Golden Week is upon us and we’re entering a time of rest and relaxation here in the busy land of Japan. Golden Week is a grouping of national holidays that amount to nearly a week off. Today (Thursday) is the first of 4 holidays. The others being next week’s Monday-Wednesday.
We spent a lazy day relaxing before Layla got it into her head she wanted a (surprise, surprise) Matcha Frappuccino from Starbucks. Being the pushover parents that we are, we headed out for the cool drinks.
On the way home, we stopped off at an amusement park of sorts for kids. Layla had seen it in our travels before and every time we neared it, she’d remind us of our promise to one day take her. Today was that day. She’d seen kids driving cars and wanted to give it a try so we let her. It took her a while to get warmed up, but once she started playing she didn’t want to leave.
Layla is in the midst of another asthma attack which started just as she was getting over her croup. The new doctor went so far as to give her chest another x-ray. That was fun — poor kid was brave up until the point that they actually asked her to stand still for the picture. After seeing the results, the doctor increased her medication – now it’s 5 separate medicine packets, and a (bigger) sticker on her back.
At least I know if she tries drugs when she’s older, she’ll probably be immune to their effects.
Saturday was a day of hospital visits (unfortunately no doctors give out lollipops here). In the morning, we took Layla for another checkup – she’d been to the doctor a couple times during the week because of a seal-bark-like cough that turned out to be croup. Saturday was a scheduled check to see how it was progressing… not well. Not only does she still have croup, but apparently is in the middle of an asthma attack too. She needed the nose vacuum and her cries were heard throughout the entire hospital floor. After the vacuum, she had to suck on medicine (in vapour form) for ten minutes, which isn’t anything except for the fact they attached a monitor to her thumb that reminded her of when she was checked into the hospital… then the tears flowed again.
After Layla’s ordeal at the hospital, we headed to Hon Atsugi for lunch. Tamie had a dentist appointment at 2, so we had enough time for lunch beforehand. I took Layla home while Tamie visited her dentist… after the dental, Tamie had a doctor’s appointment of her own, so we played some more before Layla took a nap. Tamie came back just in time for dinner. Lots of doctors on that day…
Today we decided to hit up the park instead. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the kid was eager to slide so slide she did. Twice. There were too many kids about and Layla wasn’t about to have to wait in line to have fun so we bailed on the playground. We looked around the park a bit, stopped for a snack, and played frisbee and toss the child for a while before Layla asked for her expected frappuccino.
For two days we’d been hearing “I want a matcha fraponiconni (and various other Layla pronunciations)”. Today, she finally got it and she enjoyed it. I think Starbucks should hire the kid and put her in a commercial here – she’d be a hit. And I hope we’d save a fair bit of money if we were employees.
At dinner tonight, we had some strawberries for dessert that Layla was eager to have. As usual, we told her to finish most of her food before she could have dessert and she begrudgingly was convinced to sit and eat her food. When she finally finished, she looked at my rice bowl and told me I needed to finish the pieces of rice I didn’t eat before I could have my dessert. I don’t usually make the effort to get every single grain of rice as my skill with chopsticks isn’t that great and neither are my patience for such things. Also, eating rice follows the rule of diminishing returns. Layla didn’t care about that though – she went so far as to pick up my bowl and use her own spoon to feed me – telling me to open my mouth for the “rice train”. Real cute.
As usual, you can check out the gallery for pictures of the weekend:
Today, Layla wore her Canucks jersey to daycare for the first time in what seems like months. Every time I suggest it, she spurns it for something pink (or worse, her Sens jersey). Today the Canucks beat the Kings. Coincidence? Maybe… regardless, I’m going to have to find a way to get her to wear that shirt Saturday, Monday and Wednesday (if need be!) too. Any ideas how?
Layla’s been a bit under the weather recently, her nose bubbling more than usual and her cough getting worse every day. We decided to take it easy this weekend in the hopes of her getting a bit better with a couple days to recuperate. As it’s Sunday night now and the poor kid is in bed hacking up a lung, I fear we didn’t succeed. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be back at the hospital — hopefully it’ll be a quick trip.
As for the weekend, Saturday we headed up to Machida to do a bit of shopping, but mainly to check out a fruit parlour Tamie knew of. We were going to hit up the usual green tea ice cream place, but wanted to try something different and this place was actually pretty decent. It being strawberry season, they have a lot of specials on — Layla wanted the strawberry sandwiches which were actually strawberries and whip cream between two slices of white bread… with pepper on it!
Today, with Layla coughing even more than yesterday, we didn’t go anywhere but grocery shopping. Tamie had a date with a masseuse tonight, so I stayed home with Layla. She wanted to play Candyland and, surprisingly, knew all the rules. I ordered pizza, which I thought was a good idea at the time… until I screwed up the order and ended up with two medium pizzas, one of which mistakenly had mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce! Never having tried a mayo pizza before, I wasn’t eager to taste it… but after shelling out the equivalent of 20 bucks for it, I had no choice. My openmindedness was rewarded with a lot of beer being drank as I choked down as much as I could, saving half the pizza for Tamie’s return. She, too, thought it was less than tasty. Layla seemed to like it though… kids these days…
