Done. Done done done done!

I'm done. With what?? I am done with my online course for my masters in TESOL. Now I am far from done with the degree, but that doesn't take away from the satisfaction of being done with this course.

Without going into all the gory details, I'll just say that of the three classes I have taken so far this one has been the most frustrating and least enjoyable. The content (methods and materials) could have been a lot of fun to learn and to experiment with. However, it wasn't. It was just a lot of frustration and a lot of work.

Which is why I am so happy to be done! I wish I could celebrate. But I think I'll just watch an episode of the Daily Show and go to bed early. I have packing to do tomorrow!

Surprised??

So, it seems that every time I make a resolution to be better about my blog, I totally fail. That means I am no longer going to make any promises about keeping up my blog, rather I will be realistic and say that I will do my best to post every once in awhile. Sometimes the stretches between will be long and other times not so long. I started this blog at a time in my life when I was far less busy and had ample time to tell witty anecdotes with pictures (with little captions and everything!) and these days I just don't have that kind of time. This is my big disclaimer, I suppose, about this blog. All of the above words can be summed up with: I'll do my best.

"My best" may get to be better as of February 3rd. Why, you may ask, am I even discussing a date so far in the future? Well, that is that last possible day that I can work. In Japan, legally I am allowed 6 weeks before birth and 8 weeks after birth for maternity leave. That's right. My school won't let me work after the 3rd. So there will be two more days a week when I can try to squeeze in a little time on the blog.

I guess this is a little late to announce, but for anyone who didn't already know, we are expecting baby 2 on March 16th. The past two appointments, baby has not been cooperative so we don't know if we are expecting a boy or a girl. The doctor said maybe a girl, but with zero degree of certainty as she didn't see anything. :-( My next appointment is this Friday, so cross your fingers at 10:30am Japan time and maybe we'll have an answer!

In other news, we are moving! This Sunday we are moving apartments. We are only moving to an apartment about 5 minutes drive away, but we still have an awful lot of stuff to haul and it's still not fun to pack. We will be moving to a place where Touma will have his own room, my kitchen will have a decent amount of storage, and we can have a kotatsu. For anyone who is reading and doesn't know what a kotatsu is, it is a short, heated table (click here to get an idea). It's  very dangerous as you never want to move away from the kotatsu and you could get stuck there until springtime! But it will be the first time I've had one since living in Yamagata, so I'm quite excited. Also, it's nice to sit and munch on mandarin oranges under a kotatsu.

Ok, that was my little update post. No promises. I'll just try to do better. :-)

Misadventures in Parenting...

Yesterday, we had playgroup at a new shopping center called Mark Is. (Yup, that is the real name. I initially thought it was Mark 15 since that would somehow make more sense... but alas, Mark Is.)

It has a rooftop garden and a fabulous kids floor. After lots of play, exploring the garden, and eating lunch, we moved inside to the air conditioning and an area with cute little kid sized tables. It was a great, cool place to have the kids. Plus, there was a bank of coin lockers and vending machines. Both of those things Touma loves. LOVES!!

After some free play, I realized there was a stinky boy that needed changing and we headed to the family toilet. It was really nice. It had new fangled buttons and everything for opening and closing the doors. No more manual closing of doors...

Once Touma was changed, we left the beautiful toilet to go play with the other kids... Until he remembered the cool bathroom and headed back in the direction of the cool button-ed and automatic door-ed bathroom. I chased after him just as he entered the toilet and pushed the close button... locking himself in the bathroom just in time to have a final, panicked look at mom as the door shut.

Poor baby! Starts to panic and there's nothing I can do since the emergency call button is inside the bathroom along with him. Luckily, some kind ladies used the emergency call button in the regular bathroom and got someone to come and open the door. He was super hysterical by the time the door was opened, but remarkably he was dry-eyed in seconds after I picked him up.

I'll have to stop teaching him to push buttons until he's a bit taller and can reach both the "close" and "open" buttons.

Toddlerhood

Yep, I think it's time to declare it... Touma is officially a toddler. How do I know that this milestone has been reached? I think it can be explained in one word. Tantrums. Yup, we are definitely there.

Our latest, and by far most melodramatic, tantrum occurred on Tuesday. It was a classic mealtime tantrum. We'd managed to begin dinner. However, in less than 10 minutes Touma was objecting to everything: the food, the high chair, different food, the water bottle, and the high chair belt. That last one was the real culprit, I suspect. He hates being strapped in.

