35w6d

Check up yesterday morning. (my ticker up the top is a bit out of whack)

Was told I had a 9:30-10am apt, but to be there by 9:10am to be strapped up for non-stress test. I was THE FIRST person there at 8:44am.

10:10am and still haven't been called. Have seen at least 3 others go in for the nst, not to mention several dozen being called in for checks.

I think they forgot me as I was miraculously called about 5mins after I asked what was going on (they were all apologies, someone started having contractions while on the monitor, so they were backed up yaddi-yaddah.)

Weight gain in last 2 weeks: MINUS 200g (not really sure how that happened, esp as we made a costco run in the mean time and I have maybe, possibly snuck a few cookies and muffins in :-)

Ultrasound (external) shows TJ-baby has:

the head of a 39w old

the bone length (femur length I think)of a 37w5d old

the weight of a 37w old at 2907g

Overall, Tj-baby is a big one (I take this with a bit of a grain of salt, as K was told this whole time too, but anyways...) Doc seems a bit apprehensive over TJ-baby's size, and once again states that he thinks we will probably go into labour early.....

Get some meds for the GBS, and once again am told about having to have the antibiotics once labour starts.

More important is the results from non-stress-test. Apparently we are stressed. Well, obviously I am, but more specifically, lots of braxton hicks (nurse: "your stomach is like, constantly hard") are putting real stress on TJ-baby.

Given meds to try to calm down the 張る-ing, told to at least keep TJ-baby on the inside until I reach "full term" at 37w, a.k.a next Tuesday, and told to come back for more monitoring on Wed morning....but while waiting in lobby to pay bills, nurse runs up and says, "actually, doc wants you to come back tomorrow morning".

So have been awake since 4am this morning, stressing, can't sleep as it felt like my tummy was preparing to be thrown down a bowling alley (am sure I would have got a strike with a tummy this hard) and then spending an hour counting baby movements (they do seem to have slowed down the last few days, but thankfully despite the first 20mins or so of nothing but hardened abs, I started feeling hiccups, then kicks, so yay for that at least). At nearly 6am I decided I wouldn't be getting back to sleep, so came down for a cuppa and some breakfast so I can take my tablets, and so we can get out of the house at 8am to be there for an even earlier apt (8:40am) this morning with the nst monitor.

Decided I would spend the next week on the sofa, esp until my parents get here Wed (tomorrow) night - anything to keep baby in!! But first had to stop by toys'r'us to check if they had any Dora party goods as it is K's 3rd birthday on Fri, and want to make her a dolly-bardon type cake. (got a fab dora figurine - just hope I get to make the cake :-)

Came home with the intention of doing nothing (but remembered I have no baby clothes washed, no hospital bag packed, no dosh prepared to pay for hospital bills upfront etc etc so after a nap with K, I started trying to slowly get stuff prepared. Still have more to do today (SLOWLY) so hope I get to come home from docs to do it.

And I haven't even started on the R-situation last week that had me so super stressed out..... briefly, last Wed (March 24th), she jumped out of her cage/house/circle (it has a mesh roof that is attached around the edges with push-stud type buttons, which she managed to undo) and got into the esky by the fridge which still had a few of those freezer gel packs in it. She ate 4 of them. Vets visit in afternoon, hours of googling and ringing gel-pack makers to confirm that gel-packs DO NOT contain anti-freeze (ethyle glycol, while slightly toxic in humans is basically deadly for cats and dogs, causing kidney failure - I seriously spent all day/several days last week thinking R would die), R throws up during my night-time vigil so I take her to doggy ER, where they treat her like a poisons victim, getting all the foreign matter out. Careful watching of her for next 3 days, more trips to vet - turns out the toxins have caused some damage to her liver, so she is now on liver-treatment pills. Still not 100%, but thankfully getting there.

