bullet points now and then

I found this post from October 2009 that I had saved as a draft for some reason. It's so funny to look back and remember what we were going through and how far we've come.

• Misaki slipped (on nothing) at school and fell backwards, smacked her head (on nothing) and got a small cut on her head. The school nurse called to inform me that they were taking her to the hospital to have the doctor check it and then called me a few hours later to say that they had put one staple (!) in her head. Fortunately there were no other problems (dizziness, etc.) and a week later we had the staple pulled out and everything's OK. Now the paperwork begins. Our health insurance covers 70% and the school will cover the other 30% but I have to get the hospital to fill out one form (which will take two weeks), then we have to fill out another one to accompany it, turn it in and then wait 3 months to get reimbursed. All this for about 20 bucks. But she was cute with the bandage around her head.

Update from 2010! I never did the paperwork. It was too complicated (typical) for too little return.

• Emi and Misaki had their sports day last Sunday. The weather was perfect and we had great seats with friends. The girls were awesome in their events and performances. Usually I don't praise one child over another but Emi did so amazing in her 80m race that I actually think it would be unfair not to mention it. There are about 90 kids in the 3rd grade at her school and the teachers painstakingly decide which six kids will run against each other so that each race is still competitive. Emi ran against five other girls and boys and halfway through the race she was already pulling ahead and before the finish line there was no one even close to her! She was so proud of herself and so were we. Another interesting thing about this year was how easy it was to get everything ready. Usually I'm running around trying to find mats, making our lunch, getting the kids ready and stuff like that but this year we were out the door on time, we found a great place to put our mat down for lunch and it was really relaxing. I feel like I conquered another hurdle of life in Japan.

• I am so worried about Sakura's sports day. As of today it looks like the weather might cooperate but if it doesn't Chikara and I are going to miss her first sports day and that seriously sucks. Due to poor planning on my part and the stupid Silver Week vacation pushing back the date for her sports day I will be in Portland for the "rescheduled sports day" and Chikara will have to work. I've asked our closest friends to go in our place and they're really excited about it but I'm just sick over the fact that this has ended up happening to Sakura. So I've got my fingers crossed that everything works out fine, the typhoon passes quickly and there is good weather for Friday so I can go and be the good mother that I want to be. Grrr.

Update from 2010! The weather turned out fabulous and I was able to go and cheer Sakura on and then hop on the plane the next day for a shopping trip with my mom and sister!

• Chikara needs to change his diet. He's got this and although at this point it's reversible it means he's got to give up most of his favorite foods and make a permanent change to his lifestyle. He's really upbeat about it and honestly the timing couldn't be better but it's just one more thing on top of everything else. Recently I've started to enjoy cooking or maybe it's that I finally have time to think about cooking but it was fun to look around the internet for new recipes and browse the supermarket for new options. My plan is to slowly work new meals in to what I make now and phase out the meals that have a high carbohydrate content (bye-bye yakisoba). I guess we'll all be getting healthier together.

Update from 2010! Chikara is amazing. He has lost 12kg over the last year mostly by being more careful about what he's eating. At his last yearly health check all of his levels were back to normal!

• Natsuki's potty training is not going well which is mostly because of my busy schedule. I can remember when my youngest brother (also the fourth child) was being potty trained that while mom had him sitting on the toilet we would walk back and forth in the doorway making crazy faces to entertain him while mom waited for him to pee. I guess it took all of us to keep him on track and it seems like it's going to be like that for Natsuki, too. After I get back from my trip then Natsuki will be my only priority until we're done with diapers.

Update from 2010! Natsuki is potty-trained and I am enjoying a diaper-free life!

• Then there's just regular busyness like Chikara being at work more, me and my English classes and parenting groups. Even without trying our days just fill up. Last weekend we had a good-bye dinner for friends that are moving back to the States, a trip to the hospital to take Misaki's staple out of her head, met a friend at the mall to catch up, Emi and Misaki's sports day and a party to welcome a friend to Osaka. Phew!

