lost it, brushed her teeth,, turned the lights off and we all went to bed at something like 8pm!!(well, except for me of course, coz little L had other plans), but man I was pissed - for goodness sakes man, pull your weight!! end rant.

feeling better

It has been a rough week. Although less stressed (both TJ-baby and me) after Tues docs appt, the headcold-allergies really did me over on Wed and Thurs. I thought my head would split in half on Thurs. At one stage I almost felt like I had the flu.... my face was red and swollen and I just felt awful. Also think the meds might have played a part - esp with side effects like shaking, and the headache.

All I can say is THANK GOODNESS my parents arrived early and managed to be here for Thurs - I seriously stayed either horizontal on the sofa, or in bed. I think they may have even thought I was putting it on just to get out of housework (lol) but when I woke up on Fri I was 90% back to normal, and felt like a different person. Which is nice because it was K's 3rd birthday, and we had J, PIL and my parents all here for a full day of celebrations: lunch out at local restaurant, then Dora the explorer birthday cake

and piles and piles of presents from family in Aus that my parents had brought with them, then 手巻きsushi for dinner. K was in her element and really enjoyed being with both sets of grandparents, so it was nice to see. And J was super helpful, well, he basically prepared all the dinner and stuff. I managed to get the cake baked and iced thurs night with mum's help, think it turned out ok. K was happy at least so that is all that matters.

Has been another longish day tho, both K and I missed out on a nap, so i might head to bed early. Since my meds have finished, I am rock^hard belly again.

Also, an interesting thing; I don't know if this happens or not, but I reckon TJ^baby had dropped lower Tues, but is somehow "back" up , riding high again from about yesterday. And more active again. On Thurs there was a stage where I was seriously worried because I hadn't felt any movements for hours. TJ-baby is making up for it today it seems, which is nice.

from refreshed to frazzled in the blink of an eye

So I just sat around all day yesterday afternoon.
And went to be at 8pm.
And slept in until after 8am, maybe close to 8:30am.
And then sat around all morning.
And I actually felt a lot better this morning.

Better enough (nice command of Eng lang. there) to even do some housework before making a yummy vege and tuna bake for lunch. Better enough to even head out of the house after lunch for a walk, not just around the block with R, but down to the shop the other side of the main road to get some juice and stuff.

All was going well until about 10m from our front door, when K started complaining. I asked her if she wanted to go for a long walk to the shop, or just a short walk - she wanted to go the long walk. So we continued. And she continued. It was only mild whining, so we dealt with it, but by the time we got to the traffic lights, she packed a sad and said she wouldn't hold my hand to cross the road.
So I said "if you don't hold my hand, we don't cross the road"...anyway, she held hands to cross the road, but then all of a sudden she packed a big tanty (80% on the tanty scale), saying she wanted to go home. So I said fine, we go home. We waited for the lights to change back again to cross over the road again, and in this time, she decided that she DID want to go shopping after all, but I had had it, and already said we were going home, so wasn't gonna relent then (she was about 90%tanty at this time). So we got back across the road, and she realised that there was not gonna be any shop today, so she went into escalated tanty mode (105% on the tanty scale), refusing to walk. I attempted reasoning with her (HA! reasoning with a toddler in mid tantrum) then decided our best thing to do was just get home, so I started dragging her home (holiding her hand, and later the arm of her jacket when she slipped her hand out. We are on the side of the main road at this stage). Anyways, things just went from bad to worse, and she started throwing herself down on the side road, doing the "prawn" making it near impossible to get her to stand up let alone walk. I managed a rugby hold for about 2 seconds before having to put her donw again, then just had to drag her home as she was now at about 150% on the tantrum scale and I just had to get her home to a safe place as I couldn't control her on the street, and her curdling screams were starting to get the neighbours looking out windows and shaking their heads at the horrible foreign mummy making kid cry. I was also sweating profusely by this stage and totally frazzled out with the whole thing. I swear getting her from the lights back home, about a 6min walk usually was the longest 20+mins of my recent life!!!

We got home, and cuddled up in bed, there were apologies and then a nap for 2hours, so I a not sure what set it off, but we have at least woken up on the right side of the bed this afternoon, and are now enjoying some afternoon tea and cake. And, despite now having a bit of おなかが張ってる, I am feeling 80% refreshed again. Which is good, because after talking to my sister on skype last night, she promptly rang up mum and told her that they should come over earlier since I was totally washed up at the moment, haha. (I WAS very tired when talking to her, and it must have really shown!!!)