When he started emptying the entirety of the tray's contents onto the floor, I got him out of the chair. Only for more crying and flailing... all the while, I am trying to keep my cool, while trying to avoid having noodles glued to my floor. Meaning, I was picking them up and putting them back into the bowl from which they had been dumped. Sigh.

As the drama continued, I decided that letting it run its course would be best. Cuddling was not working. Feeding him was not working. Nothing. Was. Working.

And then, as quickly as it began, the storm subsided. How? Touma found the yogurt that I had set down, but had not given him, when he started the whole drama in the first place. He found the spoon. He fed himself. And suddenly, all was right with the world. Say wha!?!

So, I fed him yogurt. And he ate, two bowls of plain yogurt. For the third bowl, I smooshed up some of the hamburger he'd refused to eat and mixed it with the yogurt... and down that went too!

I do have some post-tantrum pictures. Mostly, he if very intent on the yogurt...

Looking down at the spoon about to take another bite.

 The second picture needs a little explanation. After all that fuss, I noticed that Touma seemed to have a huge booger coming out his nose. Which was funny enough. Until I realized that it wasn't a booger, it was a bit of hamburger... most likely from before the tantrum even began! Baby noses are quite good hiding places for all sorts of things... including snacks being saved for later.

A somewhat blurry photo of the "booger"

Wedding 2

This year has been quite the year for weddings. It's not the year with the most weddings, but so far it's the year I've been able to attend the most (only 2, but still...). Being in Japan for most of the past 11 years has meant foregoing many special events, but this year the weddings were in my "neighborhood."

Our first wedding was in Seoul. The second was last weekend in Shizuoka.
My friend Mike, who I've known for 10 years (!!), got married. Originally I was going to go by myself. However, due to work, Shimon was away and Touma got to be my wedding date again. He was a trooper. We made it down and back with no major problems.

He also slept through a majority of the reception, which allowed me to have a bit more fun than if I'd been chasing him the whole time. Sadly, I didn't take many pictures, but have a friend who will send me some (he had a pretty big camera which beat my little point and shoot!).

When I get more pics, I will post them. For now I'll leave you with this one...

Family Outing

This past Sunday, I decided it was a good time to go on a bit of an outing. We hadn't done anything like that in awhile and since the weather was gorgeous, I suggested it. Japan is really amazing with all sorts of day trip guides and things, but we didn't actually own one. We remedied that and then decided on what route we would take.

Shimon chose one that would take us near Mt. Fuji and would be relatively easy to navigate. If we went in the opposite direction (toward Chiba prefecture), we would definitely get stuck in traffic, which was another factor in the choice.

The drive was gorgeous. We didn't hit much traffic and we made it to near Mt. Fuji in decent time. We were very lucky to be able to get a glimpse of the mountain as we drove in. Sadly, as we got closer to our actual destination the mountain disappeared.

We were headed to a lake called Yamanaka-ko (Yamanaka Lake). There are 5 (I think!) lakes that surround Mt. Fuji and this one just happened to be one of them. We drove part way around the lake until we found a parking lot. You can tell you have left the metropolitan area when all the parking is free!!

There are nice bike paths around the lake and a lot of little shops offering bike rental. Shimon went to check the place out. Turns out that there was a tandem bike with a small baby seat attached. There was no helmet, and normally I would be a stickler, but as we wouldn't be crossing any roads I decided we'd take it just the once. (We really need to get on the bike situation for me anyway....)

So we rented the tandem bike.

And we're ready to go!

I actually didn't ride up front. I let Shimon steer as I was a little nervous to do it. I have to say that riding in the back is weird because the handles are just for show. But your instinct (or at least mine) was to try and steer. It's a very weird feeling!

We road a ways to park area where we got off and walked around.

Run to dad....

Run to mom!

This was a fun game we played while Shimon took lots of pictures. Back and forth, back and forth. Eventually we had to stop and return to where we parked the bike because we only had it for an hour. Walking back Touma got a ride!

This was the first time Touma has really been stable enough to do this.

After returning the bike we ended up having some noodles for a late lunch. However, the most entertaining thing about lunch was Touma demonstrating his new "skill."

Whatcha diggin' for son?

Our Korean Adventure!