Update from 2010! Still busy... I guess some things never change!

what a cute daddy

I was going through the pictures on our computer today and found a collection that I had put together for Chikara to celebrate Father's Day a few years ago.

A few are so cute that I have to share.



Asleep with Emi (1 month old)




Asleep with Misaki (2 months old)




Asleep with Natsuki (3 months old)




No pictures asleep with Sakura but this is cute!




An extra bonus pic asleep with Misaki (2 years old)



Chikara has definitely always been available to assist with naptimes!

curry

Yesterday I made curry for dinner. I don't make curry very often because twice a month at church the kitchen ladies make it for lunch and because of that the girls aren't excited when I make it at home. But occasionally I run out of other options so I make it anyways and just ignore the whining. Case in point:

I serve curry and everyone sits down

Emi: What? Curry? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Emi takes one bite

Emi: Humph. I like the curry at church better.

Me: Do you think Daddy likes my curry or the curry at church better?

Emi & Misaki together: Yours.

Misaki: Yes, that's because he doesn't want to break your heart.


Misaki is so adorable.

more on socializing and other tidbits

Thanks for all your comments on my last post and I wanted to add a little bit more about our neighborhood. Kids always show up at our door asking to play with Emi and Misaki. For the most part they appear at times when the girls are allowed to play outside. If my girls haven't finished their homework or we have something we have to do then I just say no and usually kids just come back at another time. As Emi and Misaki have been able to understand how to be safe outside I've let them go farther and farther on their own so now they show up at other people's houses and ask to play, too. Recently they've also asked for the phone numbers of their friends so they can call and make sure it's OK to come over. I like this arrangement and up until now it's worked really well.

But I've never had a child show up, even after I just said no, and insist on being played with. Under normal circumstances I would've said no but she is shy and lonely (her mother works until late so she's with her grandmother most of the time) and I just didn't feel right about sending her away. Since the weekend we haven't gotten anymore calls and Emi says she's been playing with her at school. I wonder how this weekend will go.

My friend Henri wrote a really great response about what our responsibility is as Christians versus our responsibility as parents. This was the first time I found it hard to strike the right balance with Emi. How far is OK to go for this girl? Maybe it won't come up again but Emi and I need to come to an agreement about what is OK and if she's feeling overwhelmed then I need to be able to help her, too. We'll see...



In other Emi news, she really likes Star Wars. We've shown her Episodes I and IV and she thought they were so cool (Misaki was totally freaked out). She wants to watch the other episodes but Chikara and I don't think she's ready. She brings it up all the time and yesterday we had this conversation.

Emi: I want to watch Star Wars.

Me: No. We've talked about this. You need to wait until you're a "certain age".

Emi: THIRTY-EIGHT!

Silliness abounds.



Also today is Day Two of The Last Potty Training I'll Ever Need To Do! I did a trial run in July to see how much Natsuki understood about using the toilet and the anwer was: not much. She would sit and that was it. Then during summer vacation, when I wasn't potty training her, she pee'd on the toilet 3 times. It was always during bathtime and she would say, "I need to go potty" and then I would take her and she would actually go. The first time I thought it was a fluke but after the third time I realized that she knew she wasn't supposed to randomly pee without a diaper or a toilet.

I've been thinking about what the next step would be and I thought that if she knows that it's not OK to just pee anywhere that maybe if I put her in panties when she's awake she'd be just as careful as when she's in the bathtub. So I did it yesterday from about 10am and she pee'd twice in the potty and there were no accidents! She got a sticker to put on her chart each time and she was so excited. I put her diaper back on during her nap but when she woke up it was dry. I feel like this is a huge step forward from July so we'll continue this way each day and see if Natsuki continues to improve. Right now I ask her to go every 30 minutes so if we got to a place where she tells me she needs to go I would consider that progress. Wish me luck!

socializing

I find that between Emi and Misaki, Misaki is definitely more social. She exchanges phone numbers and she makes plans to meet friends after school way more than Emi does. Emi does occasionally but I find that kids just show up at our house and ask Emi to play rather than make plans ahead of time. It's not a big deal. They have both made and kept friends in their own way.

