On Saturday we were supposed to find the sex of our baby but, unfortunately, the doctor had no luck in finding my son’s penis. Everything else is going quite well – Tamie is healthy, the baby is healthy, I’m healthy. We just don’t know the gender of number 2 yet, that’s all. Next appointment is the end of the month, meaning another couple weeks of mystery.
Sunday was a day of shopping and high tea in Yokohama. Tamie likes the little sandwiches and Layla likes the little desserts. I just like seeing two happy girls. After shopping and lunching, I ended up taking Layla on the kiddy rollercoaster again. She almost freaked out again when I told her to put her arms up in the air but quickly calmed down when I held onto her again. The best part though was after we got off and she told Tamie that she had fun, wasn’t scared and that I was the one who was nearly in tears. What an imagination!
Monday was actually a holiday here, so we had the day off to…. well, do nothing spectacular. In Ebina there was a dance festival held, meaning we got to watch a bunch of kids ranging from 4-16 dance to obnoxious English hip-hop. The dancing was actually really good for some of the small kids – had I been more on the ball I’d have filmed it. There’s nothing better than watching 4-year-olds getting down to lyrics referring to all the f**king b*tches. The fact that no one else in the crowd batted an eye was pretty funny.
The scariest thing about the whole event, and even the whole weekend, was Layla bopping her head and getting into the bass-y “music” blasting out of the stage speakers.
This weekend was (still is =) a long weekend here in Japan. At least, for those of us not working on a very busy project for a car company that shall remain nameless… Tamie had to work on Saturday and she has to work again tomorrow (Monday), so while the rest of the country gets a special 3 day weekend, the employees in her group get a special 1 day weekend. Nice!
So Saturday, I got the opportunity to take care of Layla for the day. I took her to the park because she wanted to go on a big slide, but she never actually went on it. Instead she discovered that she is able to jump across the tires that are set up that she’d been, up until Saturday, afraid to attempt. She was so proud that she made it across that she did it four or five times in a row. On the fifth time, she fell and cried something fierce, but eventually got up and played again… on another part of the playground.
Eventually, the kid got hungry and we were off to grab something to eat. I offered everything from rice to burgers to waffles to pasta but she wanted Starbucks. I’m beginning to think we go there far too often. Regardless, I took her there and we sat and watched people walk by as I took about a million pictures of her eating and sucking back her frappuccino.
When the music started playing from the band downstairs, we bailed on the chilling and went to take a look. It was a band who’d played Ebina before, but for good reason – the crowd seemed to really get into it, singing along, waving towels and dancing! A much livelier crowd than I usually see at the free concerts every weekend.
We met Tamie for dinner later that evening, yakiniku was the meal of choice (ladies’ choice, and a good one at that!). We bbq’d up chowed down on a lot of meat that night. We even a bit of vegetables too — to satisfy Tamie’s momly instincts.
After dinner, we headed home. Climbing a set of stairs, Layla nearly passed out. I don’t know what they put into her orange juice, but the poor kid collapsed as Tamie caught her. It wasn’t until I asked he if she wanted some chocolate and to be carried that she came to and promptly climbed up into her mom’s arms.
Sunday was a day for the family, albeit a lazy one. It wasn’t until the afternoon that we even got mobile and headed out to do some shopping. As Layla is getting older, she is getting into the more advanced stages of daycare — the strict requirements are getting even stricter. We need to get a bunch of supplies, things such as bags of various sizes, play-doe with associated tools, and SIXTEEN different colour crayons. Why sixteen? Because it seems like they only get sold her in packs of 12.
With the daycare shopping out of the way, we let Layla check out the kid’s arcade that houses rides and games for young kids. They must make a killing there as it’s always busy and the games and rides are a minimum of 100 yen and last about a minute. I see some parents in there with there kids for a lot longer than a couple minutes (ie. they are there when we get there and still there when we leave). Luckily Layla isn’t the type of kid to make a fuss after only one ride… at least, not yet. After riding the Thomas the Tank Engine ride for 45 seconds, Layla was happy to go. She was even happier when one of the employees gave her a snack on the way out.
We ended up at Vina Walk shortly after shopping. There were kids playing in the small water pools there, despite the strong, cold winds blowing that day. Of course, seeing those kids, Layla wanted to take a turn. We sat by the pool as she debated whether or not she really wanted to go in. She slowly took off her jacket and socks and rolled up her pants. By the time she got down to the water and touched it, 15 minutes must have passed. Once she was in, though, she had a blast!
This video was taken Sunday night, after we got a diaper delivery. Layla loves playing in the box and I love playing with her. I got a kick out of the video, I hope you do too. Click on it to go to youtube to see it larger/higher def.
This weekend we planned to head out to Ginza, the most expensive area in one of the most expensive cities in the world. This is where even the kids wear Prada and the primped chihuahuas are carried in Louis Vitton bags. Yep, it’s places like that that I most blend in here (I carried Layla in the my backpack wearing a good Canadian Roots jacket =) Why did we go there? There’s a big toy store I wanted to check out.
The day got off to a late start (as usual) and we ended up at Ginza around 4. Layla was a bit peckish and I was starving, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. Before that, though, we had to buy Layla a jacket because we forgot to grab hers before we left. I was grateful Tamie brought a credit card! Who knew Zara not only sold kids clothes? And at cheaper prices than the Gap! Talk about win-win! Other than the fact my kid is now sporting a Zara hoodie.
