I don't even know where to start...

So many things have happened this week and I hardly know where to start with the telling of the craziness. I wrote that Misaki was sick last week but at the time it didn't seem like that big of a deal. She threw up a half a dozen times in the space of four hours and then she was fine and even went to school the next day. Plus she's old enough to take herself off to the sink to throw up instead of throwing up all over the floor (except for the first time because it caught her off guard since she hasn't thrown up for at least two years). You may be wondering why she's throwing up in the sink and that's because my girls are afraid of throwing up into the toilet. Or maybe the very idea just grosses them out. Whatever. I washed my sink with strong disinfectant and very hot water and we were good to go.

On Sunday, we went shopping with my in-laws for a printer. My MIL just bought her very first computer last week. It's a laptop and she really has no idea what to do with it. I could write more about this but it would just be mean. OK, one story. After we had finished shopping, my MIL said that there were some messages on the computer that she didn't understand. We went down to the parking lot and Chikara took a look at it in the car. He explained a couple of things and then said that everything was OK. My MIL said "arigato" and pressed the power button to turn the computer off. My husband took a short, sudden breath in followed by a moment of silent shock and then patiently showed his mom the Shutdown Menu one more time. We feel a little bit bad for her computer.

Anyways, they didn't find a printer, but as we were helping them out we found a TV. Woo-hoo! It's not a fancy TV, but it fits our needs. Lately, our TV screen has been going to black. This drives the girls nuts. They'll be watching TV as they eat their breakfast and then suddenly all hell breaks loose and they're screaming and jumping up and down. This has been going on for awhile but if you turn off the TV and then turn it on again then everything is fine. Around February we decided that we needed to get a new one so we began the search. We really wanted to get a flat screen TV but we could not believe the prices. We really like TV but not that much. Even though we have the money we could not justify such an expenditure. So we started searching for a regular TV but so far we hadn't had any luck. As we were weaving through the aisles, trying to make our way out of the store, we suddenly spotted a regular TV in a really odd location so we moved closer to check out the price and it was perfect. When Chikara paid for it, they said it would be delivered on Friday.

Monday passed by quickly and on Tuesday, while I was gone to teach my English class, Emi got sick. She threw up a couple of times and by the time I got back home, she had a fever and her face was pretty white but her tummy was feeling better. I decided that she should stay home from school the next day. On Wednesday, we called a tatami repair store near us and asked them to come in and re-cover our tatami. We made an appointment with them for Thursday morning. I was so excited. When you move into a new house in Japan, you're supposed to get new tatami, but when we moved three years ago, we couldn't afford it and I was going to have a baby soon so we didn't give it much thought. During Spring Break, a hole was torn in one of the tatami so I decided it was time we did something about it. I couldn't put Natsuki down on the floor because of all of the debris. Sakura thought it was fun to pull more tatami out of the hole to "clean" it.

The tatami guys came Thursday morning and took away all the tatami (six of them). I cleaned the floor while they were gone and around 6 hours later they were back and put our living room back in order. Just before they came, Sakura woke up suddenly from her nap screaming and saying that her tummy hurt. As soon as the tatami guys left, Sakura and I went to pick up Misaki from the bus stop. As we arrived back home, Emi came walking down the street back from school. We all marched upstairs and Sakura promptly threw up on the couch. I don't think Sakura's ever had stomach flu before and throughout the next few hours, it was such a task to get her to throw up into any sort of container or to get her to open up her mouth and spit it all out or to stay on the waterproof mat. During that time, Natsuki woke up and I fed her and then tried to keep her entertained but at a safe distance from Sakura. Emi & Misaki went out with Chikara's parents so at least they were out of my hair. Chikara came home around 7 and by that time Sakura was done with the throwing up and Natsuki was in bed for a little nap. By 8, Sakura was in bed and I attended to Natsuki and put her down for the night. Emi & Misaki came home around 9 and they promptly went to bed too. Even though it was a long day, at least the puking was over although I was really praying that Natsuki wouldn't get it.

By Thursday evening, I was pretty tired but also happy that we had accomplished so much in one week. We found a TV, had the tatami replaced, I bought a mat/rug thing to put down in the living room for Sakura to play on and finished all of the laundry that's been piling up. Also we dealt with three sick girls and I was relieved that they were all better.

Friday morning, our TV came and we are all thrilled. The day went pretty smoothly and when Chikara came home we decided to go to Costco. It's about a 45 minute drive so I brought some snacks for the girls to eat in the car. There wasn't too much traffic so we weren't delayed at all. Natsuki had pooped while we were driving so as soon as we arrived I took her to the bathroom and changed her diaper. It was dinner time so we decided to eat first and then shop. Chikara found a seat and as I turned to go buy the dinner, Sakura said that her tummy hurt. I thought that she was just saying that because of all the special attention she had received while she was sick so I picked her up to take her with me. We hadn't gotten more than 20 steps away when I felt her body roll in my arms. I held her a little bit away from me to ask if she was okay and before I finished my sentence she threw up all over me. On my face, my shirt, my shoes and all over the floor right in the middle of Costco. People came running from all over to help us. As I started wiping I realized that Sakura didn't get any throw-up on herself, only on me and the floor. How did she do that? I went to the bathroom and washed off my sandals and then grabbed my wallet and went through Costco and bought a new shirt. As I was walking around, I got the weirdest looks from people. I felt like stopping to tell everyone what had happened but I just kept moving until my shirt was changed. I actually threw my dirty shirt in the garbage. I just couldn't deal with it.

At this point, I couldn't decide what we should do. On the one hand, I just wanted to go home but we had come so far and we don't get a lot of chances to go to Costco. Also, by this time it was way past dinnertime and the girls really needed to eat. Grrr! We decided to risk it and stay at Costco. Chikara found a small box for Sakura just in case she needed to throw up again. I ordered pizza, clam chowder, chicken caesar salad and pop for all of us. We divided it all up and ate as quickly as we could. Once the food was spread out, Sakura asked for some pizza but I absolutely did not want a repeat of what had just happened so she just had something to drink.

With dinner out of the way, it was time to shop. We went out the exit to re-enter the store and the gate was closed. Seriously, at this point, I just wanted to cry. Fortunately all of the staff had seen the puking incident so no one stopped us when we went back through the exit to shop again. I only had a few minutes so Chikara watched the girls while I ran through and got the stuff I needed. I was so glad when everything was finished and we were able to go home. I let Sakura sit in the front with me in the car on the way home, just in case, and she seemed fine. Really fine. Totally and completely fine. Little monkey!

This is one of the downsides to having four kids. They pass the same sickness around so I have to go through the same procedure many times. Fortunately Natsuki still sleeps in a different room so she seems to be spared from the germs of her older sisters but eventually this will change. So not looking forward to that.

the house-cleaning maniac and the silent puker

As you can see by today's title, the last few days have been very interesting.

On Tuesday afternoon, while I was at my English class, my husband cleaned the house. He tidied up the living room, vacuumed, washed the dishes, made dinner, washed a load of laundry and hung it out to dry, gave the girls a bath and did another load of laundry. Yes, he is the house-cleaning maniac, not me. Since Spring Break, my focus has been entirely on Emi and elementary school, Misaki and preschool, Natsuki and her schedule, Sakura and potty-training (more to come on this) and me and my English class. Everyone in the right place, at the right time with the right stuff has been my goal and, with the exception of a few small hiccups, everything has been going very well. To accomplish this goal, I have been doing the minimum amount of work in the house. I'll do laundry only if someone needs something the next day or I'll vacuum if someone is coming over, etc. My husband has been pretty patient during this time but I think on Tuesday he finally snapped and the urge to clean overwhelmed him! The result is a fabulously tidy house which I have been trying to maintain to show how much I appreciate all the hard work but honestly, I don't care. I'm trying to make it through until June when our life will even out (hopefully) and go back to normal.

