Firsts

It's all about firsts, isn't it.

Today for the first time, she grabbed something dangerous, an electrical cord while she had tummy time on her nappy mat. Oops, gotta find a new home for that new multi-region DVD player now!

Her First Christmas, which was also the first day she sat on my hip, watching me make the turkey gravy. The first time she rolled over, although Kanji tells me he saw her do it earlier, so this is officially 'his' first! I found her later on, crashed into the leg of the activity gym that's over her nappy mat, rolled off the mat and consequently in quite a state! Took her a while to get over that first!

Update, later on - another first! First laugh out loud - while watching her big sister on the toilet!

Christmas presents 2007

ME

Mum - tea towels and earrings
JO - wrinkle cream and hair serum
BECK - Bath set
CHRIS - lindt truffles
Kanji - freezer
kawanos - scarf

KANJI

Mum - Key holder, mint chocolate
Jo - ferrero rocher
becky - Kahlua chocolate
me - luminarc bowls

ERICA

Santa - doll, snake, rattle, clothes
mum and dad - playmobil, bib set,
grandma - first christmas book, Marylou
P * A - name plate
mcleods - big rattle
beck - fuzzy buzzy bee
Amy and Lena - blocks

AMY and LENA

peter and amanda - name plates
mcleods - sand art
mitchells - black t-shirts
becky - Amy, funky girls drawing book, Lena, how to be a princess; dog tags
Grandma - Amy, Girls' book, Mr Men Mr christmas, Lena, classic nursery rhymes and Mr Men Christmas Carol
Mum and Dad - playmobil
Santa - clothes, Mell clothes and book, tutu, book - Amy, squids will be squids and ;Lena, dragons and petit marionette
Rachel - xmas earrings
amy from Lena - bag and clip; Lena from Amy, Mel shower

Christmas Day

Santa came! Great! Though there was the usual non-chimney family's worries about access. Luckily we have a convenient upstairs balcony where we put out the chocolate milk (Amy found out from somewhere that Father Christmas prefers chocolate milk. Good on him) and cookies the kids had baked themselves, and painted with egg yolk and food coloring. Great - that meant I could eat ALL the Christmas cake! Gosh, it took me half a lifetime to acquire the taste, so I'm kind of happy it'll take the rest of them another 10-20 years to acquire it, because in the mean time, I have to make up for the last 20 years that I missed out on.

As usual in our house, Daddy was up first, and we tried to wake the children so he could see what Santa brought, but they were having none of it - we keep them up too late on Christmas Eve. I thought seven was old enough to be up at the crack of dawn toeing the presents at the end of the bed and hearing the wrapping paper crackle...

Father Christmas brought them some very dearly wished-for gifts. The favorite gift has to be the ballet tutus. Amy has been waiting two years for one. They got clothes for themselves, and clothes for their favorite doll, Mell. The clothes were from fairy tales and came with a book. Lena got Little Red Riding Hood, to match her ballet performance, and Amy got Cinderella. Finally they also got two books each, one in English and one in Japanese, since Santa knows they are bilingual. Erica got her very first doll, which is HUGE, and a big green stuffed snake, which she loves, also a tiny rattle that's just perfect for her little hand and a new dress.

Then we had our traditional ham and eggs Christmas breakfast. Or rather, I did, and the kids opted out in favor of cereal. Then we went to church! Yep, we actually went to church. Recently a lady from the Phillipines has been wokring at Youme Town, and she asked if we were going. I had been half-heartedly meaning to go past the church to check the times, but kept forgetting. So I asked her the times, then I had no excuse! There are a lot of catholics in the Phillipines, from the Spanish colonization that preceeded the Japanese WWII take-over that was followed by the American occupation that preceeded independence. Phew! There are some natives in there too I expect!

