The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Saturday

Our last day living on Hokkaido at least at this point in our lives. We may come back someday for another extended visit especially since this is Keenan’s birthplace. For now though this is it and our last day here isn’t even a full day. The 3 of us woke up together all within an arms reach of each other. Having sold Keenan’s crib yesterday he was bedded down on his travel futon next to ours. It was nice to wake up to his easy breathing and eventual big smile. He is such a morning baby and it did loads to lift the packing weary spirits of his pooped out parents.

Pretty much everything was ready to go and we just needed to sit on our suitcase to get it closed over Keenan’s futon, strip our bed of bedding, fold up our futon for Kasi and wait for Sean’s supervisor Iwata-san to arrive to take us to the train station. He arrived around 7:15 am having just finished 18 holes of golf and we realized he likely was waking up just shortly after we drifted off last night. He was a little amazed by the weight and amount of our luggage but we got it all downstairs and packed into his mini van. There was no time for a lingering good-bye to our apartment. No last look in each room. No last peek at the stunning view of the Hidaka range from our balcony. No last chance to stand in our tatami room to take in that sweet scent of the mats one last time. Just a dash down the stairs in an effort to make it to the train station before the train left at exactly 7:50 am. Miyagashi-san, Sean’s other supervisor came by the apartment to pick up the receipts for the final payments of our utility bills. She has done a lot for us including bending a few rules in the last months of our stay here. To the depth of his gratitude Sean hugged her before bowing. She was genuinely shocked by the contact but I think she really appreciated the weight of the gesture. On the road and sitting in the back seat I was reminded of the last time one of Sean’s supervisor’s drove us down the same road. It was 8 pm, dark and foggy and I was in labor for Keenan. This time it was 7:30 am, bright and sunny and Keenan was sitting in my lap pointing at all the wondrous things he was seeing flying by the window. An arrival and departure so familiar and yet so very different. My heart ached for our home of 3 years already and it felt dreadful to get out at the train station. We got out of the car and made our way up the escalator. Iwata-san helped us with our heap of luggage and when we got to the platform Eiko was waiting for us. It was so good to see her. It helped slow time down a bit. We got our stuff loaded on the train and then we had some time for last good-byes and a few photos. The next time Eiko sees Keenan he’s going to be a much bigger boy so the two of them had a few last cuddles. Then we returned to our seats and our last good-byes were waves separated by the window. For those few minutes before the train departed I thought my heart would break. Seeing the tears on Eiko’s cheeks, feeling the lump in my throat, hearing Sean sniffing beside me and then on top of all of that Keenan was having so much fun making faces and waving to Eiko and Iwata-san. Another mixed bag of emotions and there we sat stalled on the verge of our departure. Then in a blink we were finally off. We sat and cried for a few seconds and then eagerly sat up to take in our last view of Obihiro. The most tears came when we crossed the city/town border between Obihiro and Memuro. Our last look at Obihiro was farmer’s fields a few weeks before harvest and at their peek of green-ness and beauty. After that we settled into our seats and enjoyed the view as much as possible. The only unpleasant view was the porn mags the guy sitting in front of us seemed to be enjoying. Friggin’ jerk. Keenan was a little fussy but it was nothing a couple of boobies couldn’t fix and he soon settled into a nap. The ride across the Hidaka range was beautiful and blissfully relaxing. Getting out at Minami Chitose is always a nightmare with lots of luggage as it is completely non-wheel chair/stroller/large rolling luggage accessible and of course we had 2 of the 3 including 4 carry on pieces. We did receive more than our fair share of stares but we managed fine nonetheless. Once inside the airport we headed directly to check in and got rid of the bulk of our burden. Our bags ended up being overweight but they let us get away with it. Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour, which we of course didn’t find out about until after we went thru security. So we had crappy food and little running around space for Keenan who was now both not interested in crappy food and very interested in running around. Yippy for us. Eventually we got on the plane and the sadness crept into our hearts and minds again. It was raining as we sped down the runway and rain streaked across the windows like the tears slipping down our cheeks. At long last we lifted off and left our beautiful Hokkaido with only one-way tickets in our name. It was a very strange feeling leaving our home behind. Regardless of the cultural differences and language difficulties we made lots of great friends and fell completely in love with the island. We had so many wonderful adventures and saw so many great things. We learned a lot about each other, our relationship and ourselves. Best of all though we left with the best omiyage ever our sweet, energetic and brilliant son Keenan. The best living memory we could have asked for.

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Friday

Waking up on Friday was like being shot out of a canon. We had a very tight schedule we needed to maintain and a frightful long list of things to do. Within an hour of waking up Keenan had us frazzled. It seems all of his molars are fighting to come out at the same time and it’s causing him a lot of discomfort. It’s really hard to see him cry from the pain. We gave him a shot of baby Tylenol and rubbed a bit of teething gel on his tender gums which seemed to bring him down a couple of notches. Then we were off to take Sean to Nougyou for his very last day of teaching. On my way down the stairs I noticed something in our mailbox. It was from Keiko. She mentioned the night before that she had bought us a going away present but forgot to bring it. She must have dropped it off late last night or early this morning. It made me cry just thinking about it and I left it in the mailbox for later not wanting to open it for fear of before 9 am meltdown. After dropping Sean off Keenan and I went to the Abe’s to meet Ross and get the paperwork for the car sorted out. Keenan slept in the car while we took care of business and I arranged to meet Ross later in the day to drop it off. Then I took Keenan to daycare and I prayed he stayed asleep while I took him upstairs to the baby room. No such luck. He woke up as soon as we got into the genkan. Probably had something to do with 150 kids running around and shrieking! He cried when I tried to sneak out and it really broke my heart given how out of sorts he’s been this week. But this was our last full day in Obihiro and we had things we had to get done and we couldn’t afford being slowed down today. I ran out to the car, got home in record time and finished the last box. I weighed it and the snowboard bag and the big duffle bag all were miraculously under the weight limit. Then I darted back out to Nougyou to pick up Sean for 11:30. He started crying as soon as he got in the car. Being an agricultural and forestry school the grounds and driveway are beautifully maintained. We looped around and drove thru the forest one last time. We stopped for a few minutes and talked about leaving and then off we went. Sean had just realized he hadn’t taken any photos of his schools from the outside and he was really sad about it. We headed over to his office to pick up his airline tickets from Tokyo to Ottawa. I initially stayed in the car but he was taking too long and I had to pay the road tax for our car in the same building so I went up to his office. As soon as I walked in the door I could tell something was wrong. The tickets weren’t ready and wouldn’t be before we left for Tokyo. Un-f!!k-ing believable. We talked about what we would do and it was decided they would send them to us in Tokyo. Thank God we’ll be staying in one place and not spending each of the 6 day in a different hotel and city. Then there’s the Visa issue whereby Sean’s work Visa runs out on Wednesday and he needs to get a tourist Visa that he needs his ticket to Canada for. The tickets are supposed to arrive in Tokyo on Tuesday but we both have reason to feel like that could just as easily get screwed up too. We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. While Sean dealt with that typical office nightmare I paid the car tax and did some banking. By the time we were done we were an hour behind schedule. We rushed over to the train station to buy our train tickets from Obihiro to Chitose for Saturday. Then we flew home, taped up the last box and sped to the post office. The box ended up being over the 30 kg limit so we had to remove a few items. Not good since we were steadily running out of space in our bags. Luckily the woman at the post office had amazing English and it was really easy to communicate that we wanted to repack and reseal the box right there and then. While I took care of the box, Sean paid our rent and water bill and cashed some Post Office money orders we received for selling some books and his Sony disc man. Then I did some banking and we dashed home. The whole ticket thing at the office bunged up our schedule so we loaded the car full of the luggage we were going to send ahead to Narita Airport in Tokyo, and then I dropped Sean off at Black Cat the delivery company and then left to pick up Keenan. He was sound asleep when I got to the daycare and the woman who takes care of him was going on about how much she was going to miss him. I felt for her but honestly I really just wanted to get the heck out of there. We said our good-byes and as soon as we got home we set to taking Keenan’s crib apart. Sean loaded it in the car and then realized we all couldn’t fit with it in there so he unloaded it and then we went to Sean’s office so he could deliver his Sayonara speech. In the meantime Keenan and I went to City Hall to pick up 5 copies of his birth certificate, as I won’t be able to get another once we leave the country. Yes, that’s right. Stupid policies! The whole birth certificate thing makes me livid as when we went to City Hall to register Keenan’s birth shortly after he was born I filled it out in English so it could be read by someone who doesn’t read Japanese in like our “home” country and after we left someone crossed out all the English and replaced it with katakana. So Keenan’s birth certificate is a total mess and to top it off I get asked a zillion questions when I want a copy. So I showed up ready for the questions and of course was asked “Why do you need a copy?” To which I replied “Because he’s my son and should be able to have a copy of his birth certificate whenever I want”. So then I was asked, “What are you going to do with these copies?” And I said “None of your business”. So the woman sat there mumbling “my business”, “my business” over and over again trying to figure out what I was referring to as I grew more and more hot under the collar. From that point on it was English only for me. Every time she spoke to me in Japanese I just butt in and said, “I’m sorry I don’t speak or understand any Japanese” and then to make matters worse she spoke to me in English like she should have been doing the whole time! Anyhow, I paid my 1000 yen for my copies and was out of these for the last time. Thank goodness I don’t have to go through that crap ever again! So back to pick up an emotional Sean at his office. His speech went well but he was in rough shape. We drove home from his office one last time and then reloaded the crib into the car. I went by Black Cat (the delivery company that we used to forward our luggage to Narita Airport in Tokyo) dropped off Keenan’s car seat and then on to Big Ban to try to sell his crib. I got 1200 yen for a 10 000 yen crib, 3000 yen mattress and a 2000 yen set of Winnie the Pooh bumper pads. Oh well, we did get great use out of them. I got back into the car and drove it down Shirakaba-dori one last time. I dropped it off at Ross’s and Eiko picked me up and took me back to our place where Sean and Keenan were waiting to go for dinner. We met up with Gregory and Kajsa at Ryugetsu and had a really lovely meal. Keenan was a pretty good boy and certainly loved having Kajsa and Eiko around to pour attention on him! Eiko drove us home and we finally had our tearful good-bye. We’re going to miss you so much Eiko. And so will Keenan. I sing a few parts of the songs you sang to him and his face lights up each time. He’s really going to miss his Auntie Eiko.