I hope we can get out of the house tomorrow without incident to get to playgroup - last week we had a 10min interlude on the train when she nutted out and I just sat there through it, sucking up the looks from all the old fogies on the pretty packed train. *sigh* the joys, right!?

just wanted to share

the conversation between K and me at lunchtime:

Me: Would you like me to cut your ham and cheese sandwhiches in squares or triangles
K: hearts, please.

TOOOOOO cute!

Livid

(i) an outdoor music festival held in Brisbane (and Melb and Sydney). I saw Weezer,　Ash and several other acts there in 1996

(ii) Me, half an hour ago when K PISSED on my persian rug.
I know she is just a kid, I know she makes mistakes, I know it is "just a rug", and I *know* that getting angry at toilet mistakes is a no-no, but I was SO LIVID that she stood there, saying she wants to go to the toilet, and proceeded to piss (turns out it was more of a leak, but I didn't know that at the time) on the expensive rug that Uncle S gave us. I yelled, I screamed, I was simply LIVID.
She was put to bed for a nap with no books read to her (and actually fell asleep in about 10mins) - we had made up by this time (lol) and I am calmer now, (thanks to some おみやげ J brought back from his business trip to KitaQ
☆　九十九島せんべい, from Sasebo, which I thought he had got to make me all 懐かしい but he didn't even realise they were from sasebo, OR that I had been talking about them like a week ago (for some reason)
☆　笑笑（しょうしょう）かりんと饅頭, surprisingly nice! from Kagoshima
(he obviously didn't pay much attention to place of origin when buying, lol)

But man, it was the one thing I have been nervous of with the rug - well, both her and R actually. I even move the rug when we have guests over so it is not in the walkway, in case people spill food or drinks on it. *sigh*

Anyway, is probably a good thing she got down for a nap so easily and early, as we are going to neighbours for some playtime this afternoon - was supposed to be AM, but Y, who goes to preschool wanted to play too, so W-san asked if we could come in the afternoon when he gets back. I don't like going out in the afternoon, esp since K's naps are late, and she sometimes doesn't wake up until 4:30pm!! It just means that I am running around trying to get dinner ready (right, right, it should be already prepped and just have to add the final touches, but it ISNT, so I need my afternoon kitchen time!!) But at least I have stuff defrosting and the rice soaking (brown rice) so I am kinda half way there.....no? J will be late anyway, so I might just whip something simple up for K then do dinner prep while she is eating. At least that way I get to sit here at the comp, and now go watch the latest GA episode!

K-isms for today

me: "what are you doing?" (K is in the other room, and it is very quiet)
K : "anything"

(said in a whiney voice) "my nose is running away"

me: "let's call nanna" (meaning on skype)
K: (yells out in loudest voice) NANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

in the area

We passed a small hoikuen when we went for a walk with R this afternoon - it is literally less than 100m from our house (and basically flat to get there, which is why we passed it today, as had K in the stroller for our walk, rather that on my back in the ergo, in which case we head down the stairs to the park at the bottom of the hill). While I already knew that the hoikuen was there, it was the first time I got sort of up close and personal to it - I didn't realise that it had a big park right behind it! Anyway, this prompted me to google it when we got home - seems that they also do 一時保育, for about 300yen an hour (how cheap!) Good thing to know!

Then I started googling some more hoikuen in the area, and was super suprised to see the range in prices....found one (that obviously looks very good) but it actually charges 2100yen PER HOUR. OMG . that is just crazy. I realise that 300yen an hour is rediculously cheap, but it seems that about 500-800yen is a normal range. how can they charge 2000yen an hour ??- are they serving the kids caviar and champas for lunch...would want to be for that price!! We won't be going there anytime soon. So, I think I might go to the 300yen an hour place sometime this week and enquire about it...

Also found more shops (supermarkets, dry-cleaning, etc) in the area, about 5mins drive by car, and a bread shop(still yet to visit), 100yen lawson (bread and milk!), and cake shop(yummy cheesecake) all within walking distance (5-10mins walk)

Yay, am slowly getting my bearings.

wak-a-me-up before you go-go

Third attempt at tonkotsu ramen tonight was yet again thwarted by me. Actually, I only thwarted the first and third attempts (both times saying we had stuff in the fridge that needed to be used up). The second time was last weekend when we walked around there only to find it closed for obon. All well and fine to take holidays, but it has only been open for since August 6th!!

Anyway, tonight we made do with:

salmon

clams (butter/sake)

daikon radish, lettuce, red capsicum salad

vine ripened tomatoes (yum!!) dressed in virgin olive oil and sea salt

wakame miso soup

rice

We got a big packet of fresh wakame seaweed from MIL ages ago, as I must have mentioned once that K likes it. I have been racking my brain how we are going to get through it all (it is the size of a large ziplock bag packed jam full of wakame), and asked J what else I could make with it to get rid of it. Turns out J thought I was being scingy* with it - I was putting what I thought was a reasonable amount in the miso soup, but apparently I should have been putting like 7-8 times MORE in. I can't believe he though I was being scingy though, with free wakame! lol!

