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Car conversations
September 29, 2007
"Wag, Moshi, Wag! Mia's watching! Moshi wagged! That's funny! Hehehehe..." And so goes our conversation on the way to dinner.
Posted by Kimberly at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)
Missing baseball season
September 26, 2007
Since we missed all the baseball games this year, I guess this will have to suffice for the next best thing. Now if only she would sing the right words to the song, "..root root root for the CUBBIES!"
Posted by Kimberly at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)
We've got Dora!
Yesterday, one of the things that was delivered was the TV. When Robert got home, we set that all up, but Mia was asleep by the time it was really all ready to go. This morning though, I turned it on to the kids channel for her and the end of Blue's Clues was on. She was pretty excited to get to watch her Clues-Clues on the "big screen". She's been relegated to the portable DVD for all of these months, poor deprived child. Anyway, a few minutes later, the next show came on and wouldn't you know it was Dora. I have not seen this child so happy in well... quite possibly her whole life! "It's Dora SPLORER!!!!! LOOK! LOOK! DORA! OH DORA!!!" She was giggling, dancing around, and I don't think her smile could get any bigger. She was literally bursting with joy. Happiness coming out of her pores. Sometimes it's the little things in life.
Posted by Kimberly at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)
It's finally arrived
September 25, 2007
Our shipment, that is. Considering it was packed in June, receiving it slightly before October is reasonable isn't it? How does that song go-- the one about the Slow boat to China? But the point is that it's finally here and mostly in one piece. I think the lesson learned today is not to ship wooden furniture. Those are the pieces that took the most abuse. Scratches, gouges, cracks... Just a little annoying and inconvenient, but not the end of the world.
The Japanese movers on this end were much nicer and more efficient than the ones who packed it all. They even took the bed upstairs and assembled it. I may have forgotten to mention it when the first round of furniture had to go upstairs, but let's just say it doesn't actually fit up the stairway. Everything has to go up over the balcony to the 2nd floor and then in the door to the bedroom. You should have seen us pulling dressers up the side of the house with ropes... Julie got a couple pictures, but since she was one of the pack mules, we didn't get any action shots! Anyway, my point is, that these guys just threw the bed up there, assembled it and were done all before I even knew what was happening. Definitely a higher level of customer service!
So now onto the dreaded task of unpacking all of these boxes and probably buying some more storage space for some of it. It's hard to know what to pack when you don't know where you're moving and although we tried to leave as much in storage as we could, I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that not all of these dishes are going to fit in my 2 1/2 cabinets!
Posted by Kimberly at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)
Gymnastics class
September 22, 2007
Yesterday we tried out a Gymnastics class and Mia absolutely loved it. I was completely blown away by her ability to pay attention and follow directions! I knew she could do it of course, I just didn't think she would do it. This special class was an hour and a half long and the child followed every instruction given for the first 45 minutes. Toward the end the temptation to just play was getting the best of her, but at least she still had a good time. Getting her to leave was the big problem.
Their computers were down yesteday, so we have to go back this week to sign up, but there is a waiting list a mile long. Hopefully she'll get in before too long.
Posted by Kimberly at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)
We need some blackout blinds
September 18, 2007
Mia's definition of morning is simply whether or not the sun has come up. If it has, or if it looks like it might soon, then she's up and ready to go. And since sunrise is about 5:45am, we're up pretty early around here.
This morning, it seemed to take a bit longer for her to notice the light. Probably because of the typhoon-- it's a pretty dark and dreary day. So we were lucky enough to "snuggle" until 6:30am. Notice that I didn't say SLEEP. Every morning, in my delusional early morning state, I try to convince her to sleep a few minutes longer and somehow I think that this will be the morning it works. I tell her she can come to my bed and we'll snuggle. I try to sleep another minute and a half, while she jumps around the bed trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Eventually, and by this I mean within 10 minutes, she gets bored of this arrangement and announces that it's time to "Go downstairs!" I try to pretend I didn't hear her, so it's usually followed by a request for breakfast. "Hungry for some food? Let's open the fridge and see. Mia needs a breakfast! Go downstairs!" By this point, there's really no use in trying to put it off anymore, so we get out of bed and trek downstairs. Sometimes I request a good morning hug and kiss before she gets her way and she's happy to oblige. She knows that means she's just won! I think she's starting to get the hang of it though. Today she climbed on top of me, started squeezing me and rolling back and forth, yelling, "BIG HUGS! BIG HUGS!" She followed this up with a kiss, then jumped off the bed and announced, "Go downstairs! Mommy sleeping ALL DAY!"