At long last we were down to our final night with lots of cleaning, organizing and a bit of packing to do. We did so nonstop until 2:30 am. I packed and Sean finished the cleaning. He attacked the kitchen with a tenacity I’ve never seen from him. I guess he was partially fueled by the reminder of the nightmare of an apartment he walked upon his arrival in Obihiro 3 short years ago. We both really strove to leave the place cleaner than we found it and in a way that would be inviting to Kasi, Sean’s successor. When we finally crawled into bed it was just so wonderful. We were so tired we didn’t even have the time or energy to be sad. One more sleep.

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Thursday

I had my last class at Nishi today. I had 2 classes of grade 1 students. They’re incredibly genki and I had a great time. I had wanted to take a bunch of video in the school but the teacher wouldn’t let me. I did however manage to snag the following video upon my departure!

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For some reason leaving this school wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. Perhaps I’m getting more used to the fact that I won’t be doing this anymore. After class I went by the town office in Memuro to say good-bye and get my last paycheck paid out in cash. I went to City Hall with my supervisor, picked up the cash and then we said our good-byes. I darted back over to Nishi because the teacher wanted to meet Keenan. It was near pandemonium but he kept good control of the kids and we had a great visit. Then I darted over to JA to close my bank account and Keenan got a free Anpanman fan for his unbearable acts of cuteness!

In the afternoon we got some more packing and cleaning done and then Eiko came over for what should have been our last visit. She brought us all nice gifts but the best one was for Keenan. Eiko and Keenan are very good friends and Keenan loves it when she sings Japanese nursery rhymes to him. So Eiko bought him a book of 6 nursery rhymes that are written out in hiragana and katakana and the book plays the melodies you can sing along to. He absolutely loves it and we do too cause we can learn the words to the songs and sing them to him. Eiko also brought some nice sweets over and we had tea and sweets together in the middle of our near bare living room. It was a really lovely afternoon and I just couldn’t imagine it would be our last visit for a long time. We talked about times gone by and how much we were going to miss each other. There were lots of tears and we were all filled with sadness. Sean and I left Keenan with Eiko and the two of us went to the post office to mail 2 boxes. In the car on the way home we discussed how difficult it was to say good bye to Eiko so we decided to invite her out for dinner the next night. Hopefully we could put off the good-bye as long as possible.

When we got home Eiko helped Sean with his Sayonara speech in Japanese. Keenan’s teeth were really bothering him and I finally got him down late for an afternoon nap. After Sean and Eiko were finished we made plans to get together for dinner on Friday night. Eiko went on her way and shortly after 7 Keiko showed up. We had a thrown together dinner of all the food items in the fridge and cupboards that would have otherwise gotten thrown away. We sat around and talked, played with Keenan and did lots of laughing. We shared the last of the amazing tea Keiko brought me from Toyko 2 years ago and had some more sweets. Keenan started getting very clingy and whingy and it was getting difficult to hear our own voices. As this week wore on Keenan became more clingy and whingy with each passing day. We were very careful about packing his things up last and not rocking his world too much. He’s generally all for change but we weren’t too sure how he’d react to his home being packed up. By Wednesday I think he know something serious was going on and found it very stressful to lose sight of either of us. We’ve had to really work at being sensitive to his feelings as we’ve been so wrapped up in our own emotions and to be quite honest a day full of whinging doesn’t leave you with much empathy. So after about 15 minutes of the 3 of us trying to have a conversation we decided it might be a good idea if Keiko went home. So I got my beloved rocking chair out of Keenan’s room and we talked about how much I was going to miss it. Keenan and I have spent soooo many hours in that chair together and it’s just terribly heartbreaking for me to imagine it gone. We talked about the new family it would be going to and I asked Keiko to tell them that if they ever wanted to get rid of it they’d have to get in touch with me. I don’t know, maybe we can arrange to have it taken apart and shipped to us. Or maybe in the coming days/weeks/months I’ll get over it. For now though it’s hard to imagine that point in time. I carried the chair downstairs for her and we loaded it into her SUV. Then we stood downstairs in the grass, in the dark and said our “till we see you agains”. We hugged for a good long time and talked about how much our friendship meant to us. We shared some tears and Keiko promised to get herself on the Canadian conference circuit for immunology! I went back upstairs and I didn’t cry, I bawled. It was the first time Keenan ever saw me do that and he looked very concerned. The 3 of us had a nice big hug and Sean and I talked about the pain of leaving our good friends behind. If we would’ve had to say good-bye to Eiko and Keiko on the same day I would have been a nut-job by the days end. Thank God we averted that disaster! So I put Keenan to bed without our beautiful rocking chair. I carefully laid him in his crib for the last night before we dissembled it and brought it to the recycle shop. Poor boy I hope that doesn't stress him out too much.

After Keenan was sound asleep Sean and I did lots of cleaning. He tackled the freezer and fridge and I did more sorting of our stuff, stripped the bed and put away the laundry. We went to bed very late and were even too tired to watch Lost.

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Wednesday

Started my day with packing. The novelty has worn off but I don’t officially hate it yet so we’re still ok! Keenan and I took Sean to Obi-Ro (Obihiro school for the hearing impaired) for his last day. I got home, got Keenan to bed, did a bit more packing and then some blogging. I’m determined to keep this “last week on Hokkaido” series alive. Micky and her husband stopped by and left with my Cuisinart ice cream maker, 7 closet organizers, a Pyrex roaster, 1 fleece shirt, 1 cotton sweater, a sack of organic popcorn and the movie edition of Trivial Pursuit. O’Flanagan special leaving Japan price: 6000 yen or roughly 60 Canuck bucks. Lucky folks! My sister called late in the morning. Actually she called 4 times but we kept getting disconnected. It was great talking to you big sis. I really needed that down time! Keenan toddled and made lots of noise while we were on the phone but mostly he kept himself busy by unpacking and repacking the box in the living room. Lunch followed the phone call, then back to Obi-Ro to pick up Sean. When he got in the car he had tears in his eyes. The kindergarten kids all made posters of his likeness and they were the only kids in all the schools he visits that noticed he shaved his goatee off more than a week ago. We went and got some boo-hoo ice cream and a Blendy and sat in the car and chatted a while. Then off to Nishimatsuya to pick up a sling to carry Keenan in and to support him while he sleeps on us in the plane. We zoomed back home to do yet more packing. Got the 4th box done and threw out a heap of stuff. Then a fellow named Ross came over and bought our car! Finally! He’s in the business of buying and reselling cars so we made less than half of what we were asking but the most important thing is we made $500 which is $500 more than we were lined up to make if he didn’t come along and buy it. Thank God that’s over! We had celebratory Mos Burger for dinner, did more packing and cleaning and then we watched a couple episodes of LOST and collapsed into bed. 3 more sleeps.

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Tuesday

No surprise I spent the day packing! Keenan was an awesome little man. He took up with a long handled scrub brush and used it as a broom most of the day. Must’ve picked that up from his dad as I don’t handle anything broom-like. How lucky would I be to have TWO men in my life to do the sweeping?! I finished Keenan’s room. It’s empty save for his packed bag, diapering supplies, crib and rocking chair. Friday I take the crib apart and take it to a recyle shop and Thursday Keiko comes for tea and to pick up my beloved rocking chair. I would leave everything else behind for my rocking chair. I’ve spent so many hours with Keenan in that chair. It’s a very emotional thing for me to give it up but it would cost $700 CDN for me to get it to Canada. So Keiko (the person who bought it for me) is taking it to another friend of hers that just had a baby. If she ever wants to get rid of the chair she has to get in touch with me and maybe I can figure some way to get it home when we’re a little more cashy. Keenan and I went out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We went to Nagasakia for the last time and I bought him a toy and a book for the flight from Tokyo to Toronto. They’re my meltdown prevention implements. On the cusp of an impending meltdown new books/toys/plastic containers are the best diversion. Hopefully we won’t need more than the two. We also went to Homac to buy another box. We’re up to 4 now and that’s our limit. Whatever doesn’t fit stays in Japan. Thankfully I got all the most important stuff into it so we’re not making any heartbreaking sacrifices. Except of course for my rocking chair. We didn’t start watching Lost until 11:30 pm and it was a freaking unbearable cliff hanger of a episode so we stayed up until 1:15 am watching the next one. I was a babbling idiot by the time I pulled the covers over my shoulders.

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Monday

We packed, packed and packed some more. Sean’s folks called us in the morning. Will likely be the last time they call us in Japan ☹. Keenan toddled amongst our piles stuff and us and made a game of unpacking things we had just packed. Sean tackled the kitchen and I packed our clothes and a box. Looks like we’ll defiantly be needed that 3rd box. Oh well. We heard from Sean’s successor and she’s buying pretty much the rest of our stuff so no need to worry about that anymore. Yippee!

