Tag Archive for 'slide'

Last Weekend Before India

Published on March 29, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Tamie needs to wake up in 5 hours to catch her 6:20am bus to get to the airport to catch her 11am flight. Fun times. Even funner is the week I’ll spend looking after Layla. Tamie’s folks won’t get her until Friday, so it’ll be a busy time for the next few days… not as busy as Tamie will be in India, mind you!

Friday I went out with some former colleagues and had a good time catching up. Tamie ended up staying at her parents’ house due to her dislike of seeing me inebriated, and I ended up sleeping on the couch due to aforementioned inebriation.

Saturday, I ended up meeting Tamie after her dental appointment and we headed to the grandparents’ house to pick up Layla together. Once we were reunited at the house, Tamie suggested we head out for an unplanned picnic up in Shonandaira. Sounded like a good idea to me, not realizing she meant up in the mountains instead of down on the beach. We drove through McDonald’s (what better picnic food is there?) before heading up to our picnic spot. Layla fell asleep on the way, lucky kid.

After we arrived, Layla wasn’t a very happy camper – judging by the volume of her snoring, we woke her up right in the middle of a deep sleep. She clung to me and tried to sleep as we ate, but after that she was quite happy. Especially after discovering a swing set and a double slide! She had a blast playing on the playground equipment!

We ended up exploring the area a little bit, hiking down a path quite a ways. Tamie didn’t want to go too far as she was worried Layla wouldn’t be able to make it back up and I’d have to carry her. We ended up going down a lot farther than I think she’d have liked, but much to both our surprises Layla made it down and back with little trouble. Only at the end of the hike back up did she stop and ask me to carry her — had she gone a few more meters, she’d have done the whole hike herself!

On our way back to drop off the car, we stopped to shop for some more clothes for Layla – she outgrows everything in a matter of weeks sometimes. Right now, it seems like all her pants don’t go down much past her knee! I think there must be a collection of long pants at the daycare or in the laundry, but for the life of me I can’t find it! So we went to the nearby baby store to pick some up… the kid chose PINK pants. I was shocked. PINK! Of all the colours… The only consolation was she also chose some camouflage cargo pants too.

We ended up staying for supper at the grandparents’ house, as they were worried their poor daughter would miss the taste of sushi in her week in India. I was thinking the same thing, taking Tamie for sushi back in Ebina, so it all worked out pretty well!

Sunday was a lazy day, as Sunday’s usually are. We shopped around for some things for Layla’s planned graduation into the next level of daycare and for some last minute things Tamie needed to pick up for her trip. Not very exciting, but at least it was somewhat relaxing.

New pictures, as always can be found in The gallery.

Or specific galleries here:
Puzzle TimePics from the long weekend
Hiking TimePics from Hiking
Thomas TimePics from Sunday

Finally a Chance To Play

Published on February 7, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Today was supposed to be a hectic day with a full schedule, starting from the early morning… Unfortunately (or perhaps not), things didn’t quite go according to plan.

We started out this early Saturday morning with a daycare thing for Tamie to go to, a hospital visit for Layla, a remembrance ceremony at a temple for Tamie, a lunch with the grandparents, and then dinner. It started out well enough – Tamie made it to the daycare and I got Layla to the hospital on time. We even bumped into one of Layla’s former inmates as they were leaving. That was about the only smile I saw on Layla’s face the whole time we were in the hospital.

Layla clung to me, telling me that she didn’t want to see any nurses. She freaked out when one nurse came over with a scale to weigh her… I’m not sure why it’s at all important to her lung condition (and they have never weighed her before, plus I could have told her if she’d just asked), but instead we had to not only put the screaming kid on the scale, we first had to fight to take off her shoes.

We waited in the waiting area with all the other sick kids, some wearing masks, one screaming at the top of his lungs. Layla quietly sat on my lap sucking her thumb, watching closely every time a hospital staff walked by. When we were eventually called, we met the doctor (who speaks no English to go along with my not speaking any Japanese). She asked “Genki?” (meaning, “Healthy?”). I said “Yep.” So she listened to Layla’s breathing and checked her throat and told me she was okay but to come back again next week. Easiest check-up ever.