Anyway, I started my turkey cooking before we left, just like Mum, so it would be smelling delicious when we got back. Then I got to work on my roast dinner. I called Keio just before I started peeling potatoes, to see how many of the staff were coming - I had invited several of the foreign staff over for Christmas lunch. I received the shocking news that Manager had scheduled a meeting! It's bad enough that the poor buggers have to front up to work on Christmas Day, but to add insult to injury by calling pop meetings is just heinous! Not to mention it rather thinned out my planned lunch. So I talked to Manager and asked her if I could have a few staff members, please, as I had already cooked the turkey. Upshot was, Manager came over too, plus two American staff members, one with his Japanese wife who is pregnant. And Rachel, who used to work there and used to teach Lena. Lena loved that!

By this time the kids had been allowed to open up some of their other presents, including the one from Mum and Dad. We got them playmobil. My siblings will remember how many hours of fun we got out of ours. Mum will recall how expensive it is! I got an enormous amount of it second hand, it was being sold in sets, and I got several - I paid $100, but got my money's worth, since each $10 set would have been 40-60 brand new. I got a helicopter, a car, a waterfall, two buffalo, three horses, cowboys and Indians, an enormous pile of hospital gear, a Victorian toilet, a wedding party and a playground. The girls played with it for three days solid until I insisted it be cleaned up so I could vacuum! Lena has coined a new verb, she keeps saying, "Amy, let's play-mobil!".

Manager popped out for a few minutes to get something and I took the chance to open the champagne and slip my co-workers a much-needed drink! Then we put the gingerale bottle on the table. We had roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, roast potato, sweet potato and pumpkin, and peas. For dessert there was pavlova (more like a giant marshmallow than an giant meringue, the pav is still a work-in-progress) and a trifle. There was birthday cake and Christmas cake, which only I ate. And mountains of chocolate.

The guests left, and we opened up the last of our presents, made some phone calls, and spent the rest of day quietly, eating leftovers. The kids preferred left-over curry, which meant all the more turkey for me!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is considered Christmas in Japan. Some people don't even know that Christmas is on the 25th, they think it's all over by midnight on the 24th! In Japan, it's a romantic date night.

Christmas is also Kanji's birthday. So we have developed our own little Christmas Eve celebration. Kanji's favorite meal is curry, sashimi and beer, so we make that for him, and also make a birthday cake. This year Amy and Lena decided on a heart-shaped pink cake decorated with marbles (which are Japanese smarties/pebbles/M&Ms). Only the red food colouring mixed with the yellow butter to make orange. I bought the cake too, so it wasn't the nicest cake ever, but it was good enough for a happy birthday song and a little party with beer and kid's champagne. Then we settled down to watch Polar Express, a magical little movie that has become an instant Christmas classic.

Finally, bedtime...making sure the stockings and sacks are well-placed, the cookies and chocolate milk are out on the balcony for Santa and his reindeer...and finally, in the wee small hours, Santa comes!

Update

I've been told to update my blog, so here I am. There wasn't really anything going on during the last week, except for Christmas preparations. I have made the hazelnut truffles and Christmas caramels from the small Edmonds Christmas book. The hazelnut truffles have been great fun. First I could find no hazelnut powder or hazelnuts, so they became almond truffles. Then my choc bits for the coating wouldn't melt properly, so I added loads of cream. It still wasn't dipping consistency so I gave up and added walnuts and apricots, and rolled it into a log, which didn't work because it was too runny. It turned into a chocolate splat.



Then I tried a different kind of chocolate to dip the truffles, which worked, but I had a ton leftover. So I cut the chocloate splat into squares, topped each with a now half-set glob of chocolate dip, and decorated it with a piece of apricot and walnut. Still I had chocolate dip/gloop leftover, so I rolled in the extra apricots and walnuts and wrapped it in tin foil to make a chocolate lump. Which I then ate.



By contrast, the caramels were much more successful, except I made the fudge in a non-stick pot, which stuck, leaving bits of non-stick-pot-muck through my caramels. Which I ate.



Now all I have to do is once again try a pavlova, and some lamingtons to bring to a pot-luck party on Sunday. Trifles for Christmas and curry for Kanji's birthday on Monday and roast something on Tuesday. By the time I get to the bottom of the pile and tuck into that second packet of crunchies (the first packet is all eaten already) I will have put on all the pregnancy weight I lost. It's obvious what my New Year's resolution will be.