No wonder my head has been throbbing since last week with all these things to stress over....

just another dinner post

Monday night we made curry - again, J's request. This time we used a new curry roux. It was kinda fruity, and sweet, not at all spicy, so K scoffed it down too. I usually make curry with beef, but this time J wanted pork, and it was kinda nice for a change.

Tuesday night was pad thai noodles, which was really yummy too! K was a bit sceptic about it, perhaps the fish sauce was too overpowering, but she finished up a plate of it anyway.

Gee things are sooooo much easier when K can eat the same food as us. We don't have to order special dinners at restaurants, as she usually just shares with me. And the kiddies meals choices at Japanese restaurants are so much better than that in Aus (fish fingers and chips, pizza and chips or chicken nuggets and chips!!) Here they have a mini adults meal for kids .... like at Joyful which we never go to actually, but look at the great meals they have!!

So K has just had a bowl of cereal for breakky, I had the last piece of pizza and we are about to head down to the bank, then take R for a walk. But looking out the window, I see some ominous looking clouds. Hmm, hope if it is gonna rain, it at least holds out until after we get home.

We're all mad

I wanted to know why if we call 狂牛病　(BSE) "Mad Cow's Disease", then we don't we call 狂犬病 (Rabies) "Mad Dog's Disease"?
But apparently the urban dictionary does have it as mad dog's disease. So there we go.

In any case, we took R down for her rabies vaccination shot today. She was supposed to get it in May - oops. And she was supposed to get her 9種混合 (not sure what 9 types of diseases we are vaccinating against) vaccination shot this month, but since we forgot about rabies, we got that done first, and will take her back at the end of the month for 9種混合.

I tried a re-match of the 30-a-day:

Dinner ささみ　シソ梅肉巻き
1)chicken (sasami)
2)perilla leaf (shiso 紫蘇 - a new kanji for me!)
3)salted plum (梅肉）

salad
4) lettuce
5) tomato
6) daikon radish
7) cucumber
8) celery
9) red capsicum
10) yellow capsicum

pasta
11) spaghetti
12) clams in alfredo sauce
13) with sliced onions

Lunch Pizza Toast
14) bread
15) cheese
16) salami

Snack
17) grapes (shared with K)

Breakfast
18) cookies (I know, I know) with my cuppa

*sigh* still less than 20. I know breakfast and lunch are my downfalls, but what can I say, I am lazy through the day and don't feel like full meals.

how to walk the dog

I read a book last year, a friend who has been involved in seeing eye dog training and dog obedience recommended it : The dog listener, by Jan Fennell. It was quite a fascinating read, explaining how dog have descended from wolves, but still their inherent behaviour is like that of wolves. Wolves have an alpha pair (the two leading dogs in a pack) who all the other wolves obey, you know, by eating after the alpha pair, walking behind the alpha pair when going out hunting etc. So...(Ok, I am simplifying it from my memory but) all we humans need to do is become the alpha pair in our dog's eyes, and they will WANT to cooperate with us. We won't have to yell and scream and pull and push. But because wolves are always vying with each other to see who is the strongest, and are often changing the alpha pair status, you have to continually reinforce your status as the leader to your dog (can be done by simple things such as always making your dog walk out the door after you, never before you).