I spent some time closely examining the tapestry Nishida-san gave me in the sunlight and I realized I could see very faint lines she had drawn to mark the pattern. That should help make things easier for me and I’m a little more excited about practicing the stitches and getting down to my first attempt. I’m am terribly worried about mucking it all up though. It’s very different from her usual work, very feminine with a green floral print on a yellow background. Gives me butterflies just thinking about it!

The evening was filled with more packing and more emotions. We discovered all kinds of good food we've been hording and never ate cause we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get it again! Now it's gonna get given away, tossed or left for Seans replacement. Oh well!

Sean made us a lovely pasta dinner and we stayed up way too late watching episodes of Lost (yes, we are addicted!).

The last week on Hokkaido day by day: Sunday

Good-bye for now Akan!
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

We went to Akanko today. Sean’s folks had a tapestry made by Nishida-san, a woman we’ve all fallen in love with and our mission today was to pick up the completed work. We also, were there to say good-bye to Nishida-san, her husband and the sleepy lakeside village known as Akanko. The drive there was pretty uneventful. It’s been really chilly here in Obihiro for the last week so we were adequately bundled, as it’s always at least 5 degrees colder in Akan. As we approached we could see blue sky stretching out beyond the volcanoes and over the village. A sign that this was going to be a great day as we’ve been there many times but today is only the second time we’ve had sunny weather. Keenan slept for the whole ride including our stop at the Ryugetsu cake factory to pick up sweets for the Nishida’s and us. He was very genki when we got out of the car, which was a relief, and we loaded him into the stroller and headed for the Nishida’s.

We headed towards their shop to the sound of hacking and pounding on wood. When we got closer we realized there were 6 or 8 big logs in the middle of the cobble street and many of the Ainu carvers were removing the bark hence the weird sounds. We noticed Nuburi Toko, one of the elder master carvers was overlooking the work of the younger generations and he barely spoke a word. He just nodded or shook his head or moved his hands this way and that and the younger men corrected their course. We ran into the Nishida-san and he told us the logs came from Canada. They bought them to carve and erect in the middle of the main street. They’re going to rework the main road to include the poles and even a stream. Everyone from the community took part in the design and planning and the arrival of the massive Douglas fir logs from Canada’s West Coast was the first physical sign of the change to come. The sketched out plans looked really lovely and we were both instantly sad that we won’t be around to see the work finished. Somehow though we both felt very proud that good ‘ol BC Douglas fir were chosen to be the centrepiece of their new community project. The Nishida’s promised to email us photos when it’s all finished.

So we went into the shop and Mrs. Nishida was there. She had indeed finished the tapestry. It is absolutely beautiful. Speed did not affect the quality of her work. Words can’t really describe it and I know Tom and Pat will be both impressed and moved to tears when they see it. We thanked her very much and gave her the sweets and a card with silver embossing of a Bill Reid carving. We had a great long chat and just enjoyed each other’s company. We asked if she had any other embroidered pieces or tapestries and she didn’t. She had one that was unfinished on the wall but that was it. She then got out her catalogue and asked us what we wanted. Sean and I went thru the catalogue and decided we wanted both a tapestry and then one piece that was purely embroidery. Nishida-san showed us her patterns and we decided on the elements we liked and then I picked out some fabric and it was done! She’s going to custom make us two tapestries and send them to us in time. I was so very pleased. She really is a master at her craft and she’s always so busy. I couldn’t believe she took this on for us. Right about then it really started to get emotional for me. It was very exciting to be able to discuss what I liked and pick out how I wanted the designs laid out and then we were pretty much done and it was time to say good-bye. We went into the back of the shop so I could pay for Tom and Pat’s tapestry and she turned around and went back to the front of the store. She came back with the unfinished piece that was on the wall and gave it to me as a present with instructions that I was to learn the stitches and finish it myself. What? I couldn’t believe my ears! First of all I just learned how to knit and I’ve been doing it for 7 months and I’m not terribly good at it. I haven’t done embroidery in years and I’ve never done freehand. I was stunned to think she thought I could even make a halfway decent attempt at finishing something she started. Then some tears came and we hugged. The store got busy, I paid for Tom and Pat’s piece, and we went to the front of the store and finally said our good-byes. Then more tears came, this time from both Nishida-san and myself. So we had a big nice long hug while all these customers milled around us. Then she spent a few minutes giving Keenan smooches and we went on our way. I cried and cried as we walked away. I felt sick and sad and full of unhappiness about leaving Japan and our great friends.

We spent the rest of the day shopping taking in the beauty of the place. I passed up the opportunity to buy a particular item in Biratori and I scoured Akan for one for Tom and myself but to no avail. The good news is our persistent hunting led us to two places we had never been before. In one shop we met a very cool young man named Kengo. He went to high in Australia and he had amazing English. He showed us around his family shop, gallery and workspace. He told us about David Suzuki and Bill Reid coming to visit on two separate occasions. He seemed pretty impressed by us Canadians! He gave Sean a small amulet he carved out of deer horn. Just like that. 20 minutes of conversation and blamo “I’d like to give you this present”. We said our thank-yous and good-byes and headed off up the street. The carvers were back at the logs after their lunch break and then had a truck mounted with a crane moving them into position. The master carver raised an arm and the others were put into motion. Another gesture and the log was repositioned. They had a large pickaxe type tool they used to move the log a few inches at a time. Every time it came to bear the weight of the log it forced sap from the outer layers and it made the air smelled of that loamy fir smell. It was a bit of a mind bender standing in Akan a week before we were to leave Hokkaido and have the aroma of our beloved BC rain forests wafting around us.

I ran back to the Nishida’s to buy a storybook for Keenan I had forgotten to purchase earlier. We looked into one more shop took our last look into the village and were off. It was very emotional leaving that place. But we’ll be back again.

On the way home we stopped just outside of Ashoro and drove up the hillside so we could have a view of the lake. We ate our chocolate and then headed home. We finished off our day with heaps of packing, and 2 episodes of Lost. We couldn’t have asked for a better last Sunday living on Hokkaido.

Last day teaching English in Utopia

Thursday was my last day at Kamibisei. After my near meltdown on my last day at Minami I was a little more prepared for my emotions. I woke up to rain and it suited my mood but I wasn't going to let it wreck my day. I took Sean to work and then parked just below Obihiro no Mori Park and did some knitting for about 45 minutes while Keenan slept in the car seat. Keenan cried when I left the room at daycare. Poor wee guy. I know he gets over it fast but it’s hard when my parting memory of him is a view of his tonsils. I took my time getting to the school. Took lots of drive by photos of the farms and misty mountains. The potatoes are in full bloom right now and they are a terrific sight. Beautiful bands of pink or white blooms alternating with wheat just on the cusp of turning golden. I’m sure going to miss that drive. I arrived at the school and found the accountant tending the petunias. This is a typical sight at my schools. Everyone tends to the flowers and the best part is they all seem to like it.

My first class was with the grade 3 and 4 kids. There’s a total of 14 of them so they have a combined class. They’re a great bunch of kids and the ones in grade 3 were in grade 1 the first year I started working here. It’s great to have that history with them. And it’s been amazing to watch them grow and change. Since it was my last class ever with these kids I decided to scrap any sort of lesson plan and let the kids play their favorite English games. So we played Line and Row and Battle Janken for 40 minutes. It was a riot and I got a good couple of minutes of video of the later. It’s intense. And it’s a good demonstration of how good kids are at playing Janken (Rock, Paper, Scissors) in this country. Janken is used to solve any dispute and the final result is rarely challenged. It’s quite remarkable actually! I had a great class with those kids. We had fun, laughed a lot and the kids even used lots of English!

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My second class was with the Grade 5 and 6 kids. Another small class (there’s about 41 kids in the whole school between grade 1-6) and another full class of games. The kids had lots of questions about what I was going to be doing in Canada (me too!). So we started off with a good chat and then we played games until a few minutes before the end of class. I said a short speech and wished the grade 6 kids luck with going to Junior High next year. I managed to keep it together in the classroom and didn’t cry until they all walked me down to the genkan and then the tears kicked in as they waved me out. Gosh, I hope I can keep it together for my last day at Nishi-sho this Thursday! Anyhow I had a nice slow drive to the daycare and stopped to take lots of photos. The rain let up and I stopped and got out of the car to get into some wheat and potato fields. I just had to see them up close. I’m sooo going to miss that school and that drive. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have had such a great job here.

These are the days

Just a few of my awesome kids I'm gonna miss
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this but I went back to work on a part time basis in mid June. I’m teaching English in the town of Memuro again. Same schools I had before save one. Keenan goes to daycare and seems to really enjoy it. He’s usually the only kid his age so he gets full on attention from his caregiver, which suits him oh, so totally fine!

Today was my last day at Minami-sho. It was heart wrenching. The kids and teachers there are awesome. All the grade 6 kids made me a present and wrote me a letter in English. Upon my departure all the teachers and a couple of the students came into the genkan while I changed into my outdoor shoes. They lined up and I shook their hands, then bowed and thanked them for yet another great experience. At the fourth of 7 people I lost it. I started to cry and couldn’t really say much else. Thank God so much can be said with a deep bow. Three of the students followed me outside and saw me to my car. They chased after my car until I got to the road. Waving, calling my name and shouting “good-bye” as they ran. I nearly came undone. Such good boys and so difficult to wave good-bye for the last time.

Tomorrow will be much worse. It’s my last day at Kamibisei-sho. Don’t tell anyone but it’s my favorite school. The kids there are golden and their voices will follow me forever. Something about that place got into me like sunshine and it always lifts my spirits to be there. Tomorrow will be very hard indeed.