Festival

Kanji was invited to participate in a festival this year. He's president of his Business Club this year, and was invited by the branch in the town where this festival is held. I don't even know what the festival is called, only that it involved carrying a Mikoshi, or portable shrine, across the river to it's home shrine on the other side.

The men carrying the shrine have to actually go into the water, and it's early winter so it's VERY cold! They are wearing fundoshi, the loincloth that sumo wrestlers wear, along with a cotton coat that I thought would just make them colder once it got wet through

Things kids say

I was taking a little rest, a wee nap, while feeding the baby. Amy walked past and said to me "What are you not looking at?" Apparently she thought I was shutting from my vision the knowledge of whatever mess or mischeif she was getting into!

In the bath, I was rubbing some cream on my tummy that Kanji had brought back as a souvenir for me from Tokyo. Recommended by some of the women in his club (they were all there for a conference) it's supposed to firm your tummy. It's an orange gel and it warms up when you put it on. I'm not inclined to believe that things like this work, it's probably just a coincidence as the tummy firms up naturally in the months after birth. But I was willing to give it a try, his heart's in the right place anyway!

Anyway, there I was rubbing it on, and Lena was questioning me about it. I explained that it was supposed to make my tummy hard, and I wasn't really sure that it would work. So she said, "But tummies aren't supposed to be hard anyway!". You know Lena, you're right! Tummies aren't supposed to be hard! Sometimes it takes a kid to state the obvious.

phew!

That's the bath - she loved her bath again last night, conveniently forgot the sneezing episode. Nothing seems to fluster this baby, she's one calm kid.

But I have other children, you know, and maybe you'd like to know what going on in their lives. Amy is a proud big sister, and is the best at getting Erica to talk or laugh. She has no shame! And it's funny to hear the kinds of things she says, which are copied off me, you know that dorky stuff you say to babies for lack of anything else to say 'You're a pretty baby, yes you are! what are you doing? Are you talking to Mummy, yes you are you clever little darling!' all said in that high-pitched baby-talk voice. It's the same in Japanese!

She has a big school run tomorrow - can't call it a cross-country, as it's around the city streets! They have been practicing in the grounds at school every day, and so far her asthma seems to be handling it okay. There is so much dust though! The school yard, for those who don't know, has no grass, it's just dirt, turning to a mud-bath on rainy days. She also has a toe-nail coming off, so between the two little problems, I'm a little concerned about the run. I'll go stake out a spot at the half-way point to see her come past, and check that she's okay!

School is going okay. She hates getting so much homework every day and is dying to get back to school in NZ, where there is much less. Not to mention grass! Everyday she has to practice sums, write a page of sums, do some reading and practice writing characters. In addition she has piano practice, and she wants time to play, so we are not getting any time to practice English, except for reading before bedtime. Due to all the classes, long winter baths and baby care, bedtime is getting later and later, which she doesn't like - she's made the connection between how good she feels in the morning and how late she went to bed, and is keen to get to bed earlier! "Let's go to bed at 5 o'clock tonight Mama" she says!

She's keen to start ballet and art again, although I am afraid that she'll just quit again. She's too independent! She likes doing her own thing - the downside to having a creative kid who very happily amuses herself without ever wanting to watch TV. Meanwhile, she's doing swimming and piano. Piano upsets her - she can't do it, and doesn't like to do something she can't excel at straight off. But I want her to persist, because I don't think it's good to only do things that come easily. You have to learn to put some effort in, and it's a much greater reward when you worked hard at something. It's been better though since I stopped interfering and left her and the teacher alone!

Lena is not enjoying Kindy as much as Amy did. She has 'friends', if you can call them that, as they seem to tease her as often as be kind to her. Lately her mood seems to hinge on whether one of them calls her hair-tie or her clothes cute or not. So every day is a battle to get her wearing something she feels will be acceptable to her 'friends'. We all want our kids to be stronge against peer pressue, but I lean towards giving in, as it just seems SOO important to her!