June. It's getting closer and then I will have no more excuses left. In preparation, I have been making all sorts of goals to help me keep focused.

Personal Goals:
Find some sort of exercise I can do 3 times a week for 30 minutes with Sakura & Natsuki.
Drink 8 glasses of water a day.

Family Goals:
Potty-train Sakura.
Help Natsuki with her crawling.

House Goals:
Fix the tatami in our living room.
Make a safe play area for Natsuki on the floor.
Buy a bed for Chikara and I.

There. I wrote the goals out for the whole world (the Internet world) to see so now I have to do them. There are other things I want to accomplish this year but I decided to break it down into smaller bites so I can remember them. My memory is not what it once was.

On Wednesday, I made spaghetti for dinner, which the girls love, but when I called them for dinner, Misaki said her stomach hurt. When Misaki says this, it could mean anything, so I ran down the list of probably causes. Do you need to go potty? Are you hungry? Do you need to spit-out (throw-up)? She said no to all of them so I told her to try a few bites and see how she felt. An hour later, she was still sitting in front of her bowl and it was still full. That's really unusual for Misaki so I told her she didn't have to eat her food. We were sitting on the floor in front of the couch, I was playing with Natsuki and my back was turned to Misaki. I mean, she was literally right behind me. I heard her say "Mom" in kind of a weak voice and I turned around and there was puke all over the floor. I hadn't heard a thing. Usually there's some sort of retching sound but Misaki, always one to be dainty, puked silently.

As I was cleaning it up, Emi said, "Just looking at Misaki throw up makes me want to throw up, too". I gave her my best Don't-Even-Think-About-It look. Misaki threw up about 10 times during the next four hours. She didn't have a fever and she was pretty upbeat so she must've eaten something that didn't agree with her. Finally around 11pm, she fell asleep on the couch. I moved her to our room so I could be near her if she needed to throw up in the middle of the night. This morning she really wanted to go to school because they were having an open house so I let her go. When I saw her around 10am, she was jumping around so I guess she's doing OK.

Next week, Misaki has a field trip so I have to start thinking about what kind of bento I'm going to make for her. She's not a picky eater so anything will be fine but I want to try to make one that she can be proud of. See here and here if you want to see what I'm talking about.

golden week part four: Osaka

I wasn't going to bother posting about this but I have the greatest pictures of Chikara with the girls so here goes...


We got back home late on Thursday (May 3rd) and everyone slept until around 8. We did absolutely nothing on Friday. I bought some milk and orange juice but we just laid around the house. All the girls had naps and so did mommy and daddy. We went out for dinner and rented some videos and then the girls were back in bed by 8.


It was good that we had a lazy day because Saturday we had planned to spend with Chikara's parents. My FIL is a busy guy. He works 5 days a week for a company that installs those Eco-Cute systems and then the other 2 days a week he is a pastor of a small church, but he does get these kind of national holidays off so we wanted to make sure and spend some time with them. We had originally planned to go with them to surprise my MIL's parents (that's a whole other post) but we decided against it at the last minute. My in-laws wanted to go to Kyoto but I had visions of being stuck in traffic and the girls were already sick of being in the car so I recommended we go to Rokko Island in Kobe.


I love Rokko Island. It's a man-made island where many foreigners live. Food Buyer's Club (FBC) has a store there along with a large shopping center that has a Wendy's. But our favorite place to hang out is a system of water ways that the kids can play in. The water is about 5 cm deep and set aside especially for this area (ie. not sewer water!). Right by this area is a Subway Sandwiches so with a turkey sandwich in one hand and a Frosty in the other, I can watch the kids as the play and everyone enjoy a wonderful day.


Here are some pictures of the girls walking around in the water. They got totally wet so we had to go buy more clothes for them...







These pictures are the ones that I had to post. Chikara and the three older girls would go and take leaves off some bushes and drop them off one side of the bridge and then run to the other side of the bridge to see who's leaf would make it through first. Can you see Sakura's pants hanging down?




Yes, he's a good daddy.

Because it was Golden Week, there was a lot of fun stuff for kids set up around the island. Most of it was free so the girls got to play a lot and the rest of us sat around and watched them. I was amazed at how much energy they had even after such a busy week. I felt a little old!

We got home around 9 and the girls went to bed. Natsuki didn't sleep as well this night because she's teething! Right now she's got two little nubs on her lower gum. Everyday I pray for those teeth to break through so I can get some sleep. She likes to wake up around 4am which is when I am totally unconscious. But I'm getting off track...

Sunday we went to church and as soon as the service was finished, 3 other families plus us went to one of our friend's house and had a BBQ. We'd been planning this get-together for about a month but the weather worked against us and it rained so we BBQ'd inside the house on hot plates. It was still very delicious, kind of like cooking yakiniku in a restaurant. All of our friends had kids so again it was a family-friendly get together. Natsuki took a nap in a totally empty room on a blanket. I thought for sure she wouldn't sleep but I guess she's as tired as I am because of all the waking up in the middle of the night.

We were home by 7pm. As a family we moved slowly through our bedtime routine and everyone was glad to finally be in bed. The end of a busy week and the end of a fabulous week.

This week we met with Emi & Misaki's teachers but I'll write more about that later.

favorite pictures

We bought a new digital camera just over a year ago and when I was going through my pictures I decided to group some of my favorites together. Enjoy!

golden week part three: Nagoya

So now we're on the road to Nagoya. We didn't arrive even close to the time we wanted to but at least we did arrive. I had been trying to get the girls to sleep in the car since they usually have a nap in the afternoon but the more I tried, the more they resisted so they all ended up falling asleep about 20 minutes before we arrived. Classic! It was 4:30 when we arrived and they were all cranky from being woken up.

Our friends were waiting for us, Yuu & Sayaka, Yoshimi & Midori and their two children and Yoshimi's older brother Mitsuru. Chikara has been friend with these guys since he was very little and Yuu and Yoshimi went to the same college as him so I've known them for awhile too. Yoshimi & Midori have a 2-year-old daughter named Yumi and a 5-month-old son named Yuma. Last time we met, both of us were pregnant and we commented on how nice it was NOT to be pregnant!!


Yoshimi & Mitsuru's parents were also there and it seems like they helped prepare the dinner and snacks. All of us (9 adults, 6 kids) fellowshipped for a bit and then ate dinner. By this point in the week, my girls were so mellowed out. They ate everything I placed before them without complaint and when they were done eating, they just sat in their chair until I said they could go play. Everyone kept commenting on how well behaved they were and I felt bad taking compliments because really they were just too tired to misbehave! Has to be a first for them. We stick to our schedule pretty good when we're at home so usually they get enough sleep to misbehave just like all children do!


After dinner, Yoshimi's parents took all the kids upstairs to watch a video so that left all of us to hang out and fellowship. Yuu had brought his Japanese version of Settlers of Cataan so we opened that up and taught those who hadn't played before the rules and played through one game. If you haven't played Settlers before it takes at least one game to figure it out but as we played we all talked and joked around and everyone behaved just as they always do and therefore we had a wonderful time.




