Long Time, No Post

Been a couple weeks/months since I last posted. Excuses, I have plenty.

Mom and Dad came to Japan at the end of September.

And then Julia got sick and Tamie went to India at the end of October.

See? Busy times indeed.

This weekend, Tamie finally came back from India after Julia finally got discharged from the hospital. Individually, either situation is tough to handle – together was nearly impossible. A big thanks to the in-laws for helping pull it all together.

With Tamie feeling under the weather, the weekend wasn’t so busy but it felt great to have a weekend altogether again. I did upload some pics from the last month – check them out.

Watching Out For The Seniors

On the way to see her Jiji in the hospital, Layla noticed someone had dropped an empty can on the train.

“Dad! That girl dropped her garbage on the ground!” she told me.

“That can has been rolling around on this train since we got on it,” I answered.

“But somebody should pick it up. It’s by the door.” she replied.

“Yah, somebody should, eh?” I nodded.

“Can I go pick it up?” she asked. I gave her a plastic bag that her cheese bread had been in. She happily ran over and picked it up, putting it in the garbage. She proudly walked back and sat down with her prize. “Now no old people will trip on it.” she said proudly.

Sharing, Layla Style

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.

Isehara Weekend

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.


Saturday
Saturday

Sunday
Sunday

Finally Fixed

After updating my gallery, I broke my mechanism for uploading pictures. I rewrote the app (this time trying to learn how to use WPF, for those keeping track) and think it’s working now so I can upload pics again. If there’s any weirdness in the gallery, let me know – I’m still working out the bugs.

So without further ado, check out the gallery for hopefully enough pics to satiate even Mom’s appetite for grandkid photos.