Camping in Heels

Okay, in my defense:

1) It was presented to me initially as a 'pasta and wine' event, which conjured images of daintily sipping Italian wines inside some kind of structure, with tables, although I should know by now that most public or community facilities in Japan are No Shoes, which means that my lovely shoes would have ended up decorating the genkan while I shuffled around inelegantly in a pair of honky slippers.

The 'okay you can stay in a bungalow afterwards' was kind of an afterthought. In Japan, 'bungalow' often means a log cabin with a bathroom, a kitchenette with fridge, kettle and stove tops, a TV, and air conditioning. Not real camping. What we got was a wooden tent. It had electric lights...and nothing else.

2) I actually brought another pair of shoes, and they are still there, under the seat of the small car we left with Baachan, while we all piled into her larger car to get there.

Like Mother Like Daughter. The sad thing is, Lena did it too. The kids often make inappropriate shoe choices. Getting out the door is normally somewhat chaotic, and I often miss what shoes they chose to put on. Lena chose the sweet little shoes we bought her for her Entrance Ceremony. They didn't have a heel, but they had a tight strap, and she ended up with a very sore ankle.

Just in case there's anyone left who thinks I might be sane, I brought 13 bags for an overnighter.

1) My carry-on bag, with mine and Erica's pyjamas and changes of clothes.
2) Amy's carry-on, with her pyjamas, activities and a change of clothes - nothing warm, and no spare knickers. They pack by themselves, hence their own bags, and their own mistakes!
3) Lena's, ditto.
4) Erica's nappy bag
5) Towel/onsen bag
6) 'Outside' tote bag - contains ground sheets, mini stools, hats, fans, sunglasses and sunscreen. It lives like this in the spare room waiting for events, so it went in as is.
7) 'Inside' tote bag, with any miscellaneous junk we 'need', like my novel, the Rawleighs, toys for Erica, towels, tissues, Erica's juice, etc. Usually lives in a semi-chaotic state in the car.
8) Food bag - weetbix for breakfast, sugar, cookies, sweets, bananas, paper plates etc
9) Cold food bag - milk, tea, wine, yogurt
10) Medicine bag. I've taken to keeping all the medical things, the insurance certificates, Mother-Child health book, and medical dictionary in a small tote with wet tissues, a few small toys, a Reader's Digest, and a spare nappy, ready to rush off to the hospital at a moment's notice. So in it went, with pain/fever meds, First Aid kit (used to dress Lena's ankle, see above) and antibiotics and eye drops for Amy's sore eye.
11) Camera bag, with video camera and all relevant extension cords, plus still camera
12) Ipod bag, with all the cords and things for that and...
13) My handbag! Essential of course, though I didn't touch it all weekend!

Despite the rain and the autumn leaves underfoot, I didn't fall over, break a heel or even burst a blister (unlike poor Lena). So my faux snake skin, 9cm strappy heels may only have cost $13 at the shoe warehouse, but they rock!

Here's me and Kanji with our bub eating dinner in the hall - the No Shoes hall. My shoes redundantly sat outside decorating the step.



And Erica eating spaghetti.



The girls had a great time with the swings and tree houses. I'm sure we'll really enjoy it next year, shod appropriately, and prepared for the lack of facilities!

Pumpkin gets a pixie

Well you know I've been talking about getting Erica's first baby hair made into a calligraphy brush, it seemed like a cool thing to do. Not trusting my own hand with scissors and baby hair after what happened to Amy (no blood, just the world's dorkiest looking baby for many more months than I realized a bad haircut lasted!) I went to the salon. I needed a trim, and Amy was off school that day (eye infection) so she could play with Erica while I got my cut.

I had talked to him about the brush thing on a previous occasion, and Kanji mentioned it on the phone when he called to see if they were free, and I mentioned it again as we sat down, BUT guess who just wasn't listening! He combs through the hair and deftly trims off the feathery baby hair-ends with razor-cut scissors, about one centimetre. "Oh," says I, "what about the brush?". "Oh!" he goes, "you wanted to do the brush!" as if he'd never heard the idea before. Grrrr. I know you have to do a bit of pretending-to-understand to get by, you can't go walking around with a dictionary, saying "repeat that please", it impedes smooth communication. But you'd think you'd switch your ears on a little bit when a customer sits down for a haircut.

Well, he did his best with the remainder, and we have a lock of hair now. It's still her first hair, even if it's not as whispy as it could have been. Well, maybe they don't need that whispy bit anyway...



Lena had wanted to know before Erica's birthday what she was going to be able to do know that she was one. I laughed and explained that it didn't work like that, you're just the same the day before as you are the day after, but you know kids, they put a lot of store in that digit change. They constantly refer to their skills and achievements in terms of "When I was (fill in age just passed) I couldn't do xyz, but now I can"

But then Amy commented the other day that indeed some age magic seems to have occured, as Erica has suddenly gotten very, very cute lately! She sways her bum while dancing, babbles in a close immitation of language, and has a rainbow of adorably silly expressions. She gets excited and stamps her feet, then giggles at the effect. For nothing more than my own memories in years to come, I'm going to keep a 'cute' diary for the weekend, back at you on Monday with more unapologetic GUSH

Baby Signs

Okay, it's not terribly impressive, yet, but believe me, she really is exhibiting a baby sign here, the sign for 'dog', which is panting. Her version is either poking out her tongue, or opening her mouth and breathing loud, she can't coordinate the two yet! But she does it consistently and appropriately, when she sees a picture of a dog, or a real one, or this one that she saw on TV.

Family in NZ will remember her sign for 'bath', which she still does whenever I take her clothes off, and once also as she peered into the toilet. Clearly it means more to her than it does to us! Now we have some posters in the bathroom, ABC and hiragana with pictures, but I'm using them to teach her signs. She LOVES it, and kind of gets carried away and just starts flapping her arms around and squeezing her fists together.

NZ family will recall her fist-squeezing sign, which I couldn't assign a meaning to. I think she was just doing that cos she could! Another one she does is flap her wings for duck, especially while watching Captain Feathersword. She wrinkles her nose up for 'flower' and pats her face for 'cat' (supposed to be fingers drawing wrinkles).

