Sakura & Natsuki's room

Two years ago I posted about my ideas for redecorating Sakura and Natsuki's room. Earlier last year I took the wallpaper off, fixed the dents and holes and painted the walls. I chose a soft yellow to go with all of the things I bought at Ikea. When my mom came to visit last June we made curtains together and chose the last details to go in the room. Just like when we put together Emi and Misaki's room, we took the girls to a friend's house and while they were gone we put everything together. Sakura and Natsuki were so excited when they came home. They love every part of the room and they've spent a lot of time playing up there. But I realized that I never posted pictures of the finished product. Enjoy!

For the window behind the bed I covered a large piece of styrofoam with the same material as the curtains for the other window. Our bedrooms are on the third floor and I had a vision of the girls fooling around near an open window, falling through the screen and sliding down in the 2 ft space between our house and our neighbor's house. It freaked me out so I did this in both of the rooms!



They love to organize their princess shoes like this!




The boxes hold all of their toys. The bottom two are full of dolls!







I think I've only bought two stuffed animals since Emi was born but as you can see there are enough to fill a whole basket! Where do they come from?



These wall lamps are so adorable.

It's hard to get a good picture of the whole room but I think you can get an idea of what the room looks like. Last week I finally put up the rack for their bags but for some reason I've been hesitant to put up the rest of the things I bought to go on the walls. Maybe because I worked to hard to fix the walls, I don't to "wreck" them again. But mostly I'm not sure I still like what I bought. I was able to get the froggy prince wall pocket which I like but the only place to put it is beside Sakura & Natsuki's bed and I know they won't be able to resist touching it when they're supposed to go to sleep so I'll wait on that.

I can't decide what to put above the shelves that hold the toys.

This wall is especially bare. I have a signed poster from the author of a book we love (Suki's Kimono) to frame for the other wall so I was thinking of doing a poster from another book for this wall but I can't find anything that would suit the room. Any ideas? I can buy through Amazon or Posters.com so there is a pretty wide selection but I've lost steam for this room! Any help would be appreciated.

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!