The first few years we lived in Japan, we didn't really get together with Chikara's childhood friends very much. We were all busy and I was having babies so it was hard to make the time. I think Kenji was the one we saw the most and that was probably once every 6 months. I always wondered why but I think God was preparing me and my Japanese so that I could become friends on my own with the wives of Chikara's friends. It's just in the last two years that we've been able to meet every so often and my Japanese has been good enough to hold my own and enjoy the time we spend together instead of being stuck to Chikara's side so he can translate for me.


Around 10:30pm, we realized that we should be going since we still had to make it to Yokkaichi. We brought all the kids down and took a picture together. Again, we had such a great time and the time went so quick that we really didn't want to leave. We all hugged and made our good-byes. Yoshimi's daughter Yumi asked Emi & Misaki, "haggu wa?" (where's my hug) so even our girls got in on the hugging. Thank you to the Takahashi family for your hospitality!


Back in the car again! The girls were all asleep within five minutes. We made it to Yokkaichi in about an hour. Our friends, Andrew & Yuri, helped us get everything in the house. Yuri's dad was also visiting to help build a deck for them. They just finished building a new house right before Christmas and haven't finished the landscaping so her dad came up for Golden Week to help out. He is also the father of four daughters so each time we've met him, he's been so sweet with the girls.


Emi, Misaki & Sakura were out as soon as we put them in their beds. Natsuki was stubborn for about 10 minutes and then she conked out, too. As soon as I was sure she was asleep, I relaxed and I was out within minutes. It was very dark in the room (which I like) so we slept soundly until morning.


I had planned for this day to be one of our "down" days. I really wanted to fellowship with Yuri, since it had been awhile since I'd seen her, and hear about her house and their life. After breakfast, Chikara decided he wanted to help Andrew and his father-in-law build the deck so he got ready and went outside. Yuri's two daughters, Emily & Ailie, are about the same age as Emi & Misaki so they paired up and played really well for the entire day. Sakura tagged along but when they went outside, I kept her inside because I didn't want her to disturb the building of the deck. She was totally content to be inside since Emily & Ailie have an abundance of girlie toys. She especially enjoy dressing up as a princess as you can see from the picture.


Natsuki was amazing. I wasn't sure if she'd fall asleep for her naps since it was an unfamiliar place and there were a lot of unfamiliar noises but both times I put her down for a nap, she didn't make a peep and was out (I checked many times!). This gave me the break I needed and I went through our suitcases and organized them a bit since I hadn't really done that even once during the whole trip.


Yuri and I talked for the majority of the time. She showed me lots of magazines that they looked through when building their house. The information she shared with me was invaluable and I had been looking through the Internet at the stuff she showed me ever since I got back. We are really hoping to build a house in the near future so I'm gathering information and advice so I can be prepared once we get to that point.


The girls had such a lovely day. They played inside and outside. They "assisted" the guys with the building the deck, played in the dirt, colored pictures, played with the toys, etc. They kept going all day and I almost felt bad when it was finally time for us to go and they had to leave their friends. Yuri had prepared yakiniku to say thank you to the guys. After the dinner, Chikara hopped into the shower and once he was ready, we packed up all the stuff into the car, said good-bye again, fastened the girls into their seatbelts and, once again, we were in our car and driving away.


We were home around 11, and without much ceremony, we put all the girls to bed, brought our stuff into the house and dropped into bed ourselves. It was such a lovely moment when we were finally laying down (even though the futon is still uncomfortable). We both said thank you to each other for making the vacation such a wonderful time and promptly fell asleep.


We has such a fabulous vacation and I wish that I had the right words to say thank you to all of our friends who welcomed us, fed us and encouraged us in different ways. I hope that all of you could tell how much we were blessed by your hospitality. Thank You!


Here are some pictures of the girls riding in the car.







We did a couple more things in Osaka for Golden Week so I'll write about those tomorrow but this is end of our tour of Japan! Thanks for reading to the end.

golden week part two: Ikea and Lalaport

The next day, Tuesday, the weather was supposed to be cloudy with some rain so we decided to go to Ikea. I had really been looking forward to this day. Again, there wasn't much traffic and we were there within 40 minutes. I had found out before that they have a free play area for kids who are between 100-135cm and potty-trained so I asked Emi & Misaki if they wanted to go in. Misaki was all ready to go but at the end Emi decided she didn't want to go. She's a bit of a chicken sometimes (reminds me of me!) so we decided to have lunch first and see how she felt after. We had some yummy Ikea food (not hotdogs though!) and then after that Emi decided she would try it. They played in there for an hour while we walked around and looked at all the stuff.
I mentioned it before but I was really hoping to buy a bed. I didn't think Ikea would deliver it to Osaka but I was even willing to pay to have it delivered by another service if I found one I liked. Those of you who have been to the Ikea in Funabashi know that the second floor starts with living room ideas and then works around to bedrooms eventually. When we got to the bedroom showroom I looked around but I didn't see anything I really liked or could even settle for. I want to buy a bedroom set that is in dark wood but they didn't really have anything like that. Chikara thought everything was great which started getting on my nerves when we went to the mattress department.

I will stop here to give you a little background of the beds we've slept on since we got married. When we started shopping for our first bed almost 10 years ago, I really wanted Chikara to be comfortable so we went to our local Futon Factory. They made their own bedframes there and had a lot of choices for the thickness and size of futons. We settled on a fabulous pine bed frame and a medium thickness of futon mattress in a queen size. I wasn't sure how I would like it but it turned out to be the most comfortable bed I'd ever slept on. Plus it turns out that Chikara moves around a lot at night so it was better that we had a futon than a spring mattress because then his constant motion didn't wake me up. For our first anniversary we went to the stay at The Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. It was the first time since we'd been married that we'd slept on a spring mattress and I didn't get much sleep. At all. Especially after this incident I was glad that we'd bought a futon.

When we moved to Japan we were planning to live with Chikara's parents for a bit while he looked for a job and we didn't know how long it would take for us to get into our own place so we decided to leave our bed in the States in my sister's apartment. At the time, I didn't think much about it because I was going to Japan, the land of futons, right?! Chikara's parents had bought a double futon for us and we have used it for the last 5-1/2 years and it has served us well. I haven't had any complaints until my last pregnancy and it has just become too uncomfortable. Even now I'd rather sleep on the couch than in our bed and I don't think that's too good for our marriage!!

So now you know what we're looking for and I really want to buy something that's gonna last us for awhile so I am on the hunt for the "perfect bed". In other words, I'm being picky, but with this type of stuff, Chikara's not picky at all (since he can fall asleep *anywhere*) so every bedframe he saw and every mattress he tried out was, to him, perfect. Finally, I just gave up, much to the frustration of Chikara and probably the amazement of our friends. Sorry, I just can't decide in that kind of environment.

So no bed, but I did find cutting boards, a cheese slicer, a new whisk, bed sheets for the girls, kid's cups, a round mirror to hang on the wall, hooks for coats for the entrace of our house, cute storage boxes, cheap pillow covers, and some other miscellaneous stuff. Also, they had salted licorice, which is probably going to gross a lot of you out, but my dad gave it to us when we were kids and I really like it now. Probably reminds me of hanging out with my dad, who I miss a lot.

Our friends watched the kids for us while they ate ice cream so we could run through one more time to make sure I didn't miss anything and I found a collapsable laundry basket that I can take with me as I go around the house picking up dirty laundry. I'm always trying to carry everything in my hands and I inevitably end up dropping socks along the way. After the wonderfulness of Ikea, I didn't think I could take anymore shopping, but just across the street is Lalaport. And here I have to say sorry to Lily because I didn't know there was more than one Lalaport and were in the one in Tokyo, not Yokohama (thanks for the info, Gina!). They have an awesome playland that is 500yen ($5) for each kid and they can play as long as they want on the weekdays. The pictures say it all.

