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

9 months old and....

1. doing poopies on the toilet every morning for the last week or so.
We are usually the first ones up in the house, so when I go to the loo in the morning, I take L in with me. Sometime last week when I did this, I realised that he was starting to strain, so I whipped his nappy off and sat him on the loo and oula - poopy on the toilet! So now I have been keeping an eye on him and as soon as I see his straining face, we head to the toilet. Makes for a much easier clean-up ;)

2. eating like a trouper!
3 pieces of sushi rice at kaiten sushi on the weekend (as well as other stuff); 2 fish cakes and a half a bowl of rice at dinner last night!! I swear I can't fill him at the moment (HENCE #1 above, lol!) But it is nice to see him finally eating, as he really showed not that much interest until after new years.

3. walking in circles.
L seems to have the right foot step down pat...so much so that he can take 4 or 5 steps with his right foot only, which of course means he is doing a 360 on the spot! kinda cute ;)

4. weighing in at just under 8kg.
Since he started crawling, he seems to have slimmed down a bit, and no longer looks like the "big boy" that everyone was commenting on when they saw him.

5. he needs a haircut!
that fringe of his is too long, I know, I know, and I would just chop it myself but I want to make a calligraphy brush out of his downy hair, so am waiting to get to a hairdressers.....

6. babbling all the time.
The other day, I swear he turned to J when he got home and said "daddy" lol.

7. he has 2 teeth!
First one (bottom left) came in on Jan 7th, second one (bottom right) has made it's way through last week, Jan 18th.

8. he just adores his big sister!
She can make him laugh (and make him cry, lol) but he just watches her the whole time

9. he seems to be getting over his "stranger danger" phase.
Had some very tough stranger anxiety for a while there, but just the last week (after his 2nd tooth popped through) he seems to be more settled again, and happy to spend time away from his beloved mummy.

10. seriously, just as cute as a button ;)

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.

pulling up

about 2 days ago, L spent the entire day pulling up on me, my clothes, my hair trying to stand up.

today he spent the entire day pulling himself up to stand on everything else in his sight:
* the kotatsu table (not turned on yet, just used as a coffee table)
* R's cage
* a box (the he actually ended up on top of, tottering back and forth AND gnawed an edge off....hahah)

already つかまりだっち？ this kid will be mountain hiking by the time he is 1 (he really is his father's son, lol)!

so I guess it really is time to do a serious baby-proof of the house!!

gaining one

no, not me gaining a kilo a day (although it sure seems like it) this is about L and sleep!

I find it kind of odd that L has gone from 3 naps a day to.....4! He is GAINING A NAP!

He has started sleeping better at night, of course he still wakes up a couple of times to nurse, and I am ok with that...I learnt the hard way with K that stressing over sleep only made it worse for me. I logged her awake and sleep times, and put so much pressure of myself to have her sleeping that I am sure it rubbed off on her, haha!! Anyway, L goes down to bed about 8pm, and until even a week or two ago, was waking up several times from 8pm until about midnight when I went to sleep. i would pat and rub his back etc to get him back to sleep easily, but now it seems that he can do this himself (not pat his own back, but get back to sleep easily ;) The only problem is, that he does it by rolling over onto his tummy and sleeping there. Ok, so obviously it is the most comfortable position for him, as once he is on his tummy he doesn't wake again until 1 or 2am for a bit of a nurse, but I am in a dilema as to whether I should be turning him back onto his back or not. At 6months old, he can obviously hold his head up and roll over himself, but should I still be worried about SIDS? hmmm. And of course every time I roll him back onto his back, he wakes up (albeit briefly) but it disturbs his sleep.

Unfortunately, probably because of his better and continuous sleep at night, the other thing is he has taken to waking up at 6:20am. Like an alarm clock every morning (>.<) I HATE alarm clocks (lol) Lucky for him he is a happy person in the morning, all chatty and smiley and cute.

Then because of this early wake up, he is all tired again by 8am, and goes back for a nap then, on top of his regular three naps a day.