This morning was pretty good - we got to the bank at 9am, to beat the rush, only to find it totally empty. Like, seriously, I was the only one there for at least the first 25mins after opening! There are more people lining up for pachinko and the supermarket opening time! Crazy!

Came back home and grabbed R to take her for a walk - managed to get K to sit in the pram so that was easy.

Lunchtime however, was a write off - K refused to eat her sandwich, spilt a glass of milk everywhere (a habit she is getting into lately *sigh*) then played with her banana and got it everywhere. So she ended up having basically nothing to eat as I took it all away from her. She did go down for a nap easy though, so might have just been a bit tired. But she was a pain in the butt all afternoon - plugging things (like the vacuum cord) into the power point, pulling out the computer cord, and just basically annoying me. I know I have to be more patient, but I am so not good with the little things - they DO annoy me and get me worked up. aarrrggghhhhh.

Anyway, tomorrow is playgroup and she is usually a good girl when we go out to that, so fingers crossed tomorrow morning is not a repeat performance.

* a spell check revealed that I was using the word "scingy" instead of "stingy" lol. My english is going to crap! On skype to my brother this afternoon I couldn't remember the word for those buoy type things hanging over the side of boats like bumper bars to stop them bumping into other boats (the answer was "fenders" - of course!!)

a funny from K

K has had a bit of a cough and sniffles the last few days, which I think is related to having the fan on at night. Anyway I had to laugh at something she just said, when her nose was sore, probably from me trying to wipe it all the time with tissues.

She said "hana itai (hana is sore)"
then without missing a beat, she said "taichi itai(taichi is sore)"

hana means nose in Japanese....

but hana and taichi are also the names of a friend's kids!!!

Seems K is already on her way to a long career in 親父ギャグ (corny jokes)

what can you do in 36mins?

* iron 4 and 3/4 work shirts
* watch half an episode of private practise
* put the water on to boil for a cuppa (but not get around to making it)

oh, and if you are a 2yo girl by the name of K, wake up from your nap. I did manage to get her back to sleep (which is why I am now blogging) but still - surely 36mins is too short a nap. yesterday she had none. day before she had a 45min one. hmmmm. it can't be bye-bye nap time yet PLEASE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

buttons

This morning has been spent with K pulling out EVERY piece of clothing she owns and putting them on, and taking them off 100times. I can't see the floor anymore.

K is now intently doing up her buttons - a little trick she picked up around Monday this week.Seems she has a favourite jumper to practise on - must be easy buttons.

too cute.

We skipped playgroup today because I have been feeling very hayfevery....I thought it had gone away, as I hadn't had a bad time with it since I got pregnant with K, but it seems to be back with a vengance this year. The mornings and nights are still quite cool, so I think that makes it worse for me too. So far I have spent the morning watching Season 4 Grey's Anatomy online....maybe just one more after this....

I am very glad that Monday was a big clean up day - a friend invited themselves over yesterday for lunch and since I had spent Mon and then Tues cleaning the house, all I needed to do on Wed morning was a quick sink shine and everything was a-o-k for visitors. Made up a lasagna, and added about 2 carrots and an onion and some kidney beans to the mix too (you know, some nutrition for K!?) and it actually turned out very yummy if I do say so myself. I think it may become my new family recipe.

Silly mummy moment- after a quick trip to the supermarket yesterday morning to get some stuff to make a side salad, I now have a whole cabbage to somehow use up today/tomorrow! Soooooo thought it was a lettuce I grabbed, lol!

Right, one more more GA then some clean up and cabbage cooking!

and today...

well, we had a half-hearted piddle on the toilet in the morning (and no more toilet trips for they day, oh well)

BUT K went to sleep again by herself! yay! After the bedtime routine, I turned off the lights, and told K I was going outside to check on something, and would be back. I waited about 10mins (no sound) so thought she was asleep, but she was still awake, so I said, ok lie back down, and then....another 10mins later and K was SOUND asleep.

I am likin' this!

7 things 2 year old K loves

Gaijin wife tagged me for this meme a while back, but I thought it might be cute to do it for K.

1. Noonles.
Or as most of us know them, Noodles. Any type will do - udon, spaghetti, macaroni, soba....and any type of sauce or soup with them, but spag bol is a favourite.