For our late afternoon snack, we went for tea at a posh cafe, where the orange juice cost more than the tea… and the tea cost more than the $9 beer. Ravenous as I was, we ended up getting finger sandwiches and a big plate of desserts, most of which Layla scarfed down. I don’t remember the exact cost of everything, mostly because I choose not to. My wallet, on the other hand, will never forget… it was like a slim-fast diet for him.
The toy store was not a disappointment. Layla’s first trip there was highlighted by 4 floors of sample toy mayhem. She seemed very comfortable in the strange place, running from toy to toy to try them all. Her enthusiasm was probably a result of a combination of true child-like wonder… and a whole lot of dessert-like sugar.
After exploring each of the four floors, we headed out to Tamie’s favourite jewelry store. There was a huge crowd gathering around outside to take pictures of a Christmas tree they had on display. Unfortunately for Tamie, and luckily for my already hurting wallet, the store was already closed. Shucks. Maybe next time.
On the way home, we stopped by Shinjuku for dinner. El Torito, one of the few Mexican restaurants to be found here, was our destination of choice. I think the spicy salsa turned Layla off of Mexican for good, though. It’s strange – I’ve been feeding her wasabi for months now and she stopped complaining a long while back, but a little salsa and she was nearly in tears. Different strokes, I guess.
After dinner, I wanted to check out the Christmas lights that are up right now in Shinjuku, but Tamie had other ideas. Krispy Kreme only had a ten minute line up and she had a hankering. Now normally I’m not one to turn down donuts, but I’m also not one to wait in line for them. Tonight, that changed as Layla too wanted to taste the savoury sweetness of the addictive Krispy Kreme. Her excitement only lasted a minute though, as she was bored after that. Tamie is convincing, and we ended up staying and getting a dozen. I thought Ginza was expensive, boy was I wrong. $20 for a dozen donuts. I guess they’ve been printing money in that donut shop for years now.
Today (Sunday), we didn’t have such grand plans — in fact, we didn’t have any. The chill from outside and the laziness that seems to creep into every Sunday left us at home for most of the day. We did some cleaning up and some cleaning out – reorganizing some of the closets and things. By 4, Layla was exhausted (it’s hard work for a 2yr old to clean an apartment). Tamie, rather than spend any time alone with me, went jogging while Layla crashed on the couch with me. She must have been beat because she was still asleep when Tamie came back over an hour later, only to be woken by Tamie ringing the doorbell to get in.
After Tamie was back and changed, we went for dinner at a local izekaya (Japanese pub-style restaurant) before doing a bit of shopping. While we were waiting to get a table, Layla was busy playing with my phone. She got frustrated with something and gave it back to me before starting to throw a hissy-fit. Instead of letting her make a scene, I cut her off with a well-timed banging of my head on the sign behind me. She wanted to stay upset but she couldn’t. She’s a sucker for phyical comedy, and she cracked up. This is the tail end of the whole laughing episode – I wasn’t fast enough to get the biggest laughs on video.
Layla wanted some Starbucks for dessert, and spoiled as she is, she got some. We walked around to look at the Christmas lights set up in Vina Walk for a bit before eventually coming home.
Seems like we just slept the whole thing away this weekend…
Today was a bit of a lazy day, waking up at 10:30 when Layla finally got tired of waiting for us to get her and started yelling for us. I guess we should be grateful for her letting us sleep so long… but we both still wanted the other to get up and get her. Seeing as I was feeling a bit guilty about sleeping the whole day away yesterday, I made the first move. I got Layla… and threw her on the bed with Tamie. =)
After getting both girls up, I made breakfast. A little creation I like to call… ham and cheese on toast. It’s even more delicious than it sounds. Tamie skipped it to go jogging, but Layla and I chowed down on the good food. While Tamie was out, we watched some Crocodile Hunter DVD’s. Layla’s choice – I swear! So much for Sesame Street, eh?
After Tamie came back, I thought we could go down to the ritziest part of Tokyo where all the rich people converge to buy overpriced handbags and jewelry. Layla was excited to take the train, Tamie was excited to get some jewelry, but I wanted to go because aside from all the glitz and glamour, there’s an awesome toy store there. In the end, however, we postponed our trip until next week because it was already getting late, but mostly because of laziness.
So instead, we went for lunch down at Vina Walk, as is becoming our usual Sunday routine. As such, we had to stop at the pet store so Layla could almost play with dogs, stop at the baby floor so she could almost play with babies, stop at the shoe store so Tamie could almost buy some boots, and then starbucks so we could all drink some overpriced coffee/fraps. Unfortunately, Tamie was hit with a bit of a bug and wasn’t feeling too well, so we came home a bit early. Our timing was good, though, because Layla crashed as we came in the door.
An hour later, we were off to the grocery store to buy some food for dinner. Frozen pizza – another delicacy I whip up when the mood strikes me. Tamie, not feeling well and really not feeling like pizza, whipped up a batch of her world-famous potato and pumpkin chips. While the food was cooking, Layla complained about being hungry. So I gave her an apple. A big apple. An apple almost the size of her head. And she loved it. She was either really hungry, or it was really good. That, in conjunction with the pizza and chips, made for a great Sunday meal. In other words, we feasted like royalty.