Pooh Story # 3: Pooh breath

In this my second year of being a parent I’ve come to learn that all the vein popping, really terrible things about being a parent are temporary. I am as I type praying this theory plays out for the rest of my years. Hair pulling, biting, nose picking and gas to name a few are all things we’ve come to deal with and some have moved into the ranks of being a near distant memory. Most recently as in a few short hours ago, I nearly had a melt down over a diaper changing “incident”. We’ve thankfully moved into a phase of our son’s life where only about 1 in every 6-diaper changes is a full contact/tackle sport (people the world over should be knocking on wood as they read those words in an effort to cancel the jinx I’ve created by typing those very words). But this morning during his first diaper change of the day (read: before 6 am) Keenan engaged in a habit that is sometimes funny, sometimes brain splitting and nearly vomit inducing disgusting. Basically Keenan likes to toss his salad when he’s diaper free. Can’t say I blame him much, given the fact he’s wearing a hot diaper around his fixin’s pretty much 24/7. It’s gotta feel good to well, feel them. Anyhow, we usually get a kick out of this and it’s of course never a problem when we’re changing a pee only diaper the BIG problem is when there’s pooh involved. It’s such a freakin’ nightmare to get the pooh off his hands before he gets it everywhere. Keenan never sits still so there’s always flicking, clapping, waving, wiggling and kicking involved in every diaper change so you can imagine the horror when any one of those actions is paired with pooh. Baby hands + twig and berries + pooh = parental meltdown. Today and for the second time in about 2 weeks (please don’t let this be a pattern) Keenan put his hands in his pooh, waved them about and then put them directly in his mouth. The hands got in the mouth while I was trying to keep the kicking feet out of the diaper. Obviously my triage priorities were backwards. Feet in diaper are less likely to get into mouth than hands in diaper. It was before 6 am don’t forget. My excessive cursing roused Sean from our bed and he came to my rescue. Sean held the bottom end while I cleaned the hands as best I could. Then I finished up with the bottom end while Sean washed his own hands. Keenan was standing up on the change table while I snapped his shirt closed. His face was level with mine and he giggled his poohy breathe all over me…Flash back about 10 years ago to a child-less Nancy and Sean on our first camping trip together on Salt Spring Island. We hitch hiked into Ganges for a coffee and some groceries. We were sitting in a trendy little outdoor café and there was a young woman sitting a couple of tables away with two young boys. They were about 6 and 8 years old. She had a dreamy Parisian accent but her boys were a little less than dreamy. At one point she looked at one of them and yelled, “You’re a horrible little boy”. I thought to myself “what an awful thing to say to your child, I’m never say that kind of thing to my children”…Well this morning I was calling our “pooh ingesting toddler” things that were way worse (I may or may not have called him a “shit eating nightmare of a child”). Oh, how my image of that Parisian woman has changed. By now she’s a wise, sagely, saint of a mother with kids nearly out of high school and I’m a recently minted mom left praying for the day we move out of this poohy hands phase.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Today is Canada’s 140th birthday and we celebrated by going to the Friends of the World Festival at the Tokachi International Relations Center. There was lots of dancing, singing, games, socializing and general good fun. But the best part is that folks from all over the world set up food stands and offered up a taste of their home countries culinary fare. So yesterday we tried fried plantains from Ghana, curry and rice from Peru, Lemongrass soup from Myanmar and salad rolls from Egypt. Yummy yum yum! During our lunch we were treated to an earthquake while sitting on the grass. A truly strange feeling indeed! After lunching with Bret, Sara and Gwendolyn we headed over to Memuro Park for an all-afternoon BBQ. We’ve come to really love this little weekend ritual with Bret and Sara. It was especially nice to have Jonah who is visiting from Vienna and who is on his way to work in Tokyo for the summer, Katie and Kajsa stop in for a wee bit too. After that we went home and Dan and his family came by to buy Sean’s bike and a few other house hold items. We had a pretty good day all in all but can’t wait to be part of the big Canada Celebrations in Ottawa next year.

Auntie Bret changes first diaper!

Bret has sooo many amazing experiences under his belt but when Keenan was born we found out that he had NEVER changed a diaper. We vowed that someday he’d be responsible to change Keenan and he managed to dodge the task until we sprung it on him one evening shortly before Keenan’s first birthday. He bravely stepped up to the plate even though we couldn’t guarantee a poop free experience. The following video documents that monumental event. Oddly Bret keeps calling Keenan “Baby” even though he’s known him for a year, perhaps some sort of subconscious dissociation instinct was kicking in. Bret’s participation took about 6 minutes with Sean stepping in a couple of times to wrangle Keenan and then in the end to dress him. After a couple of minutes of shooting this video I was laughing so hard that I hit the stop button on the camera by accident so there’s a wee bit of a transition. You don’t actually see too much in the following video but the commentary is truly priceless.

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13 ½ months

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There was just no time to write a 13-month update so Keenan’s public will have to be fine with 13 ½ months! I figured the video would be a crowd pleaser too!

So much has happened in the last 6 weeks and as much as Sean hates to admit it Keenan is now a full-blown “toddler”. Apart from that the biggest news to report is that Keenan has finally made the leap from being afraid to try walking to wanting to do it all the time. We bought him a Fisher Price walker a couple of months ago and he could only ever push it in straight lines and would freak out when he got it wedged into a corner or under the table. Now he runs with it, spins it around corners and pushes balls around the apartment with it. The other evening Sean and Keenan walked to the drug store together and Keenan had his walker with him. They were walking thru the cookie aisle and Keenan spotted a package of the raisin cookies he likes and he picked them up and put them right in the basket area of his walker! They proceeded to the checkout where Sean paid for their cookies and then they walked out. You can imagine how everyone in the drug store melted into pools of oob due to the extreme cuteness overload. While Tom and Pat were here Keenan ventured into full blown walking attempts sans walker. And within hours he had all of us on the floor encouraging him to walk between us. Now he can manage a distance of about 15 feet on his own. He’s also mastered getting up from a sitting position on the floor but still doesn't consider walking as his primary mode of transportation. I’m sure that’ll come in the next month or so and should make our 7 days in Tokyo that much more interesting!

The thing I find most endearing as of late is the rapid development of Keenan’s “ha ha I’m a funny man” personality. Basically he’s a ham and he totally knows how to work the crowd. He has a fantastic repertoire of gestures that he’ll do on command including “Power/Hulk Smash”, “Who knew?” “Sniffy face while eating”, “yeah while clapping” and the cutest one so far titled “Oooohhhhhh”. They have to be seen to be believed so hopefully I can get them all (there's a wee bit of the Power/Hulk Smash gesture in the video above) on video and posted. Not only is Keenan a funny guy himself but he finds many things around him funny like silly faces, Sean sitting on the toilet and putting his fingers up anyone’s nose. Actually that last one has become a bit of an annoying past time and although we should probably be trying to discourage it we still find it too cute to do so! Adding to the laughter it appears that very recently Keenan has become a walking tickle zone. It seems everyday he develops a new ticklish spot and we can send him into peels of writhing and giggling with very little effort whatsoever.

This week there has been a new development in his limited vocab. Apart from calling us mumum and dada he’s starting saying “oh ma ga” or “oh ma gu” which I guess is “oh my God or goodness”. And he understands the context in which they should be used. Interesting, as I didn’t think either one of us said either of those phrases very often. I guess it’s time to start watching what we say. Especially the “f” words. Frig it is from here on out!

Books glorious books. Our child is a bookworm and we love it! He loves all of his books and reads most of them several times a day. Keenan will get up in the red chair all on his own and sit and go through 4 or 5 books on after the other. He inspects each page, looks at the pictures and talks to himself all the while. He’s quite particular about when we read to him though. If he’s quietly “reading” to himself he usually doesn’t like to be disturbed by an adult butting in to read to him. He does love to be read to but under his own terms. He especially likes his books being sung to him in silly voices, which is cool cause that’s generally my favorite way to read to him!

We haven’t been buying Keenan very many toys recently since we’ll be leaving so soon and don’t want to pack many back to Canada with us. It really is amazing how few toys kids actually need especially when so many household items make good stand-ins. There are a few things he can’t seem to live without like his Duplo, ring sorter and growing collection of balls. He’s up to 6 different balls now and loves rolling and chasing after them. Yesterday I bought Keenan a couple of water park toys. There is a fantastic kids water park at Ecology Park in Otofuke and I’m sure we’ll be heading back there a few times before we leave. Keenan fell in love with another kid’s truck when we were there last so I got him one of those, a small watering can, rake and shovel. They’ve proved to be hits around the house already so maybe they’ll come to Canada with us.

There seems to be interesting developments in Keenan’s eating behaviors on perhaps a weekly basis. While Tom and Pat were here Keenan starting doing this business where he would scream and scream when we put him in the high chair and then we’d have to hold him down and put a taste of food in his mouth. After that first bite he’d totally shut up and sit there with his mouth open like a starving little robin. Very strange. Then there was the “I’ll eat anything if you coat it in yoghurt” phase which quickly turned into the “I won’t eat anything unless it’s coated in the yoghurt you’re eating right now at this very second” phase. Confusing. I’m not sure words can convey how vile Vegetable beef rice pilaf coated in tropical fruit yoghurt smells. Sean nearly barfed up his dinner over that one. Now we’re in the “I’ll eat anything if it’s coated in green” phase. Yup, that’s right. If Keenan doesn’t want to eat his rice just dot it with green peas. Not eating the toast? Then just shake some dried parsley on it. Oh and he won’t eat oatmeal without cinnamon.

