Stranger in a not-so-strange land
On the way home tonight, Tamie told Layla she bought her favourite croissant for breakfast tomorrow. Layla was delighted and told her Mom that she would share with her.
“What about me?” I asked.
“We can make smaller pieces,” she grinned.
“Great!” I answered. “You mean we’ll cut it into 3?”
“No!” she laughed. “You can have a small piece and Mom can have a small piece and I’ll have the big piece.”
Gotta love her.
Tamie’s Dad is checking into the hospital tomorrow to have surgery this week so I decided it’d be nice for the kids to spend some time with him before then. Tamie is still working Saturday and Sunday because of the power saving schedule so the three of us headed there early in the afternoon on Saturday… and Sunday. It turns out that we spent most of the weekend there, to the delight of the grandparents.
One of the things Layla likes to do in Isehara is visit one of the department stores because of the trampoline. What used to be a quick, 200 yen for 5 minutes of bouncy goodness once in a while is turning into 600 yen for 15 minutes every time we are in Isehara! After 15 minutes, she’s exhausted – I’m tempted to get a trampoline for home =)
On Saturday, after the trampolining, we went to the grandparents’ house and had a snack before Layla’s battery got recharged and she wanted to visit the local park. Jiji, always game to take Layla anywhere, agreed. Not even 35 degree heat could deter those two. Somehow I got roped into going too, so I grabbed my camera and we headed out.
The park was a blast right up until Layla was on a swing and fell out. She scraped her elbow, cried a bit and then we headed home. She stopped crying at the mention of buying cake on the way back home, so I guess it couldn’t have been that bad.
We went out for a good Yakitori (chicken on sticks) dinner that night before meeting Tamie at the station and coming home.
Sunday was similar to Saturday in that we headed to Isehara and had to stop at the trampoline store. Baba and Jiji met us there this time to see the kid in action. They weren’t disappointed – Layla gets more adventurous/confident every time she’s on the trampoline. We spent a long time in the store, checking out different games and things.
After the store, we headed back to the house where the two girls fell asleep in short order. Julia woke up after 30 minutes so I picked her up and held her and she quickly dozed off again. This time, I did too.
When everyone woke up, we headed out for dinner – Mama Grazia, the local Japanese Italian family restaurant chain. They have a special on for all-you-can-eat pizza and we did. After a decent meal, we headed back to the house to pick up a few things before meeting Tamie again and coming home.
All in all, it was a good weekend. Lots of trampoline pictures this time.
This weekend, thanks to Nissan shutting down operations for two weeks to save power, we finally had a weekend together as a whole family. On top of that, we had access to a car all weekend! So what else could we do? We went shopping to get a new stroller for Julia and some other knick-knacks at the local baby store.
Julia has been using the stroller that we’d gotten for Layla, but she’s quickly getting bigger and it was quickly getting wobblier… the combination of those two things don’t add up to a safe walk in the park. Speaking of stroller safety, one should always make sure one’s baby is strapped into their stroller – even if the baby is laying down and you only look away for a second, she could pull herself up and forward and fall face first onto the floor… believe me! Thankfully, Julia was okay, suffering nothing more than a bit of a bloody nose.
After shopping, we ended up heading to Chigasaki, aka the beach. Julia had never been there yet and Layla was excited to go, so we drove down before the sun set. Once we got there, Layla’s enthusiasm turned into something between fear and paralysis. It was only after a bit of cajoling that she was able to walk, and after a bit more able to play in the water. Luckily, she got over the initial fear and had a blast playing with the waves. Tamie also got into the act. Julia, however, wasn’t to enthralled with the waves or having her feet in the water… ah, well – you can’t win them all.
As the sun set and the night loomed, we headed back home stopping at a restaurant for a quick dinner before turning in for the night. We got home just in time as a lightning storm started just after we got in.
Sunday we went to Zoorasia, a large zoo in Yokohama that is always a fun time to visit. The 35 degree heat almost made us change our minds but being the adventurous (or is that foolish?) types we are, we continued on. The heat was intense, but the clouds came quickly to give us some cover from the sun, which was helpful. Thunderstorms all around us were ominous, but other than a few sprinklings here and there we were relatively dry unrained upon.
Layla had a blast seeing all the animals, as did Tamie and I. We got fortunate to see the penguins being fed, and a lot of animals came up to the windows/cages to meet us… when they weren’t too busy hiding in the shade or sleeping.
As we were heading out of the parking lot, the few sprinklings of rain that we so feared would turn into something more finally did. Rain finally started pouring and the thunder that we’d heard throughout the day finally showed up at the zoo itself. We were on our way out so, other than a nice lightning show on the way home, we weren’t affected. The people on the night tour of the zoo, however, were probably wishing they’d come another day… Timing, as they say, is everything.
All in all, everything worked out pretty well for us! It was a great day and a great weekend.
Check the pictures in the gallery.
This weekend was Tamie’s first full weekend of having to work. I got the honour of taking care of the two little ones during that time. Actually, Julia went to daycare on Sunday so I guess you could say I have 1.5 kids for 2 days.
Saturday was a scorcher and just opening the door outside was like opening an oven door (not that I’ve ever opened an oven door before =). What better way to spend the day than to take the kids to the park? Layla was excited to go back since she had such a great time last time I took her so how could I say no? I even took the baby carrier we bought so I could carry Julia around the park with her sister — what could go wrong?
