Frogs and trees...

I felt like something sweet after dinner.

j remembered the "Country ma'am" biscuit stash in his bag from when we went camping months ago and kindly offered them up for us to eat, as long as I hadn't already gotten in to them. Lucky for me I am good at keeping my hands off what I perceive to be other people's chocolates/sweets so I hadnt touched them:)

He brought them downstairs and we dished out one each. K, L and I ate ours in a flash. J's was still sitting on the table, the rest of us eying it off....when he finally went to eat it, the three of us were just like pavlov's mutt. J just laughed and said "蛙の子は蛙ね"

I nodded, yep, "the leaves never fall far from the tree" ??

I rephrased....." the acorn never falls far from the tree" ?????

So I googled "The APPLE never falls far from the tree"

Hahaha, at least I knew it was something to do with trees;-)

Insomnia?

Fell asleep with kids tonight(and last night) at 8:30pm.
Woke up when J came to bed at midnight.
Am still awake at 1:49am.

Same thing happened last night.

Why is sleep so messed up for us all?

So it's been a month since my last post about L's sleep lack-of-schedule.
I think we have pretty much transitioned to one nap a day, but still it varies each day....
Lately a nap after lunch ha been working but we still get a couple of days a week where he'll pass out sometime in the morning. Being out in the car tends to put him down. Example from this week:

Sat - asleep at 12:30 in the car seat, slept until i woke him at 2pm
Sun - lovely 1-3pm afternoon nap that I might have indulged in too:-)
Mon -asleep at 11:15 am, in car seat, eta 5mins from home! Slept until 1pm, in car seat which I brought into the genkan with him asleep in it!
Tues- out to it from 12:20pm after morning playdate. Asleep in stroller until
Wed- asleep at 9:30am, while in ergo doing shopping. Awake at 10 after unsuccessful attempt to move from back to car seat:(. Afternoon nap 2pm-3pm
Thurs- asleep 1-3pm, in stroller

Kinda random, right??I know the movement of vehicles sets him to sleep but still!!! At least Mon was the only day he fell asleep before I could get him lunch.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring? Am guessing that I will be needing an afternoon nap the way this is going-- wonder if I can get K on board??(altho napping her means super late bedtime at night ***so*** not worth it! Better off catnapping on lounge while she cuts/draws/watches tv ;-)

'ni-night zzzzzzz

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

Cancelled

Due to approaching typhoon, K's once a week half day pre-school is cancelled for today. She is bummed.
so am i-- I was planning on checking out a sports gym a couple of stations away that seems to have a child minding facility for members. I thought I could join up as a morning member and go swimming while K is at pre-school on wed mornings. depending on what age they take kids to loo after, I might even be able to leave both kids there and go another morning too?? How cool would that be!! I am really itching to swim some laps.

But i guess i'll have to go check it out another day now......Watch this space!

Looking for toothpicks

To prop my eyes open.

L had "woken up" 4 times already by 10pm....gave up counting after that. I know I got a bit of sleep in somewhere between then and when J woke me up when he came to bed at 11:30pm. Also had a patch after I checked the time at 2am. Other than that L was pretty much attached at the boob ALL night :-( couldn't shove that dummy in for love nor money haha.

I know I have said it almost daily but it is totally his teeth-- I can see one of those back double-headed teeth (molars?) just breaking through. Poor tyke. Just wish this teething would be over soon -- I feel like I am gonna be running on empty today ( which is why I think I deserv to have a cookie for breakfast!!)

Diligaff

I sound like a right royal spoilt bratt in my last post, aye!?! Haha.

Today(Wednesday) was a struggle...Or should I say, still IS a struggle.
With two kids still awake, at 9:30pm, (one of those a little miss that shows no sign of sleeping anytime soon), a house that looks like it was hit by the recent typhoon, dinner dishes still sprawled out everywhere, and a massive headache too, I just want to curl up and go to sleep

Cut to 30 mins later when I was sound asleep with the kids, haha!!

Next day I got my period. Along with that comes the sore, lumpy 詰まってる boob. Am now (friday) coming into day three of dull constant headache. It seems periods post-partum really do me in. With both K and L they came back around 14months. I do remember a few months after they came back with K that I had a big "I hate Japan" spiel.
This time the PMS is horrid (I become even more of a biatch). Then I am all dilligaff and don't wanna (can't find the energy to) get off the sofa for two or three days.
At least yesterday K was at kindy so I could curl up with L and pitter-patter around the house doing a minimum of work. Actually got more done than with the two kids home haha. Amazing how much mess that 2nd kid makes of the rooms I have just cleaned.

So anyway, yeh, holidays next week are off. Well at least o/s trips are. Ttytt, we couldn't afford it anyways. It just pissed me off(more do at the time than now) when J suggests another bloody onsen trip.
Sept is the only time that J is guaranteed to have off, that we know about in advance and is not gonna be sabotaged by an impromptu biz trip. So to miss out on using those precious 5 or 6 days in a real holiday kinda makes me mad:-( And did I mention that the following long weekend in sept, J us going away with his mates to one of the islands south if Tokyo?? I just want to get away from Japan and all the constant worry about food safety....going to the supermarket these days is stressful. Let me rephrase that, I go to SEVERAL supermarkets a week and STILL we seem to have no fresh veges to eat at dinner time:-(

This post is all over the place!!
We prob will end up at Gero onsen ( am sure it is a lovely place but just cant get it outa my head that the name of "Gero" also means "puke"). Also I suggested camping and/or seto-nai-Kai so will see where we end up, I guess.

Gonna be a boring holiday....

as we will prob be stuck at home.....or at Gero f*cking onsen:-(
Nothing booked.
J starts holidays in a week.
Last night when he came to bed he suggested Beijing (last minute tours available apparently) to eat Peking Duck.... But I need a visa for China!! Not impossible, *but* would involve a day to go to embassy pay expedient fee to get it issued on day (usually 4working days, girigiri).

Taipei still on cards...if any tours actually available(cheap tours, I mean) But I said he had prob left it too late to book an o/s tour so he suggests this time we go to Gifu, Gero onsen?!?!
Nothing wrong with that under normal circumstances I guess but I am so f*cling sick of this country, and using our only "long" holiday break to go to ANOTHER onsen just makes me shake my head and sigh:-(

I shoulda booked it all myself a month ago and just told him where we are going!

A 贅沢kinda question

Probably not the most important thing I could be blogging about, but it is taking up our thOughts here at the mo: where to go forour summer holidays.

J will take his obon holidays from sept 14 and tack them onto the long weekend for a 4 or 5 day holiday. Nothing booked, and already some of our options seemingly booked out but here are our "choices"....where would you go with a misbehaving 4 year old, teething 1 year old and their exotic-craving mummy? :

1) Taiwan (Taipei)
2) Korea (seoul. Or more expensive to go to jeju island)
3) Saipan
4) Miyako-jima, Okinawa, WITH in-laws most likely *worried about typhoons
5) Macau *actually too expensive, boohoo but I would love to go. Not sure if there is enough to do for 5 days tho
6) roadtrip to Shikoku
7) Hokkaido
8) Los Angeles for 1.09man yen( not including surcharge)* jetlag would be hell for kids tho, right?

Leaving it to the last minute, most if the cheap package tours to Korea, Taiwan and Saipan are full anyway. And I have been to Korea, LA and Macau as well as Hokkaido....
Hmmmmm what to do?????

worthy of a blog post...

Got my PR today.
- 6 and a half months after I applied for it (guess the "6 month" rule holds)
- just a few weeks after my 12th Japanniversary.
- just a few months short of my 6th wedding anniversary
- at a time when I am seriously feeling less and less happy about being in Japan....but I guess that is for another post.

I can now cross that at least off my 101 things list.

So, happy Permanent Residency to me ;)

Some days...

Linking up to Lulu for my first "some days"

Some days I am happy to peek in see my kids sleeping peacefully. Most days I end up going over and checking to make sure they are breathing :)

Some days I nap in the afternoon with both kids, and am then awake until midnight or later.Most days I am up with L at 5:30am and so tired by bedtime that I fall asleep with the kids at 8:30pm

Some days I get a chance to read a book ( a whole chapter Sunday afternoon while L napped and K played with Daddy.) Most days the only reading I do is facebook updates.

Some days I "write" blog posts in my head all day long. Most days I go blank when I sit down to actually write a post.

Some days I skype with mum for 30 or 40 mins. Most days the peanut gallery get antsy when I am on the computer for anything longer than 5-10mins so our skype conversations are cut short:(