Oh, and she waves 'bye bye', which, of course, is where this all began. We took a rest for a month after she hurt her hand, and now we're just getting back into it all. I don't really believe all the hype about it increasing intelligence, or bonding or anything, but it's fun, and fascinating to see what she notices and the associations she makes, like 'bath' while looking in the toilet!

A new one

A new brace/sogo/thingy that is. We went to Beppu today to see the plastic surgeon and the 'plasterer' again to get the new one fitted. I thought we were going to get away with it at first, when he first fitted it on, and it seemed quite comfortable, but the doc took one look and got him to re-cut it to squeeze that thumb back. So, as expected, this one is going to hurt.

Not a particularly sympathetic doctor either, his only response to my comment that she keeps trying to take it off, is that I'll just have to do my best. My best, I think, will be to give her pamol before we go to bed, and then try to slip it on once she's asleep, then buy some more batteries for my booklight because I'm going to be spending A LOT of time coaxing her back to sleep over and over again.

We don't have to go back to Beppu for a month, at least, unless we have trouble with the brace. And then it'll probably be six months of monitoring, with a possible skin graft taking skin from her foot if she doesn't regain movement.

At least the 'plasterer' is a lot nicer, a very sweet man, talkative, and constantly comments about how hard it is to design a brace for such a small hand, but he keeps trying. He has the worst halitosis I've ever encountered on a person though. I still like him more than the plastic surgeon, who seems very knowledgable and competent, but rather impatient. Certainly doesn't take the time or effort to explain things to me, I just hope Kanji remembers it all!

Kanji came with me again today, though I did the bulk of the driving. We ran out of gasoline!!!! Can you believe it? A Gasoline Stand man and his wife, I think it was a bit embarrassing for him, though it was largely my fault, since I was driving. But I've gotten so used to him filling it up for me whenever he has the car that I often don't even look. At first he wanted someone to come from Nakatsu, from our Stand, but we were a hour's drive away! So he took my suggestion that we ask at a nearby post office (Higashi Yamaga, for those who know the area). I have a friend nearby, but I couldn't call her because my phone is stuffed!

The PO people called a local gasoline stand for us, and he came with a delivery in about ten minutes. Thank goodness for gasoline delivery, back in NZ we'd have been in for a long walk and the purchase of a tin.

Birthday Party

We had a wonderful birthday party for Erica on Sunday! I spent all Saturday preparing, and was so exhausted I spent Monday on my back with a headache, so it was really a three-day affair for me, but I couldn't have my little princess miss out on her special first birthday. Amy's was in a park here, with four other families we knew who had babies. Lena's was in NZ, with no other babies at all, but all four 2-year old cousins, and other assorted relatives and neighbors. I had to give Erica the best I party I could!



For some reason everyone I know had a baby last year, or so it seems! So we had a robust guest list. One older baby came, 14-month Nao, and there were another five babies younger than Erica - 11-month old Marina, four-month old Kiara, three-month olds Juna and Yuuko and tiny two-month old Miyu! Yuuki, the only boy, born on the same day as Erica, in the same hospital, was unable to make it as his mother had appendicitis! But we still had seven babies in the house, plus five older siblings, seven Mums and four Dads - and us of course. We filled up every available space in our modest two six-tatami-mat rooms!



Erica handled it all very well! She curiously greeted each new guest who came to the door, showing off her pretty pink party dress. Until there were so many that she didn't notice the extra arrivals! She was interested in her cake, but didn't wreck it. I started the party with baby foods only on the table - Erica's favorite vegetable soup and bread, jelly, baby cheese, bananas, crackers and Marmite, but she was more interested in the grown-up food that followed - potato chips, 'curls' (kind of like twisties), popcorn, crudites with cream cheese dip, and scones with jam and cream.

Happy First Birthday Erica

Stairs

A new obsession - stair-climbing. Today she got all the way up without me, and boy was she proud of herself! She usually calls out to me about a third of the way up and won't proceed until I'm there behind her.

Here is the cap variation - one step, remove cap, one step, put cap back on. Wow, aren't babies clever!

All Day Long School Observation Day

But I only went for two classes, one each.

I really didn't want to go after my unpleasant experiences last time. I signed up for the CPR education session, and after having it demostrated, the instructor told us to come up in pairs to role play saving the legless dummy. I looked round the semi-circle briefly, as everyone did, saw that me and the woman to my left would be up third. I didn't catch her eye, but didn't think much of it.

The first two pairs went, then, just as I was about to stand up with the woman on my left, she and the woman on her left jumped up quickly together, not even looking in my direction once. I sat there quite stunned, as were several of the other mothers, one of whom came to my rescue by promptly organizing all the remaining people into pairs, including me!

Then in the meeting, as I struggled to make myself understood, and tried to apologize for not being able to feed the roosters as we would be in NZ, another mother ridiculed my by parroting my apology (sumi masen), which made me feel so embarrased!

So, not wanting to be exposed to this juvenile behaviour anymore, I was quite reluctant to go, but determined to nonetheless, because Amy and Lena love it so much when I do come, and get so heartbroken if I don't!



Lena's was first, we all went to the hall to do some stupid games. Okay, Lena loved it - as we were walking home she looked up at me and said "Mum I had so much fun playing games with you in the hall today!" So it was worth it. The first game was passing a hula hoop from one person to the next over your body, without letting go your hands.



Next was a relay where the kids went in pairs and picked a card with the name of someone's mother. Then they had to find her, and hold hands and run up to a cone and around it and back to the kids again. Only someone had the not-so-bright idea to have us parents turn our backs to the kids. I suppose the idea was to make it more challenging for the kids, but it left the parents with no idea how the game was going, which kids were having a turn, nor what name they were calling out as it was hard to hear their soft little six-year old voices over the racket. They found me pretty fast though, unsurprisingly. They all know me and call out "Lena's mum!" all the time.



Finally we played Janken Pon snake. Two people play a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper and the loser goes behind the winner and they snake along and meet another pair. The play again, then the the losing pair goes behind the winning pair and the set of four snake along, and so on until everyone in the room is behind the one person who didn't lose a single game. We lost on the second round.