Often they reject her totally, and even tell other girls not to play with her, or you can't be our friend. So Lena plays with the boys. It got bad enough that the teacher called us to kindy to talk about it. Lena got so upset - they told her she had weird, 'different' eyes - she has the most beautiful eyes you can imagine, and she's made to feel ashamed of them! She wanted to change her name, seeming to feel that her name was wrong, or weird too. (It's actually a very common Japanese name). She wanted to change it to 'Ayumi', which is the name of Japan's No.1 pop star, because then everyone would like her. So I'm playing music to her by some pop stars whose Mums are foreigners. There are a few in my Foreign Wives' Club whose daughters have made it in Japan's music industry.

It seems to have settled down for the time being, but then again, she doesn't report to me what happens every day.

She had her ballet concert a few weeks ago. She was Little Red Riding Hood. Once again, they went all out, with professional costumes, lighting, sets, everything but the symphony orchestra! She has started piano, but she is very naughty, and prefers to do silly things like fall off her chair. She loves swimming, but I want her to take a rest for the rest of this month, as it makes her cough worse. I think she has asthma. Two weeks ago after swimming, I could swear I could hear wheezing in her lungs, as she coughed and coughed after her lesson. I have heard that although swimming is good generally for lungs, pool water can aggravate asthma. Also the hot air in there, then the cold air outside wreaks havoc on weak lungs. It seems her cough from a cold way back may have developed into asthma.

I gave her ventolin, and the effect was almost immediate reliefe. I took her to the hospital the next day, and the doctor said she couldn't hear asthma in her lungs, but her lungs still sounded better after the nebulizer. She gave me a short course of antibiotics, plus mucus and cough medicine, as, she said, they don't pass out asthma medication at the first showing. It may just be a bad cough. We are going again on Dec 26, when we will also get their second flu shots. With all this threatened asthma, and a baby in the house, I don't want any flu this season if I can avoid it!

Grab

Erica's amusing all of us with her new grabbing skills, though she still seems blissfully unaware of what she is doing! She's pulled a toy off her activity gym, her sister's hair, my necklace, my glasses off, and her bib off.

She's added 'uuAAuu' to her vocabulary, along with gaa, goo and 'algula'. She was quite proud and excited when she added 'uuAAuu', that 'AA' is the biggest sound she's made so far - I'm sure she felt like she was singing. She loves it when I sing to her. I like 'Hush Little Baby' because it's complicated enough to keep my attention - if you think about it you can go on and on forever. And it's amusing to hear Amy and Lena try to sing it and get all confused!

She's 6.2kg and a little round ball of a baby. I thought she was round when she was born, but looking back at a photo of her held by her Daddy, wearing just a singlet, she was a skinny lean litle bub then compared to now! Round head, round belly, round thighs, even round shoulders. She especially looks like a ball when we are in the bath and I hold her under her shoulders, letting her swim.

She LOVES her bath. Yesterday when I was getting her undressed on the mat outside the bath, she was nearly laughing out loud, and waving her arms around, eyes all big. I hope she still enjoys it today, because she got a tremendous fright last night - when her Daddy sneezed, of all things. He was holding her, and just about to pass her to me, so she was feeling a little uneasy already probably, as he had started to hold her away from his body. Also, I had just overflowed the bath (the joys of Japanese bathing!) with a big whoosh sound. Neither of these things make her cry usually, but the combination plus that sneeze were all too much and she screamed, and we couldn't console her and had to get out of the bath. She was still sobbing and shaking as she fed quarter of an hour later. So we'll see tonight which memory sticks the harder - a big scare or the two weeks of joy that preceded it!

Wedding Anniversary

It was our 8th wedding anniversay today!

Kanji got me flowers and sweets. The flowers are still alive and beautiful (as of the following Monday), the lilies having opened up in the intervening days. They have joined Lena's three bouquets from her ballet concert, and the two little ones Jiichan got for Amy and Lena. After a few days having them in various glasses, I finally caved and went and bought some vases. That didn't stop us spilling them though, most recently yesterday when I managed to knock down three bouquets with the laundry. At least it forces me to change the water.