Following Golden Week, I had to work on Wednesday and Thursday and then Touma and I were off to Seoul, South Korea. It was a very spur of the moment trip (plans were made AFTER our tickets for the Golden Week holiday had been made!), but it was necessary.

My very dear friend, Ji Yon, was getting married on May 10th and I really wanted to be there. Having spent most of the last 10 years in Japan it means that I have missed many weddings of friends and family. This year seems to be a banner year for both of those things and I was going to try to be at a few if I could. So... Touma and I were off on an evening flight to Seoul.

We flew out on Korean Air from Haneda. I have to sing the praises of Korean Air. The flight attendants were wonderful about Touma - one even filled out the majority of our customs forms! And even though the flight was less than two hours, we got dinner! I would recommend them to anyone. :-)

First up, was the wedding. We arrived Thursday evening and the wedding was Friday evening. We spent the day with Ji Yon's good friend Sunny (she was the perfect tour guide!!) who showed us around a bit and made sure we got to the wedding venue in one piece. At a Korean wedding, friends of the bride go and see her and take pictures before the ceremony begins.

In the midst of taking photos!

Touma was a good date, but since he's only 1 we had to explore the venue thoroughly. It was on the Han River in Seoul, so we had to check that out too!

Checking things out!

My handsome date!(Look at the hydrangeas!! Gorgeous!)

After the wedding, we actually got a ride back with Ji Yon's older sister and brother-in-law, which meant that we didn't have to climb in the back of a taxi. The taxis (the actual cars) are nicer and newer than Japanese cars, but the actually driving had me a little nervous - red lights seem to be optional! Eek!

The next day we had a very low-key morning and then headed out to Yongsan station to meet Colleen. Her husband is stationed in Seoul with the military and she's been there a year. Our connection is funny... we've known each other most of our lives and to top it off she married, Pat, who was a neighbor of ours growing up! Ha! And we finally meet after many years in Seoul.

 Colleen got advice from some friends about where to take us and we ended up at the Korean National Museum. I was very impressed that the museum was free and had a children's museum. It was so great!

Exhibit of different types of bells. Touma thought he was spinning the wheel all by himself!

The kids museum was wonderful for Touma. He even made a little friend at one point. After all that running around, he crashed and we were able to get some coffee and chill for a bit.

That evening we met my friend, Sam. We had been in the same program in Hawaii. He was on his last semester when I entered the program. He actually took a teaching job at a university in Seoul and has been there ever since. We met him and found a nice Korean restaurant and made an evening of it. One thing about Korea that is a stark contrast from Japan is that even if there aren't baby seats or provisions for little ones the staff and restaurants are all welcoming of babies and kids. Even though there was no seat for Touma, no one seemed to be bent out of shape when he started making noise and not being able to sit still.

After dinner we walked around a bit, saw a few of the sights downtown before getting Colleen to her subway and bidding her farewell.

Two Alaskans in Seoul.

The last day we spent the day doing all the "Seoul" things we could. Eating lots and going to a new museum, the Museum of Modern Korean History. This one also had a kids section. Though it wasn't quite as interactive for Touma's age. We also saw some of the famous sites in Seoul.

Touma and Sam (kind of), this is the only pic with Sam in it. I'm so bad at taking pictures these days!

And we also saw the statue of the King (or Emperor, not sure the title!) who "invented" Hangul. I'm thinking that there were some other scholars involved, but he gets all the credit.

I really want to sing Korea's praises on being a kid friendly place. Even though they have a very low birthrate, much like Japan, the people everywhere were much friendlier. From college kids to grannies, everyone was wonderful. If anyone wants a quick getaway (quick from Japan anyway...), Korea totally has my endorsement!

The Golden Week

For the first time in all the years my husband and I have been together, Shimon took all of Golden Week off. Those of you who don't know a whole lot about Japan or Golden Week, allow me to explain. Japanese workers are allowed on average 20 paid holidays a year. Workers generally do two things a) never use the holidays or b) use them when they are sick (even though sick days are allotted as well). This year there were three work days in the middle between two long weekends. However, and this is the real breakthrough, Shimon took those three days off and had a full 10 day holiday!

To save money, Touma and I left earlier (saving about 30,000 yen+) and Shimon followed on the Saturday. We hung around my husband's hometown most of the time seeing some of his friends, going to an onsen in Kyushu overnight, and playing at playgrounds and other places with little guy.