Just as we were wrapping up, Tamie knocked on the door and the proceeded to talk for a while… turns out the doctor wanted to see Layla again next week because she’s pregnant and not going to be there at what would be the regular scheduled time. Come March, the doctor we’ve finally started feeling comfortable with is going to be gone for a year. Something to consider when you get a female doctor, I guess…

After the appointment, I took Layla home and Tamie headed off for her temple ceremony. We were to meet at noon in Isehara when everything was done to all go out for lunch. I took Layla to the pet store so she could look at sleeping dogs through glass cages before heading off to meet. We waited for over 30 minutes before bailing. Turns out things were backed up at the temple, but Tamie wasn’t able to send or receive calls. So, unfortunately, we missed the planned lunch.

Instead of going to lunch, I took Layla back home for a while so she could take a nap – she was starting to fall asleep in my arms on the train. We played for a bit before I decided a trip to the park might be fun. The sky was blue, the wind was cold, but the day was still young.

When we first got to the park, brave Layla looked at it and blanched. She saw the big playground and instead of feeling happy or excited, she was scared and wanted to be held. I was a bit surprised as she used to love this place, pre-hospital stay. So I picked her up and carried her over to the playground and she slowly started warming up to the idea of actually playing… so long as I held her hand.

She eventually dragged me all over the place, getting her ‘playground-legs’ back under her. She was very timid to climb the steps and ladders and things at first, but by the end she was telling me she wanted to go by herself and to only wait and watch. That’s the independent Layla I remember, and I was quite happy to see her getting back to her old self. I’m not sure, though, if she didn’t want me around because she wanted to be independent, or because she was enamored with all the boys running around and didn’t want me to embarrass her…

As the sun set, the wind was getting cold and we came back home to meet Tamie. Apologies were said and accepted before she showed us the bags of loot that she brought home. Leftovers from the big lunch became our dinner and a bunch of souveniers from her parent’s latest adventures (thanks for that, ba-ba and ji-ji!) became our dessert before the two girls went to play in Layla’s playroom.

I posted some pictures today (as requested). Check them out here:


Hospital pigtailed piggy-back
Full set of Layla in the hospital
Starbucks and chocolate, oh my.
First day out of the hospital (it rained… then snowed!)
Snow in Ebina
Results of snowfall
Red Slide
Park Today.

Shopaholics Anonymous

Published on November 8, 2009 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

To say that this weekend was a bit lazy would be an understatement. In fact, to say that this weekend was a lot lazy would still be an understatement.

Saturday we woke up around 1… in the afternoon. Layla was up until 11 the previous night, but she’d never slept in this late. I would have gladly slept in another hour if I wasn’t worried the poor kid was dead, or worse. Luckily she was still sawing logs, sweating up a storm in the process. I think she might have had a bit of a fever early in the morning and had sweat it out by mid afternoon. It’s why we kept her up late the previous night — score one for forward thinking parenting!

Our plan for the day was to go out and get some shoes. Big plans, to be sure, but we were already behind schedule. After getting cleaned up and having breakfast we were off to Machida for some shopping fun. If there’s one thing I love, it’s shoe shopping. Especially with my two favourite girls…

Surprisingly, we found Tamie’s shoes at the first place we hit. It was amazing, like nothing I’d ever seen before. She didn’t even need to try on more than three pairs of shoes before deciding. Twas’ a sign of things to come, or so I’d hoped, as we headed off to find my shoes…

The last pair of shoes I got here, they didn’t have my size so I had to get it delivered through the mail. I had tried some on for size, and they fit pretty well, so thought the ones coming in the mail would be as comfortable. After a couple days of wearing them, trying to break them in properly, I found they still were a bit small. To this day, they are still one of the most uncomfortable pair of shoes I’ve ever bought. With that in mind, I was determined to find a pair of shoes, in stock, that we could try on and buy… no matter how long it took.

I found a pair that seemed decent, and we asked the salesguy for a size 27, the sizes here being the size of your foot in cm… I’m still not exactly sure what the size 10 I wore in Canada actually represented, as my foot is neither 10 centimeters or 10 inches. He brought them and they were a bit snug, to say the least. We tried a 27.5 and again they were a bit small. Finally the guy looked at my current shoes, which were supposedly size 10 and said that should be a 28… I tried on a 28… and voila – a much better fit. Especially compared to the torturous shoes I’d been wearing. We walked out of that, the first store we hit for my shoes, successful in our search for shoes. Two for two!