Have you ever heard of a baby that gains a nap??????? lol

wow!!! and Born Free giveaway

I know I have been AWOL for a fair bit, so I am not even sure if anyone is still out there, but if the words "giveaway!" don't get you back, then I am in trouble (lol).

I have lots of half written posts saved as drafts, and lots of things to write about, it is just that I can't seem to find the time/motivation to sit down with a cuppa and actually get a full post uploaded at the moment.....so rather than try to catch up, I am gonna jump right into my "wow" and "BORN FREE giveaway" stories.

WOW!!!!

All I can say is Baby Lead Weaning is pretty amazing!
We "started" the day before yesterday (Nov 9th), at dinner time with sweet potato.

I admit I was quite nervous about giving L such a big piece of food, and watched him like a hawk as he oh-so-happily munched away, but it was AMAZING to see that even when he got a big bit (or a small bit for that matter) that he couldn't swallow, he just managed to spit it back out. I took my lead from baby teething rusks and made the sweet potato into a similar shape so he could hold it.

It really looks like it might be easier than the whole pureed foods and trying to spoon feed ;)

Since we got back from Aus, we have been slowly introducing L to the world of food outside of mummy :D He has been so intently watching us eat and trying to grab things since before we even went to Aus, so I knew he was totally ready for it, just had to get MYSELF ready, lol.

He has already tried the teething rusks (commercial) a couple of times and manages to get a bit of food out of them, as well as all over his clothes of course.

Before we left for Aus, I was given the chance to sample some products from the Born Free range, to celebrate their foray into the Japanese market.I got a sample training cup for L, which I took to Aus with me, but actually held off using we got back and he was over the 6 month mark.

Since last week, I have been sitting him in the high chair while I am getting dinner ready or we are eating, and given him his yellow BORN FREE Training cup with some boiled water in it.

It didn't take him long (def. no longer than 10mins!!) to workout that there was something in there, and he has enjoyed chewing on the tip and getting a bit of a drink at the same time!! I really like the way the BORN FREE training cup doesn't leak when tipped upside down, yet it only takes a little squeeze or chew on the tip to get the contents out.

I also got to try out the BORN FREE Twist N'Pop Straw Cup for K, which has been so easy to use - on the plane, for outings, at bedtime. It is easy enough for her to open and close as she needs it, and when closed it really doesn't leak!! Also, the straw attachment at the top is strong enough that her chewing on it hasn't caused a problem ;)

Of course, it being pink and all, K just loves it too!! (I haven't got the heart to tell her that the writing on the cup doesn't say "Cool Big Sister" , like her favourite pink t-shirt she got after L was born......lol)



Both the training cup and the twist n'pop straw cup are really easy for the kids to hold, dishwasher safe and made of BPA-free plastic. While we didn't try out the bottles this time, I really like how the baby bottles are especially designed to allow for a steady flow of liquid only when your baby suckles to mimic breastfeeding.

Check out the entire range, which is now available in Japan too (Japanese language site here)!

soooooo, for the GIVEAWAY

Born Free have kindly offered products from their BPA-free range for a giveaway to readers within Japan:

BPA-free Plastic Bottle

Training Cup (Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink)

Twist N' Pop Straw Cup (Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink)


To be in the running, all you have to do is leave a comment or send me an email(to let me know you really are still out there, lol). Please include which of the products and what colour you would like to win. Competition closes Tues Nov 16th.

Hope to hear from you :D

a novel way to cool down

Just as we were about to get off the train today after a big day out (playgroup and shopping ;D) I felt what could only be described as a feeling like my waters broke! (yes, I *do* realise I am no longer pregnant...). I looked down and there was a puddle on the floor on the train beneath me. And a big wet streak down my left leg.

I don't know HOW he did it, but L had managed to piddle all over me WHILE IN THE BABY BJORN!! Talk about crazy stuff. And it is not even the first time - about a month ago, while in the baby bjorn again, I had a similar sensation while hanging out the washing. Bloody boys and their projectile piddling (both times he was in disposables, too, so it wasn't even a cloth nappy problem).

But how funny..... and embarrasing.

