Kids!

Today was one of those days where I think, "do I really want to have more kids?" It just seemed impossible to get anything done... The amount of laundry with two kids is crazy, especially when you don't have a dryer and have to hang everything up to dry. I ended up taking laundry over to the laundromat dryers, so I could finally get caught up. By the evening, all the laundry was done. But guess what! The laundry basket is already full again. *Sigh*

It got to be lunchtime and I didn't feel like making anything so we got ready to go to a local restaurant called Puchi House. I went to grab Hana who was just starting to wake up and realized she was super poopy! It had leaked through her clothes and on the blanket she was sleeping on (the red one from Sarah). So, there was another load of laundry right there! I quick grabbed her, washer her up in the bath, and got her changed so we could go to lunch.

Laundry may be the biggest downside, but there are so many great things about kids. Gaku says the cutest things lately, and really tries to be quite the helper. He was "helping" me do laundry. After lunch we bought some ice cream at one of the local stores. We got one for Obachan too. Then we came back and sat down in the bath lobby and ate ice cream with her. Even though Obachan had her own ice cream (the same one as Gaku's since he picked it for her), Gaku was sharing his and offering her bites of his ice cream.

This evening after Gaku went to bed I was having a lot of fun with Hana. She was really talking and smiling. (See the video on Facebook.) It was one of those times when I could really relax with her and appreciate just how special she is, and how special our time together is.

Laughing

Hana is getting more and more fun by the day. Lately, she is really changing each day. She is a really smiley, talkative baby. She is talking more and more, making new sounds every day. It used to be that she would give a huge smile and kind of laugh silently. But just this week she's started laughing out loud.

Tonight she was being just a little bit fussy, so I took her downstairs to the bath to socialize with Obachan and the other women at the bath. She was being super talkative and laughing. She is definitely a favorite around here. Then she started getting fussy and acting sleepy. So we came back upstairs. I was going to nurse her a bit, but she just started sucking her thumb and went straight off to sleep all by herself. (Gaku wasn't/isn't that good...)

Cherry Blossoms

I'm so glad that spring is really here now! The cherry trees are in full bloom in Tokyo right now. This weekend on Sunday, we'll either have a cherry-blossom-viewing party with the Mukai family or go to Yokohama and check out the venue for the Jack Johnson concert. Tak is pretty keen to check it out and see what kind of set up it is, so we can get good seats - it's general admission and an outdoor venue. He's talking about going down the night before with a sleeping bag... (That would obviously be him by himself, and I would bring the munchkins later sometime reasonable. Then again Gaku would probably love to go a bit early and run around talking to people.)

A couple of weeks ago, Tak took Gaku to a rugby game. I think it was the finals. But Tak didn't get to watch the game at all. He had to run all over the place following Gaku. Gaku had a great time running up and down the steps, talking to everyone, getting snacks from people. He's quite the social butterfly. He has no problems at all talking with people he doesn't know - a good and bad thing... I suppose Tak and I worry that if a perfect stranger offered him a piece of chocolate, he'd follow them anywhere - a bit scary. We really have to keep a careful eye on him when we're out and about.

Spitting (with Video)

I haven't been updating my blog again... I've been a bit busy with a project working on a teacher's book for one of the local publishers. And I've been creating pages on the two networking sites - Facebook and My Space - at the request of different friends and family. The verdict is still out on which one I like better. So far it seems that on My Space you can personalize the colors more, but it's really busy because of all the ads. I haven't played much with Facebook yet, but have found that the way you have to hit save before clicking on the next tab when creating your profile (and not being prompted if you don't hit save) is not very user-friendly. The first time I spent some time creating my profile and after finishing all of the tabs realized none of it had been saved!

Today's pictures and video are of Hana, but the story is all about Gaku...

To fully appreciate this, you need a bit of background. There's a Dreamworks animated movie called Madagascar about some animals from the NY Zoo who are being sent to a nature preserve in Africa, but end up shipwrecked in Madagascar instead. This is Gaku's number one movie for the past couple of weeks. At one scene in the movie, the zebra Marty sets up his place. When they drink the water he has, it's saltwater so they spit it back out. When they spit it out, they kind of spray it. Well, when we were watching it, one time last week I saw Gaku's eyes kind of light up during this scene. You could literally see what he was thinking on his face. I told him he was not allowed to do this, except in the bath.

So on Saturday, I was hanging up laundry and came back to the living room to find that Gaku had spit water all over. I wasn't too upset because at least he sprayed it over the gate and into the kitchen which has wood floors and not on the carpet. But I immediately turned off the movie and made him clean it up. He very nicely cleaned it up and apologized, so I let him watch some more. That same evening he had a box of apple juice that Obachan gave him down at the bath. He took a drink and this time he sprayed it all over me. I was so pissed! I took the juice away and put it in the fridge. He cried a bit, but I didn't give the juice back to him until after dinner.

