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!

toilet tales

Every Thursday we go to playgroup by train. We walk 12mins to the station, catch a JR train for 10mins, then change to catch a different JR line 3mins to our final destinaton. Usually as we are changing platforms, K says she wants to go to the toilet. About a month ago, I found they had built a fab new, clean, big baby's room within the JR station area. It has 4 nappy change stations, a nursing room with 3 seperate mini rooms inside, lounge chairs provided, hot water to miz bottles etc with, and a mummy/baby toilet that you is not only big enough to manouver around with a pram, but also has a kiddy's toilet in it. Very cool. Every time we stop here, K piddles and we all get very excited.

And the thing is - it is always empty! No one seems to use this great baby room. Well, until the last couple of times, when I have got there and the toilet is engaged (there is only one toilet in the room). Fair enough, we can wait. BUT how pissed off was I when an old lady came hobbling out of the toilet almost 5 minutes later. There is a disabled toilet and womens toilets less than 5m away that surely she could have used...it actually stands out MORE than the baby room. But, whatever, she is old and decrepid, maybe she could't wait, give her the benefit of the doubt. But the next week, the toilet was engaged again. This time a very nice looking, well dressed 50yo-ish woman comes out of the toilet. She looks at me, then K and says "there is a kiddy's toilet in there" and I turned to her and said "yes, that is why I think it is a bit strange that someone like you is using it!"

And while we are on the subject, I can't remember how many times similar middle-aged women have jumped the queque and used the disabled toilets. Fair enough if they are quick about it, but they take FOREVER! What the hell are they doing in there...apart from folding the tip of the toilet paper into a nice little triangle shape for easy use next time?

I guess now that K is out of nappies during the day (we still have training pants on when we go out, but regular undies at home) I am seeing much more of the inside of various toilets! She even woke up this morning with a dry nappy! yay for her. She is doing really well, and I think has finally got the grasp of it. Granted we are still having some issues with the number 2, but we are getting there.

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!

wow

surely it's not this easy.

3 pees on the toilet, and one on the potty today! yay K!

bedtime - asleep in less than 15mins ALL BY HERSELF!! J or I usually lie there with her until she falls asleep...sometime between 30-45mins. But tonight, I did our usualy bedtime routine: brush teeth, read books, turn off light. then instead of just lying there with her, I said to K "Mummy just has to go check on something in the other room. I will be baack in a minute, can you lie here quietly until I get back." then went outside the room for a min or two, then went back in and said "I am back" (to which she was VERY excited to see me. Then a few minutes later, I did the same thing, staying away for 2-3mins, then went back in. Then again, planning to stay away for 5mins or until she yelled out for me....but there was no cries, no running around the room. Just a little girl who fell asleep! yay K!

let's see what happens tomorrow.....

apparently orange crayons taste good

so, how did it get to be Wednesday already?!?

Oh, I know:

We left home Friday night right after dinner and headed down to the PIL's summer house for the weekend. It was nice - J ran around doing all the cooking, and I even got a nap on the sofa while K had her nap. But I still had to do the morning calls. Ok, K is very easy, getting up at about 7:30 most days, so I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about. But it was still giving me the pips when J managed to sleep in until at least 9:30am while I was up, walking and pooping the dog, and entertaining K just like every other normal day. No such thing as a weekend for mummies.



So we were away all weekend anyway, and then Monday was a catch-up day. As in, we left the house in a rush on Friday night, so I still had stuff everywhere, including a pile of ironing that yes, I still do for J, what can I say - I am hopeless at housekeeping, so I feel that it is the least I can do. But before the catch up, I made a quick dash to Costco. A week before when we went there, we saw the 2008 model Maclaren stroller there. My very good japanese friend from when I was here on JET is 6months preggars, so I was going to get the stroller for her as a baby present. But it was all sold out, in like less than a week! argh. After walking around for about 20mins, all I had in my trolley was 3*1L of milk. You know when you go with a purpose, then you just don't want anything else!? Well, it was like that. But I figured I couldn't go to the checkout with only 400yen worth of stuff, so I threw a 2kg bag of chicken breasts and a 1kg of lamb into the trolley and felt better. I made the most DELISH lamb roast on Monday night, if I do say so myself.


And the gravy was FAB- secret ingredient.....well. you try to guess! J couldn't pick it.
Oh, and the most amazing thing - K did pee-pee in the potty!! It was just before shower time and J had her sitting on the ptty while he got a towel and she was like "pee-pee" and she DID it. Her first time!!

Tuesday was playgroup, our first meeting since the summer holidays, so it was great to see everyone again - and how fast all the kids grow, even in just a month! We had lunch with everyone, then caught the train home (after stopping off at the 100yen shop for 15 useless but "for some reason they seemed necessary at the time" items)

And then all of a sudden it is Wednesday already. Today we stayed at home, mainly because it is sooooo hot today! Even inside with the aircon on(set on eco at 28deg) we are hot! K is currently drawing with crayons - she seems to have really taken to this drawing business all of a sudden. Every time I turn around, she has climbed up on the chair at the table (see a pattern here?) and grabbed a pen to start drawing.

Dinner has been cooked - yummy Alfredo style chicken and mushroom pasta. But just got call from J that he will probably be having dinner out with boss and clients. Oh well, more for me!

OMG, K has just eaten half the orange crayon!!!!!!!! aaaaarrrggggh

go goya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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).