E.g. in our case - actually, R has very sensitive skin. She is a Jack Russel Terrier, and apparently they are prone to it. Probably one of the major things that aggravates it, is the fact that she still thinks she is the leader and I am her pack dog. So she likes to lead me off on our hunting adventures, aka morning and evening walks, pulling so much that her lead rubs on her neck. I did try the methods suggested in the book last year, and we came some way to improvement in R's overall behaviour, but I admit to being lax and just letting her pull sometimes. So we are back to the situation where she has a very sore looking neck from pulling on her lead. Sooooooo, today I have been trying to follow the Dog Listener's methods again, and whenever R pulls on her lead during our walk, I simply stop dead in my tracks, ask her to sit down, then when she has done that, I take a step forward and she follows me, knows I am the leader. Sounds all very peace-loving and hippy, but it works. But my goodness, it takes FOREVER to get 100m down the road doing this every 2 or 3 steps, which is how much she is pulling!! So today's walks were a bit stressful. And as I was doing my take one step forward, make R sit routine tonight, a stupid woman comes out of some shop and goes "oh, she is so cute".
Now, our little R-chan understands the word "kawaii" (cute) and she laps it up whenever anyone tells her she is kawaii. I said to the woman, "I am in the middle of training at the moment" and she was like, "oh, but the dog is wagging her tail, she wants to play" and starts patting R. I was sooooooooo livid. I wish R was a more aggressive dog and I could have used the "sic 'em" command, hehe. So I still have a lot of work to do with R. She is still only just over 2 though, and as a Jack Russel is probably quite high strung anyway. Hopefully tomorrow's walks will be better though.

Now if I could only find a solution to her freaking out whenever I even touch the vacuum cleaner. I currently put her in the toilet while I vacuum or else she would destroy everything in her site - she just goes ape. It is not the sound that bothers her, I think she may want to play with the vacuum head? Whatever it is, it is annoying!

But we still love ya, R-chan.

And K just *adores* you!!

singing in the rain

R is back from her week away with the PILs, who, I many have mentioned before, even in the rain feel the need to take her out by car down to the local park or whatever so she can do her business, despite the fact that I have told them numerous times that R is actually toilet trained - you know, we have little doggy toilet sheets here that we put in her house and IF she has to be home alone or IF it is like the middle of rainy season or something, then she can have a widdle there without having to hold it and suffer.

But NO, PILs somehow think that it isn't necessary, and are always crooning about how they didn't need to use any of the toilet sheets when R stays with them - they think they are like super good or something. But in actual fact, they are *+%ing with R's mind!! (lol). After a few days with them, she thinks it is bad to use her toilet, so she "gamans"* until we take her outside. Now since it was pouring all day yesterday, we didnt take her out, because 1) it was pouring!! 2) R is only a small dog - close to the ground. All that water lying on the ground soaks her belly!! 3) we couldn't be bothered going out in the rain!! So she gamaned and gamaned until she exploded all over her house (not on the toilet sheet) and left the biggest puddle of piddle.

So we have to start toilet training again,*sigh* This happens everytime she stays over there. I am grateful that they look after her, especially when I had my friends here, but man I wish they at least let her piddle!!

So anyway, this morning there was a little lull in the rain, so we headed out for a quick walk, to relieve some of R's tension (and built up waz).
We used to have a raincoat for her, but I can't find it, so I did the next best thing - put a plastic bag over her! lol!

it may be a bit hard to tell, but there she is, "wrapped in plastic" lol!
And I am out and about with K on my back, and holding an umbrella (it was misty rain)

and I was in my bright red crocs, which I did take a photo of, but I couldn't save it to my mobile phone for some reason. No wonder people look at us strangely when we go out, lol!


*gaman - this strange fascination Japanese people have of suffering through it. Can be applied to nearly anything I whinge about to J.... (apparently I need to "gaman" more when there is something that pisses me off, as opposed to complaining to J about it.)but is surprisingly "forgotten" whenever a Japanese male in particular has the slightest sore thoat or cough, in which case the never "gaman" and run down to the docs asap to get some meds or have a vitamin drip (rolls eyes).

the first grounding

Today I was absolutely disgusted in the behaviour of my DD.
My Darling DOG that is.