I went home for lunch, and a nap, and came back to Amy's room after 2pm for the final lesson of the day. It was craft time, and they were making paper plates to spin on a stick. Here is Amy with the portrait she drew of Erica for her plate.



And Erica with her plate. (lots of help from a sad Mummy who noticed that Erica reached for the crayons with her left hand but just could not hold them with that stuck thumb)

Hand

Here's her hand, looking very smooth and well-healed in this photo. The wound is all cleared up, as the doctor also noted.

We saw the plasterer (what the heck do you call a medical professional who specializes in taking plaster casts of limbs and fashioning plastic braces out of them??) and explained that her hand was slipping out and curling in. He wasn't surprised. Apparently it's quite hard making them for such a tiny hand. He shaved off some of the sides, but then when we saw the doctor, he noticed that the thumb was stiffening up quite a bit, and instructed the 'plasterer' to make a whole new one that incorporated the thumb as well.

Plasterer frowned and commented to me that the doc had said the week before not to worry about the thumb, which I had asked about, as we'd deal with that later. But I thought it was getting stiffer and more 'stuck', he must have noticed the difference after a week.

So, we got a new plaster cast taken, and we'll go back next to see how that fits. Meanwhile, I'll be using the old brace, and the cream every day. She has a bit of trouble sleeping with the brace on, so I'm quite tired - like having a newborn again! Not fair! It's going to be worse next week. She cried and cried as he fitted the cast as he had to pull back on her thumb, and she hates that, it hurts her. So it's going to sting every night. God I hope she can sleep!

Our Autumn weekend

Yesterday was a public holiday, the Autumn equinox, so even though there was school on Monday, it still feels like it was one loong weekend. Saturday morning we went to Baachan's so Erica could get used to Baachan (and I could start to leave her there!) but Baachan went out to the doctor's. Why she didn't tell me this pertinent fact on Friday afternoon when I told her we were coming, I don't know. I busted my gut getting ready on time! Probably that fake Japanese modesty that requires her to act as though she herself couldn't possibly matter or be the reason we were coming, even though she knew perfectly well it was. Or does decades of practice with this modesty really bring it about and she really didn't twig that 'coming to play' meant with her and Jiichan?

Anyway, I was in the car reading a magazine with sleeping Erica, and then Dipti rang for a favor so I went around there instead, coming back in time to get some lunch off the travelling baker who stops there every Saturday lunchtime. And played a little bit with Baachan who still alternates between falling all over Erica and swamping her, then giving up with a sigh.

Saturday afternoon Daddy had off work, so we subjected him to a home video from our recent trip to NZ, then him and me and Erica took a nap and left the older girls in the capable hands of Mr. Disney. Sunday we went to karaoke with friend Akiko and her Australian exchange student Chayla, whose mother is a New Zealander.



Akiko and Amy



Daddy helping Lena sing, while Erica enjoys her first experience of karaoke



Chayla with Akiko's mum Junko (r) and another friend, Yukko

Sunday night was the annual Keio Academy summer party. Lots of beer and shouting in an izakaya, followed by more beer and even louder shouting at karaoke. Here's the bosses being cute.



Yesterday we went to visit Haradas, and ended up somehow at Egamis' eating Haradas' gyoza, Egamis' curry, my banana bread. And more beer.



The kids enjoying their curry. And here is a vid of Erica and her birthday twin Yuuki.

Videomania

Okay, I've been taking too many videos, but she's just too cute, and keeps doing stuff that desperately needs to be recorded for posterity! Erica learned this trick, oh, about two minutes before I videoed it. Hence a baby very proud of herself for mastering a new trick.



Flavor of the week though, is climbing. I've caught her several times on the table, but haven't yet managed to catch her actually climbing on, she seems to be keeping that a secret. Here, she's distracted by something much better...



That camera is way better than this ball!



Tantrum time!

Sogo

Well, here it is, and also a few photos so you can see what it is. She has it on now, for the second night. She's dealing with it alright, though she tries to take it off if I put it on her too soon before we settle down to sleep, and of course it comes off first thing in the morning, before she has time to fuss. I don't know if it's doing the trick though, as it seems too loose, and her fingers slip down in it, and she can even curl her fingers under, so I don't know how effective it is going to be in keeping that finger straight. We're going back to get it checked on this Thursday.

Every day it seems to be curling up more, and more painful to her when I try to stretch it out. I have to put cream on it morning and night, another case of the doctor believing in the power of mother to achieve the impossible! Put cream on a baby's palm! You might as well skip the next step and just smear it all over your furniture yourself. At night, I wrap the finger area of the brace in glad wrap, my theory being that if the cream rubs off on that, maybe some of it will rub back on! And in the morning I utilize the power of Wiggle. Erica loves the Wiggles so much now that she grins from ear to ear and makes a beeline for the telly where she starts to dance. So I put the Wiggles on, and I can be sure of a good half hour of not using her hands, time enough for some of the cream to sink in. And a little bonus vid...listen carefully...the reason Erica is not responding to me is because she is watching Amy and Lena fighting. Listen and you should hear a slap, an 'ow' and Lena whining 'Aaaaamyyyyy'

Doin' a Britney

I may not be blond but I can still be stupid. Here's Erica driving the car. In my defense, only from one side of the carpark to the other.

Dancing Baby

Now, check out the headbanging and the air guitar! It may be Will Smith, but she has the soul of a Metaller. Daddy is quite proud!

The Brace?

I'm not quite sure what to call the thing they made, and have no pictures yet as it was a little imperfect, needs fixing, and will be sent by mail later on. 'IT' is kind of like a half-open cast, held on with straps with velcro and snap buttons. The closed part goes over the inside of the wrist, the palm and the fingers, pushing the fingers backwards to stretch out the scar tissue. It even has little flowers and ladybirds on it to make it pretty for her. But the thumb hole was a little too large, and it looked like her fingers would too easily slip out, so he took it back to remake it.

It will only be put on at night! Then she is to use the hand normally during the day, and we also have a cream to put on morning and night. That all means of course, normal clothing, normal bathing and no more questions out in public, unless someone gets a close-up look! Everyone wants to know what happened when they see the bandages.