For dinner we ate at Wendy's because I didn't want to take my cranky, tired kids to a real restaurant. As soon as we arrived Emi started crying for some reason so I knew I had made the right decision. We had cheeseburgers, chili-cheese fries and Frostys. It was awesome. When I was pregnant with Emi, whenever I had 99 cents in the car I would drive through Wendy's and buy a small Frosty. That was an awesome time! After Wendy's, we got some Starbucks and wandered around for a little bit but soon it was obvious that we should take all of our kids home and put them in bed. Again Natsuki slept very well (hallelujah!). Once all the kids were settled down, Chikara and Kenji promptly fell asleep on the couch and the floor, so Sachiko and I talked until about 1 in the morning. We had such a great time gabbing without interuptions! But finally we were tired too so we woke up our husbands and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up, got ourselves ready and packed up our things because it was time to leave. I have to say that we really didn't to go. Kenji & Sachiko, thank you so much for your hospitality. You guys handled having six other people in your house very graciously and we appreciated that so much. Thanks for treating us to such a wonderful weekend.

One our way out of Tokyo, we experienced the only real stop-and-go traffic of the whole week. I just kept throwing food at the girls to keep them calm but after an hour we were on our way to Nagoya. On the way we were really hoping to see Mt. Fuji. Neither of us have seen it before but it was a little bit cloudy so we weren't sure if it was going to possible. From the freeway we got a great view of it in between the clouds. It was so beautiful. There was the ocean on one side and the mountain on the other with the sun shining down on us. At the Fujigawa rest stop you can see the mountain from a different angle but unfortunately the clouds were blocking it this time. I took a picture anyways and if you look really carefully at the left side of the pictures above the hill that's in front, you can see the where the bottom of the mountain sloping up. It was a little disappointing but at least we did see it from the freeway even if we were flying by.

At the rest stop they also had a blown-up play area that kids can go inside of and jump (what are those things called?). It was set up for Golden Week and it was free. Also, and this is very amazing, there is a Starbucks at that rest area. Chikara and I got a coffee and the kids got to jump and release some of their energy and Natsuki was released from her car seat. After about 15 minutes we were back on the road.

to be continued...

golden week part one

I will give you a rough view of the schedule we had planned for Golden Week and then fill in the details and add pictures after. Our plan was to leave Saturday night after Chikara came back from work and drive through the evening to Chiba so we wouldn't hit any traffic and the girls could sleep in the car so they wouldn't be asking "are we there yet?" a million times. We would stay with our friends, Kenji & Sachiko and their 1-year-old son Tsuguki, until Wednesday morning and then drive down to Nagoya to visit other friends for the afternoon/evening and then continue onto Yokkaichi that evening and stay overnight with another family (who just built a house), relax Thursday at their house and then go home Thursday evening. We were trying to hit as little holiday traffic as possible but still travel around and visit as many of our friends as we could. Then Friday we would relax at home, Saturday would be spent with Chikara's parents and a BBQ with friends on Sunday after church. I was a little nervous about putting the kids through such a busy week but we couldn't miss such a great chance to visit with friends.

I spent the few days before the Saturday we left trying to catch up on laundry. Fortunately the weather cooperated but on Saturday morning there was still one more load to do. I woke up early Saturday morning with a long list of things to do and a huge headache. I think it was a migraine and it just pounded me all day. The "do or die" pressure helped push me along so I washed the load and hung it out to dry, made breakfast, took a short nap on the couch while the girls watched a video, got the suitcases down from the loft and gave the girls a bath all before noon. While I was making lunch, the girls were on the couch watching another video and suddenly Emi yelled at Sakura. I turned around to find that Sakura had found a pen and proceeded to draw all over HERSELF! I took a picture, washed off as much as I could and gave her a time out. Monkey!

By two o'clock, all the girls were in bed for a nap and I packed as much as I could and then laid down for another nap since my head was still killing me. Around four, we all woke up and I called Chikara to see how he was doing. He was doing one more thing and then he would be able to come home. Besides the headache and Sakura drawing on herself, everything seemed to be going smoothly so I started tackling the last of the packing while trying to keep the girls reigned in. Around 6, I still hadn't heard from Chikara so I called him and he was still working on the same "last" thing.

He finally came home after 7 and had a few more things to do for our trip so I washed the dishes, finished putting everything together and around 9 we finally left the house. We got about 2 minutes away from the house and I realized that I had forgotten all of our blankets and pillows. We went back, got them, closed a window I had left open and then were really on our way. We stopped by a friend's house and I gave her all of my perishables, filled up with gas, got some snacks at the convenience store and hopped on the freeway. By this time it was almost 10 and I was exhausted and cranky but we were on our way so I resolved to calm down and enjoy the trip. We drove without stopping to Chiba and arrived around 3am. The girls had slept most of the way and we didn't hit any traffic at all.

When we arrived at our friend's house, the older three girls went back to sleep right away but Natsuki refused to go to sleep so I had to walk with her for about an hour before she gave in. The next morning, after breakfast, we all got ready and went to Hope Church. Many of our friends from college go to that church so it felt like a mini-reunion. The service was awesome. I burst into tears during the worship service which hasn't happened to me for awhile. Emi was sweet and got me some tissue. It was very refreshing for me somehow and really reminded me of the church we used to go to in Portland. The girls behaved really well during the service even though they were tired for which I was very grateful.

After the service, all the church members bought lunch at a convenience store and ate together at the church. The people at the church were so outgoing and at first I was a little taken back and it made me realize how much I've gotten to used to how reserved Japanese people are. After a lovely lunch, we went back to our friends house for a little break but soon we were back in the car and off again. Another couple from college, Katsumi & Angela, had arranged babysitting so we could all go out for dinner together and catch up. Honestly I can't remember the last time someone other than family has watched our kids here in Japan. I thought for sure I'd get a call as soon as we left but the girls were fine. So Chikara & I, Kenji & Sachiko, and Katsumi & Angela all went out to Asakuma for dinner. They had reserved a private dining room and it was so awesome to be able to have the freedom to talk away without worrying about disturbing other diners. I had an awesome steak dinner. We talked for hours until finally I did get the call that Natsuki had been crying for the last hour. We went back to Katsumi's house and my older three girls were all lined up on the couch watching a video. They didn't even blink when I said hi to them, they were that tired!

We went home and once all the kids were in bed, we started playing Phase 10. We were just getting into the game when I heard Emi & Natsuki crying. I went in to discover that Emi had thrown up and woken up Natsuki in the process. I went into mom mode and cleaned everything up and put Emi back to bed but Natsuki would not go back down so easily so we stopped the game and all went to bed. Natsuki did go to sleep by herself after about 20 minutes but she woke up around 6 so I nursed her and put her back in bed where she slept until around 8:30. Not too bad but my goal was to get her to sleep through the night in the room with her sisters.

On Monday the weather was fabulous so we made plans to go to the park but my head started to hurt again and Natsuki was worn out from the night so Sachiko and I talked the guys into taking Emi, Misaki and Sakura to the park so we could take a break. Natsuki and Tsuguki took a nap and eventually Sachiko and I did to. That nap totally took all the tiredness away so after a relaxing afternoon we got in the car and went to Odaiba to do some sightseeing and have some dinner.

