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.

four hundred

It's my 400th post -wow!

Thought I should write something so as my MIL rant is not the first thing that pops up on my computer everytime I open it (J *CAN* read English, after all. Soft, ain't I, lol!)

Seems fitting that since this is a celebratory post, I should mention that I won a competition across at Homemade Mom. (thanks again!) I am looking forward to claiming my prize and trying out the "Sing with Olive" application from Swagsoft soon (well, K, not me, will be singing with Olive)

And what else is there to celebrate? TGIF, of course...even if Fri afternoon happy hour is only in my mind ;P

Why the hell....

(a.k.a. "some MIL gems from the weekend away")

Why the hell does she
* ignore the kids... until *I* go to them to hold their hand/pick them up/ whatever, then all of a sudden she rushes in.

* then ignore the kids a few seconds later when she thinks of something else (e.g. "ooh, look, a pretty flower") meanwhile the kid is left tottering on the edge of the stairs, or in the middle of the road or something.

* spend the entire dinner time asking K if she will eat some x, y z from HER plate. K has a plate of her own, let her eat her own stuff FIRST!

* spend the last half of the dinner telling K "If you don't finnish your dinner up, yaddi-yaddi-yah" when it turns out that BEFORE dinner, she plied same kid with a packet of chips (without telling me), but still expects her to eat all her meal?!?!

* then go and buy a dessert for the same kid she had just told off at dinner for not finishing it!

* pick up a happy baby from downstairs where I am, take him upstairs, then promptly leave him on the floor in the living room (where there are a set of stairs with no gate on them) while she fluffs about in the kitchen doing not much at all.

* sneak food to the kids - she seriously gives it to them only when I am not around, really sneaky like, esp when I catch her out. She never tells me she has given them anything, so when L comes up to me munching, of course I get worried that he has swallowed something he shouldn't have/picked up off the ground etc.

* get all offensive when, after she picks L up and shows him the strawberries for dessert, I say "please dont feed him strawberries as he hasn't had them yet". she says "I wasn't gonna GIVE him any". (yeah, right)

* insist on giving me those bloody uht milks for my tea. I DRINK REAL MILK IN MY TEA. (Lots of it, so one of those piddly creamers doesnt even whet the spot!)

aaah, nothing major, I know, but geez it annoys me, lol!

We're on our way

To the tip of the Izu penninsula again. Let's hope J booked the hotel for the right night this time(^з^)-☆
PIL are with us too -- bet they wouldn't be impressed if we get there and have to turn back lol.

Oh yeah and it's snowing!!! Brrrrr

get me some chicken on a stick!

So I wasn't gonna let go of what may be my only chance to get to yakitori, so when we woke up Sun morning, I did a search of yakitori joints around....anyway, J suggests we go to the Fukui (pref) style of yakitori/kushiyaki place Akiyoshi. So we headed out in the freezing cold SNOWing even, for an early dinner (got there just after 4pm).

This place has really small skewers, so you can eat about 20 or 30 each. It was yummy, but I would have liked to have seen more choice on the menu, esp if you eat so many (we had to order the same dish a couple of times). Still with a beer and a chu-hai each it was a good night, worth all 7500yen it cost ;) Even if we did have to supplement with Maccas on the way home (K wanted chips, and an apple pie for dessert for me didn't go astray either!!)

SOOOOO this means I can cross off #17 of my 1001 things in 101 days now too, woo-hoo.

lucky for some?

So we are home again - got back last night, 12 hours after we left, hahaha!

Ah, I am still giggling whenever I think about it.

I can't work out if it beats the time J drove us all the way to his parent's besso (strategic departure of 10pm to take advantage of the cheap highway toll), only to park the car and realise that he forgot the key (they weren't there) and we drove all the way home TO PICK IT UP and go back again!! 4hours plus driving back and forth!

Or if it beats the time I booked my parents and me into a hotel that didn't exist (still unsure of the details of that one, as my Japanese was a bit rusty and I was only 17years old at the time ;)

Anyway, we can't work out if yesterday was actually a lucky day for us or not.