The above photo shows how it looks normally; in the one below I'm pulling back her thumb, and you can clearly see the 'V' shaped scar which is causing all the trouble. The doctor speaks very fast, unfortunately, but I think he said that thumb area would eventually need to be grafted. I'm not looking forward to that! But that's for later on, for now we're dealing with the fingers.

Now THAT'S a weiner

And now for something completely different. Japan is well known for downsizing everything to fit their small bodies, small apartments and even smaller appetites. I especially appreciate the small serving sizes, as you can have more variety. You can have about ten desserts at a buffet! But this, ladies and gentlemen, really takes the cake. It's a cheese sausaged, in case you can't focus on something that small.

Long Weekend

Just spent a long weekend in the company of my lovely daughters, and, with just a little bit of 'encouragement', the house is actually tidier now than it was at the start. And THIS time, the desks are going to stay tidy! Amy will learn to put a project away before starting on another one. Lena will learn to dispose of, or find a new home for the items she decides she doesn't need, instead of simply putting them on the piano table or the windowsill.

Saturday we were going to go to a picnic at the castle, but it got cancelled. I got picnic in my head though and made a bacon and egg pie for lunch anyway. We popped down to the castle to see if anyone else had turned up and found Amy and Lena's new English teacher, Will, being shown around by the other Kiwi at Keio, Andre.

Saturday night we went to the Kagura and Raffle festival at the shrine out the back of Baachan's childhood home, where her nephew and niece now live. Coming along for the party also were his Chinese factory staff, who hadn't seen me since I waddled in hugely pregnant this time last year. Cue round of cheers for little Erica, who would have been the star of the show if she wasn't in a dreadful mood caused by lack of sleep. Lena happily took up the baton and became chief pet of the young Chinese ladies.

Sunday we went to another festival to see a friend of Kanji's perform in his band. Or rather, THEY went to watch the show while I waited in the car with sleeping Erica, reading a magazine. I honestly didn't get out of the car once. Acutally it wasn't that bad - I haven't had as long an uninterrupted reading time for quite a while. I normally fall asleep over the pages at night now. I made up for it with an ice cream on the way home and a girls only trip to the onsen. I have been hanging out for an onsen trip, but haven't been able to go because of Erica's hand.

Kanji meanwhile went to band practice. It's a Sex Pistols cover band called Nakatsu Sex Pistols Metabo 37, Metabo meaning metabolic syndrome, a buzz word in Japan this year, referring to their middle-age spread, though it's a bit of a humble misnomer as they are all very lean. Kanji plays bass, which makes him Sid...and me Nancy Spungeon. After that he went to the radio station to do his radio show. He played Metallica.

The girls are back at school today, and quite happy. Amy is back in with her gang, and making plays and designing costumes and teaching everyone how to do the splits. School work is definitely a side issue. Lena seems to be happy too, but she doesn't talk about it much. She went swimming with Maia yesterday and was very happy to meet up with that friend again, and asked this morning for a promise that Maia will come on Friday as usual.

Erica is talking and dancing and singing! Constantly saying something, she's currently practicing high and low notes, so it's like she's singing. And she dances whenever any music starts up, head-banger style, plus air guitar - she must be taking cues from her father.

She's starting to use her hand after having the big bandage off for several days. She still points at it and stares at it when the small bandage is off. The main part of her palm and the fingers are pretty much healed, but still very pinky-red. The articles I read said that burns that heal within three weeks are usually fine, ones that take longer have complications. So the parts that healed fairly swiftly are okay, and that area to the left side is still problematic. There's a V-shaped scar running from her thumb onto her palm and up onto her index finger. This would have been the part of her hand that touched the iron with the greatest force, so perhaps it was more badly burned. In two areas (the point where the thumb pad meets the finger pad, and a point at the base of the thumb) the scar seems to have contracted, limiting her from fully extending her finger and thumb back, but all in all it's not too bad, she's using it well enough.

Well then I'm off to do my chores for the day - I've got to get a new licence, and get Erica's booster DPT, a head cleaner for the video camera, and get dinner cooked EARLY today so I can get Erica to bed and she won't fall asleep on the sofa again.

Erica update

Well, today was a lot better than I thought I was going to be. Turns out we were just getting a cast of her hand made today, and we'll get the 'thing', whatever that it, put on next week. Which has got me hoping that the 'thing' will be removable and I'll be able to bath her.

I was able to bath her today! She had a lovely time, it's been ages since she had a bath, and nearly two months since she got in the nice deep bath with Mummy. The wound has all but healed, and all we have on now is a small adhesive bandage, plus whatever I want to put on top to stop her pulling that off, so I'm adding tape and a sock thingy (I can never remember what they are called!). Thanks Becky for the roll of sock thingy! I have a week's supply of adhesives so I can bathe her every day.

So her hand is practically free, and she's had a lot of time to look at it, and gingerly touch it, though she's not really using it a lot yet. Whether it's painful, or just habit, or if her fingers won't move smoothly, I don't know. Actually all her fingers move quite well, but I am worried about her thumb, which seems to be stuck slightly forward onto her palm. Doc says we won't know about whether that's going to be a problem for up to year from now. Right now he's not concentrating on it, but on the fingers.

The cast we made today was off her wrist and hand, excluding the thumb but covering all fingers, and with the fingers all stretched backwards. This is to help the fingers heal with contractures. We're looking at weekly or monthly visits for the foreseeable future, probably for a year. It's just unbelivable that it's this severe, and this much work to heal it - it only took a second.

Erica

I'm up late updated my iPod with the UK's top ten and some BBC podcasts in preparation for another three hours in the car tomorrow. Good thing I don't mind driving! I am getting worried about what's going to happen when we arrive.

I've been reading up about palm burns in children and what they say pretty much agrees with what our doctor said, that it's generally okay if the wound heals under three weeks - our doc said two - either way, Erica's out of that cohort. After three weeks, the liklihood of sequelae is...100%. That means scarring, or the fingers curling up or needing a skin graft. Tomorrow we're getting some kind of splint or cast that will hold her hand and fingers flexed back so the growing scar tissue doesn't cause her to lose function. So you can see why I'm a little worried. Let's hope it ends here, and this treatment results in a cleanly healed hand with full function and minimal scarring, because there will be scarring.