We went out air-con shopping on the weekend, as the apartment we moved into didn't come with air-con (wtf? but anyway) and managed to get a relatively powerful aircon (supposed to do 2 rooms) for a reasonable price at Yamada Denki. Now, Yamada Denki's price includes the installation fee (unless of course you need any extra things done, like changing the voltage from 100v to 200v, which was needed for the air-con we bought, and costs 2000yen each for changing at the plug in the wall, and changing it at the breaker system; and like when the distance between where the air-con unit and the outside unit is more than 4 m (ours was 6m!!), then they need to use more pipe, at 2500yen a metre - what, it made of gold or something?,). So Yamada Denki outsource the installation to a local electrician who will ring you the night before to TELL you what time they will be around the next day. Now, apart from the fact that it pisses me off that we can't request a time for the installation of the air-con that WE BOUGHT (hello, we are the CUSTOMERS here) I had plans for everyday this week (yes, my LBB- little black book - is full, full, full) so was a bit peeved when the electrician rang last night to say he would be over at 10-11am, right when I have my English playgroup. We managed to batar with him to come in the afternoon (I asked for 3pm, he said "between 2pm and 4pm" and he arrived today at 2:30pm, and asks me as he stands at the door if it is ok, even though he is a little bit early (rolls eyes)) But I digress - I only meant to say that we had an electrician come over today to install the new air-con. So I closed off the living room, where he was working and had K in the kitchen/dining area with me. As R was barking her brains out since the time the electrician rang the doorbell, I thought I would be nice to her and let her and K run around and play together. But R got sneaky, and stole one of K's stacking blocks or something, and because she KNEW she had done something bad, she ran into our bedroom with it. I tried to get it off her, but of course the more I chased her, the more she thought it was a game and kept running the other way. So she is running in and out of the bedroom, getting all hyped up when I tell her to "finish". She obviously wasn't up for that, so she ran back into the bedroom and jumped up on the bed (a big no-no : she is not allowed on the sofa or bed, and she knows it!) So as I am standing by the door, watching, R opens her legs up and wazzes ALL OVER MY DOONA! I am APPALLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She so knew what she was doing, so I am like "that is IT, you are grounded for the rest of your life!" lol. But seriously, I was really disgusted in her behaviour. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing loads of washing - the doona cover and doona, which are now speed-drying under said air-con.

I relented on R's first ever grounding, though, and took her out for her regular afternoon walk. She SO didn't deserve it thought!

In other news, J is away for the next few days in LA and San Fran for business. He took a suitcase the size of a mouse's handbag, so I am not expecting much in the way of goodies to come back with him, but that is ok. So tonight I had cheese and ham toasties for dinner, and am winding down now with a packet of doritos and a chu-hai,

which, yes, are both now well and trully empty - all 10% extra of doritos and all!

only day 2?

Tsuyu officially started yesterday in the Kanto region. I am sick of it already.

This year I think I am going to get meself a pair of dem flash wellies coz I am sick of having wet feet and wet socks. Reminds me of when I was at high school - the walk from the train station to our school was alongside one of the main roads in Brisbane. All the cars seemed to take much pleasure in driving through the puddles and splashing the water all over us. There always used to be a line up to the toilets when we got to school - with everyone trying to dry off under the hand driers!! Of course, fold-up umbrellas might have caused some of the damage. At least in Japan they like their umbrellas big. I understand why. A quick walk with R tonight, and neither me nor K in the ergo got even the slightest bit wet (it was only spitting though). Poor R was sopping though... coz she is so close to the ground, her belly gets wets, lol!!

These would be the ULTIMATE wellies: I am usually not a fan of brand names, but I love Paul Smith!! My PS purse is my most prized posession. Alas, I think I would have to have water-on-the-brain (perhaps from too much rain?) to pay $195 for a pair of wellies, so I guess I will have to search for a bad imitation instead.

bits and pieces

I think that 五月病 finally hit me... talk about ギリギリ! If it had have hit me much later, I wouldn't be able to pull the 五月病 card. lol.

So just feeling "listless", add that that a bit headachy, and the fact that it has been HOT the last few days and you get the picture. J also felt sick last night - it hit him all of a sudden too. wonder what it is/was?

Am feeling a bit better now though - might be the 2 glasses of vino I had after lunch!? haha.

Guessing I should do a round-up of things, coz if I try to post everything in full, I will be here all day. Let's see if I actually can brief it (I am known to ramble...)