Behind the Odaiba shopping center is the Rainbow Bridge. I have to confess that although I have heard about the Rainbow Bridge, I thought it was in another city. Imagine my surprise! It was very beautiful, as you can see. There is also a miniature Statue of Liberty and that was surprising too. We walked down to the beach and I tried my best to keep the girls out of the water since we were going to dinner after. It was all very beautiful.





















































Soon we all started to get pretty hungry so our friends took us to the Red Lobster for dinner. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of seafood but the food they ordered was delicious. Chikara had Kenji order a pasta dish with a gorgonzola cheese sauce for me which was heavenly. The girls were surprisingly adventurous during that meal and I was also very happy that nobody spilled anything!

We went back outside to see the Rainbow Bridge at night with all the lights on. Apparently once every hour there are lights in the color of the rainbow that will shine on the bridge and although we could see the bridge even during dinner, we never saw the lights. Emi kept asking me why it was called the Rainbow Bridge if there wasn't a rainbow. She was pretty disappointed since she loves rainbows. It was still very beautiful. If you look to the right of the closest tall part of the bridge you can see Tokyo Tower all lit up in red.

We went back home and put the girls right down to sleep. Even Natsuki went down pretty easily and she slept until 7:30 the next morning which also meant that I slept until 7:30 and that felt great. Again, after all the kids were in bed, we played some games with our friends and this time no one woke up to disturb us. Sachiko won the game but we think it was because of her pregnancy luck!

To be continued...

it was an awesome vacation

Our vacation has come to an end, but it was so wonderful while it lasted! The kids were troopers. We really messed with their schedules and they had to sleep in unfamiliar places, but they had awesome attitudes and it made the trip so much easier. It was great to see our friends from college. Almost everyone has kids now so we met in family-friendly places and just hung out and fellowshipped together. We did lots of sightseeing and shopping so it's going to take me a few days to blog about it all.

Before I do that, I wanted to share some pictures of me! Some of you asked about it before so here you go. I just got my hair cut so here is before and after pictures.



One of the things on my to-do-list for this year is to get my teeth fixed. They have become more crooked with each passing year and I need to do something about them. I'm only 32 so I've got at least 20 years or more before my teeth can look like this and I can get away with it! It's one of my pet peeves that Japanese people (in general) don't take care of their teeth very well. 4 kids out of the 14 kids in my English class have totally black teeth. I don't get it. My excuse is that I've had four kids in the last 6 years but that's over so I need to get back to taking care of myself! I even shaved my legs yesterday...

Hopefully I won't procrastinate too long with writing about our trip!

Natsuki Sofia

In December 2005 when I found out I was pregnant with Natsuki I was very surprised. Just the month before Chikara and I had been discussing a more permanent end to the baby train. We were very happy with our three girls and I was really looking forward to being able to get out of the house more. But, of course, I love babies so after getting over the initial shock it was easy to get excited. We had to re-think 2006 and tell many shocked people that although we had firmly said that we were not having any more kids we were in fact pregnant again and really happy about it. So many people said, "Sarah, I respect you so much for having so many kids" but it was hard to receive this compliment because we got pregnant for lack of planning and self-control not because of some lofty dream of having a large family.

But now we have Natsuki in our family and although being pregnant in the hot Japanese summer was not fun, the last seven months with Natsuki have been wonderful. She is the most outgoing baby I've had. Emi & Sakura ignored admirers and Misaki would just stare past them like they didn't exist. But Natsuki smiles and coos and giggles for anyone who stops and takes the time to talk to her.

She has taken to her schedule so well that she actually enjoys being put down to sleep. When I take her upstairs to her room she flaps her arms hysterically but once I lay her down she lays still and just smiles at me until I finish arranging the blankets. When she was 3 months old she started sucking her thumb (like Misaki) and although I know one day there will be a big fight to break her of this habit, right now it's really cute.

When people meet Natsuki for the first time they immediately try to figure out which one of her older sisters she looks like. When she was first born she was really like Emi to me but she's changed since then and she looks more like Misaki (except that Misaki had crazier hair, if you can believe it). Also she has thumbs just like my mom that naturally bend really far. I've been trying to get a picture of them but she moves too much. There will come a day when she won't appreciate being compared to everyone but for now it's fun to speculate who she will look like when she's older!

For the first time yesterday I let Natsuki try a french fry from McDonald's. For the last couple of weeks she has been watching all of us closely as we eat so I thought I would let her try "real" food as opposed to the baby food she's been eating for the last two months. She was so excited. Mostly she just mashed it with her gums until the soft potato in the middle came out. It was funny to watch her try to get it in her mouth. She's not that coordinated yet so she kept getting her thumb as opposed to the french fry. I'm always excited when they get to this point because it makes it easier to find food for them.

In comparing Emi (the first baby) to Natsuki (the fourth baby) I find Natsuki to be easier to take care of because she is easily entertained by her sisters. Another first among the girls is that Natsuki also prefers Chikara over me a lot of the time. When we're out and she gets tired if Chikara holds her she falls asleep every time but if I hold her she just gets fussier and fussier. She almost looks relieved when he comes to get her. You might think that I'd be jealous but it's a little bit of a relief that I don't have to be the only source of comfort and entertainment.

Another interesting thing about Natsuki being the fourth baby is that I don't get a lot of time to work with her on developing her skills. She loves to lay on her back and play with her feet. She can roll over but she rarely does. Because she loves being on her back if I put her down on her tummy she immediately rolls over onto her back but she rarely turns over from her back to her tummy. I realized recently that she's wanting to sit up more so I told Chikara that as much as we can we should take turns during each awake time to let her practice sitting up. We did it all last week and now she can sit by herself so I can clearly see that she's ready but she's just waiting for us to work with her. I really wonder if she'll learn to crawl since she doesn't like being on her tummy very much. I guess we'll see!

Also this month she started adding consonants to her repertoire of sounds. Sometimes when she's babbling she's actually louder than the girls. I can see this is a first step to finding her place in the family. I love to listen to her talking away especially in the morning before I go to get her up. It so precious and it's these moments that I'm really glad that God knew better and gave her to us to be a part of our family.

These are some of my favorite pictures of Natsuki.

about the walking diary

Someone asked me what the walking diary (bottom of the right column) is for. Good question! I'm actually wondering about that myself!? Now that Natsuki has become a bit more independent and her schedule has really evened out I decided that the time has come for me to get back to doing the stuff that I need to do as far as taking care of myself. I have usually taken the first six months of each of my children's lives to focus on the family which has been good for us as we adjust to the new baby and all she brings. But that time has passed, the girls have adjusted well and the family is good shape so now it is time to get back to regular life.

For me this means:

brushing my teeth 3 times a day

washing my face at night instead of just dropping into bed

drinking enough water

changing out of my pj's in the morning

cleaning the house at a regular pace

paying attention to the mountains of paper that are piled up all over the house

exercise

It's this last one that I have never been good at or really taken very seriously. When I was in University I had to take PE credits so I signed up for Circuit Training. That was a fabulous class and if I lived in the States/Canada I would do that again. At that time, when I was 20, I was in the best shape ever mostly from the circuit training class and from climbing up and down stairs in the old university buildings as I went to classes everyday. But now, 12 years and four kids later, I find it hard to even think about making the time to take care of myself in this way.