But on Thursday, Emi came home after school with a girl from her class and asked if they could do homework together. Sure. When the girl came in the house I said hello and Emi said (in English), "Mom, she doesn't talk". I remember that Emi had said that was a girl that was really shy and didn't speak much so obviously this was her. Usually we try to avoid speaking English in front of other people but this was the perfect moment for Emi to do this. So they came in, did their homework and then the girl, Misa-chan, went home. I praised Emi for reaching out to this girl and asked a little more about how she's doing in school, etc.

We had to go to the doctor after school yesterday (Emi's having a wart burned off - gross!) and after we got back Misa-chan called to ask if she could play with Emi today. Unfortunately Emi was going to have to do her homework in the morning, lunch, and then our normal Saturday afternoon quiet time so she wouldn't be able to play until 4pm. Emi explained all this and they made a plan to get together at 4pm. Then Misa-chan called back a half hour later to ask if they could get together after Emi did her homework. Emi gently explained that it was not possible. She was really nice about it.

Since then Misa-chan called one more time last night and three times this morning. Seriously, for someone who doesn't like to talk, she did an awful lot of calling. She didn't really pester Emi but Emi said that it's hard to communicate with her. I ended up talking with Misa-chan the last time to let her know that we were having lunch now and Emi would not be able to play until 4pm. She said OK so I thought that was the end of it when the doorbell rang. What?!? She showed up with her bento to eat lunch with Emi. We were all in our pajamas and I wasn't even wearing a bra. Fortunately I had just vacuumed the kitchen/living room so I let her up (I did put on a bra but we stayed in our pajamas) and we had lunch together with her. The other thing is that the girls had been begging me to get out some videos I had stored that they used to watch when they were little. I had promised that if they helped me clean up I would dig them out and they could watch one while they ate lunch. Unfortunately they're only in English. I debated putting on something in Japanese to be nice to the girl but she just showed up uninvited and the girls had earned this reward so I was kind of stuck. The girls ate lunch in silence watching the video in English.

Finally around 1:30 I asked her to go home because we had something (read nap) to do. We're usually out all day on Sunday so I make sure the girls take a rest on Saturday afternoons. She went home and then it started to pour rain so Emi couldn't meet her at 4pm anyways.

We moved around a lot when I was young and I never had really close girlfriends in elementary school so I don't remember but is this how girls interact with each other? The phone calls got ridiculous (in my opinion) after awhile. Emi was very clear the first time that she couldn't play until 4pm but the girl just kept calling. She's not handicapped, she's just shy (and maybe lonely)so I don't think that misunderstanding was the problem. After everything was said and done, Emi was pretty annoyed. We just don't behave like that in our family. If a friend sets a time to meet then we wait until that time, plain and simple.

We'll see how things go. We are trying to teach our girls to be understanding of other people and to be friendly especially to those without friends but we try to balance that by setting boundaries when things get to be to much. Emi had a friend in first grade who came over all the time but she was really bossy and pushy and eventually Emi had to give her up as a friend because it was exhausting to play with her. We got lucky because that girl moved but I know that's not going to happen everytime.

I get more and more nervous as the girls get older. What are their relationships going to be like in junior high and high school? I'm really praying that they find good friends they can keep healthy friendships with. I see the stuff we're dealing with now as preparation, for me as well as them!!

pics from July 2009

Emi and Natsuki smiling at our favorite sushi restaurant.



Daddy and Misaki like sushi!




Natsuki *begged* me to do her hair like this!




After Sakura's haircut. She looks like a model!




How can Natsuki possibly be sleeping in this position?