And he actually was doing me a favour, evening out the stains on my right side after his morning projectile perk, all down my leg, lol!

more bullets

I reckon I've got a good, oh, 2 mins to update before L decides to let me know that it is "all about him", haha. For now, at least, he sleeps, so I will try:

L had his first trip to a shrine today, at 3 weeks old. We went sightseeing in Kamakura. He also had his first BF at a shrine, lol. I remember we took K out sightseeing with my parents to Asakusa when she was about 2 or 3 weeks old, and I was BFing her outside the main shrine there too. Too funny.

J rang up 4:30pm on Friday afternoon - on the home phone (bcoz I have a habit of leaving my mobile on manner mode so never hear it ring, oops). Was a bit worried why he was ringing at that time of day, thought something might have happened.....turned out he had just got a phone call from his boss (who himself was o/s on a bus. trip) with a decree to go to Indonesia for a trade fair. From Monday. So he leaves tomorrow morning, for a week. Gets back the day my folks leave, next Saturday. (sigh)

Made the trek out to playgroup during the week - was great to catch up with everyone, and show off L ☺
After playgroup, we walked around the shops for a bit too, so it was a long day in the end, but worth it! Although I passed out that night, and had trouble waking up Fri morning too (was actually woken by FIL's 100 or so phone calls - he was ringing to ask if it was convenient for him to come over and do some plumbing work here, (he is fixing up the outdoor garden hose connections etc).Granted, it was 9am or so, so any normal person would be awake, but I wonder why he thought after me not answering the first 5 calls to my mobile OR the call to the home phone that it might be convenient?? He just kept calling until he got me anyway, and came over anyway, so we were stuck in the house Fri while he did all the work. DOn't want to sound ungrateful as he has done a fab job of insalling hoses on the balcony, and in the backyard, but it is never at our convenience.....(see below)

RANT starts here:
On Sat the PIL both came over - was supposed to be the last time to see my parents, so we were gonna have lunch. Also a kind of late mother's day, since they were away last weekend. When I spoke face to face to FIL on Fri, I said that it would be better to do lunch, as L gets a bit fussy in the evenings, and also he wants to be nursed more often. I suggested a bbq at home, as going out for lunch is a bit 面倒くさい too, but he said that I should discuss with J when he gets home from work and get back to him (Why can things never be decided, always takes 4 or 5 times to get anything decided argh!)

Ater J's phone call that he was going on a sudden business trip, I knew that he would be late home Fri night, so rang FIL after dinner to say that we would just do lunch on Sat, prob go out somewhere as not enough time to prepare anything now, and that they should come by around 10:30am or so.

So come Sat morning, and they don't turn up until nearly 11:30am, with 2 boxes of donuts...Give them about 10mins here, and then FIL "suggests" that we go out for DINNER instead and just have something light (perhaps donuts?) for lunch.

I lost it. What is the fricken point of me sitting there the day before telling him that evenings are not so good, so lets do lunch, when they arrive and want to change the whole thing to suit themselves anyway????? If we go out for dinner, it means getting home late too, so K doesnt get to bed until too late, L being fussy, and someone having to prob hold him the whole time at the restaurant, and the biggest fear I had was that it would mean that PIL would stay o/night too. I am just not ready to have them stay over here, with my parents too, and me up half the night with L, and then have PIL up at 4am (coz they dont sleep) fart-arsing around the house, AND I would have had to get the futons out for them, and there is nowhere for them to sleep as I am in the spare room with L at the moment anyway. Just everything that prob doesnt seem like much now I have written it down, but man it pissed me off. They are nice people, and the do a lot for us, but it is often unwanted help. Take the backyard for example. They NEVER listen to how J wants it done. FIL just does it the way he wants to. Then they get upset and say we don't like the way they have done it - but they won't listen to our requests or opinions anyway.

I worked out the problem with them is that they don't OFFER to help/do things, they TELL US that they are doing the things for us. You can't politely turn them down, as they just won't listen. It is the same thing with going to their house and being GIVEN a cup of green tea/tea/coffee...as opposed to going to someone's house and being offered a cuppa "would you like a tea or coffee?". With PIL we just don't get a choice.