To celebrate, we headed off for some ice cream. Layla told me she didn’t want a big ice cream, but she wanted me to have a big ice cream. How could I say no to that? She ended up taking all the parts of my parfait that she wanted, leaving me with her leftovers. Regardless, it was a decent snack and turned out to be most of our dinner. It turned out to be later than we thought and we were a bit stuffed, even after looking around for a while after the ice cream. We ended up at the outback for some steak salad… and some ice cream (for the kid) for dessert.

Today, we headed off for another trip to the park. Layla seems to love it there, and we love to take her. It’s the only grass field for miles, so it’s kind of a special place here… making it kind of a busy place too. One interesting thing about the grass park is the hill, where kids use cardboard as toboggans and slide down it. It sure looks ghetto, but I guess when there’s no snow you have to make do with what you got. One lady even tricked out her cardboard by putting plastic handles on it. Very impressive, indeed.

At the park, we kicked a ball around before heading off to the playground for some slide fun, only to close out with a terrifying steam spray. The same steam spray Layla used to love to run through as a young(er) kid, she’s now deathly afraid of. I ended up carrying her through it, which is more than she let me do last time, so progress is being made, albeit slowly. Maybe someday she’ll be as brave as she was when she was a year old. Maybe.

As we were leaving the park, the chipper youngster chirped up with her suggestion of what to do next. “Starbucks!” The call for the green tea frappuccino was message enough that we go there far too often. Regardless, we went. Some parents mark lines on a wall to watch how their kids grow up — we take pictures at Starbucks. I figure in five years, I’ll send the pictures in to the marketing department and see if I can’t make a few bucks on all the money we spent there. It’s really more of an investment, in that respect.

While we were sucking back our drinks, Layla pointed out that we dress her like a bum. The knee of her pants, already sewn up once, had another hole from her skinning her knee one of any number of times. She was adamant that we buy her new pants, and we were more than happy to oblige. We went to the Gap where a nice saleslady got to practice her English with us. She showed us a great deal on a new line of pants — buy 2 pairs and get 20% off the purchase. Sounded good. The only problem — there’s no way I am going to shell out 9200 yen (100 bucks!) on pants for my kid that she’s either going to outgrow or rip in two months. Even with a 20% discount.

I checked a few other places while Layla played, but I couldn’t find anything decent for a decent price. Tamie took a look and found a couple options (I’ll admit, she’s a much better shopper than I am). Layla picked a pair, tried them on, and was so happy with them that she ended up wearing them moments after we bought them.

Not having spent enough money yet, we headed off to buy a new vacuum cleaner. It wasn’t exactly a spur of the moment thing, as every time I vacuumed Tamie would complain about the quality of my work, and I would complain about the quality of the tools I was equipped with. The fact that she complained about the tool whenever she vacuumed too was a clear indicator it was less the blame of the operator as it was the fault of the machine. One new vacuum cleaner later, and I have a happy wife and a cleaner apartment. How’s that for win-win?

The last thing we wanted to buy, a Google phone for Tamie, had to be put on hold because by the time we actually got around to it, the store had closed. It wasn’t a total loss, though, as it will give us something to do next week, if we don’t find something else to do first.

Pictures from the weekend are here:

Saturday
Sunday

So Long Weekend, I Barely Knew You

Published on November 1, 2009 in Family and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

It’s Sunday night already. Work tomorrow. I guess I should be grateful to still be employed, but sometimes it’d be nice to have an extra day off. It sucks we have to wait until Tuesday to get our national holiday. I found out today that November 3rd is Culture Day, and what better way to spend it than at the zoo?

As for this weekend, it went by too fast. As usual.

Saturday, I got to hang out around the house while Tamie and Layla visited the grandparents. They actually stayed there Friday night because Tamie had some serious shopping to do with her sister that night. Layla, a shopper in training, also got to spend the night (it may have been a little late for the little shopper this time, thankfully).

The girls showed up back at home around 3 in the afternoon. I got a phone call from Tamie, pleading with me to come to Ebina station because Layla fell asleep in her arms and she had too much stuff to carry… she was trapped. The desperation in her voice was cute, if not hilarious. “Help! Layla is too heavy and she’s asleep! Come get us — HURRY!” I’d be lying if I didn’t say I laughed.

