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.

another day....

another easter egg hunt!

Thursday's playgroup - Easter Picnic.
Fantastic weather - at least 23deg.
Great choice of picnic site - park by the bay, 開放感* to the max
Easter Eggs galore - 94 plastic eggs, and 7 kids!! (seriously, eggs galore! was expecting more kids)
Entertainment - watching 7 kids scramble on the grass gathering 94 eggs and putting them into their "heartfully made"** milk carton easter baskets.

Happy Easter

Hot Glitters


* is that a real word?
** now, I made that word up. I think. Or it might be Japlish.

flu, part 2

damn. K came down with it yesterday.

it came on all of a sudden, in the morning when she woke up she was a bit grizzly, but I thought it was mainly because she woke with a bit of a fright. She had a runny nose and cough, which I thought was just the end of her cold. no fever (only 36.3 I think it was). So I took her to playgroup. I am the worst mother ever, I swear. At playgroup she was clingy, and runny nosey. I still thought it was nothing more than a cold. Then she got hot. She fell asleep in the car coming home, and when she woke up, she looked groggy. So we waited outside the docs until they opened at 3pm, when they checked her temp (39.3deg). Doc told me I was stupid for having taken her out today. Yes, that was true. I felt SOOOOO BAD. Not only did K have the flu, but there is now the possibility that we have infected all our friends at playgroup. Doctor made me feel even worse when she found out K hadn't had the flu shot. Yes, I am the worst mother. Anyway, we got some Tamiflu and those stickers you put on your chest to help you stop coughing, and another lot of cold medicine (in syrup form - our third lot of this since we got back from Oz! She now refuses to take it and I can't find any way to get it into her (I have tried all the things I can think of, and everything the chemist and doctor suggested!) so I stopped giving her the last lot. The chemist said it was not that important anyway. And I read on the internet that there is nothing you can take to fix a cold so I am not worried about giving this lot to her either.)

Last night she was still running a high fever, and very groggy. We managed to get two "serves" (?) of tamiflu into her - they gave it to me in powder form, and suggested I mix it with custard or ice cream to give her. That worked well with chocolate pudding for the first attempt when we got home from the doctors, but by nighttime, K wouldn't even take any liquids let alone food. In the end, we had to mix the tamiflu powder into a paste and use a syringe to squirt it down her throat. I have wasted 3 out of the 8 packets of tamiflu powder the doc prescribed over the last day and a half by mixing it one way(that worked last time) only for K not to take it at all the next time. So now we are doing the syringe squirt routine no matter what, but tonight when we did it that way, of course she was screaming blue murder at us, got all upset and threw the damn tamiflu up 1 second after we had spent 10 mins slowly syringing it down her throat. I hope *some* of it stayed in her, though.

But I am actually surprised at how genki she is today. Last night she woke up every hour during the night, and seemed really struggling , but this morning she woke up with a fever running just under 38degrees (not high enough to use the bum bullets) and spent the morning watching re-runs of "inai inai baa" and "okaasan to issho" before starting off a colour-in-a-thon and drawing fest where I had draw a pussy cat 50times over for her. (fwiw, K drew a banana). She had a big afternoon nap, nearly 4hours and then even ate a small amount of rice with salmon for dinner. She has been drinking fluids well today too. And her temperature has stayed below 38 degrees, actually hovering around 37degrees for most of the day. I hope this means that we are over the worst of it. We are still going to be housebound for the rest of the week, and probably into next week just in case.

Poor little K.

I do feel so bad for her having caught the flu, last night when she was so sick it was really heart-wrenching. I just wished that I could take her place or something. I guess I was a bit too blah-zay (how do you spell that word?) when J had it, and should have been more vigilant with things like wiping down things he touched, washing K's hands more often etc. And of course I should have gotten the flu shot for her. I will be doing that for sure next winter.

And more importantly I feel really bad about taking her out and putting others at risk of the flu too. I can only hope that none of the kids or mums from playgroup catch the flu from her.