Keenan has possibly the cutest, most perfectly square, bright white front teeth, which have earned him, the new nick name “Chiclets”. He also sprouted a lower incisor about 10 days ago and last week he sprouted another on the other side. Today I noticed an upper molar punching through on one side and another on the other side just under the surface. The amazing thing is he isn’t making much of a fuss about it at all. Just lots of drooling.

Despite all the teeth I’m still breastfeeding him about 3 or 4 times a day. He is gradually weaning himself and no longer needs the boob to fall asleep at night or for naps. I’d like to keep up the breast feeding for the flight back home as it is so comforting for him and really helps with the ear pressure change during take off and landing. I imagine some time after we get ourselves settled in Canada he’ll be fully weaned. I’m not in a great rush though.

I’m really reticent to type this for fear of jinxing us but it appears the Holy terror diaper changes are growing less frequent. He’s moved up to the next size in diapers as of this week. We’ve started using diaper liners again because we’re simply so sick and tired of scraping shit off diapers and subsequently reaming said shit out from under our finger nails. Someday I’ll plant a tree for every 100 liners we’ve used.

Our little guy is getting so tall but he’s a lean fellow too. He still has his umbilical hernia but it’s not as bad as it used to be. Hopefully it heals itself soon. I don’t have recent weights and measures but will update this likely by the end of the weekend.

Keenan was a very lucky little boy to have his Gramma and Grampa here for a fully month between May and June. From the first morning they were here he pulled them into his tractor beam of cuteness from which they will likely never break free! It was especially great for them to see him take his first steps, develop his gestures and just be a part of his daily life. They were likely 10,000 photos taken (I really do wish I were kidding!) to document their stay and many are of the boy with Tom and Pat, which is really lovely.

In the next month we’ll be leaving Keenan’s birthplace to return to Canada. Sean and I will be going home but Keenan will be leaving his. It makes us sad to leave but we’re also very happy to be going back. Sean and I are looking forward to bringing Keenan back to Obihiro when he reaches an age when such a trip has meaning for him. I hope time continues to creep by in this part of the world. For the next 15 to 18 years at least.

Just the 3 of us again

At 12:30 am on Saturday morning Tom, Pat and I struck out for the Obihiro train station. The train ride to Chitose would be their last adventure in Japan on this trip. They left for the train station tired and nervous but were smiling and waving as the train pulled away from the platform. We had a good visit. No month long adventure with ones family is ever without a few bumps in the road but we all survived. Once again we logged lots of miles on the car, toured the spectacular Hokkaido countryside, met lovely people, bought lots of bits and bobs and ate great food. We watched plenty of “Keenan as TV” and he really loved having his gramma and grampa around to kiss (oob), chase, read him stories and hold his hands while he practiced walking (yes, the bunlet walks, more about that later). We did too much to include in what is supposed to be a short post but I’ll try expanding on the highlights in future posts.

So yesterday morning Keenan had a 3-hour nap while Sean and I cleaned house and enjoyed a rare two-latte morning! I had a great phone chat with my sister for almost an hour and a half. We could have gone on longer but we were disconnected. We spent the afternoon running errands and then we fully enjoyed an in car MOS burger dinner at Obihiro no Mori park whilst our babe slept in his car seat in the back. Then we headed over to the A Co-op and I bought a few groceries in a sleep deprived, zombie-like stupor. I don’t really remember getting home but I do remember Sean waking me up on Tom and Pat’s bed at 8:30 pm to help him put Keenan to bed. Then I woke up once again at 6 am in Tom and Pat’s bed feeling remarkably refreshed. My first 12-hour sleep since Keenan was born! Both Sean and Keenan are still asleep and it’s 7:40 am so I have this delicious time to myself! I’ll upload some photos and perhaps start another post before reality sets in.

The countdown is officially on. 1 month and 3 days until we leave Japan. Oh, bring on the mixed emotions, long lists of things to do, packing and teary good-byes already. We are finally ready to return to Canada.

Japan is better with more Japanagans

Tom & Pat "The Hippest Hippies"
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Well Sean, Keenan and myself are feeling much better a week after the snot fest. Last Friday we did indeed take Keenan to the hospital, as he didn’t since to improve on Thursday. The sensei gave us a decongestant/antihistamine/cough suppressant/mild sedative concoction for Keenan that worked absolute wonders. He was feeling much better in just a couple of days. Sean and I still have a fairly persistent dry cough but we’re doing much better all the same.

So last Saturday morning we packed our wee family into our car to make the trip to Sapporo to pick up Sean’s parents. The 3 of us were definitely not feeling top drawer but a trip to Saptown always lifts ones spirits so we were happy to hit the road. Sean picked up Tom and Pat at the train station late in the evening and due to the complete lack of train service back into the city they took a $140 cab ride back to the hotel. Regardless it was great to see them again the next morning and we had a great time farting around in Sapporo before heading back to Obihiro. We’ve had a great first week and the next 3 promises to be just as fun if not funner!

I really feel like our time is slipping away from us here though. After Tom and Pat leave Sean, Keenan and I will only have 1 more month here. It seems hard to believe that 3 years have gone by since we set foot on this island. Time is flying and I wish it would crawl.

Snot fair-snot fest-snot funny

It’s a snot hodai over here at #304 Koukyou 62 this week. It’s been all you can booger since Sunday night starting with the littlest Japanagan. He woke up crying 2 hours after we put him to bed on Sunday. He was congested and a wee bit too warm. I rocked him to sleep but he was up again an hour later. We brought him to bed with us and propped him up on a pillow but despite the Baby Tylenol he wouldn’t close his eyes again. So Sean and I took turns staying up with the babelet all night. The next day I put a pillow under one end of his mattress so he could get some relief from his congestion and that worked wonders. A hot bath, some eucalyptus and camphor in the aromatherapy burner and he had a two solid naps. He had varying degrees of a fever Monday night and all day Tuesday but he overcame that nicely as well. Then Tuesday night Sean started to feel sick and Wednesday morning I was towing the line too. Yippee! This morning Keenan seemed to be less congested but now he appears to have a bit of a cough. He’s still very genki but I’ll take him to the doctor tomorrow if things don’t change for the better by the morning. The babe cries must run.

1 year

Keenan's first year
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

I’m posting this a little late as somehow there only appears to be 40 minutes in each hour now. But Keenan my dear boy you sure know how cram as much activity as physically possible into an hour! You have become a very busy little man in these past few months and you’re giving your parents a run for our yennies! Thankfully you are not yet walking but that’s gonna happen any minute now. You’ve earned your wall and furniture cruising badge and you’ll go forever if we put a walker, stroller, shopping cart, high chair or other similarly wheeled object in front of you. I must admit I half expect you to wake up from the nap you are having right now, crawl out of your crib, walk across your room, slide open your door and say “yo mummummum, where’s the apple juice at?” Speaking of talking, you’ve made serious progress on “bye-bye”. You’re starting to understand that you say it when someone goes away and that it’s paired up with the waving action. You have several ways of actually saying bye-bye which include “da-da”, “dai-dai”, “nyai-nyai” and “ba-e-ba-e”. Hopefully soon you’ll be able to put it all together AND do it before the person leaving is less than 500 feet away!

Books continue to be a favorite pastime for you. You more than doubled your collection of board books on your birthday and you’ve been in page turning bliss ever since. Apart from books you’re really into activity-based toys. If the toy doesn’t “do” something it doesn't’ even attract your attention. You love things that require a bit of brainpower like stacking rings or puzzles. I bought you the Cone Sorting toy by Plan Toys out of Thailand for your birthday and you’ve already played with it for hours. You are also really into your Duplo and can already stack two blocks together. But you really love ripping apart anything your dad or I make. It’s become a bit of game for us to try to construct something before you lean in and pull it apart. Your dad and I have also had unofficial competitions where we try to make the most Keenan proof structure. For the record, there is no Keenan proof structure.

I haven’t weighed or measured your height just yet but I do know that your feet are a Japan size 12. You’ll get your first pair of shoes this week apart from your leather slippers. And I’m going to make sure we get you outside walking everyday. It’s good for you and honestly it makes you sleep like a baby afterwards! We’ve had some good success with getting you to sleep in a bit in the morning. We tried pushing back your meals, snacks, naps and bedtime by an hour and (knocking on veneer) now you get up around 6:15 am. You’re fed and back in bed around 9 am and then I try to get you down for an afternoon nap around 1:30 or 2. The bedtime ritual starts around 7:15 pm and you’re off in la-la land by 8 pm.

Changing your diaper has now progressed into a full contact sport. There is nothing you hate more than receiving a clean ass. I may have said this before but you have more temper tantrums over diaper changes than anything else. The other day your father put a new diaper on you while you were standing up. He got many “creative diapering points” for that stunt. Although the diaper was crooked you were quiet and I didn’t see any veins bulging out of your fathers forehead when he lifted you down from the changing table. The only other progress we’ve made is that we know we can distract you from freaking out by giving you something you don’t usually get to play with while we’re changing you. We bought you your own baby cell phone toy for this. Other things that work are empty yoghurt containers, my watch and your father’s glasses. All easily replaceable items offered up for a peaceful butt wiping.

I guess I should say a bit about temper tantrums. You throw them. In many forms. And they’ve lead us to the realization that you need discipline now. Nothing hard-ass we just don’t give in to your temper tantrums. So wait, I guess we’re disciplining ourselves. Frig.