• chinese for dinner


This dates back to last Thursday night. I made my favourite "chicken and cashew nuts" FROM SCRATCH, and added some 麻婆豆腐(mabo dofu spicy tofu) from the packet, 青梗菜 (chin-gen-sai - which I think is what we call bok choi?) with oyster sauce and some steamed asparagus. It was all pretty darn good too.


• R is back

She spent last week at the PIL's. When she is here, I complian about her going spaz over the vacuum cleaner, and stuff, but I really miss her when she is gone. We took her out last night to play at the park with the soccer ball. She is an amazing soccer player, this dog. And it is soooooo funny to watch.I might try to get her on video doing it one time....


• Ikea

Went to Ikea a few weekends ago, and found this awesome tunnel for K to play in!! And since we are 親ばか we even bought the golden retreiver, who she LOVES.

It's name is "goldie" and when we say "where's goldie" she goes and gets him and gives it a big hug and kiss. too cute.


• Midori Sushi

no, the sushi was not green, but we ate at Midori Sushi on Sunday, the PIL's shouted us (yay! tastes even better when you don't have to pay, lol). If anyone is looking for a great sushi joint, then Midori Sushi is IT! We used to go all the time when we were "courting" (hehe, nice word for it) and BK (before K) but haven't had a chance to go recently. This time though, it was perfect timing as K fell asleep just as we sat down at the counter (I had her in the ergo) and slept through the entire meal. We were there for about 1.5hours.

I went all out this time and had:
1 海鮮サラダ　（seafood salad shared amongst all 4 of us)
1 plate of various clam saashimi 貝刺身 :　赤貝、ミル貝、あわび、つぶ貝
2貫　うに, sea-urchin one normal, one that had been preserved in salt water
2貫　はまち (they didn't have any ぶり so had to go for the はまち。 ぶり (yellow tail) is my ABSOLUTE favourite, but the hamachi was pretty good too.
2貫　平貝　(taira-gai) with lemon and salt YUM!
1貫 こぼれうに (sea urchin that is overflowing off the rice)
1貫　こぼれいくら (salmon roe that is overflowing off the rice)
and 2 beers!!

That is all I can remember, might have had more?! It was all DELISH though. And the best part - K slept the entire time we were at the counter, on my back in the Ergo.

I really recommmend Midori Sushi if anyone wants reasonable but yummy sushi in Tokyo. We always go to the original store, in 梅丘 (Umegaoka on the Odakyu line) about 15mins (?) from Shinjuku. FWIW, it cost about 14,000yen for all 4 of us, and me and FIL were drinking. And MIL only orders the most expensive Tuna and Uni. The sushi ネタ are all so big you get full quick, so we always take our time. and sitting at the counter is the best way to go.　But be warned - we have had to line up here for 1hour sometimes, especially for weekend lunch. On Sunday we went at about 1:45pm and got in straight away!


• Italian for dinner


Last night was Italian...in a bit of a strech of the word. We had タラコ spaghetti, margerita pizza, salad with smoked salmon. And a teeny-tiny bottle of lambrusco that I bought at the discount store for about 200yen!! I had half of it last night, and the last glass today with lunch!

Nothing exciting really, but that was the round up.

we have had a big day

K managed to get use out of her oversized hat today, as the sun finally decided to make a reappearance. Since it was the first day since the weekend that there wasn't rain around, I thought that we should treat R to a big walk. Usually we go for 2 walks a day. I try to make one of them a "big" one, of about an hour or so.

First off though, at about 9:30am this morning, we went out, K in the ergo on my back, down to the end of the street for R's little walk, you know, the "get the business outta the way" type walk. We walk right past a community kid's centre （児童館), and for some reason, I felt the need to go in an ask if there were any gatherings for 1year old kids. Turns out there was a group meeting at 10am this morning, so we cut R's walk little walk short, headed home and got ready to go back. It actually started at 10:30am, and it was just like a playgroup - so I joined up!