Now the absolute funniest incident was on Sunday night. Gaku was really tired and fussy, and we were trying to get him to go to bed. Gaku's blankey is a Mickey Mouse towel that he calls Mickey. That day he had a bottle of sesame wheat tea (no caffeine). Sometimes when trying to get Gaku to go to sleep, he goes a bit crazy and then suddenly crashes. So on Sunday, he was going crazy and cried a couple of times. He was starting to settle down when he said he was thirsty. So I handed him his bottle of tea. He said he was going to finish it. I figured fine, there wasn't too much left. He was swallowing it with big, noisy gulps, and Tak and I were laughing. Then he suddenly did the spray thing... all over Mickey! So he immediately started crying that Mickey was wet. I couldn't even get upset with him for spraying the tea. Both Tak and I couldn't stop ourselves from laughing. I assured him Mickey was okay, just a little bit wet, but he could still sleep with it. It was pretty funny. He was so upset about something that he did all by himself. He hasn't sprayed his drinks for the last couple of days since then... Maybe he's done?

Hana is quite the active little baby. When awake, she's in constant motion. In the video below you can see how her feet and hands just don't stop moving. I have to say that she's much easier than Gaku. Tak was saying that he remembers walking Gaku at this age to get him to stop crying sometimes. Hana will sometimes cry for about a minute, but if no one comes right away, she gives up, sucks her thumb, and goes to sleep on her own!

Just Like Daddy

On Saturday Gaku got a small wooden tool bench toy (picked out from a catalogue). If he takes out all of the wooden screws, it won't actually be a bench anymore, but just a collection of wooden nuts & bolts and pieces. It has a small ruler, hammer, screwdriver, and wrench. He picked up the ruler, pretended to measure something on the bench, and said, "14 kilo". How cute!! He was measuring, just not using the right system... That's how much Kei weighed when he was on the scale in the bath the night before. Gaku is at about 15 kilograms now.

Daycare Talent Show

This past Friday was Gaku's "okiku natta taikai" at daycare. Basically, it's a little talent show so everyone can see how much the kids have changed in the past year. For the smaller classes (Gaku's included), they tell the parents to hide - not be right out front and center. Most of the smaller kids will cry and try to go to their parents if they spot them. We'd been telling Gaku all week that Mommy, Daddy and Baba would be there. I wasn't worried that he would cry if he found us. In the fall at the sports festival, there was a point when the moms go out and are supposed to do a kind of small dance/exercise routine with the kids. Some of Gaku's classmates let out a cry and came running to their moms. Gaku came running, gave me one hug, and immediately escaped to run off and do what he wanted, which involved half doing the routine and half just running. So I wasn't worried if he spotted us or not. As soon as he walked in the hall, Gaku scanned the crowd for us and found us immediately. He was super happy and called out "Daddy", "Mommy", and "Baba" as he spotted each of us. Then he went and sat nicely with the one teacher. But every so often he would get up and wave at us. Also he was wearing one of his character t-shirts - Zenmai Samurai. So he kept getting up and showing other people in the audience his Zenmai Samurai t-shirt and singing part of the Zenmai Samurai song for them. This year he was really good about doing the routines they had practiced. It was a lot of fun to watch!



The video is of part of Gaku's class during the talent show. They're going on a walk and each time the music stops they yell for the wolf and put on another item of clothing. You can hear Gaku's voice yelling "okami-san"; he's the loudest, maybe the only one in his class actually yelling it out. When the wolf comes out they're supposed to hide from it. Then they all sit down while they do the next part. Except Gaku runs out to the teacher and then you can see him hitting the girl next to him after he sits down. He doesn't do the sitting and waiting very well. But he's much better about sitting and watching than last year.

(I've just discovered the video file is slightly too big to upload, so I'm working on an alternative...)

Long time... February blues?

Well, I haven't updated this for almost a month now. I've been a bit unmotivated to do much of anything this past month, other than just hang out and cuddle with Hana. I'm feeling like I have a bit more energy now.

Yesterday, I took Gaku to daycare in the morning. When I walked in with Hana, the head of the daycare came over to hold her for me while I got Gaku's stuff straightened up and put away. She started walking into the office with Hana and Gaku started to get really upset. He wasn't jealous that the teacher was holding Hana. He was upset because he felt that she was taking Hana away. He was saying "dame" (meaning "no") in the same way that he does to the women in the bath who tease him about taking Hana home. He is very protective (possessive) of her. She is HIS sister.

Hana is getting to be more fun. She "talks" and smiles a lot now. She already has really good head control. But Tak says she's still not as much fun as Gaku. Of course she's not; Gaku is almost three and he is so cool lately. It's a lot of fun to reason with him and try to figure out what's going on in his head. He loves to read longer stories with more words lately. And he really loves to rough-house with his daddy.