The sweets were chocolate cakes, which I made into sundaes with banana, vanilla ice cream, walnuts and chocolate sauce on Friday night. Also chestnut whip puddings, which are just lovely and come in little ceramic ramekins, which we get to keep! I have five now, gulp, which means I just HAVE to get one more sweet little chestnut pudding, yum yum.

We took the kids out for dinner. We went to the Grand Hotel, which is the hotel we were married in, when it was called the Sunroute. I had no idea the Grand had such a good western food menu! We chose a set menu for us, and curry for the girls. Entrees were persimmon wrapped in ham, then pates. There was a fish course with salmon and sea bream, and a soup, maybe pumpkin and potato, steak with vegetables and a delicious chocolate self-saucing pudding with vanilla ice cream and chocolate and custard sauces. The pudding turned out to be an under-cooked cupcake! Interesting, easy and delicious - you know how yummy uncooked cake batter is!

Erica came too and was reasonable. It would have been a shambles if I wasn't such a consummate breastfeeder, if I may be allowed to blow my own trumpet. I took her from the restaurant when she first cried, but the lobby was large and decorated with hard materials that just echoed her cry. I had to go all the way to the toilet, which I am usually opposed to, as babies shouldn't be made to eat in there. But hotel toilets in Japan are scrupulously clean, and, like in malls, usually have a second separate room for handbasins, and even a third room with mirrors and chairs. This one had no chairs, so I got her latched on standing up. I was wearing a low-cut sweater over a higher-necked t-shirt, so I was able to do so with very little clothing moved, and when Amy came into the toilet to find me, she had no idea Erica was feeding, so I felt confident enough to walk thus across the foyer and back into the restaurant, where I sat down and resumed my meal, with my left hand, but otherwise in comfort. Kanji didn't even know until later on that she was latched on all that time! Everyone just thought she was asleep in a cradle-hold. She stayed that way through five course, which is why it would have been a shambles if I wasn't able to feed her so comfortably, or, for that matter, if I had chosen different clothes. Ladies - high-cut under-top up, and low-cut over-top down. Got it?

Well, I think I can almost say it without reservation...tempting fate here but...it'll all go to pack next week, or next time she has a growth spurt...but I think I can say she's nearly sleeping through the night! She's taken to having a LOOONG overnight stint, from bedtime at around 9-10, to anytime between 3-5 in the morning. Then she wakes, feeds a bit, wakes again around dawn, when I feed her and she sleeps through the breakfast/school thing.

And she just woke from her nap NOW, so off I go, I know she's really awake cos she farted

edited Wednesday: nope, she woke up at 2am and 4am last night. And I really needed the sleep too! I think I'm coming down with something. Or am I just tired?

Above and below left, at the rehearsal the day before, with her much prettier un-made-up face, and plain shoes.
Below, Amy came too, and amused Erica!
Below, in full stage make-up, very bizarre close-up, like a drag queen, but it helps their features stand out on stage

L

Far eft, with a couple of other, equally gorgeously costumed little dancers. Left, the bouquets she received for her performance!

Fun Things About Baby

1) Her smiles. Talking to her. That adorable succession of coos and gurgles as she tries with all her might to communicate with me. It's so exciting to watch her get closer and closer to an out-loud laugh! We are also teaching her to be tickled - squeeze her slightly on the sides of her ribs by her armpits while giggling madly at her. She's slowly catching on! And we're teaching her peek-a-boo (or Japanese inai-inai-ba!).

2) Breastfeeding. I just really enjoy it! I like the chance to sit down and just rest and forget everything and reconnect with the baby. It must be the relaxing hormones, because while when I am walking up and down the room to soothe her crying or get her to sleep, I am constantly noticing the things that need to be done, and disturbing her by picking up laundry or rubbish, plucking things up with my toes, but when I breastfeeding, I just kind of review it all with a resigned, "Ah, well, do that later". I love watching her feed, from the shark-like clamp-on when she's really hungry, the little noises she makes, her hands clutching at the boob or holding onto my finger. Her perfectly peaceful face when she drifts off to sleep with a nipple in her mouth - baby heaven! Eating, sleeping, and getting a cuddle from the person you love the most - All at the same time! And my favorite baby face is the one when she just pops off, clamps her mouth shut, lips all pushed up, a dribble of milk down her chin!