Erica's First High Heels

A girl after her mother's heart...Erica does a pretty fine job of walking in heels for the first time, not yet one year old!

Hand

Not much change in two days, but the fingers are mostly healed. The dressing stuck a bit so there is bleeding in the center.

We don't have to go back for two days, yay! We are scheduled to go back on Thursday to see yet another specialist (that's the eighth doctor, not counting four others she's seen in the last two months for other things) to get her hand stretched and some kind of cast or splint put on to keep it straight. I'm not sure exactly what right now. Update on Thursday!

Erica's Hand

Here is a photo (removed) of Erica's hand yesterday morning. For those who don't know, she burned it on an iron on August 18th, so it's nearly three weeks old and nearly healed. Mum and my sisters who watched or helped change her dressings over the last few weeks will see how well it's healing. Might be a bit of a shock for anyone else seeing it for the first time!

I am concerned about the area between the thumb pad and the index finger pad, which appears to be sticking together. There are also a few holes in the centre of her palm which are basically areas that had healed together that were opened up when we opened out her hand. Also she tends to hold her thumb inwards, like it's sore or tight to stretch out.

We'll see the plastic surgeon again tomorrow to talk about subsequent treatment, right now we're concentrating on getting the wound healed, we'll look at scarring and movement when that's done.

Chasing Lena's Feet

Erica thought it was just the most fun to chase the puppies on Lena's feet, and she has learned to stomp her feet and walk sideways and backwards too!

New Doll

Keep checking old posts guys as I'll add stuff about NZ, Erica's hand, our trip home etc. For now just a couple of vids to keep you busy while I do the #!%&$# laundry! Erica got this doll for Christmas but she didn't show much interest, so I kept it aside on the windowsill in the Study (okay, that's the other half of the living room, but there are desks in there so let me call it a Study, okay?). Today when I opened the shoji paper door over the window, she saw it and made a beeline for it, pointing and babbling so I felt the time had come!

Back in Japan

Well, we've been back in Japan for five days now, but I haven't had a moment to sit down and update this blog. Monday, flying. Tuesday, trains. Wednesday, doctor in Yamaga and work, Thursday and Friday, doctor in Beppu and work. Today, doctor in Beppu again and finally an afternoon off and a chance to catch up!

I'm just having a well-deserved cup of tea before doing the shopping and cooking dinner. I just finished cleaning the genkan and moving the bags and packages of clothes upstairs - they've been clogging the hall and living room since we got home! I am now the proud owner of 32 pairs of shoes, including 15 flats, 10 pairs of heels, six pairs of boots and two 'inside' shoes, ballet flats I use instead of slippers. Next on my list is the laundry, which I should get done today, then I can start on the clothes nice and early tomorrow morning, before it gets too hot up there.

Erica's hand is looking much better, but I am quite worried about how the scar tissue is forming with her hand somewhat closed.

My Birthday

Me on my birthday with my three darling daughters.


Mum took me out for lunch at Woodsies. We had spinach, pine nut and feta tarts in filo pastry, and chicken and camembert paninis, followed by carrot cake and a cappuccino...


with an edible spoon! Made out of ginger cookie with the tip dipped in chocolate. Divine!


Following lunch, we went to Aunty Jo's house for Josh's early birthday party, at which I got to share the cake - strawberry layered chocolate cake, with tons of cherry ripes, which they know I love.


Friday, Mum cooked me a pav. Only family will know how unutterably sad it is that the Kenwood Chef mixer died while making the first pav. Around 40 years old, it was an amazing mixer, made all our birthday cakes and many, many pavlovas, in fact it was the secret key to Mum's perfect pavs, as we found out when we tried to make the second pav using a food processor and hand mixer. Following is then, the last perfect Kenwood Pav.


Family Dinner - roast mutton with all the trimmings. It was wonderful.

Erica says goodbye.

Can I complain about the heat again? No? Sorry, I'll try not to mention it.

Up with the birds this morning, or rather with the cicadas, who make a racket early on a summer morning. We had to get to 'rajio taiso' the radio exercises that we have to do with the kids from school every morning in the summer holiday so that we keep our early-to-bed, early-to-rise school-life rhythm (we are the only ones who go to bed early, 10 or 11 is more common in Japan).

Erica and me made it too this morning, Erica stood there like a stunned mullet leaning against my knees. I actually like the feeling of stretching my body. The back to the house to do a load of laundry and vacuum before it gets too hot. I have to do these jobs early in the morning before we turn on the air conditioning, because using one more big ticket electricity-guzzler along with the air conditioner causes the fuses to blow. And switching OFF the air conditioning to do a heavey job like vacuuming is sheer hell!

We have a busy day ahead with a 10am appointment for Erica to get a vaccine, Lena's teacher coming at 1:30 for a parent-teacher interview here at the house. Poor teacher, she has to visit everyone in this heat! Then work at 4pm. In between there's baby care of course, egging the girls on to do their summer homework and sorting out stuff to bring to NZ.

I have packed the clothes, the good thing about the change of seasons is that I can completely pack without disturbing our current wardrobes - I usually have to watch out for the girls wearing clothes I had meant to take, and carefullytiming the final laundry load to make sure the pyjamas and jeans get in!

Erica is walking very fast now, and just walks up and down, up and down endlessly all day, picking things up on the way and eating them - beads, old pieces of toast, tissues, erasers, blocks and pieces of the Wiggles puzzle, she seems to like the Big Red Car the best.

She can point, and does so exclusively with her left hand. She claps, and she says Goodbye! She learned to clench and unclench her fist several days ago, and wandered around the room doing it and saying 'bra bra bra bra bra bra bra'. I thought for a moment we could designate it as 'breastfeeding' as it kind of resembles expressing! But Erica herself used it to say goodbye on Sunday to some guests who were leaving. She toddled out to the genkan after then clenching and unclenching those fat little fists and saying the words. She is so proud of herself.

Oh My God!