I think this is another aspect of the procrastinator in me. I know that any exercise I do now will benefit me later in life but actually *doing* it now is the tricky part for me. So I decided that I would keep track of the walking I do, online for everyone to see, and make an effort to walk at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. As you can see I am not doing that well. Part of it is the weather and the fact that all the kids are home so from April I will make another try again. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to fit exercise into a busy schedule?

Spring Break is still going well. Last week Chikara only had to go the office on Thursday and Friday so I was able to get a lot of things done while he was home. After writing the last piece about how bad I was procrastinating, it kind of encouraged me to try again and I spent the whole rest of the day tidying up. It really energized me!

Another funny thing is that after the effort I put into getting the girls fun things to do and renting some videos, the toy that they have played with the most is a box that my ExpatExpress stuff was delivered in. First they colored it, then they cut a hole in it to turn it into a puppet show stage and then they put a roof on it and finally they made little cardboard characters to play with. They have had so much fun that during the summer break I think I'll get another box and let them have at it!

I did find one picture of Emi from her sotsuenshiki. Can you see how proud she is?

something to do

Thank you all for your ideas for things to do during Spring Break. I took Emi shopping on Tuesday and we rented some kids videos (Robots, Mulan and SpongBob SquarePants) and then went to the 100yen shop and bought some interesting things to keep them busy. So far this week they are doing great.

I, on the other hand, am realizing that my tendancy towards procrastination is more deeply rooted than I would have previously believed and the house has completely fallen apart because of it. The only reason my husband hasn't complained yet is because he is too busy to notice which somehow seems wrong. My procrastination is usually kept in check by the fact that if I don't keep up with the things that need to be done then our existence cannot continue but with the girls on break and Chikara so busy this has ceased to be true. Did you know that if your kids stay in their pajamas all day then there is less laundry to do? Did you know that if you make extra pancakes at breakfast that you can serve them for lunch too?

I think part of the reason I'm choosing to do nothing about this is because from April our lives will become more complicated and scheduled than we have ever been before. Emi & Misaki will have different schedules and events, Sakura & Natsuki are at home but on different schedules, Chikara's schedule is pretty much the same but with more responsibility and I will be going back to teaching English two afternooons a week. It's the first time we've all been headed in different directions and although I know we'll figure out how to manage eventually, it's the time inbetween that has me all tied in knots.

For example, today I took Misaki to the preschool to find out what class she's in and buy any school supplies that she needs for next year. I did it all wrong. We woke up late, I couldn't find my ID Card, as we walked out the door I realized that I hadn't turned in our pictures for next year's ID cards and spent 20 futile minutes looking for them, took Misaki in her regular clothes instead of her UNIFORM, forgot the piece of paper I was supposed to turn in and so on and so forth. I managed, all by myself and in Japanese, to accomplish all the stuff we had to do at the school like find out which class she's in, buy more PE clothes and school supplies, get her name tag, find the places she puts her stuff away but when I asked for new ID cards because I couldn't find ours I got the "raised eyebrow". Sigh. I could've made my husband go with me and probably everything would've been done better but eventually I have to be able to do this stuff by myself. I guess I'm learning by trial and error. One thing about living in another country is that my ability to find humor in my mistakes has definitely increased.

On this note, in an attempt to embrace the procrastinator in me, I will not stop here and clean my house but instead do an Expat 54321 Meme (I don't know what a meme is so please don't ask me!).

Name five things you love in your new country:

1. Convenience stores. They are open 24 hours and you can pay your bills there any time that is convenient (hence the name). When I was pregnant the fact that you could buy food at any hour came in really handy.
2. Preschool. They do amazing stuff with the kids here. You would think it was high school for all the effort they put into it. They really teach the kids the protocol needed for elementary school (but no actual studying!?). Plus they're so cute in their uniforms.
3. Sense of community. Our neighborhood is very friendly and helpful. We have sports days and summer festivals together and everyone helps out with keeping an eye when kids are playing outside.
4. Fall. October and November are a welcome respite from the hot summer. The weather is fabulous and it doesn't rain very often. This has got to be my favorite season now.
5. Costco. I know it's not Japanese but I'm glad that Japan is westernized enough to have some familiar stores.

Name four things you miss from your native country:

1. Clothes. I miss being able to buy clothes that fit and match for me and my family at a reasonable price.
2. Food. I miss Taco Bell, Olive Garden, Newport Bay and Elmer's. I miss being able to find food that I want.
3. Snacks. I miss my favorite snacks. When I go home I gain weight because I lose all sense of self-control in the snackfood aisle.
4. Family & Friends. This should really be first because I miss my family a lot. Plus I miss being able to converse easily and feel like people get me.

Name three things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:

1. Smoking. For such a health conscious society they sure do not take smoking and it's harmful effects seriously. I get in trouble all the time for giving the girls a little pop because the carbonation is bad for them. Seriously? If I was going to have a problem with pop it would be for the sugar and caffeine, OK!
2. The System. Everything in Japan is regulated and organized sometimes to the detrement of the people it's supposed to be helping. It gets overwhelming sometimes, the paperwork, the waiting, the looks of disgust you receive when you ask a simple question, and my husband puts up with it on my behalf a lot. Thanks, sweetie!
3. The lack of support for the family. The birthrate has gone down in Japan and I can tell you why. There is not a lot of positive support for the family. The government is trying to throw money at the problem but that's not going to change a thing. Dads need to be able to be home more, you need to be able to get around in a stroller easier (don't get me started on this one), nurses, doctors and public health people need to be nicer and more encouraging, parents need to be able to take a break once in awhile (ie. babysitters) and the school experience needs to be a little less stressful.

Name two things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) about your new country:

1. How nice people are to me and my daughters. I really expected some discrimination but so far we've experienced the opposite. People go out of their way to be friendly because we are not Japanese.
2. How people feel powerless to change their situation. I find that having a difficult life is really valued here in Japan. I hear people (especially women) say that their life or a certain situation is difficult but everyone else is experiencing the same thing so that makes them feel better. What a bunch of hooey! I feel like screaming every time I hear this sentiment. We actually get picked on because our life is "easy" but actually we work very hard to resolve issues in our life.

Name one thing in your new country that you would miss terribly if you had to leave it:

1. Probably the sense of community. Being from Canada where neighbors are more friendly and then moving to the States where we hardly saw our neighbors, never mind talk to them or have a BBQ together, I have found that I really appreciate the friendliness of our neighbors. When the kids are outside, it's reassuring to know that all the neighborhood moms and grandmas are keeping an eye out for the kids and for strangers lurking around, etc.

You're supposed to tag people to do the meme next but I won't. If you'd like to try it yourself, go ahead and put it on your blog or post it here. It was surprisingly hard to come up with things I genuinely liked about Japan. I can see that I'll need to work on that.

haruyasumi

Yes, we are going to be learning some Japanese in the next few months. Haruyasumi is Spring Break and we are into spring break full-time from tomorrow. Emi had her sotsuenshiki (graduation) on Thursday and I really wish I had some good pictures to show but the gymnasium was so crowded and we were sitting on little tiny chairs so . . . nothing. Sorry.

So Emi's been home since Friday and I can tell this spring break, although it is only three weeks long, is going to seem really, really long.

Really, really, really long.

I'm not really sure what we're going to do all day. I have a baby so we can't be going out all the time so I've planned a couple of fun things for each week but I still have to do housework, grocery shopping, laundry, etc. and Emi is totally not getting this. From tomorrow Misaki will be home too and Sakura is already feeling that her rights are being infringed upon by Emi being home so I can only imagine the chaos that will be my day tomorrow. It'll be like Saturday, every single day!

Does anyone have any advice for me? The older two can play outside if the weather is nice but I'm not sure what to do when it rains.

I have no idea how my mother handled all four of us for three long months each summer. Mom, you're amazing!

what a week!

I haven't written much this week because we've been pretty busy. I'd like to say it was because we were having Valentine's Day fun but that would be untrue. Since we've come home from our Christmas vacation I've been completely caught offguard by how busy we've become. I thought for sure I'd have a few months of relative calm before April came and Emi started elementary school but I was wrong (I'm noticing an alarming trend).



Monday was a national holiday and the girls were home from school so I decided to have a little birthday party for Misaki whose birthday is actually February 14th. Two girls from the neighbourhood who are friends with Emi & Misaki came over around 1:30 for cake and fun. The girls had a lovely time and after a couple hours they moved the party outside and played together for a few more hours. Since we didn't have lunch I didn't have to put in a lot of effort but Misaki still had a good time. We let her open one of her presents and she looks forward to coming home everyday to put it on!








Yep. We're party animals.

On Tuesday we went to our pastor's house and talked with them for about four hours. We are taking over the leadership of the music ministry of the church this month. Chikara and I have been brainstorming for months about what we'd like to do so we thought it would be a good idea to talk with the pastor before we started anything. We had a great conversation and now we're excited about what's going to happen next.

As energizing as the morning had been we were quickly brought back to reality after we picked up the girls from school. Emi was running a temperature and complaining about her ear hurting. We needed to get a calendar (we have no idea what day it is and we have so many events coming up - scary) so we did that and then took Emi to the hospital. By the time that was done it was dinnertime and I wasn't going to have time to cook anything so we bought McDonald's and took it home. None of the kids had had a nap so I didn't feel like taking them into a restaurant even if it was just McDonald's. Needless to say I was glad when everyone went to sleep. Emi responded well to the medicine so she slept through the night and was able to go to school the next day.

On Wednesday a new friend that I met at church came with her daughter to our home. Her daughter is the same age as Sakura so I had invited her over for a playdate and also so I could get to know her better. Her husband is from Denmark and she is Japanese so I figured that we would have some things in common. We really enjoyed the time together and our daughters played well. At first they were very quiet but as the day wore on they stopped being shy and began to talk as they played. It was very cute. She left after I picked up the girls from school so I put them down for a nap. All four girls were napping so I thought I would take a little power nap myself. As soon as I laid down, Natsuki started to cry. Of course! So again I was glad when the day was over and the girls went to bed. On a funny note, on the way home from the bus stop the wind was really strong and this happened to Misaki!

When Thursday came I decided to do nothing. Well not really *nothing* but as close to it as I could get. One project I did have for the day was to put together a page for a photo album about Emi for her preschool teacher. Every child in the class makes a page and then one of the mothers puts it together into a photo album which the class gives to the teacher at the graduation. Emi has done so much stuff this year and I had tons of pictures so I picked out my favorites, arranged them on the page and had Emi write some stuff to add to it. It turned out really well and I enjoyed working on it. It's been awhile since I did crafting type of stuff.

Today I woke Emi up early because she had a field trip to the Aquarium. I made a bento for her (American-style! Yes!) and drove her to the school on my bike. At the school I handed over my page to the mom who's organizing all the stuff for our class. I'm not really sure what I thought would happen but she just nodded at me and put it in a bag. I think I made her nervous. Then I went home and got Misaki up and ready for school and took her to the bus stop. When Sakura woke up I could tell right away that she was sick. Her breath has that weird "sick smell". Do your kids get this? I gave her some medicine right away. I'm hoping that she won't develop an ear infection too.



My goal for today was to give Natsuki a bath. I'm in that transition stage where she's not sitting up well enough for a regular bath but too big for her baby bath so giving her a bath is a challenge and I need to have total concentration. If the timing doesn't work out between her awake times and her sister's then she doesn't get a bath. Also I've been noticing lately that her cradle cap is starting to come off. I thought it would be a good idea to work on this and then give her a bath. I put baby oil on her scalp and rubbed it in and then took a comb and started to comb it off. Man, was it gross. Fortunately she didn't mind having her head combed so it was relatively easy as far as squirming and screaming goes. Now she has a lovely clean scalp that I can be proud of!


My husband came home early from work so he helped me tidy up the house and then I made dinner. Again the older two didn't have a nap and Sakura was already cranky because of being sick so they all went to sleep before 8. I've said it a lot this week but I love bedtime!! So now here I am finally able to write about our week.


I can't imagine what tomorrow will bring since it's Saturday - the day I dread the most.

left to their own devices

Yesterday we had a recital at school so today was a holiday. This was probably to help the teachers recuperate - they did an amazing job. I made a little photoshow (my first so be nice) with pictures from yesterday. If you'd like to see it, send me your e-mail address and I'll e-mail you the link. For some reason it's not working from this page. Grrr, technology!



So today the girls roamed around the house and found things to entertain themselves while I did some other stuff. Following is the result.

The three of them built a fort and played under the kitchen table. They brought all the boxes of toys and arranged them around the outside of the table. They had so much fun and made such a mess.

Emi found some Where's Waldo stickers and put them all over her face while watching Aladdin.

I really need to pay more attention to my children when they're home!

tricks up my sleeve

I haven't written for a few days because all the interesting things that have been happening to me lately involve Christmas gift shopping for my family and if I write about them then they will know (obviously) what they are getting for Christmas so I've had writer's block of sorts.

But I also have four children and I have to add here that any blogger who has kids is never at a loss for material. Children can produce interesting anecdotes almost on demand and today is no exception. My older three girls go out every Thursday with my husband's parents whom they call ojii-chan (grandpa) and obaa-chan (grandma). I cannot say how much I appreciate that my in-laws faithfully come every week and give me a break but at the same time those precious few hours that I get to spend alone doing what I want come with a price. That price is three girls hepped up on chocolate returned to me right before bedtime. The three of them are so hyper that they are yelling "Thank You" through the closed front door at their ojii-chan and obaa-chan even after they are in their car and have driven away. While I appreciate their politeness I am also sure that it irritates our neighbours who are literally only a stone's throw away.

Then begins my task of getting them ready for bed, calming them down and tucking them into bed. I find that it helps just to keep moving calmly from one task to the next. None of their bad behavior gets a rise out of me because if I decide to stop and dispute a point then all hell breaks lose and their normal rule of only one of them crying at a time is broken and I have chaos on my hands. Tonight we had minor skirmishes about who gets to go potty first, in what order they could play with the toy car (this came up when I wasn't looking), and why they could only kiss Daddy on the cheek (because he's sick).

I realized after they were all ready for bed that they were still at about an 8 on the hyper meter (due to the toy car skirmish) so even though it was way past their bedtime I decided to read a book to them. I did this because if they stop wiggling because they are focusing on the story then their little bodies will realize what time it actually is and switch to go-to-sleep mode. But when they are hyper it is hard to get them to sit still and listen to a story they've already heard so this is where I pull out one of my mommy tricks. At random intervals throughout the story I will divert from what is actually written on the page. I used to think up really interesting new storylines but since my last pregnancy I have lost this ability so now I just say "Michael Buble" whenever I seem to be losing their attention. They think that "Michael Buble" is the funniest thing they've ever heard. Anytime I say it, they all crack up laughing and then quietly listen as I go on with the story so they can catch me when I say it again. Warning: They are extremely disappointed if I read books now and do not say "Michael Buble" so there are drawbacks to this trick.