3) Bathtime. I've always enjoyed bathing the baby, it's a highlight of your baby day, getting to see the baby naked! You love ALL your baby, and you miss seeing those adorable little rolls and round tummy when they're hiding in clothes all day. But bathtime has taken on a whole new dimension since I started to go in with her. She's happier, because she feels more secure being held firmly in my arms instead of that awkward balance on two fingers behind the ears. The bath can be longer, because the deep tub doesn't cool as quickly as the small baby bath, a vital factor in an unheated Japanese bathroom in wintertime. And I get to cuddle up to her soft warm body! We're both loving it!



4) Watching her sleep

More of the sweet

I should know not to make any generalizations yet! Her next day after the last post was fussy and she cried quite a bit. The 8pm bedtime was a fluke, it seems, and her real habit is to cry and fuss from 8 to 10 or 11! Last night was another wondeful exception, at least I think it is wise of me to view it as an exception - she slept from around 9pm, to 3am, giving me such a refreshing six-hour sleep that I felt quite awake at 3am and read for a bit before sleeping again. She woke again at 6am, and I felt very energetic and got up, leaving her to sleep in until 8:30 while I cleaned up and got the laundry done.

So life with a little one is slowly getting more sane and predicable. She is pretty easy-going, she loves that activity gym, and will sit quietly in her carseat or daybed. She even goes to sleep by herself sometimes at night, and just with a little rocking during the day. Sometimes she needs to be held, but she knows the score so well now that she drops off after just a few trips up and down the room.

She smiles and coos, even in the bath - I've gotten in the bath with her every night since last Friday's wonderful experience. Now there are no more tears at all at bathtime, unless I put her in the baby bath to soap her up (no suds in the Japanese bath, remember!). And it lasts until well after her bath, so no more tears getting into her towel or getting dressed either. And we love it.

Amy and Lena have gotten in with us too, which they loved. They love her! They rock her to sleep, or shake the rattles on the activity gym. She stares at them, smiles at them and coos and gurgles to them, which melts their hearts of course.

Another photo

Six Weeks

I'm sure there's an identical photo of Amy somewhere, and Lena too! That activity gym, which she loves to observe, that cushion, Mum's crocheted woolies, which it is finally cold enough to use!

If she looks a little puffy, that's because she has a bit of a cold, but she's getting her 'mama's milk medicine' so she's doing okay.

She is such a treat! She's settling into a very calm and happy baby. She's at her best first thing in the morning, when she grins from ear to ear. She opened her mouth wide in joy this morning, so I don't think it'll be long before she's laughing out loud. She talks and talks! Just coos and gurgles, but it's so purposeful, and she seems so excited to be having a conversation with me!

Last night she skipped the usual unsettled period, and slept soundly from about 8pm (not counting feeding breaks at 10, 2 and 5, but they were short and she went quickly back to sleep). And she chose the perfect night to do that - Amy and Lena were at Baachan's, and Kanji and I cooked ourselves dinner and leisurely ate it with some wine.

I also had my first bath with my precious baby - it was wonderful, it feels just SO good to hold their soft little body in your arms, skin to skin. She stayed in for ages, even let go of her towels, and really relaxed. Kanji managed to squeeze in too! She's in the day bed in the kitchen right now, talking to the ceiling. I might go feed her and see what comes next.

Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

A centipede crawled across the baby's bed last night. I had just fed her and was ready to put her back in her bed when I saw it. It ran right across where her head had been. Mum will recall the little one I saw from my feeding chair, when we were still sleeping downstairs. I said then that they were coming up through the tatami from the garden, and I would move upstairs when she left to avoid them. So it's rather a blow to encouter one upstairs! And this was after I abandoned the tatami room upstairs, as the crumbly walls were exacerbating my allergies, which are playing up since I have a cold. I have spent the last few nights on the floor in the girls' room! So, I am left with no-where to sleep.