As soon as I showed up, Layla woke up and had the energy of a spry 2 and a half year old. She was laughing and smiling and everything. That’s what you call perfect timing.

We didn’t do much else that day, going out for dinner that night for some good kushiyage (random deep-fried food on sticks). Layla was so excited to eat dessert that she ate whatever we told her to on the promise she’d get some ice cream. By the time it came, she had two ice creams on the go – the restaurant gave her some strawberry and she stole shared my lime.

Back at home, we watched Wall-E after trying to get it started multiple times. I’m not exactly sure what happened, falling asleep somewhere in the middle. Tamie seemed to like it though. I’ll have to watch it again sometime.

Today we woke up late – I tried to call Mom and Dad but Mike and Heather were taking all the grandparents’ face time. By the time we got through, Mom had already gone to bed. We still had a good chat with Dad, though. He still hasn’t owned up to what he wants for Christmas though. Hint, hint.

With not much else planned but shopping, we decided to skip the shopping and go to the park instead. I think Tamie likes going there even more than Layla as she gets as much enjoyment out of the playground slides as her daughter does. It was a bit breezy today, but you can’t complain about 18 degree weather on November 1st. At least, I can’t. =)

Layla passed out after the day at the park so we came home, had dinner and put her to bed. Not such a busy weekend, but a good one all the same.

Images from the day are being posted to the gallery right now… Should have a link soon. I’ll update when it completes. For now, my favourite picture of the day:

UPDATE: Gallery is HERE

Farm Festival and a Day at the Park

Published on October 19, 2009 in Family, Japan and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Saturday was a day of a farm festival in Isehara, the city Tamie’s parents live in. They wanted to take Layla and we were more than happy to oblige – Tamie’s always excited to expose Layla to terrifying animals like mice and chicks. Layla seemed excited to go too, talking about how she wanted to see and pet rabbits at the fair.

After what should have been a quick stop at the hospital for Layla’s routine checkup for her asthma, delayed only by a swine flu outbreak in our city and a hospital computer system that went down, we were off to see the farm animals.

The festival was a bit bigger than last year’s, with a lot of people milling about like the livestock they were gawking at. Layla summed up all of her courage and milked a fake cow. Unfortunately with her courage sapped, by the time we got to the petting portion of the festival, she was scared stiff of all the animals running around her. Even the bunny she was so anxious to pet was terrifying.

Tamie’s sister joined us in the petting pen. She tried to get Layla to pet a rabbit to no avail. Even grandma was getting into the act — she promised the cowardly little girl popcorn if she could touch a baby goat just once. Layla, too smart for her own good sometimes, knew grandma would be getting her popcorn regardless and ignored the goat completely. So instead of petting animals, we went and got some festival food. And popcorn.

After the festival we went back to the house to have a deliciously homemade Sukiyaki meal. Twice in two weeks! Sorry Tamie, but I love it. Layla crashed on the way home, ragdolling in my arms before we made it back to the apartment. I bet she dreamed of ferocious bunnies and scary chicks.

Sunday was almost a typical Sunday. A typical Sunday involves waking up late, rollerblading, Tamie jogging at some point and starbucks-ing. We woke up late-ish, Layla waking up around 10.

I rollerbladed 8.34km, hitting a maximum speed of 25km/h and maintaining an average speed of around 12km/h… yep, my google phone is amazing! =) Highlight of the trip was almost running over a praying mantis! I’d never seen one before and wasn’t sure if what I saw was really a praying mantis and not just a green leaf on the sidewalk (it’s hard to make out such small things when you are flying at 12km/h!). When I got home I asked Tamie in disbelief if Japan had such cool bugs and the disgust on her face told me yes.

After I showered, we were getting ready to go out to starbucks. It was such a nice day outside, I suggested we head out somewhere else, and I knew the perfect place. Instead of our regular trip to Vina Walk in search of musicians, magicians, dogs, babies and frappuccinos, we headed out to the park we used to frequent. With Layla being bigger, she was able to use the playground jungle gym with a lot more confidence and independence.

Hours were spent playing with slides and rope bridges, balls and bubbles, running and laughing. It was a good time and great to see Layla having such a good time amongst the thousand or so other kids at the park.

Galleries:
Farm Festival
A Day at the Park

Let me know how slow the loadtimes are for the galleries. I’m trying to work on a new interface and am wondering how fast the current ones are.

Previews for the gallery: