Emergency - Contact

If you ever need to contact me in an emergency, the best place to send a message is to my cell phone. My cell phone mail address is:

samantha51875@ezweb.ne.jp

I think Cathy scared a few people by trying to reach me through facebook. Thank you so much for the messages, Cathy! Unfortunately, I was at Tokyo Disneyland so my first inkling that something was going on was when I picked up my cell phone to check the time and realized that Mom had called my cell phone twice. Mom never calls me (unless something is wrong), so...

Grandma and Grandpa Smith were in a pretty serious car accident. Grandpa pulled out in front of a car (on a street where the speed limit is 55 mph) which pushed them in front of another car. Grandma (probably not wearing her seat belt) was on the floor of the car after the accident. Both of her collar bones are broken and she has broken ribs, but more worrying is that she may have a broken neck. The other possibility is that due to her age, the bone disintegrated(?). If that's the case, she will probably be out of the ICU much sooner. Also, she could have a closed head injury. She lost consciousness for around 10 minutes. The good thing is that she was conscious at the hospital and able to talk and joke. But the doctors are still running tests. Grandpa has some broken ribs and some swelling on his liver. He's in the hospital, but not the ICU. At their age all of these injuries are serious. I'm hoping for (good) news soon.

I hear the weather and roads in Michigan are particularly bad today, so am praying that no one gets into any accidents on their way to visit the hospital. I hope there are no more accidents over the holiday season! Please take care.

Update: Just talked to the ICU nurse directly. Grandma's neck is okay. The collarbones may or may not be broken, but are not really serious. She has broken ribs. Her right arm is broken and they will have to do surgery on it. She will have to be in the ICU after the surgery for at least a short time. Her head is also fine. Haven't talked to grandpa yet.

Gotta Love 'Em

It's getting more and more fun to watch Gaku's personality and his thought processes develop.

A little over a week ago on Sunday, we went "hiking" at Mount Takao. I say "hiking" because it was absolutely crazy! And it wasn't hiking. We went on a Sunday during a 3-day weekend, beautiful weather with rain predicted for the next day, and during the leaf-changing season. What were we thinking! Oh, and apparently Mount Takao recently received 3 stars in a special guide book. Tak put it perfectly when he said it was "like Shibuya on a weekend". There were just masses of people. It's a wide concrete path, but I was getting bumped all the time. There were quite a few occassions when I really wanted to start telling off some people who were in a huge hurry trying to run around people coming down that path and in the process blocking the way for people going up the path. Anyway, it was still fun. The amazing thing is that Gaku walked the whole way, didn't ask to be carried at all, didn't have a nap, and didn't have any temper tantrums at all (at least not until we were in the restaurant near home).

Yesterday was Kei's birthday party. He turns 3 tomorrow. So we went to Toys 'R Us to get a present. I didn't go on Saturday because I knew Gaku was going to want something and I didn't feel like dealing with it. Sure enough, he had a huge fit because he wanted one of the "go-onja" toys too. He literally cried full-out for 20 minutes. Who would think he could sustain such real crying for so long? But as soon as we walked out of the store and started heading to McDonald's (where they have "GeGeGe no Kitaro" toys right now), he was all smiles and fun again. So tough to be three, wanting everything but having no control over anything!

Gaku has tendencies to be a bit of a bully with his friends sometimes. (But he can also be very sweet and attentive, so I'm not too worried.) On Thursday after daycare Tak asked him if he had been a good boy and played nicely with his friends at daycare. His answer was that he didn't punch Taiki. Hmmm... such a specific answer. Tak wrote about this in the daily journal that is kept between the parents and the teachers. The teacher wrote back that he had punched Taiki that day. Knew it!

Today, Gaku came home with an origami heart. He was so excited that he had a present for Mommy. Then tonight, he was pooping (still in his diaper *sigh*, but in the bathroom) when I rushed in the bathroom to pee. Gaku looked at me and very seriously asked, "Mommy, where does your pee come out of? Does it come out of your butt?" So funny! He's recognizing the differences between boys and girls. He realizes that his pee comes out of his penis, but if girls don't have penises...

Anyway, it's a lot of fun to talk to Gaku lately and see how he thinks.

最近、岳の話はどんどん楽しくなっています。

先週、高尾山を半分ぐらい登りました。すごい人数でした！三連休、いい天気、紅葉・・・何を考えましたか？たくが言う取で、「渋谷の週末みたい」。本当にびっくりしました。でも、楽しかった。岳は小さいかにを見つけた。ずっと歩きました。抱っこは全然言うわなかった。

日曜日、けい君の誕生日パーティでした。プレゼント買いに行った時に岳も「欲しい欲しい」と泣いた。２０分ずっと大泣きしました。でも、店にでってマックへ行くと分かってすぐ泣き止んだ。今、マックのおもちゃはゲゲゲの鬼太郎のだからすごい喜んでいました。

保育園で岳はちょと意地悪する。木曜日の夕方たくは岳に「今日は仲良く遊んだ？意地悪したないか？」。岳の返事「たいきにパンチしたないよ」。へ～返事は面白かった・・・過ぎの日連絡帳にたくはこの事を書いた。先生の返事は「岳はたいきにパンチした」。やっぱり！

昨日、すごくかわいい質問しました。岳はトイレでおむつのままでうんちをしました。私しっこしたかったから、トイレ入ったしっこしました。岳が言った「マミーのしっこはどこからでる？おしりからでる？」岳はよく考えたみたい。「マミーはちんちんがないから・・・」

最近、岳の話は本当に面白くなっています！