I know at least one of the two regular checkers of this blog is getting impatient for pictures… so without further ado, wait no longer!
 High Tea in Yokohama |
 First Easter Bunny |
 Yokohama with Danielle |
 Climbing a Mountain… and a cake. |
Tag Archive for 'Tamie'
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:
 Saturday |
 Sunday |
As a special bonus, check out the video of the day:
Tamie got back from India on Saturday. After cleaning our apartment, I headed down to the airport to pick her up. As I waited, she walked right past me not even noticing me after I whistled at her. I understand it’s hard to pick me out of a crowd of short Japanese people so I wasn’t too upset.
We headed back to Tamie’s folks’ house where Layla was waiting. She was pretty excited to see her Mom – she ran outside to greet Tamie as we drove up the driveway. After seeing that reaction, I’m thinking of taking a business trip of my own for a week.
Sunday was our planned day to head to Kamakura to do the annual sakura (cherry blossom) thing. The weather was not very co-operative, although I guess I should be grateful it didn’t rain much. It seemed we were a couple days late as the a lot of the trees had already shed most of their blossoms, but it was still a nice trip. We visited a couple different temples, explored some back roads, and had a nice meal before coming home.
One stop we did make was at Tamie’s chopstick shop — I call it that because it’s where Tamie brought me to buy chopsticks when I first came here, and it’s where we go every time we need new chopsticks. This time, it was Layla we were getting chopsticks for! She picked out a small pair of chopsticks and we all ended up getting some. Even at the tender age of 2 (almost 3), Layla’s skill with chopsticks has already surpassed mine. Must be genetic.
Pictures can be seen here:
Layla is a good kid. A great kid even. She is quite happy to do what she wants, helps out when we have things to do and even listens to us when we ask her to do something. Usually.
Now I’m no expert on kids, psychology, parenting or being a Dad but I have 2+ years of experience under my belt and I know what doesn’t work with Layla. What works? I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m figuring it out. I’ve tried many different methods – sometimes yelling works, sometimes spanking works, sometimes just the threat of no dessert works. But then, sometimes she just yells back, sometimes she just asks to be spanked again and sometimes she is happy to have no dessert… then what do you do? Tamie has found a solution that seems to work for her pretty well.
When we were in Canada over Christmas, someone taught Layla the “I got your nose” game. For a while she was taking everything from our noses to our ears to whatever she could reach. She loved it. When we turned it around, however, and got her nose or her ears, she wasn’t too happy and always demanded we give it back. It’s hilarious, at least for me. For Tamie, it’s useful.
It’s not uncommon these days when Layla starts acting up to hear Tamie say something along the lines of “If you don’t listen to me, I’m going to take your ears!”… and, surprisingly, it’s not uncommon for Layla to do what her Mom says after that.
I don’t attempt to use Tamie’s technique, mostly because I doubt I could keep a straight face… but it works for Tamie. And that’s good news for all of us.
Tamie has a professor from her university days that she still keeps in contact with – we’ve visited him once and she always brings him and his wife ice wine from Canada when we go. Saturday was his last lecture, given to a room full of people he’d taught or worked with. The turnout was impressive – there must have been at least 200 people who showed up to celebrate his 44 years of service.
I didn’t understand a word of the lecture, but from what I gathered it was a brief 2+ hour presentation of the prof’s works and achievements over his career. The occasional laughter from the crowd hinted that he was dropping humour into his lecture, making me wish I understood the language a little bit better. Instead, I was busy holding Layla as she snored loud enough to embarrass Tamie, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear (thankfully).
The day was not without it’s humourous moments. As the speech was getting started, Layla was getting fidgety so I said I’d go get a drink from a vending machine… Layla wanted to come so we snuck out the back door to find a couple guys sitting in suits holding flowers waiting outside. The politely held the door and closed it quietly as we ventured forth on our quest for juice.
It was raining outside but we didn’t have any umbrella, so we dashed into and around buildings looking for a vending machine. In this country, you can pretty much hit a vending machine with a rock in any direction you decide to throw it. In this school campus, with the intention of finding one, it was next to impossible. I exaggerate, but it did take more time than I thought and by the time we actually found one I realized I didn’t have any change or bills small enough to actually use them! The card reader wouldn’t read my card or phone either (not that I was actually expecting it to).
With no way to work the vending machines, what could we do? Instead of going back to get change from Tamie, we headed over to the cafeteria that Tamie pointed out on our way in. The place was abandoned. There was one lady mopping the floor but no one available to break a large bill… so we ended up going to get change. And umbrellas. Our wet, squeaky shoes sure impressed the flower boys who held the door for us and the silent lecture hall that we tried to sneak through. Layla yelling ‘Mom!’ when she entered was fun too.
After we got some drinks and settled into a spot beside Tamie, things seemed to settle down. Layla tried to get comfortable on me and seemed ready to fall asleep… but not before she wanted to play a game on my phone. So I discretely pulled out my phone, ensured that the volume was turned down all the way and fired up her favourite Poke-A-Mole game. They say you learn something new every day, and that day I learned that my phone has two volumes — one volume for the ringer, which I had shut off, and one for media, which was at full blast. It only took a second to turn it down, but a second of poke-a-mole music in a silent lecture hall is definitely a second too much. The best part – Layla only played one game before she curled up and fell asleep.
As I watched the lecture, I couldn’t help but think about where I’m going to be after 44 years of working for the man. Dead, most likely, but if I’m still around I hope I’m sitting on the deck of my boat with a beer in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. I certainly don’t see myself working at the same place for 44 years… Heck – in the 7 years since I graduated I’ve worked at 3 different companies in 3 different cities across 2 countries. Including co-ops, it’s 6 companies in 10 years! At that rate, I’ll be on to company 32 or 33 in another 44 years!
When the lecture was complete, a few other people stood up and gave speeches to or about the professor. One guy even made another presentation with slides and everything. When it was almost over, the back doors opened and I expected to see the two guys who’d been waiting with the bouquets… The bouquets came, but carried by two girls who brought them up and presented them to the prof and his wife. I’m not sure who they were, but in a country of booth babes, hostesses, etc, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were hired just to present the flowers. Before wrapping up completely, there was a group photo taken — the big group required a big camera!
There was a small lunch buffet served where the prof got to mingle with everyone and enjoy the photo opportunities, shaking hands and kissing babies. As Layla was the only kid there, and one not totally happy being picked up by most people, not a lot of baby-kissing took place that day. But there were photos and handshakes aplenty.
We ended up going to Machida after we left the lunch to get Layla a much-deserved ice cream parfait. Green tea ice cream at least sounds healthy, doesn’t it? =)
Click here for the gallery