As a picture's worth a thousand words... here are some of the highlights...

Mealtimes became the main attraction!

Trying to climb up is at least as fun as going down

Exploring the swings with Dad

This kid already loves the ocean!

Family portrait...

The kabuto (helmet) didn't last too long!

Changes...

This spring has been full of changes. On March 22, I was contacted by a teacher friend at my old school; the school I loved working at and that I only "quit" because I was having a baby. She wondered if I could come back and work two days a week.

I was conflicted. I had just agreed to be playgroup co-leader for a group that I really loved taking Touma to and that I really loved being a part of. Taking the job would mean that we would only be able to go when I wasn't working. The real turning point was when Shimon asked me to take the job.

Up until that point he had been trying very hard to work and make enough for all of us. I could tell it was beginning to strain him and the 35,000 yen a month from my one university teaching post wasn't quite cutting it. So, he called the day after the job was offered and asked me to take it. I couldn't very well say no.

Start date for school was April 10th. I got babysitting lined up for Touma and proceeded to prepare for part-time work. Nothing really prepares you for the first day of dropping off your baby to go to work. Though I was sad to leave him, I was also glad to be back in "the world" again. Glad to be interacting with students and teachers. It felt really good.

We're still adjusting, but I think going back to work was a wise decision at this point. I'm hoping it proves to be so moving forward.

Pre-Birthday fun

On January 31, 2012 there were three little boys born at Sun Maternity Clinic. Every couple of months us mums try to get all the boys together. And since January was birthday month we decided to do a mini pre-birthday lunch and play date.

We went to Bubby's for lunch, which is a very family and kid friendly restaurant in Yokohama. (Sorry, we were all busy feeding the boys and didn't get any pictures!) Usually we try to let the boys play a bit and often we go to a free play area, but since it was their birthday we went to the Bornelund play area (you have to pay!). That's where we got some pictures.

At Bornelund there's an area that is for babies (0-18 months) and then the rest of the kids. We stayed in the baby area.

The ball pit!

 The ball pit was a HUGE hit with Touma. The balls were a bit bigger than the average ball pit, which was perfect for our little guys.

Close up of the handsome boy. :-)

Touma and Taichi. Boy was it hard to get more than one kid in a picture at a time.

The novelty of the ball pit did not end with the balls themselves. It was the fact that you could climb out of it on your own that also appealed to the boys. Whereas Taichi usually tried to turn around and safely get out... Touma generally tried to go head first. Always the danger boy!!

Touma 2 joins in the fun! And the difficulty of wrangling 3 boys begins.

Two of the little boys are called Touma in this group. Touma Yamamori (our Touma) is actually the oldest of the three. Then comes Touma Mori (Touma 2 for the purpose of this post), who was born a few hours later. And last comes Taichi still a few hours after Touma 2. Taichi is in the grey shirt and Touma 2 is in the black shirt. On our walk over to the play center, Touma 2 fell asleep, which is why he's not in the previous pictures.

The bead coaster!

I have no idea what these things are called, but in Japan they are called bead coasters. I think it's a pretty fitting name really. Touma likes them a lot. The best thing about them is that the beads spin... and he will sit and spin the beads for quite awhile before he gets bored and moves on to something else.

Double Toumas!!

 Near the end it was just a heap of kids grabbing each other (and the toys).

Another attempt at all three boys... this time it was fairly successful.

 The toy Touma is holding was the biggest hit. ALL of the boys wanted it and were grabbing it from each other. It just happens that in this picture our Touma has it!

Three boys and two mommies!

There wasn't anyone around to take a picture, so Sachi took a picture of all the boys and Chi-chan and me. Touma is barely peeking over his stroller muff, but you can kind of see him. It was a great day and all the boys were very tired (as were the moms!) after this day. Happy Birthday, boys!

Touma Turns 1

How did we even get here? How can one year be over so quickly? The tiny baby that I brought home last year, is now walking around and no longer a baby but is a toddler! Eek!

Shimon took Thursday off and we went to the Nogeyama Zoo (it's free!) and went to the petting zoo in particular. Touma was not terribly interested in the individual animals and the whole petting experience, but was definitely more into everything than the last time we went to the zoo. Now that walking is easier he's trying to test boundaries and try to climb things.

Ready for birthday breakfast!

Round one of present opening!

The paper is totally the best part!

Baby chicks!