****
Just wanted to say thank you to tigermama and nay for the comments.

I hope that I didn't come across in my original post here as just writing it so that people would comment that I wasn't a bad mother - I really did feel that way though, seriously. I know it is not logic, but hey, I figure I am not the most grounded and logical thinking person anyway. I also got messages and a phone call back from some of the mothers at playgroup who said "these things happen and not to worry about it" which was nice of them. Also one mum rang to say that (fingers crossed) they and their kids seem to be ok for now, so that is good to hear.

Just writing this now, I think I have realised that the main thing I was feeling was a sense of hopelessness at K having the flu and the situation in general. I guess this is something that as a mother I am going to feel more of in the future too.....

"Confucius say....

......that toddler going through "a phase" and mummy with PMS do not make for good shopping partners"

*sigh*
We have had a long week. K is 18months old, and until now I have somehow managed to keep her entertained enough on trains/at restaurants etc with lots of little snacks, toys, raisins in a cup whatever to keep her attention and keep her sitting down in her stroller/on the seat for the duration. But this week, well, I think she has finally realised that now that she can walk properly, and mummy has been taking her for short walks to the park and the bread shop etc, that she wants to be doing this walking thing a lot more often. She wants to be doing it every time we leave the house. The ol' bribe of a snack or some milk to get her into the stroller is wearing thin too. On Tuesday we went to playgroup, the one that takes us about 45mins to 1hour to get to. It is the playgroup we used to go to before we moved here. We live about 4mins walk from the train station, but before the train even arrived, K was standing in her stoller wanting to get out. I managed to keep her in until we got on the train, but then she wanted to sit on the seat. Luckily the train was pretty empty, so we could sit in the priority seat, look out the window etc. But we still had to change trains along the way, and get on to a busy train (standing room only). So when we got to the station to change trains,I tried nicely (I swear) to get her to sit in her stroller. The banana bribe didn't work. The milk bribe didn't work. The carry strap didn't work. There were tears. There were screams. But we couldn't get on the train unless she was "contained", I only have 2 hands and trying to manuever her and a stroller on a packed train is not easy - she would only want to get down as soon as we were on the train too. These days she even hates being held. She somehow sat in the stroller, but then started to scream blue murder as we got on the train. The whole way. No consoling her. She finally gave up when some nice old lady took to her and started playing peek-a-boo or something.

After playgroup, the same issues, she didn't want to sit in the stroller. But by this time she was also super tired, and about to pass out asleep, so after a bit she sat in her stoller, and within 5 mins was sound asleep.

Then yesterday, we went to a closer playgroup. Only 13mins by 2 trains. BUT as soon as we got on the train she wanted to get out of her stroller. But we had to change trains in like a minute, so there really wasn't time to get her out, put shoes on, adjust the balance of bags hanging off the back of the stroller etc.... so there were tears. LOTS of them. And screams, PIERCING screams. When she gets like that, there is just nothing I can do to calm her down. (Of course, before the tears started, I pulled out all the snacks/toys/is there a doggy? tricks, to no avail).

So I end up frazzled and frizzled by the timke I get anywhere these days. I asked some other mummies for advice, but they all suggested the avert attention with toys/snacks method. What do I do when that doesn't work?? One mummy said it was just a phase...she will grow out of it, in about a year, lol...about the time she realises that sitting in the stroller is a lot easier!

This is not really meant to be a whining post - I know that she doesn't do these things to frustrate me (though somtimes...aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhh) . A bit of an internet search last night ("how do I deal with my 18month old!?!?") and although there was no new techniques per say, the best advice I saw was that I can't keep on using the old method and expecting her to fit into it anymore. It is time for me to adapt to her current sitation and try to combat this, pre-empt any "attack" and get through this stage with as little frustration for both of us as possible. Big sigh.
I don't know how you mummies with 2 or 3 even get out of the house - supermums, all of you!I have sooooo much to learn.

today I ......

* was woken up at some ungoddly hour by K, chucking her water sippy cup at my head. think it was before 6am. Did the "wake-up-early" bug join the mogura from gaijin wife's house on a visit to TJKR's life???