It is SOOOOOOO hot. You would not believe it, not Rebecca and Jo who were here in June or Mum who was here in September. It's shockingly, depressingly, hot. We are all exhausted, sweaty and irritable. Everyone has splotchy red faces and purple rings under the eyes. We are all covered head to toe in sticky prickly sweat and mosquito bites. My girls thought I was certifiably mad washing woollens yesterday, but there were a few sweaters and things I wanted for the blessed, sweetly anticipated WINTER! Right now the only thing putting me off looking forward, madly, to a NZ August, is the fact that the thought of warm things like socks, blankets and sweaters touching my body makes my skin crawl.

I forgot to pack socks. Well, I have a few items on the bed waiting to be bagged for packing, things I got up at 5:30 in the morning to sort, as touching woollens during the heat of the day is so off-putting! I figured I'd throw the underwear in next week when I actually pack (as opposed to just piling things on the bed) but I had totally forgotten about socks. I don't think I've worn one for three months. Kanji still wears them everyday.

Amy and Lena have prepared carry-on bags with some activities, but I don't think there's enough for them yet. They'll also have a pullable suitcase to carry on. Amy is counting down the days. 8 days to go guys!

Erica is adorable at the moment. I know I did this with Lena too, I always think NOW is the perfectly cute age. She babbles, and waddles and smears Marmite toast all over herself. She managed to get some mulched toast in her armpit the other day. She's had diarrhea for a week, but seems to have come right now, and we will take her in for a vaccination on Wednesday.

Right now it's Saturday, the first day of the Summer Holidays. I have promised them McDonalds and the movie Enchanted if we sit down and do as much summer holiday homework as possible. I want to do this to them everyday until we leave so they have as little as possible to do while we are in NZ. Now we just have to heave through two more hours of heat, then I'll fill a cool bath to get us all clean, we'll pop out to the restaurant (does a McD deserve that name?) and come home to a cool evening to watch the movie.

Not Dancing

A fascinating study of a baby decidedly NOT dancing.

That's better! You could call it dancing I suppose.

Beach

While I turn the house upside-down searching for winter clothes and wooly hats to pack for NZ, in Japan the weather keeps heating up. We've already had our first visit to the beach! It's a beach in Shiida called Hamonomiya, which means 'Beach Shrine', and there's a shrine next to it. Like almost all beaches in Japan, it has a sea wall about two storeys high to prevent tsunamis, that's it in the background, it's higher on the landward side as the sand seems to have piled up against it, making a fairly nice beach.

Only one problem at this beach - there was a kind of stream running down to the water, and it made the sand really muddy - like quicksand. It was impossible to cross it, only it was nearly impossible to tell if the patch of sand in front of you was quicksand or solid enough. I lost my jandal, and, holding Erica, I couldn't get it out again! Amy managed to get it out for me, but it broke. After that we had to get to the sea over the rocks, which were sharp with broken oyster shells. I limped along on one jandal. We only persisted because we wanted to wash off all that mud! Finally we got there.

Above: mud-streaked feet; Erica's first paddle in the ocean. Below, the girls contemplate the horizon; Erica examines a muddy finger while negotiating the rocky beach

We ended the day, as usual, in an onsen (hot spring bath). This one had real roses in the bath!

Sticker Baby

Because all little ones love stickers. Erica discovered the joys today!

Amy off sick

Amy's Playmobil set-up - including safety features to stop Erica destroying it all! Erica keeps pulling the leather bobux shoes from the drawer and chewing on them.

Ball Baby

Erica fell in love with the big beach ball Lena found in the spare room! She also likes that little plastic fish. All are incentives to take a walk, not that she needs incentives, she practices her walking all the time. Even when she's crying and trying to get to me, she still stands up and walks rather than crawls, even though her crawling in still faster! I think she feels closer because she's higher up so she keeps standing. That drive to walk really amazes me though, how she just gives it more and more and more. It seems to be having the opposite effect on her sleeping though - she is not sleeping very well lately!

Toddler Time

And then suddenly overnight, you have a toddler. At least she's a stupendously CUTE toddler. She's so short and fat and she waddles around the place, and she tries to run, or at least rush and gets a few steps before she falls flat on her face. I watched her today as she got up, balanced, put her arms up, elbows to her ears, took a few rushed steps, and plonked down, looking directly to me as if to check whether she's supposed to be upset now. And I smile and say "Hello darling!" and she grins from ear to ear and goes all silly then gets up and tries again.

She's the baby just looking for trouble! Literally, crawls in, turning her head from side to side looking for 'fun', which is baby-ese for 'trouble'. Eating tissues, keys, pens, and erasers. Pulling all the newly folded laundry off the table. Chewing on the mouse pad and mouse of the laptop and turning off the desktop computer. Pulling a pair of jeans hung on a hanger onto her head. Examining the toilet, climbing into the bath and climbing the stairs if someone leaves the living room door open. She's got up as far as four steps so far. Oh, and every now and then, she plays with her toys.

She's discovered the delights of pushing a toy stroller, with the stuffed tiger in it, which she found just hilarious. Giggling when she gets an airplane rides from her Mummy, which serves to distract her from whatever other trouble she's found. Giggling at me when she's breastfeeding, looking up at me and waiting for me to raise my eyebrows at her, which for some reason she thinks is the funniest thing ever. Giggling when she's tickled.

Lena meanwhile is sick with vomiting and diarrhea, although the diarrhea part is just hypothetical at the moment. So she's off school and it's not easy trying to discourage Erica from touching her. Amy is waiting excitedly for her piano lesson, because she LOVES piano now that she is good enough to play pretty tunes. It took some headaches and persistence to get this far, I am so relieved we stuck it out. Lena's just coming through a rough patch.

Right now they are writing a song for Ralphie. I'll try to get them to record it for posterity and upload it for you.

Time Rolls On

Only a month until we go to NZ! It must be getting close because I find myself starting to organize myself, despite telling myself it can wait. I check out the second-hand store for suitcases...I make a mental note of what Erica eats in a day as the start of my plans about what to bring for her...slowly but surely a pile of things to bring starts to gather together on a step on the stairs, on its way up to the suitcase that's not there yet!