So I gave the room a thorough clean, and sprayed bug spray in every corner. Kanji, who managed to find and kill the creature last night, looked it up on Wikipedia this morning, where it said that the centipede-killing sprays are not very effective, and hazardous to human health. It's best to eliminate its prey - cockroaches and other small insects. I've never seen one before upstairs, so I'm hoping it was a one-off! And luckily I am tired enough to sleep anyway, even though I had to banish horrible images of the room being overrun with centipedes a few times before I slept!

See photo here

Erica comes to life

My squishy newborn is turning into a bouncing cuddly wee baby! I was just holding her here as I read the online news, and I looked down at her to find she was intently studying me, and grinned as soon as I looked at her. She was just waiting for me to talk to her.

She talks - she goes 'goo'. It's so cute! Kanji will be home this afternoon, so I'll try to video it, it's one of those precious things that go so soon, that you forget so quickly!

She turns those big steel-grey eyes and fixes her gaze on me with a look that says, 'You're my Mother' and nothing more. But oh how much that means!

Erica is growing fast! She holds her head up really well, even improving in the few days since Mum left. She likes to lie across my arm or leg on her tummy, gnawing away at whatever her mouth can find, and lifiting her head up to look around the room. She is starting to watch her sisters, and enjoyed watching them dance yesterday. She also likes to look at a painting Lena did, that has sat stuck to the side of the bookshelf for months, neglected and forgotten until Erica found it!

Amy and Lena have become expert cradle rockers. Amy can nearly pick her up, but I'm still a bit unsure about that! Their lives go on of course. Amy had her first field trip last week and Lena had a sports day where she aced the relay -the girl can fly! She is also doing very well with ballet - she is Little Red Riding Hood in the concert, and it sounds like she's getting her steps down very well.

I am managing to get the laundry done! I will go hang some now, but it looks like rain today so it will have to hang on the kitchen window. Typical, Erica wet her bed today! The typhoon passed over, and, alas, didn't ground Grandma and force her to stay in Japan for another week. Now it looks like we have a cold snap coming over, and I need to go bundle up. On the bright side, it is finally cool enough for me to take out some of the beautiful woollens Mum brought for Erica. She will wear a cardigan today!

The bad news is that I have a blocked duct. I think a combination of lying on it to read, then Erica falling alseep after feeding off the other side and it getting engorged caused it. So that's two reasons why Mum's post won't be going today - the other being the fact that our scales died, so I can't be sure of the weight, and the weight is important because there are special discounts avaialble for up-to-1kg and up-to-2kg packages, so I have to be careful to get them exactly one or two kgs!

Erica is sleeping right now, so I'm going to get a cup of tea and have a rest and a sleep and nurse this breast, and hope it doesn't develop into mastitis.

Halloween and no Grandma

Well Grandma left yesterday morning, a very sad day and we all miss her terribly! Poor Amy had a dream that she was gone - then woke up and it was true! Erica did not smile at anyone, and Lena was very sad. I was sad too of course, and we're all counting down until we return to NZ in August next year.

Erica slept most of the day yesterday, although she had a hard time settling in the evening, leaving me walking up and down for about 2 hours until she finally settled at about 10pm. Today she had her unsettled period over lunchtime, while I was hosting a party!

Yes, mad though it may seem, I decided to have a Halloween party! I made a pumpkin pie on Friday, so Mum could try it. I roasted pumpkin (or more acurately, butternut squash) yesterday for the pasta, and started tidying yesterday morning. The girls took care of the decorations. I even got a load of laundry out this morning!

Maia and Emily and Masaki and their Mums came, bringing muffins and drinks and bread rolls to add to our feast. We played 'trick or treat' with Maia's Mum taking care of the front door, Joanne being house No.2 at the living room door and me being house No.3 in the kitchen. Then they just played outside while we talked, I didn't have time to arrange any elaborate games or activities.

Tonight I think we'll have take-aways, and then get to bed early. Erica slept for six hours at night on Thursday and Friday nights, but woke twice again last night. On Friday we took her for her one-month check-up. She's now 5kg, well above average for her age! Big in every direction!