A Zooless, Fever-filled Sunday. And Some Magic To Boot.

So we were all ready to go to the zoo this morning, waking up early and everything. We’ve been thinking of going check out another zoo in Yokohama since visiting the last one because we all had a great time despite the heat. With the cooler (or at least less humid) days of September upon us, it seemed like a good idea. But alas, the best laid plans…

Getting up early wasn’t exactly my idea, and judging by Tamie’s reluctance to wake up it wasn’t her’s either. The quiet cries of the baby in the next room was enough to wake me from my slumber and, after I got her and brought her into bed, wake Tamie up too. Unfortunately, the crying wasn’t because of a neglectful parent or a bad dream – Layla had a fever. So we had a decision to make – take our ailing child to see monkeys and elephants, or don’t. The voice of reason eventually spoke up and told me we should probably stick around home and nurture our baby back to health. Then the voice of reason told me she was still tired and I should take our daughter into the other room.

When Tamie finally crawled out of bed, not too long after we did, she found that one of the wires in her braces had broken. She called her dentist and made an appointment for 11:30, giving us enough time to have a good pancake breakfast before she had to bolt. So even if Layla was in perfect health, our zoo plans were probably not going to happen anyways. The best laid plans…

While Tamie was out, Layla and I played with most of her thousand stuffed animals before enjoying some fine Sesame Street DVD’s. She ended up falling asleep just before Tamie came back. Had Tamie not come back, I might have joined her in her little siesta. As it was, it gave me ample opportunity to head out and rollerblade on my newly rotated wheels in broad daylight. Things were finally starting to look up…

I won’t go into another long diatribe about my rollerblading experience, save to say two things. Despite the cooler September weather, it’s still bloody hot in this country, even without the 100% humidity. Secondly, I’m not sure whether my newly rotated wheels are just too old, the sidewalks here are just too rollerblade-unfriendly, or my technique is just too bad, but half way through this excursion and I lost a wheel. By the time I made it home, my left foot was constantly grinding on the cement. Fun times, indeed.

View 2009-09-06 – Popped a wheelie. in a larger map

After getting cleaned up, I asked the girls what they wanted to do. Layla’s fever seeming to subside and Tamie’s braces back in one piece, we were ready to take on the world. Or at least, Ebina. We headed back to our standard shopping centre for lack of any better ideas. After getting there we stood around wondering what to do – Tamie didn’t even want to shop… I was wondering if she was coming down with something too! There was apparently a magic show starting at 4, which seemed interesting… at least to me. It wasn’t quite 4 yet so we had to find something to do until then.

We ended up sitting on a patio drinking overpriced, oversweetened iced tea. If I thought 800 yen for a Corona was bad, 700 yen for peach flavoured sugary tea was ridiculous (Tamie got the strawberry soda, which was even sweeter). We sipped slowly, waiting for the ice to melt and water down the syrupy concoction. Unfortunately, our patience was not matched by Layla’s and after sitting in the heat for more than ten minutes, she wanted to go do something.

We wandered over to the pet shop to see the sleeping dogs, one of which wasn’t asleep. I wish I could say I’ve never seen Layla so scared, but she’s scared of everything. It’s still awesome, though, when she does get scared and run and hide behind me. The little puppy in the cage was wound up, for some reason, and just the fact he was jumping around (inside a cage, no less) was enough to set her off. Eventually she realized he couldn’t get out and was brave enough to check out the other animals, so long as I was holding her hand.

Not long after leaving the pet shop, we found that it was nearing the start of the magic show. We ventured over to the stage area to get a good spot. There were a lot of kids sitting close to the stage, and a surprising (or maybe not) number of older gentlemen too. Check out this video of a part of the show to get a better idea of why Japanese magicians are much cooler than their Canadian brethren. Notice the drunk guy in the black shirt. There were a number of his kind there.

After the colourful show ended we headed back home. Tamie wanted to get out jogging and I just wanted to get out of the heat. After she came back, we had a nice salmon pasta dinner before eventually putting Layla to bed.

It wasn’t more than an hour or so before Layla started crying. Not the typical crying in her sleep, but the ‘I’m going to throw up all over Dad’ kind of crying. Despite Tamie getting up to go tend to the kid, I knew she wouldn’t stop crying until she was in my arms. I held her, patted her on the back, comforted her, and finally, predictably, relieved her of her stomach contents. Her fever was through the roof so we gave her more medication before changing her pajamas and putting her back to bed.

Eventually Tamie wanted to head to bed, right around the same time Layla was awake again. I figured she’ll be crying through the night and suggested Layla sleep with us tonight. Since I wanted to finish writing this blog entry, I left Layla with Tamie in our bed and came back out to the living room. While I’m typing now, I heard the two of them giggling like school girls and chatting away. Layla even came out to visit me, telling me she wasn’t allowed to watch her favourite Sesame Street DVDs and asking me to take her picture. Laziness got the better of me, despite the numerous (and hilarious) poses. I didn’t want to encourage such behaviour at 11:00 at night!

I ended up giving the poor kid some warm milk and some water before she wandered off back into the bedroom… at least I think that’s where she went. Every once in a while I can still hear the pitter patter of little feet wandering the halls. I guess I should sign off now and go make sure she’s not sleepwalking.