Anyway, the whole "lets go out for dinner instead" pissed me off, I got the shits, had a blow-out with J, yaddi-yaddah, you know the score. In the end we went out for lunch anyway (I guess I got my way, right?) and they left early evening to go home. I felt bad after having lost my stack with them, but man they get to me sometimes.

Oh and the best thing - as they were leaving yesterday afternoon, they turn around to TELL me that they will come back Sat morning (the day J gets back at 11am from Indonesia, and my parents leave around 4pm to go to Narita) to say good bye to my folks and bring presents for them. Oh, and that we should "DO LUNCH" then too. ARRRRGGHHH.

END RANT

L has woken up while I am writing this and is now asleep again on my chest. Cuddly little koala that he is ♥] but now I am getting tired and want to lie down....might try it in case I can get a whole 10mins in before it is boobie time again. The fun!!

talking about boobies, after nearly a whole week of pumping and resting, managed to get back to BF from Tues this week, and have been nursing at all but one feed a day (still get Nanna to give him a bottle of ebm around dinner time so I can get the prep done). Phew it has all settled down and we are back on track with that.

Dont even know if this post is gonna make any sense. Have some serious mumy brain going on at the mo. J asked me to get the bath ready for him and K while he went to the shop to buy some milk (which we had fully run out of) and onions for the curry he was making for dinner (thanks j, yum!), I nodded and said "sure" then promptly forgot about it, so he came home expecting a bath drawn, but instead had to clean out the tub himself, oops. Not to mention my lack of focus/concentration for anything/everything.

baby's got a name (and other tidbits)

♥ the baby formally known as tj-baby now has a proper name!! Managed to get his name finalised on the last day of GW, so I could register it at city hall on Thursday morning (SO far ahead of the 4pm deadline, lol!!) It was a really hard decision - lots of names thrown around, but many of them either names of other kids we know, or names that I liked J would veto, and names that he suggested I would baulk at. And the one name I had thought of before he was born (and really liked) just didn't seem to suit him, so I couldn't use that one. In the end, we came up with 3 names to choose from. Actually, J, K and I went so far as to pull them out of a hat on Wed morning trying to make the decision, but the ol' "best of 3" routine still didn't resolve our dilemma and we had to nut it out amongst the three names anyway. So we went with "L" in the hopes that it will be an international name, and as the kanji for it was better than any kanji we could come up for with one of the other names, and the third name J decided he didn't like it so much in the end anyway.

♥ despite the fact that baby now has a name, he still gets called "the baby" a lot, haha.

♥ and we didn't intentionally try to use letters in alphabetical order when naming baby, but my blog title is now "T JKL R" which kinda made me laugh.

♥ L's umbilical cord came off on Wed evening. Had to take him to the docs for a quick check up (don't remember doing that with K) and all is ok.

♥ L has been a trouper all weekend - we went to the beach looking for clams on Sat morning, but unfortunately there was none there (well, there was only shells left), so we headed out to IKEA for the afternoon. L basically slept the whole time! And today we went out shopping in the morning to "Donkey" (my folks love this shop, lol!) and lunch at local ramen joint and again L was quiet as a mouse the whole time.

♥ I am still having bf issues - having split nipples is not fun! It makes for difficulties, as am pumping for each feed at the moment, trying to let the splits heal. Was quite upset over the whole thing Thurs last week, but a trip to the clinic for advice later and a few days of"ganbaruing" and things seem to be improving. Still not fully healed yet but hoping we can get through this in the next few days with no more issues and get back to bf-ing. It sucks because I had (different) bf-ing issues with K, and it took 3 months or so before I was comfortable feeding her. This time I thought it would be easy, and BAM! along comes a totally different curve ball that I wasn't expecting.

♥ hoping to head out tomorrow morning to Babies 'r'us for a looksies. Also think I need to buy a pair of pants to tide me over as seriously nothing fits, and after weighing myself today I found that I have now put on a kilo - yikes!! Wanna get this flab moving, but until that happens, I need something to wear.

♥ speaking of flab moving, I still have the dark line down my tummy (had to move the flab there to check it was all the way down, haha) Don't remember it sticking around after K.....wonder if it will fade/disappear eventually?