2. Dressing up.
Every day K pulls out about half the clothes in her drawers and puts them on, usually on top of each other - she sometimes has up to 5 layers of t-shirts on at a time. Favourites seem to be her rain coat or winter snowsuit!

3. Anpanman.
Despite never seeing the cartoon, she loves the characters.
We have an anpanman toothbrush and anpanman nappies. Whenever K brings out her aquadoodle or crayons, it is always "mummy, anpanman....." how do you think I got the practise in to make the cake? lol

4. Red wellies.
K always tries to put on her Red wellies when we are leaving the house. I try to hide them sometimes, but if I forget, and she gets to the genkan before me....it is a day out in the red wellies!!

5. R-chan.
K really loves R. She can get a little rough for R, and R runs away, but I think R loves her too (except when K insists on pulling her tail...what is it about kids and animals tails??) They are good together, and I am glad that K will grow up with R.

6. Singing.
We sing a lot, and lots of songs. It is hard to say what is K's favourite song, as it seems to change a bit (at the moment, she seems hooked on "みんな違って、みんないい" from 日本語で遊ぼう on nhk, which is sung by konishiki - how random!
At bed time, she often asks me to sing "ABC" and "Where is Thumbkin".
In the bath, she often asks me to sing "Ga-lump went the little green frog"
Her repertoire is endless...

7. Reading "Hop on pop"
This is one of K's favourite bedtime books. And K has memorised it all, and can say it at the right time when I turn the page. Other books we read at bedtime are "Little Ernie's ABC's" and "Bedtime Peekaboo". K loves reading, and I am happy that we have our little pre-sleep book ritual.

wow, I got to 7 already, but there is still so much more to say....like
K loves having a bath with daddy
K loves her doll, "baby"
K loves talking with nanna and pop on skype, and showing off in the background to them!
K loves her friend from playgroup, "T"
K loves being tickled
K loves playing on Rody
K loves stacking her blocks...and tipping them over
K loves saying "kusai" and "oshiri"
K loves her Aussie cousins, K and T, and loves picking up the photo of them and giving them a kiss
K loves watching kids shows on TV, especially いないなばぁ、おかあさんといっしょ and　天才テレビくん... I think she dreams of being on TV herself one day
K loves waving goodbye to trains
K loves being told she is kawaii or pretty
and of course there is plenty more, but there was only s'possed to be a list of 7.

Happy Birthday to K

Thursday was K's 2nd birthday.
On Wed afternoon, a package arrived from my sister, and K was so excited I let her open it which was hilarious - my sister had wrapped up about 6 different presents and put them in one of those aust post bubble wrap packs. K was pulling it to pieces to get the presents out. She got some very cute summer clothes - singlets, boardies, summer dress, a picture of her cousins in an Australia photo frame (complete with Kangaroo, Koala, Platypus and Kookaburra on the side of the frame) and a book. One of the singlets has wings on the back - sooo cute, and K loves it - she put it on straight away, and I had visions of her wearing it to bed, but I managed to hide it while she was in the bath, phew.

Thursday, K turns 2!! We had playgroup in the morning, so K wore her winged singlet (with long sleeve shirt underneath, very fashionable), and her "2 today" badge. The kids all sang happy birthday to her at playgroup during song time, and I read "Spot's Birthday Surprise" as I was story leader.

After playgroup, we stopped by the Anpanman Museum, as K seems to be might anpanman obsessed recently. She has never seen the cartoon, but it doesnt matter - Anpanman is EVERYWHERE in Japan. It is on her nappies, on all the family restaurant menus, on rice crackers, the song was sung at jidokan.....whenever K has crayons and paper, she asks me or J to draw anpanman, she loves it! We didn't go into the actual museum (which is more like a play area) as it was already encroaching on K's nap time, but there are heaps of shops outside that you can walk around and get a few good photo ops. Splurged (!?!) and got an Anpanman AND a Baikinman stuffed toy for her birthday.

Got home to a box from my parents with more presents - fantastic wooden jig-saw puzzles (one animal theme which had K singing Old MacDonalds farm for the rest of the night), and some more summer dresses. I managed to skype my parents just as K was opening the presents, so that was lots of fun.

In keeping with the self-appointed anpanman theme, I made up a, you guessed it, anpanman cake. Followed this recipe for the cake (simple, standard cake, but very yummy fresh out of the oven!) and "iced" it in whipped cream. the only downfall came because J was home while I was decorating it, and told me to cut it in half and fill with cream and strawberries....we obviously had different ideas about what is a birthday cake (bloody japanese and their strawberry shortcake obsession). The cake I had made was a very Aussie recipe, so it did not go well with the cream/strawberry mix. But it was more about the presentation really, ahem, so a few thoughtfully placed peaches, strawberry and raisins and some chocolate decoration pen, and voila, Anpanman cake was born!!



