This morning I woke up with the intention of going to work early and Tamie was going to go to work even earlier. Seeing as we were in such a rush, it came as no surprise that a raging typhoon hit the country and, as a result, completely messed up the train schedule. While we ate breakfast, the train that usually passes our place every 3-5 minutes was absent. The silence was kind of nice, in a oh-crap-the-trains-aren’t-running kind of way.
I took Layla to daycare and she screamed ‘NO! STOP IT!’ whenever the wind would gust. It was hilarious how mad/scared she was. When we got to the daycare, the gates were all tied up, apparently to protect against the strong winds. Luckily it was only windy, the rain didn’t come until after I dropped her and was on my way back home to grab my bag (and umbrella, apparently) before heading out to work.
In the time it took to get home, talk to Tamie, find my rain jacket and promptly do the gentlemanly thing and give it to my wife, grab my non-waterproof stuff and head out, the rain had stopped. The sun even came out. It was quite the turn of events, but the damage had already been done.
My train to Shinjuku was 1.5 hours late… at Shinjuku, the trains were all backed up. Crowds and chaos was all around, but there were station employees out to guide people… it was so bad that there was a loooong line outside of the gate of my connecting train. Check this out: http://img96.yfrog.com/i/fs5e.jpg/. Posted via twitter on my google phone!
Luckily my connecting train is only a ten minute ride, and it went smoothly once on.
That’s the last time I ever try to go to work early.
Weekends are supposed to be times of a little R&R and a lot of sleeping in. This weekend was a little bit different.
Saturday started like any other weekday, the alarm buzzing at a too early hour in the morning and the snooze button being overused in an attempt to gain ten more minutes of well-deserved rest. We had to get up early because there was a daycare event taking place that we needed to attend.
Thinking back to last year’s daycare day, the one with the race that I had to carry Layla from the start to the end as she cried throughout, made me all the more anxious to turn off the alarm and resume my dreams of lollipops and hand grenades (don’t ask…). Unfortunately, or fortunately, Tamie was more eager to go and got us all out of our beds and ready to go. Her parents were on their way to pick us up in their brand spanking new Prius (go Nissan).
After Tamie called the daycare to find out where the thing was actually taking place, we were all on our way. Interestingly, they had two different locations picked out, one for a rainy day and one for a sunny day. As we pulled up to the sunny day location, of course it started to rain. If only they’d had some way to forecast the weather and know that after a full week of rain that there’d be one more day of it. Ah, well.
The actual event turned out to be a bit of an eye opener. Layla, our shy, little, afraid-of-her-shadow daughter turned into a confident leader among babies. I guess standing a head taller than everyone else does something to boost her confidence. It was a huge difference from the year before, enough to make me happy we went and enough to make Tamie cry tears of joy as she espoused how proud she was to see Layla jump around rambunctiously.
We watched as kids of all ages danced and raced, but the most (or only, depending on who you ask) interesting times were when Layla was actively participating. The opening ceremonies had everyone dancing around and Layla killed. She had a race that I wish I could say she won, but I don’t really think there was a winner. Everyone who actually makes it to the finish line without help from a parent or daycare staff is considered a winner in my book.
Then the rain came. Not just any rain, a torrential downpour of typhoon-like proportions. The kids all huddled in a corner while the parents all crowded under a tree. The daycare staff scrambled desperately to get everything under cover but were too proud to accept our help when we offered it. Eventually, they moved everything and then everyone into the school’s gym where we continued to watch the kids put on a show.
More races, including one with Tamie and Layla collecting balls in a box and another with Tamie running around the gym with a ping-pong ball on a spoon, ensued until it finally closed up shop. Layla got a Mickey Mouse plate out of the deal and Tamie got some dish soap, so it wasn’t a total loss. Me? I got the satisfaction of seeing my daughter not only actively participate but seemingly enjoy herself at the same time.
Following the event, we took Tamie’s folks out for lunch to a local kushiyagi place (random pieces of deep fried food on sticks) to celebrate Layla’s success. When lunch was finished I took the girls home where they both crashed, Tamie on the bed and Layla on me. I let them sleep until 3:30, the time Tamie told me to wake her up as we were to meet up with some of her friends by 4.
At 4:30 we finally met up with Tamie’s friends. One of them was getting married the next day and they all wanted to do some shopping for costumes. Because the wedding was on October 4th, it was close enough to Halloween that they were having a costume party following the actual wedding ceremony. With cosplay so popular in this country, I was sadly disappointed with their choice of costumes – three matching headpieces that looked like takoyaki (octopus balls).