Anyways, they were down to about a 3 on the hyper meter by the time the story was done so we prayed, kissed and I took them up to bed. Misaki was especially cute when she prayed for Daddy and asked Jesus that "he get good". As I've been writing this both Emi & Misaki came downstairs to go potty again and Sakura got up once to open and close the bedroom door (she's 2 - most of what she does makes no sense).

I'm not really sure if my three hours of "peace" were worth this effort especially since I had to share them today with my sick, bed-ridden husband and my unusually cranky 3-month-old. Maybe next week will be better.

kisses

Our normal bedtime routine is to have the girls change into their pajamas, Emi & Misaki will go potty while one of us changes Sakura's diaper, we brush their teeth, pray, everyone kisses everyone and then the three of them go up to their beds and go to sleep (usually!). If it's not too late we'll read a book together in the middle somewhere.

Although this routine is usually uneventful, lately the kissing section has taken on such a life of it's own that Chikara and I are never sure if we'll actually make it through. Why? Well, Emi kisses all of us in a certain order (anyone surprised?). She has kissed all of us in this order for at least a year - Misaki, Daddy, Mommy, Sakura and now Natsuki. The problem arises for her when Misaki decides that she doesn't want to kiss Emi (sometimes there is a reason and sometimes she's just being a typical little sister). This throws off Emi's order and she won't kiss the rest of us until Misaki capitulates. Misaki doesn't have an order, she kisses us as she feels like it. Lately Sakura has realized that there is a drama going on and she doesn't want to miss out on the excitement so she'll lay passively on the couch or refuse to turn her face towards her sisters or something along these lines which irritates both of her older sisters much to her delight.

Yesterday as we got to the kissing part of our routine, amazingly Emi and Misaki managed to keep the drama to a minimum but Sakura would not go so easily "into that dark night" so she sat in the corner of the couch and made each of us come and kiss her in turn. Finally it was Chikara's turn but he was holding Natsuki so he couldn't bend down which meant that Sakura would have to stand up to kiss him. She tried at least three time to strain her head up as high as she could with her little lips pursed for a kiss but when she realized it was futile she let out a sigh, rolled her eyes and said "Gosh!". Then she stood up and kissed Chikara, bounced off the couch and walked up the stairs as if nothing had happened.

One day this melodrama will end so I'm writing it down so that we will remember these sweet moments!

christmas spirit

I'm trying to get into the Christmas spirit but for some reason it's not working. What is wrong with me? Every year I have started listening to Christmas music from the beginning of October when the weather changes. It annoys my husband so that's an added benefit but I think in October is when I realize I won't see my family at Christmastime and so the emotional roller coaster begins. Then usually by the end of October I gather my wits about me and decide to make "this Christmas the best Christmas ever" despite the fact that the odds are against me. I go shopping and buy new Christmas ornaments or lights and start thinking about Christmas presents for my family. Also, usually about this time we'll start planning Christmas events at the church and I get all excited about these, too. "This year we'll go all out", I'll think to myself.

This will hold me through most of November and then reality will set in. I'll see a show on TV that will be advertising the best "love hotels" to take your girlfriend to on Christmas Eve. It's like prom night for high schoolers! It totally takes away from my Christmas high. Also, at this time, I will realize that my husband will not have Christmas Day off from work. How could Christmas not be a national holiday?!?!

I put on my bravest face and put up my Christmas tree and lights and try to make Christmas alive to my kids by relating memories of Christmas past and showing sappy Hollywood Christmas movies. I make my own little Christmas bubble but as the actual day grows closer the feelings of doubt rise up and I start to panic a little bit. My kids don't believe in Santa! They've never even seen Santa! I'll be walking through the mall and just want to scream at people, "You're ruining Christmas, you're ruining Christmas". I suffer from the same bit of culture shock every year. It's pathetic, you'd think I'd see it coming by now.

But this is when I realize that I have to get a grip on my expectations of what Christmas should be. I stop and think to myself about what Christmas is really about. It's about Jesus' birth (hello!) and about family. Really that's all I need. Maybe the Christmas that my kids will remember will be different from what I experienced but they will have enjoyed it nonetheless.

And then in the blink of an eye, it's over. Christmas is done and it was more wonderful and the kids were more involved than the year before and I'm happy and so is my husband and seriously what more could I ask for?

Now I know why I haven't gotten into the Christmas spirit yet this year. I don't have to endure the emotional roller coaster because this year I will go and be with my family and have a celebration that my children will remember forever because it will be the most unique Christmas they will experience until the next time we go to Canada for Christmas. So I'm saving myself (and my emotions) for my mom's cooking, and eggnog lattes (decaf, of course) and pictures with Santa and snow on the mountains and people being nice to each other just because the Christmas spirit is in the air.

health check

Yesterday I had to take Emi for a health check-up (lungs and heart, seeing and hearing). In Japan, there are a few times throughout childhood where the state offers free check-ups (yeah for socialized medicine). But the exciting part was that it would be held at the elementary school. I think I mentioned this before but Emi cannot wait to go to elementary school so she was thrilled. I, on the other hand, was a little bit less thrilled. As interested as I was at finally seeing the inside of the elementary school, it turns out that at the exact time I was supposed to be with Emi at the check-up, Chikara will be at work, Misaki will need to be picked-up from the bus and Sakura & Natsuki should be having a nap (which means they'll be cranky). This is one of those moments where I think that having only one kid would've been wiser. But it's too late for those kinds of thoughts so now I have to decide how to manage everyone's schedules.

After much deliberation I decide that Sakura will have an early (and short) nap and Natsuki will nurse right before we go and hopefully be distracted enough by what's going on to not cry. As for Misaki, I just pray that the check-up goes quickly so I can get to her in time or else they'll bring her back to the pre-school and we'll all have to walk over there to get her.

Everything went as planned until it was time to go get Misaki and Emi was still in the middle of her check-up. My friend, whose son is the same age as Emi, offered to finish Emi's check-up with her while I went to get Misaki so I push the double stroller with Sakura & Natsuki the few blocks to the bus stop and get Misaki. Once we got back to the school Emi had just finished and was coming out of the school! I had missed all the fun stuff!!!

OK, it's fine, I worked really hard and everyone did what they were supposed to do so I'm happy. Let's go home! At this both Emi & Misaki burst into tears. I always wonder at this point if it's OK for me to burst into tears, too. They want to stay and play at the school. After I explain why we can't do this they burst into tears again. This time it's because they want to ride on my friend's bicycles instead of walking home (3 blocks - it's not going to kill them). My friend's kids are already riding so I explain that there's no room so too bad. At this point, my friends make their own kids get off the bicycles and help my whiny, selfish girls up onto the kid's seats on their bicycles (reason: because they're so cute). Usually I would not let this happen but I've had enough for the day and my friends wouldn't understand anyways. In Japan, if your kids are crying, you give in so they'll stop.

I was happy to get home but I have to say that it was precious to see Emi at the elementary school. The other kids we know have older siblings at the school so they ran around and played but Emi stayed pretty close to me and watched everything that was going on. As we were about to go in, she warned me that we had to pay money (no we don't) so was I prepared for that (I said no!). When we got home I asked her about what she thought and she said she was disappointed that she didn't get to see her classroom and also that there were some crazy kids but she could "tolerate" them because she saw some nice kids there, too. What a monkey!

Next year will be interesting. It's really the first test of our parenting skills. Will Emi remember all the things we've taught her and follow them if she comes under peer pressure (from the "crazy kids")? I hope so.