There are about 16 mums and kids about 1-2 years old. K was HYPER the whole hour of the playgroup. She was just running around the hall, trying to get into everyone's bags and drink bottles. Basically she didn't stop the whole time. I hope that she was just excited about seeing so many kids. K is definitely NOT a wall flower. She gets into EVERYTHING and is always trying to get everyone's attention (just like R, actually). I was sort of debating about whether we should actually join up the playgroup, coz if she is like this every week, well, they will probably kick me out. (lol) AND I was absolutely buggered at the end of the hour anyway, coz I ended up chasing her around the hall for the entire time. sigh. hopefully she will be a bit more interested in doing things next time?!

Once a month they have a volunteer come in and do some movement and songs and tell a story (today was it!) The other times they have the members take turns to plan a craft or thing to do for the day. Apparently next week is "going fishing" - we have to take along crayons, scissors and sticky tape to make the fish and the poles I guess?? Anyway, I am glad that I got up the courage to go in to the community centre and ask. And now we have something to do on Thursdays, and the other mothers, although I didn't really get a chance to talk to them, seem ok. A bit of a mix, some youngish mums, all done up like they are going shopping in Ginza, a few more mature mums but generally most of them looked very down to earth and friendly.

After the playgroup, we got home and K had a big lunch (obviously all that running around made her hungry) of rice, with tuna and veges stew that I had left over from her dinner the night before. Then she slept. And so did I. Only for an hour though. But I managed to get K back to sleep for another hour after that, though.

Then we headed off to the river after K woke up from her afternoon nap. I made her avocado sandwiches,2 slices of bread rolled up to make "pin wheel sandwiches" which she devoured most of before we even got to the riverside. and it is only a 10 min walk away! lol.

Along the river, there are 3 walking/cycling roads. The "high road", which is bitumen, the "low road", which is like a dirt road, but pressed down dirt, so it is smooth, and easy to walk along, and "the middle road" which is 砂利, a real dirt road with pebbles, so it is really bumpy, especially in the stroller. Poor K, she just about had the sh*t shaken out of her as we walked along the middle road.

Also they are actually at three different levels. I have to cross the road, and go up the embankment to get to the high road, then go back down the embankment to get to the middle and low roads. There are a few places along the river that have slopes that you can take your bike up and down the embankment, but they are a bit steep for the stroller, so I usually use the slope that is more stroller friendly. But today, I decided to cut to the chase, and head down the grass! straight down!! R was pulling us, and the embankment was a bit muddy from the last few days of rain. I am lucky we didn't go R over Z! I think I will stick to the proper slope next time, even if it is a bit out of my way.

At the riverside, we ran into another Jack Russel terrier. I think we have actually met them before at the river, coz they knew R's name. But I couldn't remember them. Sometimes I wish dogs had meishi (business cards.) Also chatted with the owner of an Italian Greyhound. All the dog owners gather at the end of the golf course at 4pm I think for a doggy playgroup?! (lol). We didn't go though.

So after our big 1 hour walk plus, we brought R back home, then headed straight out again with K to the shops to get some milk, and bananas. It was 5:50pm by the time I actually got home. So then it was a quick grab some things out of the freezer for K's dinner (chicken-tofu burgers, with peas, carrots and corn and mashed sweet potato) followed by a quick throw together whatever I have in the fridge for my dinner (bacon, red capsicum, long onions, asparagus stir-fry with rice, and natto!!). J is away for work, so I am trying to use up lots of left overs and bits and pieces for my meals.