One of your other loves is personal hygiene! Now that it’s warmer here I run your bath, strip you naked in your room and then set you down on the floor. You can hear the bath running and you crawl lightening fast towards the bathtub, screeching all the while. Then you stand by the edge of the tub until I lift you in. It’s one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen! Once in you splash until I’m nearly soaked. It’s just so much fun and I’m very pleased that you’re turning out to be a water baby just like I was. Brushing your teeth is still a joyous activity for you and you are now the proud owner of two toothbrushes, which you put to good use. You still generally don’t like to get food on you and are a pretty tidy eater. I thank my lucky stars for this paragraph. These things go a long way to offsetting the diaper changing exploding forehead veins!

Food is also very popular with you and you’ll eat pretty much anything other than broccoli and carrots. Apart from those two you prefer most veggies to fruit. You’re just like me and you like sour things like plums and cranberries. We’ve recently introduced you to ice cream and you love black sesame seed and strawberry the most. String cheese is right up there as a favorite also. Last week I discovered that you love raisins. That was ok until your horrified father opened your diaper to find a dozen or so of them totally re-hydrated and nearly in their original grape form and size. Sorry babe, no more raisins until you can digest them. You have started protesting against any form of baby food. Nothing pureed or bland gets into your mouth anymore, which is great for us because you can more easily share our meals.

All these things added up the good, the adorable, the sometimes bad/frustrating make you the sweetest little boy ever. You’re very thoughtful of others and share your toys and food. You are so incredibly social and a total pleasure to have around our friends. Some of which have commented that they would consider having children since they’ve met you! There is nothing better than watching you roll around naked on our bed, eat dozens of peas one at a time, playing hide and seek in our apartment or watching you sit and carefully play with your books. As a mother I cherish the 3 times a day you fall asleep in my arms. You look like a tiny sleeping doll with your blonde hair, apple cheeks and long dark lashes. I love laying in bed in the morning listening and waiting for your morning whinging to turn into mummummummum. It’s fantastic watching you discover fun like on the slide at the park or riding on your dad’s shoulders. Getting our family to this point has been so mentally, physically and emotionally all consuming to the point that I can’t believe it’s been a year since you were born. It all just seems so fresh (unlike most things!) in my memory. I am the kind of person who feels nostalgia for the past in the present and that’s what I’m feeling right now. I’m watching you sit on the tatami in our bedroom. You’re running your fingers up and down on your lips and making that “bbbbbbbbb” sound. It’s another of my favorite things and I know I’ll miss it when you do it no more. I know for sure that some other tractor beam of cuteness’ll replace it and I intend on cramming as many minutes into every hour I can so I can enjoy every second of you now and forever.

The Birth Story ~ Part VI ~ The Delivery

"The Launch Team" and our prize!
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

How fitting that on Keenan’s first birthday I sit down to write out this account. It’s been a very nostalgic couple of days and it’s been great for both of us to relive all those moments in photo’s, conversations with friends and in those rare quiet moments when there’s just Sean and I awake.

So back to where I left off last night...I spent a lot of time reading about pregnancy and childbirth before and during my pregnancy. A lot of those words were dedicated to things I would feel. But most everything was described in a fairly ambiguous fashion. “Pregnancy effects everyone differently and although we’ll do our best to [insert topic du jour] you may or may not feel this/them as described”. For example: I knew contractions would be very painful but it could not be compared to any other pain. When Keenan’s head entered the birth canal I knew exactly what the hell was going on. I knew baby was on the way out and like right now. I have never in all my life felt such a sense of urgency. Mother scratcher did I ever wanna push that baby out. Everyone was telling me “no!” and in seconds the doors to our room flew open and all the equipment for delivery which was wheeled in. As everything was getting set up I started to feel the contractions building. This whole time I’d been pushing so hard during them and now everyone was telling me to breathe through them and relax. It felt very counter intuitive to follow their request and I voiced my opinion. Immediately the whole room broke into a low panting chorus of “ha, ha, ha, ha” and I joined in and ha, ha ha’d my way through the contraction. That was the last time I felt any pain. In the meantime the room filled with people. The doctor, Sato-san was there, 2 other midwives, the birth nurse and an intern. I remember the birth nurse throwing hospital gowns at Jess and Sean and they both fumbled to get them on. It was going that fast. I could feel the baby’s head moving down and I could feel its legs pushing against me from the inside. I watched my belly changing shape and honestly it freaked me out a bit. I’d spent 9 months and 8 days protecting this little person with my body and now he or she was on their way out and I had no control over it. I had one other very big long contraction and we did the ha ha business again. At this point Sean told me he could see the baby’s head and that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. So two things were going on here. First of all Sato-san was trying to slip the cord over the babies head and secondly she knew the baby was going to be large and she was trying to spare me from any tearing. She succeeded on both accounts and she truly is the best midwife in the whole world. With the next set of contractions I was given the green light to push as hard as I could and our baby came out just like that! Our baby was born at 12:14 pm. I saw him come out but Sean told me it was a boy. I could hear him getting suctioning and watched him getting wiped off and then he was placed on my tummy wrapped partially in a green paper towel, still attached to the cord which was still attached to the placenta which was still inside of me. Wild. It was all just so overwhelming. Cameras were now going off. The entourage in our room seemed to swell. People were saying how big our boy looked. He was so slippery and round! He had all kinds of guck in his hair red curly hair and he was very quiet. ‘We had our “congratulations” photo taken by the hospital and then they cut the cord while Keenan was on my tummy. We got to feel the cord and it was soft like mochi. I suspected it would feel like well, like a telephone cord! A piece of the cord was cut off and was later given to me in a small wooden box. A tradition I wasn’t prepared for but it was cool all the same (can’t wait to get that through customs in Canada this summer!). Finally, Sean got to hold Keenan and he cried tears of joy. I was next and then Jessyca. There were tears all around. After that Keenan was taken to be weighed and his health assessed and I got to the task of delivering the placenta. I didn’t feel it at all. It came out without any contractions and naturally Jess and I wanted to see it! So the doctor showed it to us and we of course took pictures of it! Then I got a couple of stitches for some internal tearing and we had a really nice time chatting with the doctor both during and after the stitches. He was pretty sure Keenan was the biggest baby born to his hospital that year and the biggest first baby ever born in his hospital. Excellent titles to hold! Keenan was returned to us and we were told he weighed 4373 grams and was 51.5 cm long. He had a bit of a minor internal infection and was given antibiotics to help clear that up. He also was running a bit of a fever but that as likely due to the infection. I remember holding him for that first time and being so totally flooded with emotions, joy, relief, excitement, wonder and disbelief. Here was our beautiful baby on the outside. In my arms! He was a perfectly beautiful, round healthy boy. We immediately named him Keenan Thomas. Keenan is a Gaelic name and in Japanese it means “anniversary or in memory of”. Thomas is the name of Sean’s father, grandfather and great grandfather.

Someone asked me before I left the delivery room if I would give birth without any pain relief again and I was a little unsure at the time. In hindsight I’d say yes. For the next one I’d like to do it naturally as well. As much as I can’t find the words to convey what the pain felt like I felt good knowing that I could feel everything. You can’t really read enough or attend enough classes to fully prepare yourself for what you’re going to go through. So much knowledge was gained in that first experience. I know it’ll be different the second time around but most of the critical unknowns are no longer a mystery to me.

It’s 12:14 am. Keenan is 1 year and 12 hours old. Tonight both Sean and Keenan are snoring in their beds as I write this. A whole year has gone by since you were born sweetest boy. We’re so lucky to have you. Happy Birth Day babelet!

The Birth Story ~ Part III ~ The Contractions

So easy to smile BEFORE the contractions...
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Well here we are almost exactly a year after the contractions that brought Keenan into the world started and I’m finally sitting down to write this segment of the birth story. There are many things that I have forgotten about the delivery once it actually got rolling but the contractions will likely be burned into my memory forever. I remember saying beforehand that I was more afraid of the pain of getting an episiotme than I was afraid of the pain that accompanies the contractions. Well thankfully I didn’t actually get an episiotme but I did require several stitches which I didn’t feel one bit thanks to the help of a single needle of freezing. The contractions on the other hand were well they were hell on earth. This evening I was going over the notes Sean and Jess took while I was in labor. Jess had the brilliant idea of writing down all my contractions including the length of each contraction, the intensity of the contraction, the length of the rest period between contractions and all the other stuff I was doing like going to the bathroom or changing position. The log starts at 11:25 pm on Wednesday, May 10 and goes right through until the time of delivery the following afternoon. There are 4 full, double sided pages of notes and I think the process of keeping this log, Sean’s ability to take everything I said to him both good and bad, Jessyca’s fantastic coaching skills and our amazing midwife kept me from losing my sanity.

