Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

10.16.2013

party AND loot

We had a party for Blue in the park by our apartment on the Saturday morning following his birthday. I invited all his school friends, some karate friends, some park friends, and some building friends. And we had a pretty good turnout. The theme was dinosaurs (ha!) and we had a dino dig in the giant sandbox.




I ordered a whole bunch of dinosaur skeletons on Amazon and found some additional dino themed goods at the 100 yen shops (dollar stores are pretty popular here and have an amazing selection). Blue loved it. He found my stash the night before and wanted to go immediately to the park and bury all the dinos.







I just did simple finger food that was easy for kids and adults to snack on separated out for the meat eaters and the plant eaters. It was actually pretty hot but the only one who really seemed to mind was Wiley. She was fussy the whole time which is pretty unusual for her. I thought maybe she was tired but she literally stopped whining and started babbling again as soon as we hit the air conditioning.


This was Blue's first experience getting presents at a party. We opened one at the park which happened to be full of little pieces that he wanted to immediately open and play with on the spot. So we didn't open anymore until we got home and he had a fabulous day opening a present every hour or so.








two little TAILS


I had been watching and waiting for Wiley-girl's hair to grow long enough to put into pigtails and the day finally arrived! Thank goodness she seems to have a very hard head because I really had to yank those fine little hairs into place. But look at the cuteness. So worth it. These were her very first pigtails. 


happy THREE years

Blue at age three... Hmm.

Well, he loves dinosaurs. He knows almost all (not an exaggeration) of their names along with what each one eats, how it walks, how big or little it is, etc. And he acts them out almost constantly. His T Rex impersonation is uncanny. He has a hard time just being Blue which is something we are working on. In the spring he would have introduced himself as Bert. Now he is a T Rex.

Are all three year olds particular? Well then Blue fits right in. He has specific ideas about how and in what order various tasks should be performed. And he is always the director, orchestrating from the sidelines. If something is hard or "tricky" he is more than happy to let someone else do the work. We are working on that too.










He is very interested in people and what they are thinking, feeling, and saying. But he is still cautious around new people and in new situations. He is definitely a mama's boy, never far from my side. He struggles when he cannot communicate well with someone, from Wiley to all of the Japanese people and kids we meet on a daily basis.

He still wants to wear blue jeans every day. In fact, he has very particular ideas about all his clothes. He basically chooses what he wears to play and to sleep. It is helping motivate him to put his clothes on by himself so I guess I will take it. He finally admitted that the cowboy boots were too small. He still wears a pull-up at night but most of the time he keeps it dry. Even if that means waking me up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom...

I think I would finally say he is a good eater. Not a great eater but will try most things and eats a pretty diverse and healthy variety. His love of dinosaurs was the catalyst for his love of meat. Unfortunately there is not as much drama when chomping on a salad as when gnawing on a chicken bone but maybe someday he'll get there.

Love you Blue Michael!

going to R

The kids have both enjoyed all the elevators that come with big city life. They love to push the buttons. As many as possible ;). Our building has a B1 which is the garage and then a 2, 3, 4, 5 and R. Blue was always asking about what was on R. So Graham took the kids on an excursion up to the top during sunset one night while I made dinner.




Not too shabby huh? We are in a pretty residential area within central Tokyo and our building is one of the bigger ones so the view from the roof is pretty good. We had a potluck with some of the other families from the building and grilled out on the roof. Blue made fast friends with a cute 12 year old girl who thought he was pretty cute as well.

9.25.2013

for the WALLS

We have a lot of empty walls in the apartment. Sometimes I look at images of beautiful, near-empty spaces and wish I could pull that off. But I think you need amazing architecture, a few really exceptional and well-edited pieces of furniture, and no kids. So, since we have toys thrown about all over the floor, we need some art on the walls to distract.



I found this poster on the street. I think it is a notice about an upcoming festival. Well, used to upcoming. It is over now. I wish I could find more cool little posters but the Japanese seem to do a really good job of removing everything after the event.


And I brought this print from home as a gift for Graham. It is an ink print of a bass fish by a Japanese artist. A little reminder for Graham of his fly fishing days. 

 

But I wanted a really big piece for the entryway. So I decided to do my own piece with some washi tape. The scene is a pretty typical view in our neighborhood at least. This little street is right next to our grocery store.



It was a fun project and easy to do in short little bursts since the washi tape was mess-free. I have plans to do some more and see if I can sell them. Even still, it is nice to have a little creative project and I have plenty of empty walls to fill.

9.24.2013

our NEW days

Back in Austin, Blue went to school every weekday morning. So it was just Wiley and I. And until the week or so before we left for Tokyo, she was still taking her morning nap. So this is really the first time that I have Wiley awake and ready to play all morning. And the first time in a while that I get Blue in the morning too. 

     
  

So far, I have mostly stayed close to home. We will go to the park or on a quick grocery store run. Or down the street to get a special treat after lunch. The kids are enjoying playing at the apartment too. Wiley has always been good about finding things to entertain herself with and Blue is pretty happy as long as we are pretending to be some sort of dinosaur.  Getting out with the both of them together is hard. And they don't have much of an attention span when it comes to looking in several stores in a desperate search for queen-size sheets.

bathroom sneak PEAK

A new house is a little like a new playground. Especially when the bathrooms have fancy corner mirrors!