Unlucky stuff:
* Obviously, booking a hotel for the wrong night ranks pretty high here, although I don't know if "unlucky" is the right word to describe that (lol)

* As way of saying sorry for the royal stuff up, J actually decided to take me to yakitori for dinner!! This is a big thing, as he NEVER takes me to yakitori for some reason, (I wasn't even upset, wish he pull this card more often when I actually am pissed off at something he has done haha) and we found 2 yakitori places at Yugawara, on the way home. The first one was more like a snack in someone's house, so we decided to try the other, which we couldn't find for ages, as the map was not clear (when will you get the hint: STREET NAMES, please, Japan!) When we eventually did find it, I took the opportunity to change L's nappy in the car before we went in, and in the time I was doing that, a couple of people entered the yakitori joint in front of us, and took the last seat ;(
So we had dinner at COCOs.

* we got stuck in a bit of traffic coming back home, thanks to an accident.

The lucky stuff
* J DIDN'T get booked for crossing the orange line (changing lanes) on the highway near the exit. The police officer standing on the side of the road fully SAW him do it but LUCKILY the officers 50m up the road booking cars already had 3 cars at the side of the road they were booking, and there was no space for them to wave us in, so we escaped!

* J DIDN'T get charged a cancellation fee for the hotel for Sun (tonight's) booking ;)

* The blue smurfs won the soccer last night...hmph. Lucky for SOME I guess.

You'll like this

So we managed to get out of the house this morning right on 10am, and L fell asleep almost right away, sleeping until we got to hakone, so we stopped around noon for soba noodles then kept heading south on the Izu skyline for Ito, where the hotel is. Since we were running early, we played a bit at the much-no-Eki and tried all their free samples（＾∇＾）and even pushed K around on a kiddies dodgem-car type ride. And we ate 63yen cookie-crust choux creams, yum!!!
Got to the hotel in good time, and J went to check in, only to be told that his booking was for TOMORROW night!!!!!!!!!!!

They didn't have any cancellations for tonight so we are homeless for the night, lol!! But since K was soooooooooooopoooooooo looking forward to her onsen ryoko, I told J to take her into the onsen while I wait with L who is down for his afternoon nap. Shame, as the onsen here is a pool-onsen that you can all go in together. Oh well. J said he will bring us back again, when he can book it on the RIGHT NIGHT I hope

How funny

onsen-ryoko

"so do you wanna go on an onsen-ryoko this weekend?"

J thows this out to me literally just as I am getting the kids into bed last night, before he heads off to the gym. He wants to leave at 10am this morning. Ha! and he gives me confirmation that he booked a hotel last minute at 1am when he comes up to bed (and wakes me up to tell me this, yawn)

It is now just after 7am, I have had a cuppa, had a crap (well, L did on the loo again at least) and now K has just come down too, so I guess that means I can stop lazing around and start packing. I am SO BAD at packing - you know that saying about everything but the kitchen sink, well, I usually end up taking the sink and half the living room etc etc. So I *might* get a bit stressed with having to pack (even if only for overnight)with so little warning. Will try to be calm and keep it down to one bag only....with just 2 changes of clothes(never know when an explosion from top or bottom is gonna happen with kids, right), togs (as hotel has an onsen style pool, apparently) just a few toys...

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 ;)

a long weekend

like, really long.
K came down with a fever AGAIN. 39.6deg at it's height.
Took her to nighttime medical centre, and all they did apart from shove that super-long q-tip up her nose to check for influenza was give us some bum bullets to keep the temp down. So no idea what the phantom fever is all about.

She had a high fever on NY day (night) too, but it was gone by the next morning.

Although I would like to think this is a 24-hr one too, she has been feverish since Sat night. sigh.

Poor little pumpkin.

And she is so shitscared of doctors, that she won't tell me where, if anywhere, she is sore/hurting, in case we take her to the docs. Somehow managed to trick her into the docs room last night, but once her name was called she started yelling out "駄目といったでしょ!" ("I told you I don't wanna see the doctor") , screaming and thrashing, at least I could somehow hold her as L was waiting in the car with J.

Tomorrow morn is gonna be fun again when we hit the peds ;(

Why do these things always happen on weekends/holidays when the regular docs are not open???