After the long, arduous shopping adventure, we headed for a restaurant for a quick bite to eat and a mug or two of beer. I didn’t realize how tired I was until after we got home and I fell asleep on Layla’s floor when putting her to bed… and then on the couch after Tamie woke me up and brought me to the living room. Looking back, I should have taken a siesta with the girls in the afternoon… nothing a couple beer didn’t fix =)
Sunday, the day of the wedding, and Tamie was up and gone by 10:30. Layla and I were together again for another adventure in Ebina. I took her to Vina Walk (as usual) to see dogs and babies (as usual), but this time she wasn’t feeling all that well so we came home after not too long. She slept for three hours while I watched the latest Star Trek. (cool movie). When she woke up, I took her to the park where she proceeded to climb up ladders and slide down slides, run from dogs and blow bubbles in the wind.
The laughter and joy came to a sudden, screeching halt when Layla was running and fell, scraping her hands and her knees on the pavement. Considering how often she does it, either she’s going to toughen up, get better balance or we’re going to have to get her some knee pads and wrist guards. I carried her home, stopping only to get the poor kid some ice cream at the grocery store. We had dinner, played and eventually she went to bed.
And, that, mon amis, is that.
Full gallery pictures (with full-sized images) at:
I woke up this morning to the sounds of a crying baby… before sunrise — it’s always a bad sign when Layla is awake before we are on a weekday. I went and grabbed her and brought her back into our bed in the hopes she’d get some sleep and allow us to do the same. Unfortunately the sweaty, feverish baby also had a bug bite on her leg that she insisted on scratching so despite her silence there was constant movement as she was determined to stop that itch. Eventually, after several warnings and Tamie grabbing her leg, Layla finally slept.
Hours later, we all woke up and scrambled to get ready as we got up later than expected, as usual. I wonder, if one always gets up later than one expects, shouldn’t one’s expectations eventually change? I’ll let you know if/when mine do. It was with little surprise that I found Layla had a fever and, as a result, could not go to daycare. Thankfully, Tamie’s mom was available to take care of her so we were able to go to work.
Since I didn’t have to drop Layla at daycare, I had the wonderful opportunity to get in an even more crowded train than usual (ie. an earlier one). The general strategy I employ when getting on such trains is to find an old lady or a young student sitting on a seat and stand in front of them. They are usually the ones that get off the earliest leaving me with a place to sit down and sleep for 45 minutes. Luckily for me, I found a plum old lady sitting alone watching the time closely on her cell phone. Unluckily for me, her apparent eagerness to get off was not a sign of her impending departure and I was forced to stand for the whole trip.
Stinky salary men on my flanks and at least two elbows in my back, I was having a great time on my commute. The only bright side was the train was running late due to a fierce drizzling of rain meaning even more people tried to cram their ways onto the coach at every stop. At one stop a guy got literally stuck in the door. These aren’t your friendly elevator doors that reopen if they bump into someone – he was seriously stuck. It took two train employees to open the door enough so that he could cram himself into the sardine can with the rest of us. The funny thing is, I’m sure that in the time it took to dislodge him from the door and get the train moving again, the next train would have come.
A busy workday later, I got a phone call from Tamie. Her mom is concerned about Layla and thinks she might have swine flu so she’s taking her to a clinic. Say what? It was during this phone call that I found out that one of the daycare staff had caught the virus. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
I told Tamie I’d go and meet her and Layla in Ebina, and at just after 9 we met up. Layla, hopped up on drugs, seemed absolutely fine, although she hadn’t eaten anything and was still boiling. On the way home, I grabbed a light double quarter-pounder meal at McDonald’s and we got Layla some bread to go with her water, at her request. We shared the food which, looking back, might not have been the smartest thing to do given her high fever and my not wanting to get sick.
It wasn’t long after we got home that Tamie started feeling a bit sick. And then a bit more sick. She went to lay down while I stayed up with Layla, who refused to go to bed but instead laid on me trying not to fall asleep. It was a losing battle that she eventually gave up — I put her to bed with little trouble, thankfully. At this point, Tamie emerged from the bedroom looking ready to keel over. She was planning on working at home but those plans obviously changed to planning on not dying. I told her to her to get back to bed and rest but she refused and instead laid on me trying not to fall asleep. It was a losing battle that she eventually gave up… it’s sometimes scary how similar my two girls are…
… and then there’s me. The pillar of health, tapping out this blog entry in my vain attempt of not going to bed and exposing myself to whatever it is that those two might have caught. Is it swine flu? Who knows — not the doctor, that’s for sure… turns out you (or at least he) can’t properly diagnose swine flu in the early stages so Layla needs to go see a doctor again tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.,