Layla biked to the park while I pushed the stroller beside her, doing my best to shade Julia from the unrelenting sun. We did lather on sunscreen but I had my doubts that SPF 50 was strong enough. We made it to the convenience store beside the park before needing to stop for a drink, where I realized I only had 1000 yen to last the day. That’s 6 bottles of tea, or 4 bottles of tea, and Layla’s snack and yogurt drink she wanted at the convenience store. Luckily the money lasted until we got home. Barely.
At the park, there were few kids – most sensible parents probably took their children to pools, oceans or inside air conditioned theaters. The rest of us were baking their little ones in 35~40 degree heat. That didn’t stop Layla from doing her best to have a good time. She ran, jumped, climbed, and slid her way to happy. I took Julia with her for a while but the baby is like a furnace and combining that with my already sweaty chest made for two uncomfortable Estey’s. The baby carrier lasted no more than 10 minutes before I put Julia on my lap to let her cool down.
I think the lack of kids was a bit of a disappointment for Layla so I made up for in and we spent more time playing together – I took her to a gazebo so Julia could sleep in the shade and we played catch with a frisbee and a ball. Her frisbee tosses are a bit off center as she lets go a little too late – I tried to do the fatherly thing and teach her how to throw better (because I am the epitome of what a frisbee tosser should be) but she ignored me and continued to throw it away. At one point I was giving Julia some attention and I swear the frisbee hit me square in the gut at 100 miles an hour. I got to thinking she knew how to throw it and just liked seeing me chase it into the hot sun every time.
We did get a few visitors in our little gazebo. An old lady came by completely covered to protect herself from the sun and complaining about the heat. She offered Layla a plum before heading back out into the sun. A giant bug came by, digging through the sand but we scared him away (ie. I poked it into a direction away from us so Layla wouldn’t have a heart attack). A mother and daughter came by and after a minute of shy awkwardness the two kids played with each other. When the kid’s father showed up they headed home leaving us alone again.
We took the cue from the family and decided it was a good time to head back home after a full day at the park. Layla rode her bike home while Julia rode shotgun in the stroller. We got home, turned on the A/C, drank some more tea and relaxed. Julia passed out again and not long after, Layla went to lay down for what turned out to be a 2 hour nap. Tamie called to say she was coming home just as Julia woke up, so all she heard was crying in the background – timing is everything. When Tamie got back, we had a nice meal before putting the kids to sleepbed.
Sunday, Tamie took Julia to her office where the company has set up a daycare to help employees with families cope with the weekend shift so it was just Layla and I. Tamie’s sister and father invited us for lunch so we went to meet them for unagi (eel) at a restaurant where Hamster used to work as a student. It was a good lunch and I think everyone enjoyed. Afterwards we spent some time in Isehara before eventually coming back home.
Layla was excited at home because I’ve been busy setting up an htpc so I can stream videos onto our new TV. I finally got it working well enough that she could watch her new favourite show (Hi-5) on something bigger than an ipad. Despite being tired and at one point wanting to take a nap, she bounced around the living room rambunctiously as she sang and danced with the characters on the TV until Tamie called. We met Tamie and Julia at the station and we all went for a nice family dinner.
All in all, I’d say this was a successful weekend sans Tamie. We definitely missed her, but we survived. Here’s hoping the rest of the weekends over the next 3 months are equally survivable.
Sorry, no pics for Sunday – without Julia, I had no need for a backpack (for the first time in 4+ years!) so forgot my camera at home.
This weekend was Father’s Day, and I got a treat – home made pizza! Hope all the other father’s out there were treated so well! And a Happy Father’s Day to my Chinni and Jiji – two men that are, in a roundabout way, responsible for the existence of this very blog.
For us, it was a pretty quiet weekend overall. The rainy weather had a lot to do with that.
On Saturday, we headed out for an adventure in Ebina – I wanted ice cream and Tamie found a place about an hour’s walk that was supposed to be popular. About half-way there, in the middle of nothing but rice fields, it started to rain. What choice did we have? We pressed on – there was ice cream to be eaten!
We found a convenience store where I picked up an umbrella and things got a bit easier… but we weren’t out of the woods yet. About five minutes from the ice cream shop, Layla started to buckle. “I don’t have any more energy! I’m sooooo tired!” she lamented. I told her we’d be happy to pick her up on the way back if she wanted to wait for us there. Luckily we were close enough that she didn’t need convincing more than twice – once she saw the ice cream shop, she ran like the wind.
Inside the store was a grumpy old man behind a counter. His ice cream was good, and his shop was busy, but he seemed put off by the whole thing. Luckily for us, the crowd was there for the ice cream and not the atmosphere. It was good. Between the 4 of us, we tried 6 different kinds of ice cream – banana, blueberry, green tea, chocolate, caramel and chocolate chip. We even walked out with another 500ml to go.
That night, after the long walk back, we ended up at our local kushiyage place. The staff there are always friendly to us and the food is always good.
All in all, despite the rain, it turned out to be a very good day.
Sunday, aka Father’s Day, turned out to be a bit of a lazy day (it is my day after all). I took Layla for a bike ride and then we hung out at home for most of the day. Tamie made a great pizza dinner and we followed it up with an evening stroll. Sounds like the perfect Sunday to me.