I have rambled on enough -I think the excitement of the day has made me hyper too!! I think I am gonna put the kettle on for a cuppa. there are still a few "coconut sable" biccies left with my name written all over them.

one of those days

now, I know that sounds like I am going to start on a big ol' rant, but I actually had a GOOD day, so it is one of those GOOD DAY stories (lol)

This morning R took K and me for a walk, just down to the park at the end of the street which is in the middle of the 団地 apartments. If we go with the stroller, then I usually run around with R while K watches - she loves it, giggling the whole time as I puff and pant around the park. But today we went out with K in the ergo baby carrier. (as an aside here, may I just say that this is THE BEST baby carrier. I had a Ninna nanna (I think it is called) which you can use from birth, but once K got to be about 7kg, it really hurt even just to go around the corner for a walk with her in it, cause there is no support really...she just "hangs" on your shoulders.

With the Ergo, there is a waistband and really thick shoulder straps, so it is like wearing a backpack. I love my ergo! so does K - she tries to put it on herself hehe!


anyway, back to the story....
so we were at the park, just walking around, when we came across some cute flowers growing at the side of one of the apartment blocks. I was about to take a photo fo the flowers, when a little ol' lady came out and asked me if I would like some flowers!! so she picked a few for me to take home. They are now pride of place in the 玄関 on the shoe box.

Then when we went for our afternoon walk, I heard someone calling out from behind me "is that a Jack Russel?" about R. I turned around to see a woman on a bike with a Jack Russel Terrier in the basket that looked JUST LIKE R!!!! The same black with spots - most Jacks we see are the tan and white ones, and the only other black Jack that I had seen was once at home in Oz. So I was actually so excited to see another black and white Jack, just like our little R


and here is R being fawned over by K! K LOVES HER!


Add to those 2 nice experiences that the lady at the bread shop was really nice to me, and I managed to get a loaf of bread sliced into 12 slices, and it only cost 240yen, AND K was a little angel all day, which is much nicer than the last few days of whining that she has been sending my way AND J offered to bring home something from the COZY CORNER cake shop at the supermarket on his way home...but I declined (how good am I!?) .....and ate half a costco chocolate muffin instead with milk for dessert. still have a few left in the freezer, and I really need to clean out the freezer (my excuse for having to eat a muffin a day anyway)!

small things really, but they all added up to make today a nice day! yay!

Welcome back R

R (our dog) spent the last week at the grandparent's. They ADORE her. I think they might be obsessed. She is only a little dog, but as a Jack Russel Terrier, she needs a lot of exercise or else she gets p*ssed off and starts to rip apart her bed, toys etc. The Grandparents are very good at taking her out for walks - they have a schedule for it (rolls eyes):

6am - walk to do No1
10am - walk to do No1&No2
1pm - walk to do No1
4pm - walk to do No1
7pm - walk after dinner to do No1&No2
10pm - last walk of the day, No1

We are not so rigid - actually, sometimes she is lucky if she gets out once a day for a walk around the corner and back!! J always says "welcome back to hell" whenever we pick her up to come home after staying at the grandparents.

Before K was born, I used to take R out on 2 or 3 walks a day. Of course, now it being winter, I have to drag myself out, but still try to get out for at least one long walk (30mins-1hour) a day, depending on how K is, if she goes to sleep, we stay out longer!! But I admit that I do give her a lot less attention now.

Anyway, R is back, and asleep at the moment. She is nearly 2years old, and getting much better behaved the last few months. Today I thought I would share a list of her tricks. I have even included the way the grandparent's say some of them (hehe):

* sit down (shit dan)
* lie-down (rye dan)
* roll-over (leg over)
* shake hands (o-te)

* finish
* let go
* chu-goshi, said with very stern voice, like 桜塚やっくん（the comedian who dresses up as a hig school girl） when he says ”注目!”; R sits up on her hind legs
* hoshi-hito...hai! "who want's it?"; R puts her paws up and begs

You may notice one important command missing? "Come" is not in her reportoir, try as we might, she just doesn't seem to want to play that game. We'll keep trying though!

BTW, the photo is of R last year, when we went to see the Kawazu-sakura cherry blossoms down in Kawazu, Izu Penninsula, about 3-4hours south of Tokyo. They bloom early, usually about Feb each year.