Here’s how it went down. Between 11:25 pm and 12:35 am not too much was going on. I was having contractions that were spaced fairly far apart with varying degrees of intensity but nothing too consistent. By 1:35 am the contractions were anywhere between 3 to 15 minutes apart and they lasted about 30 seconds to a minute and a half. At 2 am things really started to get consistent. I was having mild to medium intensity contractions every 1.5 to 3 minutes. After 2:30 am there was only 5 instances where I had greater than 2 minutes (but never more than 2.5) rest between contractions. It’s funny I look back at these notes now and I see that I was telling Jess at around 1:35 am the contractions were “strong”. They were a walk in the park compared to what was around the bend. Now I really know why they changed the system for judging figure skating! Around 3:50 am I was starting to get cramping in my lower pelvic area and my contractions were changing so that they were very strong and then they would just suddenly drop off. Pretty much up until this point we were being left alone to get through the early stages of labor. So it was just the 3 of us talking, breathing and keeping track of things on the log. There were two midwives on duty that were assigned to us and they’d pop in once and a while to check on us. It was really great to left alone like that. We had a pretty good system going and we were all in good spirits. If the doctor or midwives wanted to know how I was doing they would check in with Jess and her amazing log and that was that. Then I got a monster contraction that lasted 12 minutes. This seemed to be the turning point from pleasant to not so pleasant. Jess called the midwife and then the doctor came and examined me. I was 7 cm dialated and not looking too forward to many more 12 minute contractions let me tell you. From this point on all the contractions were strong. Stronger than the past “strong” contractions. I was doing a lot of creative breathing and starting to get very uncomfortable. The thought of water or food made me want to barf and I began seeing my hourly pee break as a vacation. Get the baby monitor off, remove myself from the situation, have a few minutes of just Sean and me time in the john, then get back out there and get back to work. I started thinking about the very near future and what kind of labor I was going to have. I knew I wasn’t even at the pushing stage yet but I was already starting to have significant pain. I thought back to the videos we watched in the prenatal classes which showed the soon to be moms mewing like kittens through the real productive contractions. I began hoping we were in a soundproof environment. I foresaw myself as a howler and not a dainty mewer. At 5:30 am I changed my position to upright with my legs crossed. It helped relieve my low pelvis cramping a bit. At 6 am I was 8 cm dialated, hooked up to the IV as I was getting dehydrated and the contractions were still strong lasting 20 seconds to a minute with 30 seconds to a 1.5 minutes rest between. At 7 am I had my blood pressure, temp and blood taken and when examined I was found to be 8-9 cm dialated. At 7:45 am I was examined by the doc who felt the baby’s head was starting to come down. He told us the baby would be born by 9 am. I was soooo relieved. I need to take a minute and describe what it was like to have those internal examinations. It hurt like a motherf**ker. It felt like the doctor was trying to rip my heart through my cervix. And every single time he examined me I felt like something was wrong. Actually no, I felt like he was “doing” something wrong. Nice to get that off my chest. At 8:20 am the nurses changed shift and Eriko Sato-san aka the best midwife in the whole world came to see me. Although she was in charge of a few other women she stayed with me nearly the whole time. In hindsight I wonder if she was called in as an extra and assigned to me. I’ll have to ask her next time we go to the hospital. Sato-san was amazing. She got right into the birth bed with me and put her right hand under my pelvis for nearly 4 hours. She said she could feel the baby that way. She talked me through many many very painful contractions. And then at 9 am I got the first sensation that I wanted to push. This is when the really strong contractions started and I fulfilled my destiny as a howler. Sean and Jess stopped writing in the contraction log at around 9:40 am as they were at my side and talking me through each contraction, reminding me to breathe and bringing me back down to earth. The pain was so friggin’ intense. With every contraction I would push 4 times really hard. Every time Sato-san asked me to push a fifth time. I couldn’t, it was too painful. After about an hour of these intense contractions and pain I felt myself cheating a little. Not pushing as hard as I could, trying to spare myself a bit of the pain. At 10 am the doc came back to examine me again. I was now very gun shy of his dialation examinations and had told Sean how I felt. I was also fairly disappointed that the baby had not been born by 9 am like he had sad. During his examination I kicked and screamed for him to stop. And I saw Sato give him a look of surprise. So here’s my theory. The doctor maintained up to now that my water hadn’t broken at home. I think every time he examined me to see how far I was dialated he try to “break” my water. I think that my water had indeed broken at home. I lost sooo much fluid that it couldn’t have been anything else. I think Keenan just acted as a plug and kept the rest behind him. Either way I was now 10 cm dialated and I made Sean promise me that man would conduct no more internal examinations. He was more than happy to oblige as I don’t think he could watch me go through that again. The next 2 hours were the worst and I realized I had to give up on my little cheating exercise. Hell I’d push 6 times with each contraction if Sato-san wanted me too. Turns out she did. I could focus on nothing else but the ebb and flow of each contraction and the “fuuu, fuuu” breathing sounds Sean, Jess and Sato-san were making with me. The very end of each contraction was the worst. The pain got so intense at the end I couldn’t breathe. If I couldn’t the baby couldn’t so every single time Jess calmly reminded me to breathe. Somewhere during the two hours of hell I changed my position to nearly flat on my back and it felt a million times better. The best part was I could put the grab bars to better use and all of a sudden it all started working. The pushing, the pulling the breathing, the “fuu fuu’ing”. Sato-san kept encouraging me to look down at my belly as she could see the baby moving but I just couldn’t break my concentration. I was getting exhausted. I had read about and met many women who had survived more than 24 hours of labor. Surely I could last. I could start to see the worry on Sean and Jess’s faces. Then just before noon Sato-san took a well deserved break (I learned later she went down the street to the daycare where her 9 month old son was to breast feed him). At noon the doctor came in said in Japanese to Jessyca that he was concerned I was getting too tired. So he suggested we consider other options like a picotin drip or a vacuum delivery. He also said at this point he was willing to let me carry on naturally if I wished. That was it for me. I went thru the whole f’n labor process totally naturally and now they’re talking drugs and mechanical delivery? Screw that. So I made the decision that with the next contractions I was going to push until this baby is out. Within minutes of him leaving the room I was calling for Sato-san as I could feel the baby’s head starting to come down. She was there in an instant and…the rest is part of the delivery story which I’ll write tomorrow.

Right now it’s 12:07 am and officially Keenan’s first birthday. He’s snoring quietly in his crib and has no idea what today means just yet. Presents, cake, decorations, balloons, candles, friends and lots of love and attention. I can’t remember being this excited for one of my own birthdays!

Happy Children’s Day!

The boys & the koi
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Today is kodomo no hi “Children’s Day”. It used to be called Boy’s Day but it was too exclusionary towards girls so it’s been changed. Either way one of the most beautiful things about kodomo no hi is that koi no buri “koi wind socks” are flown outside the home in honor of the family and with hopes the koi will impart their characteristics of strength and long life unto the children. These wind socks come in an insane array of colors, patterns, fabrics and sizes. There are custom sets that can lighten your pockets of $10 000 + or you can purchase a wee set at a dollar store for well, a dollar. The largest koi no buri we’ve seen were being flown from a tower and were well over 7 meters long. We’ve seen them flown on shrine grounds, farm grounds, private residences, farms and in the dozens alongside bridges. They are truly breathe-taking to behold fluttering in the spring wind.

Sean and I were most excited to go shopping for a set for Keenan. The 3 of us went several times on our own to get a general idea of what we wanted and then Eiko joined Keenan and I on our final fact finding mission. Traditionally the father and/or his parents shop for and buy the koi no buri but logistically that just wasn’t going to work out for us so Eiko, Keenan and I narrowed down the choices to the 3 best based on price, pattern, size and pica pica (Japanese onomatopoeia for something that is shiny). Sean made the final decision and I then he picked the best of the lot. We brought our set home and I stayed up late one night assembling the balcony clamp, pole, ropes, clips and windmill. Under the cover of darkness (so as not to make an idiot of myself doing this for the first time) I secured the hardware to the balcony. The next morning was bright and sunny and I hung the family flag and the 3 koi. I couldn’t believe how little breeze set them to sail. They billowed and twisted from the pole with the sun glinting off the gold detail. When Keenan woke up I opened his curtains and the koi immediately caught his attention. Arm up, deploy finger, point, smile. It was a great moment. So Sean took him to the living room sliding door to look out and meet his koi no buri for the first time. Then they went out on the balcony for a closer look. Sean explained what the flags represented…the top one is our family flag, the biggest koi is daddy, the next one is mommy and the smallest one is for baby. Keenan truly loved them. He pointed and smiled and cooed for as long as Sean’s bare feet could stand being out on our cold concrete balcony. Since that day we’ve had to have them inside a few times because it’s been too windy or raining and I’ve hung them in Keenan’s bedroom window. He plays with the soft silky fabric and delights in the bright colors and shimmering gold. I think after this weekend I’ll hang them in his room over his crib so he can see them when he wakes up.

We hope you grow up with the strength and long life of the koi our dear boy. We’ll fly your koi no buri every year at this time in honor of you and to remind you of your birthplace. We love you Keenan!

Feeling the burn

Kiki Kimono-san
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Keenan has been a workout this week. We finally managed to break the getting up at 4 am habit. Halleluiah and thank you all denominations of the Lord. We suspected he might be getting up with the sun rising and in a stroke of genius Sean found yet another use for our thick, cushy and indispensable Patagonia Synchilla blanket. He hung it over Keenan’s window and it plunges the room into near darkness. So now he’s only getting up at 5:15 am which is still a little on the painful side especially for Sean the night owl who comes to bed at 3 am on the weekends. Apart from waking Sean up too early and making me grumpy, these early mornings make Keenan a wholly terror requiring FULL and COMPLETE engagement, 3 naps and too much scolding because when he’s tired and cranky he gets into things he’s not supposed to. And it makes him bite me. We definitely gotta get this biting thing sorted out but we’re gonna tackle the sleep issues first. So Sean spent a lot of time researching the "issue" on the net yesterday and we’re gonna try pushing back Keenan's breakfast, lunch and dinner times followed by his nap times by 1 hour. The ideal result being that after about 2 weeks he’ll start waking up later in the morning. Wish us luck.

In kimono news…I did indeed go back to the kimono shop and I inspected the "deal of the century kimono" mentioned in a previous post. Viewed in the daylight the sun and soiling appeared to be much more extensive than I thought so I didn’t get it. But I did get a few other things including a kimono overcoat, some more fabric, a casual obi, kimono shipping envelopes and a monkey made out of kimono fabric for Keenan’s first birthday. Come on, how many other kids can say they’ve got a monkey made of kimono fabric?!!!!

