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.