Here I find myself thinking, 'I wonder if I can fit my jeans into my cabin bag to put on before we get off' and there thinking, 'I hope they have individual TVs and still have the water on tap', occasionally a picture presents itself of the four of us crammed into three small seats, sometimes my imagination is kinder and the cabin crew somehow finds a spare seat for us to spread into. Sometimes I shudder when I consider the possibility of Erica crying and fussing the whole time...I usually don't allow that thought to continue! Back to piling up the noodles and the gloves and scarves and counting out how many boxes of Dars chocolate will be needed and will I make Japanese curry once or twice? Does Mum still want my blue knife and a laundry hanger? Do I want the laundry hanger?

Is there a high chair there still? How about a booster seat for little Lena? Can someone book a weekend at that lodge Mum stayed at when she was homeless? Are we going to school? When are the school holidays anyway? You've all inked in August 28, haven't you, and I want roast pork and pavlova. And corned beef and roast lamb and roast beef and luncheon sausage and tons of cheese and sauvignon blanc and raspberry splits and cream donuts and mince pies and steak and cheese pies and just pies and Krispa salt and vinegar chips and chocolate, mountains of chocolate.

And shoe shopping and winter clothes shopping and new pyjamas. My pants are falling off me I need new business pants, and nice winter tops and new bras. Ugh! I hope my visa holds out, because I'm broke and I can't afford this, but if I don't buy shoes now I'm stuck with what they have at Ezibuy, and that's not much!

Ball

Watch Erica do everything BUT walk!

Finally! I got a good vid of her taking a walk. See next post for another long-winded attempt

Goodnight

This one is from a few days ago, trying - failing- again to catch her walking!

Buzzy Bee

Erica in the waiting room at the doctor's. She's figured out how to work her pull-chain vibrating Buzzy Bee, using her mouth!

What a weekend

We had a weekend full of ups and down, starting last Wednesday with Erica's fever. To the clinic Thursday, back again on Thursday afternoon to have Amy's head seen head seen to after her fall on Wednesday.

Friday was Friday the 13th. My students reminded me while I was teaching. "you'd better be careful" I said. Then ensued a discussion about Jason and Freddy...no, it wasn't Freddy, it was Jason, wasn't it? Or was that Halloween? Then one boy remarked, in Japanese "today's a lucky day then". I don't think he misunderstood, he just, like Japanese people often do, was seeing the yang return before the yin was done. The earth, human life is all in balance. If a day is supposed to be unlucky, it's quite likely the universe will see things right by balancing it out with a bit of luck. I remember one nice sunny day when we were having a barbecue in our back yard, how happy we were - then K got very suspicious and worried that we were too happy and something nasty would happen. I reassured him that we were poor, and that balanced things out enough for him! In reality, we're among the richest 5% of the planet, with everything we need, but I left that bit out...

Anyway, Friday the Thirteenth turned out to be a lucky day for Erica, who took her first steps. While no-one was watching of course, I caught it out of the corner of my eye. At Baachan and Jiichan's house, where we were staying to escape the termites, because Friday the Thirteenth wasn't all good luck - the flying, mating termites arrived. They arrive every year around this time, and every year I think the house is infested again. Amy and Lena were grossed out and couldn't lie down to sleep, and I don't blame them, neither could I when you see them crawling up the walls and across the pillows, one chasing another having termite sex, gross!

So we slept at their house Friday night, and I took Erica back to the doc's on Saturday, as her fever still hadn't dropped. I got antibiotics, picked up Lena and took her to get the passport photos taken. Then we swung by home and caught Jiichan and an insect guy inspecting the place. He talked Jiichan into getting the house fumigated again, even though his verdict was that they were coming from outside and were not infesting the house. Jiichan agreed and it will be done while we are in NZ, which means we can escape the chemical cloud and come back to an insect-free home.

Saturday afternoon Kanji and I went shopping for a vacuum cleaner. I had resigned myself to another cheapie, but he whipped out the plastic and bought a Dyson, a super-duper vacuum cleaner. We can't believe how much dust it got out of our carpet!

Saturday night I had a PTA dinner to attend, with no-one but myself. I was there for two hours before Kanji couldn't contain Erica's cries any longer and I had to come home. Never mind, it was getting pretty boring by then!

Sunday was Father's Day, and after making the house very clean with the new toy, we cooked curry for Dad's dinner. Amy helped a little. She also made mandarin juice - individually squeezing each segment through a seive. I gave her a juicer, but she said it didn't work. Then she helped make the apple crumble, squishing the butter into the flour. She said she liked cooking, it was like art. She loves making things!

They also devised dances to show Daddy in a concert. Amy has to write a diary entry for school each weekend, and she decided to write about the concert and party we made for Daddy - before we did it! So she wrote in her diary that she fell over while dancing, but Lena danced on and she caught up. So because she wrote that, she had to do it!

We had dinner, including sashimi and VB beer that I've been saving up since before Erica was born! And convinced the kids that there were no more termites left in the house!

Monday I finalized my tickets to NZ! I'm so excited, from going from thinking I would not be able to make it back until next Spring, to suddenly having tickets to go in just six weeks! I'm trying not to think about how I'll handle toddling Erica on the plane. No, I'm just NOT thinking about it at all. I'll cope, it'll be rough but it'll only last half a day, and half a day is quite quick really. And then we'll be there, because I have a direct flight!

I took Lena to swimming and she remembered about how she nearly DROWNED last week - twice - so I had to go in and make sure the teachers would keep an eye on her. Idiots. Then it was back to the doctor's to check out a rash on Erica's body that had started developing on Saturday, not long after I started giving her the antibiotics. Could be a reaction, heat rash, excema, measles, or just a run-of-the-mill baby virus. That's exactly what it turned out to be, so I have another few days of rash, and a low fever and general fussiness before she gets better.

So it's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride of a weekend, with the ups and downs!

She walks! Okay, I could have got a better shot - she hardly ever sucks a dummy, truly! But it's harder than you think - once she sees the camera, she wants it, and tries to get it as quickly as she can, and that still means crawling.

At the docs again

Well, I kind of regretted that decision as I wasted a whole morning waiting at the doctor's. So I've got my anhiba and some throat medicine which I probably won't even give her. Oh well, if she's hot and bothered tonight I have the fever meds.

Then it was back to the doc's this afternoon to get Amy's head checked. She fell straight onto the back of her head onto concrete yesterday, and had headaches all day today, so we took her for a check. All okay, just needs pain meds.

Lena's doing okay so far, only she disappeared right when we were all piling into the car to go, or rather, that's when we noticed her gone. She has to learn to not take off without asking permission. She takes off on her bike around the neighborhood.

Lost

Not the TV show, though I do still have a crush on Sayid.

After remembering that we still haven't renewed Lena's Japanese passport, I went to get the passports to see her old one, but only the NZ passports were there. While I turned the house upside-down in a panic to find them, I found the money I had lost a few months ago! It was behind some files in the computer cupboard. Last time I looked I had pulled the files half-way out to check inside them, but this time I pulled them all the way out - and there it was.

This morning the passport search continued, along with a search for the thermometer. I knew Erica had a fever, and that it was lower than last night, but I also know that the nurse at the pediatrician's office will ask me what her temperature was, and even if I say 'hot, really hot, quite high' she'll just keep asking "nan-do nan-do" until I come up with a NUMBER for her to put on her little symptom chart, so find it I must.

Still on those searches, I realize the hairbrush has gone AWOL again. I am going to have to tie it to the door handle again. I also tried the "ten brushes from the 100yen shop" idea a friend suggested, but they have ALL disappeared. We are down to two - one round one that Amy can't use on her thick hair, and the good one.

I call Kanji, ask if he knows where the thermometer is - he'd seen it last on the table. And he thought the passports were in his blue and red bag. Flush with hints, off I go searching again, all the while hassling the girls to get ready for school, and having them join in the search for the hairbrush while I try to find the thermometer and settle a grisly feverish baby.

No luck with the bag in the spare room, though I find Kanji's suits which I had thrown in there in a fit of rage last week, now they are all crumpled and I'll have to get them dry-cleaned. Amy finds the brush, and teases Lena because she had to get her hair brushed with the painful round brush - only the round brush doesn't hurt Lena, because her hair is fine.

Still no passport, but the thermometer turns up on the piano. I take the baby's temperature, 37.7 as I expected, my cheek on her head, my fingers on her neck told me as much, but we must have those numbers for nursie! Meanwhile, Amy's hairband is gone and she even knew where it was - in the bathroom, but I probably shifted it or covered it up with laundry. She 'looks', but I doubt she really looks!

So the kids go off to school, hair brushed, but teeth not, as we ran out of time for that while looking for everything else. Baby back to bed for a long feverish sleep, and I hit the spare room once more, find the blue and red back instantly and the passports within.

Phew...now I just have to do the laundry and I'm sure I'll find several hairbands. Erica has woken up so it's off to the doc's to report my NUMBERS and get my suppository fever meds, the whole purpose of the exercise. I could buy over-the-counter tylenol, but not only is it expensive, the suppositories are much easier than trying to make a baby eat something and I don't even know if they have dosages for under-ones. Doc is free until the kids start school, so I'll put up with a bit of waiting, read a book, and then pick up the passport applications on the way home.

Food Day

Hello, it's a hot Tuesday afternoon, the kids will be home from school soon so we can go and buy the mince for the Spag Bol. I forgot it at the supermarket this morning. I've been busy cooking today. Amy liked Erica's spinach and potato puree (with chicken stock) so much she asked me to cook it for us, so I'm using a recipe I have for a chicken, bacon, potato and spinach soup. Lena requested the Spag Bol. I don't usually cater to my kids like this, but it's Tuesday, which has become Choose-day, and they are so excited about the chance to actually choose what they get to eat that night, they think about it all week! Even if it ends up being curry one week and Spag Bol the next.

Lena has settled into First Grade nicely. She has a very sweet young lady teacher. She was sitting next to a nuisance of a boy who constantly bickered with her, but now she is sitting next to her boyfriend. She is so glad she has a boyfriend and says he is very nice to her. Amy also hangs out with boys. I think she's had enough of girlie bickering. She comes home and tells me so-and-so is strong, but she can still pick him up, or some such result from rather more boisterous play.

Amy is doing well in piano, Lena is going through a rough patch, trying to clear the hurdles of learning to use both hands, and learning about rhythm and rests. Amy cried a lot too at that stage, but got past it and now enjoys being able to play a song she likes. Both go on and off swimming, depending on the behaviour of the other kids more than anything else I think. Lena said she nearly drowned yesterday, twice, which worried me of course, though she seems okay with it as she managed to save herself. But on one other occasion I saw a kid go under during playtime and all the teachers were so busy they didn't notice. She managed to get hold of a rope, but she then vomited so she must have swallowed a lot of water. So I worry. Maybe I'll go early enough to watch that final ten minutes playtime.

And they are both doing an English class at Keio Academy, just because I can never seem to find time to do English with them. When they come home soon, I will have to start them on their English homework as well as their Japanese. Lena applies herself well and gets her work done quickly, but Amy fluffs about, and gets distracted so she ends up taking ALL DAY to do it. Last night it went to bed with her, and she woke in the morning with it still not done! I'm going to try hanging over her shoulder more today so she can get some time to relax without having to think about it.

Erica is next to me, playing with an old phone. She also likes tissues, the broom and pulling all the DVDs off the shelf. And the Wiggles. And Blondie, although I think she confuses the Wiggles and Blondie, since she looks at the TV when we put the music on. She dances! She got so excited yesterday when we put the music on, and her big sisters started dancing. She stood up, waggled her hands around and clapped them, grinning from ear to ear.

She finally has a tooth, and another one coming. She's hard at it, chewing and standing and cruising, plays hard, sleeps hard, still three naps a day, then a fairly late bedtime of 8 or 9. She eats - loves bananas, and the spinach and potato puree! She also loves the computer and is trying to get it right now so I'm off to finish my pureeing!

and a tooth!

Standing, standing, standing, but not a foot forward yet! She's gotten really good and standing up from the floor, and sitting again, but the whole thing stills excites her. She'll grin from ear to ear and start flapping her arms, and of course she loses her balance and falls onto her bottom.

She loves the Wiggles! They have finally been translated into Japanese, though we can switch it back to English. She sits on the floor in front of the TV and flaps her arms and goos.

Meanwhile she's sprung a tooth. I noticed it last Wednesday.