Gosh, are you sure 4 loud speakers are enough?

It’s election time here in Obihiro. Not sure what the election is for. All I know is there is 38 or so candidates and they each have their own van which sports no less than 4 loud speakers affixed to the roof. A loud speaker attached to each corner of the exterior roof surface of a van would be pretty harmless if a man or woman shouting keigo (honorrific Japanese) at you as it slowly creeps through your neighborhood didn’t back it. There’s been at least one of those per candidate spreading noise pollution thru our fair city all week and it’s getting downright tiring. The thing that really rots my socks is that all they have time to say is their name, good morning, afternoon or evening, thank you very much and what roughly translates into please treat me kindly. Maybe if you haven’t woken my son up from his much needed naps on no less than 5 occasions this week I’d have some kind thoughts for you but right now I’m thinking about what objects in my fridge compliment your campaign colors.

So to make matters worse. As of right now there’s one such aforedescribed van parked outside of our building as crankypants is sleeping. So I go outside with the video camera with hopes that a foreigner video taping them will weird them out enough to drive them away. It works on one silver haired, older guy but then the candidate herself runs right up to the building with two of her neon green clothed designated wavers and starts talking to me. In English. While I'm getting the whole thing on video. My only opportunity to tell them to keep it down and I giggle girlishly and wish her luck. Yet another Aw Fer Fuck Sakes moment. So I come back in, sit down at this very seat and the doorbell rings. It’s some guy, trying to sell me something I don’t need and now Keenan is crying in the background. Keenan slept through multiple loudspeaker-encrusted vans blaring right outside his window only to be woken up by the doorbell. Classic. Now I’m gonna go figure out how to upload the video to this blog. After of course I go to the kimono shop.

Snow, kimono? What’s it gonna be this weekend?

Snowy view from Keenan's window
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

It’s 7:30 am on Saturday and I’ve been up for 3.5 hours, nursed Keenan, made Keenan breakfast, fed Keenan breakfast, nursed Keenan again and then suffered through 10 minutes of Keenan crying because he was simply too tired to fall asleep. Sean and I sat in the living room quiet as two house mice while Keenan wailed in his crib. Usually when we do this he gives in before 5 minutes and falls asleep or kicks up the intensity and rips my heart out with “wuh uh uh waaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAA” punctuated with “mum mum mum”. So I went in picked him up, snuggled him against me and then I deployed my secret weapon…the whispering of French lullabies. I don’t know very many and I'm more than pretty sure I get some of the words wrong but they sure as hell work wonders on our child when he gets himself worked into a “screw you mom and dad I'm not falling asleep” mood.

So now Keenan’s sleeping and after Sean paid his respects to my baby whispering by deeply bowing before me several times he headed back to bed as well. I’m not feeling much like going back to bed though and sadly I think it’s because I’m getting used to Keenan’s new starting hour of 4 am. So perhaps I’ll blather on here for a while.

I must say that I while I lay in bed at 4 am in a haze of procrastination and prayers for Keenan to magically talk himself to sleep I found myself wondering what the weather was up to on the other side of our bedroom curtain. You see during the months of April and May winter mysteriously only works on the weekends. I’m not kidding. We’ve woken up to snow on either Saturday or Sunday morning nearly every weekend save for one this month. Same thing happened last year. I won’t go so far as to say it never snows during the week. It might snow a bit but we get seriously dumped on over the weekend. I think we got almost 25 cm last Saturday during the daylight hours alone but come Monday you could barely tell. I opened the curtains to rain this morning but there’s enough chill in the air to coax flakes from the skies if the temp drops a few degrees.

In other news, yesterday we got a flyer in the mail from a local kimono shop advertising a huge sale. I love everything about kimono shops. The colorful, patterned and beautifully textured fabrics, the accessories, the purses, hair ornaments, the impeccable customer service and the long list of traditional must have accoutrements whose purpose I can’t even fathom. These shops are packed with “stuff”. Stuff you could blissfully spend hours sifting through only to find many other layers of more stuff beneath begging for your attention. So it’s never a “quick” visit to a kimono shop especially not one packed to the rafters with sale goods. And it's typically not a place you go to with a baby that’s a bit whingy because he blew off his afternoon nap but we went anyways. We ended up spending 5500 yen total for a very pretty, formal obi thanks to Sean’s keen eye, some great kimono fabric scraps, 2 small wall hangings and 2 noren. A good haul by my standards. But and this is a big BUT, the best deal I have ever laid my hands on in all my life was at that shop and I didn’t buy it. I had to curb my desire and exercise the “24 hour + sleep on it rule” as I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it because it was such a freakin’ good deal or because I actually liked and wanted it. Need doesn’t factor into this equation and I know you know exactly what I’m talking about. So what was this fabled deal of the century? A 580000 yen (approx $5800 and yes that is the correct number of zeros) silk kimono for 3900 yen (approx $39). I walked away from it for 4 reasons…it was only basted and not yet sewn, a bit dirty, a bit faded from the sun and it was unlined. The fading was minor and the liner doesn’t matter to me as I’d never wear it and would only hang it on a wall or stash it away in a box as my most prized, most deeply discounted find. The dry cleaning would be costly and it would take me a while to hand-stitch it back together. But geez, the whole process and the thing itself sure makes for such a great story doesn’t it? Not to mention that the kimono itself is quite lovely. It’s not something I would have been attracted to at first glance as it is very light in color but the pattern and embroidery are very traditional and quite beautiful. Naturally I’ll be going back today for a reassessment come snow, rain or screaming baby!

11 months

DJ Keen
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

One month away from celebrating your first birthday. Wow! I’m sure this next month is going to fly by as quickly as the last 11. I wonder, what it is about having babies that accelerates the passing of time? This past month has been another action packed, baby chasing, house-baby proofing adventure, as you love to explore places that are deemed unsafe by your parents. You charge every door that has been left open especially if it spends the day cutting you off from some magical mystery that is being unfairly kept from you. You have graduated into the 4 x 4 category of crawling. Simply put, not much other than doors can stand in your way. Even the bodies of your pooped parents splayed across the hardwood are mere molehills to you. Despite your crawling conquests you are very reluctant to try walking. For the time being you are quite happy to stand and cling to chairs and tables but as soon as moving your feet is required you’d much rather get back down on your knees to get from A to B. And yes, we’re fine with that for now! Take you’re time sweet boy, you’ve got a lifetime to run us off our feet!

You LOVE books. They are the first thing you want to play with after you wake up and the last thing you want to play with before you go to bed. You have two categories of books and they are located in two areas of the apartment. Your bedroom books are those with paper pages and are mostly gifts from friends and family and you require supervision while looking at them or you’ll tear the pages. Then there are your living room books, which are board books or soft plastic and fairly indestructible. You easily spend an hour a day looking at your books, flipping the pages, pointing at things and of course toting them around in your mouth as you travel our apartment. You have no problem sitting still for stories and you carefully turn each page in the proper direction. You don’t watch TV but you do get to see a few video pod casts. Your favorite pod cast is National Geographic video shorts and you get to watch a couple on the computer after dinner.

We weighed you yesterday and you are now 9 kilos (19.8 lbs)! Yippee! Dad gets to turn your car seat to face forward! And you’ve grown 4 cm in length in the last month so you are now 74 cm tall. We haven’t really had a solid word out of you yet but I think you’re starting to direct mumumum and dadada at us. Hopefully your first word won’t be fart (at least I’m hoping that anyways, your dad of course would be thrilled!). You eat a lot and love green peas pretty much more than anything. We have to give them to you at the end of your meal otherwise that’s all you’ll want to eat. Peas are good for you and all but they make for downright epic diaper changes! You also really love noodles, which is a blessing for those rare occasions when we go out for dinner. Two full-length udon noodles can keep you occupied for quite some time. You love to share your food and are always wanting to feed your mom and dad bits of your crackers or fruit. I’ve started teaching you what to do with a fork and you’ve got the basic concept down. In recent days you seem to have developed a sense of humor! You will outright laugh or giggle at all kinds of things like your father sitting on the toilet! You got your first hair cut last weekend and it makes you look so much older! Your dad held (wrangled) you while I managed the clippers. We did a pretty good job and only missed one spot. You didn’t seem to mind the process too much although you seemed to dislike the vibrating action of the clippers against your head. Drooling is back on your list of full time activities. We don’t see any new teeth yet but the ones you have now are defiantly moving closer together so there something going on in those gums of yours. You’ve established a solid sleep schedule of in bed between 7 and 8 pm up between 5 and 6 am, morning nap at 9am for 2-3 hours and then a little afternoon nap around 2 or 3pm for usually less than an hour. Missing the afternoon nap is not a big deal but missing the morning nap is parentcide and we avoid this AT ALL COSTS. It’s one thing to have grumpy parents but a grumpy baby takes days to recover from. You had your first quasi illness a couple of weeks ago. Some sort of minor sinus infection we figure. It was a week of hell for you and I won’t get into the details of what it did to us!

Eiko, your dad and I have been busy shopping for a koi no buri set for you. We’re really looking forward to celebrating kodomo no hi with you and can’t wait to watch your beautiful flags spinning in the spring wind from our balcony.

This next month we will take you on your first camping/road trip. It will be our last big adventure on Hokkaido until we bring you back when you are old enough to remember and appreciate seeing your birthplace. We’re both excited and nervous about this trip as we’ll be more than a days drive from home, which makes pulling the plug a little difficult so please be a good boy!

Happy 11 months birthday my boy. You never cease to amaze us with your how fast you learn new things and adapt to different and new situations. We love you squishy!