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!
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!
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