On July 25th was our neighborhood's festival so we got all dressed up (except for Emi who grew out of her yukata) and off we went.

Emi (It was a fight just to let me braid her hair!)


Misaki




Sakura



Natsuki



Eating Shaved Ice


The park where we have our neighborhood festival.





Only August left and I'm caught up. Yeah!

pics from June 2009

I'm trying to catch up with blogging a bit so here are a few highlights from June. My mom came to visit us and we had Sakura's 5th birthday!

Natsuki doing her buttons!



The girls being silly at Sakura's b-day party. Notice the torn up shoji on the window behind them. Throughout the summer the shoji went from bad to worse.



Making Father's Day cards!



The dress mom made for Sakura. It's a little big so it'll fit her next year, too.



The quilt my mom made for Natsuki. It's Noah's Ark.



next up July...

Star Trek

Chikara and I have been wanting to go and watch Star Trek ever since we heard about it. I watched Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG when I was younger. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, but I enjoyed the shows and know most of the character's names. Chikara has also watched enough to be interested in seeing the movie.

Problem: I have never been able to get a babysitter. You know, a teenager who will come and watch your kids so you can go out with your husband and then you pay them. I've never seen it done here in Japan. Usually what we do is trade babysitting with our friends but they're all going through various difficult things right now so we didn't want to ask them. Our only option left was to ask Chikara's parents. This isn't necessarily a horrible option but they are busy on Sundays and Chikara's mom can get tired easily because of her kidney problems so this is usually a last option. But Chikara called his mom and she could come so we were really excited.

We bought our tickets online and I put the kids to bed while Chikara picked up his mom. I showed his mom where all the good snacks are and off we went.

The movie was awesome. We talked about it all the way home.

When we arrived home, I went into the living room and no one was there. We had seen Dad's car down the street so we knew both of them were at our house. I called out hello and mom came tiptoeing down the stairs. I turns out that Natsuki had called for me about 10 minutes after we left for the movie and when my MIL went in to see what she wanted, Natsuki freaked out. They tried everything to calm her down. They let her watch videos, gave her popsicles and juice, moved Misaki into another bed so Natsuki could be with Emi (her "other" mommy) but nothing had worked until about 10 minutes before we got home and she finally went to sleep. It was 11:30 at night and Emi was still awake, sitting beside Natsuki who was a knot of sweat and blankets.

I sighed and then moved everybody back to their own beds and laid beside Natsuki until she was asleep. It took only 10 minutes to put everything back the way it should be.

After the high of watching the best movie we've seen in awhile, coming home to the chaos brought us back to reality real fast. I can't decide if we should feel bad for my MIL or not. We rarely ask her to do this for us and she is their grandmother but basically she spent two and a half hours trying to figure out what to do for a crying and screaming Natsuki.

Next time we'll just ask our friends to watch the girls.

recent pics

April 2009




Emi's 8th Birthday




Misaki's 7th Birthday




Sakura's Preschool Entrance Ceremony




Natsuki being cute at home!

Emi

A conversation with Emi:


Emi: Can I help you with dinner?

Me: Not right now, I'm trying to get this done quickly.

Emi: Please, can I help you?

Me: Thanks for offering but not today, OK?

Emi: Please?

Me: No.

Emi: (exasperated) But, Mommy, I was *born* to help!!!


later that evening...


Me: Emi, can you get a diaper for me from the closet.

Emi: No.

Me: I thought you were "born to help"?

Emi: ... I'll get it.

2009

Happy New Year!