K blew out the candles then pushed it around on her plate for a while, so I guess she had fun with it.

Sunday April 5th we had a family birthday party at the PIL's, which included 赤飯 (for K) and 毛蟹 (I am guessing that was for our benefit!) as well as some other yummy stuff. K was spoilt again with more presents - a cute white (I know, how that hell am I gonna keep it that way?) summer dress and a mini keyboard that plays all her favourite songs. oh, and a money envelope which will go into her account....when I get around to opening it(the account, I mean...the envelope was opened as soon as we got outside the house, lol.)

Riding high on the success on the anpanman cake, I decided to do an encore with a number "2" shape cake to take to the PIL's for K's family birthday dinner. But this was gonna be with real icing. Small catastrophe when I attempted orange flavoured icing and the butter curdled, but second time around a vanilla flavoured icing was born! Got a bit artsy and decided to make the "2" shape into a giraffe, which is one of K's favourite animals. At least K realised it was a giraffe, so that is all that matters. Oh, and the iced cake was much yummier than the cream decorated cake, so there you go! Just goes to show I shouldn't mix my sponges with my icing or my western cakes with cream, or something like that.

and here is the masterpiece...wrapped in plaaaa-stic:

All in all, I was pretty proud of my very first ever attempts at baking a cake (other than carrot cake etc) and of decorating it. I am sure next year I am going to be fine with the 3 story princess castle design........lol.

As for K, she loved singing Happy Birthday, but still answers １才 when asked how old she is, despite several days of practising ２才. I thought it would be nice to do the "things I love" meme about 2 yo K for my next post, which is also my 200th, to remember what our darling daughter is into at 2yo. My goodness they grow so quickly......Happy Birthday K - love you to bits!

me, myself and I

The other day I left K at home with J during her afternoon nap and hit the shops to get some baby presents for 2 gorgeous little girls that friends had last month and last week. I remembered that around this time last year, I was in my "I never get any time for me" mood, feeling all sorry for myself, and getting pissed off with J for not understanding why I needed time off on my own, away from K, I needed to feel that I was more than just a boob to hang off, more than just a mum!! On our trip home at Xmas, mum looked after K lots of times so I got to go out with friends and go to the movies etc etc which was sooooo great. And earlier last month, J looked after K one Sunday afternoon while I went out to a movie and izakaya with a good friend. etc etc

So it wasn't the first time that I had been out without K. But perhaps it was one of the first times that I had been out and about BY MY SELF. ALL ALONE. JUST ME. NO ONE ELSE TO THINK ABOUT. NO ONE ELSE TO TALK TO.

ME, MYSELF AND I for the first time in a very long time.

I felt awkward, fidgety, lonely. Sitting at the train station waiting for the train, I wished that K was with me so I could at least be talking to her, telling her about the kids playing in the park beside the train station or whatever.
Huh, wierd, hey.

For so long I wanted my own time, and yet already I am lost without my little side-kick for even a few hours. I wondered how my mum did it, before dad retired, being home all day by herself, going out shopping by herself. She must have been lonely too. I can't wait until K is a few years older, old enough to be able to go shopping with and sit down and have a snack with at a coffee shop and have a "chat" (as in, chat with kid type chat). Already she is so funny sometimes the things she says, the things that take her interest. I used to go out with my mum a lot, often a trip into the city, by bus, and later when the bus route no longer came down as far as our house, by train (30mins or so), to the mall to do shoppping. Often all we came home with was rye bread from the coles in the mall(exotic food not stocked at the local suburban coles) but I remember it was fun. I hope that I can do with same with K too.

Of course, my lonliness faded as soon as I walked into the shopping centre and realised I didn't need to race through the shop in 5 mins flat before someone lost interest and started a tanty, and I began to enjoy my random browsing. As for presents, I got a cute little 3-6month summer set for the little baby girl born last week from a UK store "N****" that I was a bit peeved about when I asked for it to be wrapped as a present and they said that I could either have it in the 200yen box or the 100yen bag. Ok, not really the price that matters but surely they could wrap it for free, like every other shop I have ever been in to in Japan does - how stingy!?!? (I payed 200yen for the gift wrapping in the box, fwiw, lol). Only got a little t-shirt for Feb's baby, it is for a Japanese couple, so I think I will have a look at Costcos when I go later this week for something a bit different for them.

Tomorrow is hanami/easter party for playgroup. I have made up about 25 "easter baskets" (out of milk cartons covered with 2 pieces of origami paper and stapled a ribbon on them as a handle) for the easter egg hunt! yay. hope it is warm.