Mom, I'm so not into the guinea pig. Climbing is more fun!

In the afternoon, Touma got a nap. We picked up an easy dinner and shared with Touma. Haha. The dinner wasn't terribly exciting, but then it was cake time. I actually made and decorated the cake. It was a lightly sweetened pumpkin-apple cake with a cream cheese/whip cream frosting.

I ran out of room for "birthday!" Oops!

Time to blow... He wasn't super sure what to do.

Messy eating is a sure-fire sign of enjoyment!

We had a great birthday day. I'm so glad that Shimon took the day off. It meant a lot to me and to Touma too. Happy Birthday, baby boy! Here's to many, many more!

Snow!!

Monday was a holiday. So, in theory Shimon should have been off of work. Unfortunately for us, he had a big pile-up of work to do and was leaving on a business trip on Tuesday. Thus, no holiday for him. :-( It was actually ok, since it snowed - a LOT!! Things would have been even more messy if it had been a regular work day (as it was Tuesday was a bit of a mess with transportation anyway!).

This is what the snow started out like... yay, it's actually sticking!!

Overlooking the neighbors garden

 Within a few hours, it was looking like this.

The roof across from our living room!

The one thing that you cannot see is the horrible wind that went along with this snow. Due to the wind and the fact that Shimon wasn't home, we waited until Tuesday to go explore the snow. Which was both a good and bad decision. Good, because it was finished snowing and there was no wind. Bad, because the snow was all crusty and no fun to play with. :-( Though... we did explore it a little.

Curious about this white frozen stuff

Just a cute picture!

Trying to walk in his new shoes...

Mom and Touma

 I'm still hoping we get some more snow this year. Next time it snows I'm definitely going to try to get out in it sooner. Also, I'll layer up Touma's legs so he can crawl around in it! Either way, here's to hoping we at least get one or two more snow days this year!!

Holiday Roundup!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Since I haven't posted in awhile, I thought I would start with that greeting first. Geesh! The holidays flew by this year. There are two things I'd like to see invented: 1) Star Trek-style "beam me up, Scotty" teleportation technology and 2) a way to make time slow down just a little bit! It hardly seems possible that we're halfway through the month of January.

Our Christmas was busy, but really nice. We went to a few Christmas parties, had Christmas Eve lunch with friends, and had a relatively relaxed evening of church and dinner afterward. This year Christmas Eve was a day off for Shimon, so we didn't have to worry about how to work around his work schedule. Next year will be different I'm sure!

So, here are some highlights from the festivities!

On December 22nd, we went to my friend Lauren's place for a Christmas party. There was lots of nice food and drink and the little ones exchanged presents! (Exchanged, in that they both opened and ostensibly the present was given by the other!)

Eating yummy butter roll!

Touma ripping into the box, while Gwen looks on...

Gwen enjoying her ladybug backpack (with baby leash function)!

We did most of our Christmas celebrating on Christmas Eve this year. First we went to my friend Robin's place for a potluck lunch. The kids played a lot and parents got to relax a bit (especially the moms!). Shimon got to see what Touma may be like in the future as Robin's little boy, Oscar, is nearly 4! And what a lot of energy he has!!

Almost everyone made it in the picture... minus Shimon!

Touma enjoying a big boy toy - Spiderman!!

But he's not so big that he doesn't enjoy the bouncer still. :-)

That evening, after church, we came home and opened presents. Since Touma is still young, we kind of just flew by the seat of our pants on this one. Next year, we'll really have to figure things out and make it all a bigger deal!

Opening his first ever Christmas present, with mom's help.

Yum! Shoes!!

Box 2 - Touma did the thing he's best at and tried to rip the paper with his teeth. 

He really liked this shaker from Daddy.

New Years was pretty quiet this year. Since Touma is still small we didn't stay up really late. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, we went to our favorite park (Negishi Forrest Park) and tried out Touma's new shoes and just enjoyed the afternoon. We headed there quite late and stayed until the sun was setting. Brrr... it was cold once the sun went down!

New shoes!

Touma was highly distracted by his new shoes and tried to eat them a few times...

Changing into easier shoes...

We actually got a lot of pictures, but most of them were not of Touma walking. Since the ground at the park was a little bit bumpy he got tired of walking pretty quickly and reverted to crawling.

Nice pic, Papa!

As the sun was setting, we got a family portrait in.

Happy 2013!