I feel like 2009 is just finally beginning even though January is almost gone. We've been either busy or sick, but mostly sick. Emi and Misaki's classes were cancelled for two days (gakyuhesai) because too many kids in their classes stayed home sick (15 out of 30 in Emi's class and 11 out of 30 in Misaki's class). Fortunately it was not the dreaded influenza. So they were home for two days which meant that Sakura and Natsuki caught the cold. Natsuki's fever spike and she had a febrile seizure. She was having a hard time breathing near the end so we called the ambulance and they took us to the hospital. I knew as soon as we boarded the ambulance and Natsuki took one look around and started screaming that she was fine but I wanted to have her checked by a doctor anyways. The doctor that we saw was very concerned that she might have influenza and not concerned enough (for me) about her seizure. Turned out that she just had a regular cold (which I knew) so he gave us some medicine (two different types of suppositories!) and sent us home. The next day Natsuki got a little dizzy sometimes and while trying to walk straight would drift off to the side or actually fall down. I finally had to make her sit down so she wouldn't hurt herself. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we are all healthy again.

But I did not intend to start blogging in 2009 by complaining. I am very excited about this year and all it holds for us. As the year progresses I will share more about our plans (if I can ever get around to starting any of them!). In the meantime I will show you the girl's Christmas pictures.

Even though it's belated, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I look forward to reading (or hearing for the blog-less) about all the wonderful things that will happen this year.

I have some catching up to do...

Back in September (hangs head in shame) I attended the swimming open house at Emi and Misaki's school. They are both swiming so well, actually that was one of the things that really surprised me during our summer vacation. Misaki spent more time under the water than on top of it!

All the first graders performed a song in the water. Misaki's in the middle there somewhere.

In between I went to the gym and checked out all the things that kids had made during their summer vacation. I had forgotten to take a pictures of Emi & Misaki's crafts so I was glad I had my camera with me.

Emi made this marble maze from a kit. It was a little complicated and about halfway through she had wanted to give up but she persevered and it turned out to be a really fun toy.


Misaki made this stage with paper dolls in it. We cut out clothes from leftover material I had lying around and glued them onthe paper dolls. We also glued the curtains and stage lights on, too. It was a lot of fun.


Then it was Emi's turn.




In these next pictures she was trying to pass to the next level. She had to swim 7m without stopping.




She made it to the 5m mark. She was supposed to swim all the way to the teacher. She was disappointed but I think she passed four levels this year so she was proud of that.


I'm so proud of my girlies!

preschool Emi

This is 5-year-old Emi on her first day of swim class at her preschool. She's the one on the far left squinting up at the sky. I didn't actually take this picture, the school always hires a professional photographer for school events so I purchase this one from them.

Chikara and I love this picture of her. She's so little and proper (both hands clasped in front of her) but she's also curious about everything around her. I have to say that except for her size, not much has changed!

father/daughter flashback

Flashback Friday 2:

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Chikara being a daddy. At the time, Chikara was working at his old job and he was so busy that he didn't get to spend a lot of time with the kids, but on this one occasion, he took Emi with him on the train to a practice and she was so excited. You can see that she's got her bag, her favorite shoes and the hugest smile. She's only 3 but she knows that this is a special moment.



I hope that she always remembers that spending time with Daddy is special.

Flashback Friday!

Welcome to the new corner of my blog: Flashback Friday!


This picture was taken right before we moved to Japan in August 2001, which means we've been in Japan for seven whole years now! Isn't Emi just adorable in this picture with her chubby cheeks and big eyes? I know I look a little tired but I had just found I was pregnant! Surprise!

Anyways, seven years later, I can honestly say we made the right decision. Here's to seven more years!

Thank the Lord for elementary school

The font needs to be bigger than this so you know how I really feel but...


Woo-hoo!!!


Emi and Misaki went back to school this morning and although today they only have classes until 10:30, it is still a wonderful feeling! Due to rainy weather, colds, ear infections and a general lack of space, the last few weeks and especially last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were almost torture, for all of us, not just me. Right now, Sakura and Natsuki are playing so quietly together that this morning feels positively heavenly.

Hooray for Back-To-School!

one year ago and now

Emi today

Emi one year ago

Misaki today

Misaki one year ago

Sakura today

Sakura one year ago

Natsuki today

Natsuki one year ago