* was stuck at a train station for 10-15 minutes while K chucked a tanty about getting in the pram (necessary so that I could get her and pram up the flight of stairs)on the way to playgroup.

* was almost crying after said tanty was followed by a man cutting me and K now in the pram off as we tried to cross the road. I may have yelled out after him "本当に自分勝手やな、この国” which I guess translates to something like "this bloody country - everyone is so rude!"

* had really had enough of K as she pulled the "prawn" (where she arches her back and throws her head backwards, usually to land on the floor) at playgroup when I took the bag of clapping sticks away from her.

* was thankful that the lady from playgroup who was looking out for the kids while some of us mothers had a discussion, was kind enough to hide the library books that K ripped to shreds.
She told me - "your daughter likes ripping up books!" (gasp!)
"How many?", I asked.
"I found 4 ripped pages....." GASP!!

* realised how crap my written Japanese has become when I tried (unsucessfully) to translate an email E-> J.
No, it was really crap.

*can't remember the html for bullet points *sigh*

but on a funny note....

* saw the lady from the house down the block going through the rubbish before the bin truck came, and caught her taking out paper bags, I guess from nice shops so that she can wow her friends next time she gives them a melon or some laundry soap as a little gift.

I think I need a "socks" tag on here

lovely day today - supposed to be 22degrees! I know it was definitely hot when I was at K's playgroup at the 児童館 this morning. It was our 2nd time, but last week they had a special guest in who takes the kids through a whole heap of songs and dance and stories. Today was the regular mums doing the "leading". So we started off by singing a hello type song, where everyone sits in a circle, and when it is your turn, you say your kids name, and then the whole group sings "where is so-and-so" and then the kid has to raise their arm and say "HAI" (here I am). We have been practising this with K actually at home. Sometimes she does it, sometimes she also does it when we say to Rosie "beg (欲しい人) for food" which is pretty funny. But she was a bit slow on the uptake this morning, so I quickly raised her hand for her. Feel like a bit of a stage mother (hehe). Then about 15mins of songs and walking round in a big circle and acting like elephants... you know, all the usual stuff that would make you feel so embarrassed until you have a kid of your own, and actually find yourself doing it at all sorts of random places and times anyway (like in public toilets, trying to keep K quiet and calm while mummy has a raz. lol!!)

Today we made fish. It was K's first EVER time to play with crayons (and yes, of course, they went in her mouth straight away!! but obviously they don't taste that nice, coz she only did it once, which is a near miracle!!) so I drew the fish

(not bad if I do say so myself) and cut them out while K scribbled. all over the paper and all over the floor. lucky they crayons wash off in water, so all I had to do was a quick wipe over of the floor with her おしりwipes when we finished. And the crayons are triangular! yes,　三角クレヨン so they are easy to hold for the littlies. what a great invention.

so as I was sitting on the floor, busily making my (ah, I mean K's) fish and fishing rod, I happened to turn around to look at someone else's (trying to copy, probably!!) and as my head turned back, I caught a glimpse of my own feet underneath me... AND THE DIRTY ROTTEN BIG HOLES IN BOTH OF MY SOCKS!!

aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. major faux pax! if it's not K with no socks on, then it's me with holes in my socks (lol)
I then spent the rest of the time trying not to let anyone see the bottom of my feet, while sitting cross-legged (ah, impossible) or even 正座Japanese style - seiza (just as impossible). I don't think I have done the sock gaffe for a while. Sort of refreshing actually - I guess it means that I haven't turned Japanese yet, hehe!!

oh, and in a timely development, I actually bought 2 new pairs of socks, which arrived yesterday with our teeva collection (bought on-line from REI on sale. Also got a cool orange 3/4 length top. For some reason I am really into orange at the moment! And J got a cool rain jacket. And K got a really cute hat... we bought up big!!) But they are hiking socks, so I might now have to go out and get some "round the house" type socks too. Now I think about it, a lot of my socks are getting a bit 危ない... probably bought them all at about the same time, so the holes are just starting to develop now. So it looks like some sock-shopping coming up soon!