Posted by Kimberly at 6:35 AM | Comments (1)
19 weeks
September 16, 2007
Here's your 19 week, 1 day photo.
Posted by Kimberly at 2:35 PM | Comments (1)
Language Barrier
Take a Japanese language class.
That's been on the to-do list for quite some time now, but somehow it never quite gets done. Here's a new reason to push it up the priority list. Last night we went to dinner and it was tasty, but when the bill came it seemed a bit on the high side. We went ahead and paid it, but kept thinking about it and somehow it just didn't seem like it could have added up to that much. This morning we realized that they did give us a receipt, even if it was in Japanese and pretty much undecipherable to us. But, we did manage to figure out where the extra charge came from. They charged us an "automatic sit down at the table charge" of 315 Yen (about $3) 9 times. That adds up. Too bad we couldn't dispute it at the time. I guess we'll chalk it up to experience and call it a tax on Americans too lazy to learn the language. We gotta get on that. Oh, the food was delish though!
Posted by Kimberly at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
Mia and the inanimate objects
September 13, 2007
For some reason, Mia seems to think that all of these objects around the house just seem to have a mind of their own.
The other day, she found a cheerio on the floor. She exclaimed, "Oh no! A mess! Better clean it." Great! She picked it up, and in the past has asked to go throw something like this away. But this time she set it on the ground right next to the broom vac and said, "Go ahead vacuum, clean." And she really thought this was going to magically happen. She sat down and made herself comfortable and just STARED at the broom for at least 5 minutes. I couldn't stand to disappoint the child so I picked up the vacuum and sucked up the cheerio. Mia was thrilled to see this, but instead of getting any credit in the matter, Mia bestowed all her gratitude upon the broom. "Yay! Good job, vacuum! Good job!"
She's also taken to talking to her bathwater as it goes down the drain. When she's done with her bath, she asks to "open the bath" so that I will pull the plug. Then, "Go ahead water. Go ahead. Bye water."
One of my favorites though is her relationship with the car. "Moshi" will take us places, find Mia's house, and generally drive itself. If we hit a bump in the road, she scolds him, "Woah Moshi, watch out!" If I ask her if she knows where the grocery store is, she replies, "Moshi will find!" And since we generally back into the spot in front of the house, we turn left first before backing up next to the house which is on the right. As we're coming down the street, she usually shouts, "You found Mia's house! Yay!" with a "Good job Moshi!" sometimes thrown in. But as soon as we start to turn to the left, "Not this way Moshi!" She loves it when he wags his tail (back windshield wiper) on her command, "Wag Moshi, wag!" and she's also pointed out his ears (side mirrors) and eyes (headlights). I think they're best friends.
Posted by Kimberly at 1:20 PM | Comments (0)
Oh well.
September 11, 2007
Today, when we stopped for lunch there happened to be a HUGE play area next door. I pretended not to see it and quickly scoped out my options for driving around the building some other direction thinking that maybe she wouldn't notice it... No such luck. Mia immediately focused in on it. "LOOK! Playground! Mia needs to play. Come on let's do it. Let's go play!" I told her she had to eat a good lunch first and after that then maybe we could play for a little while. I was half-counting on the fact that she never eats and so maybe I could use that as an excuse to not sit outside in the blazing hot sun while she played. Well today she decided she would eat everything in sight AND she was a perfect little angel at lunch, sitting at the table the whole time with perfect manners. Of course. So we start to leave and do you think she has forgotten about the playground? "Ok lunchtime over. Time to play. Let's go to the playground! Yay!" Well at this point I HAVE to let the poor child play. She ate AND behaved! We did have an appointment to keep so we couldn't stay long, but as we walked over there I told her she could only play for 5 minutes and then we had to go. That was fine with her. "5 minutes! YAY!" Well when we got over there, there was no way to get in! They had put up a gate and locked it. I braced myself for a tantrum, took a deep breath and tried to explain to Mia that they must have closed it. Look there is a lock on it. Oh No! We can't get in. As I held my breath and crossed my fingers that the scene she was about to make wasn't going to last too long, she surprised me by saying, "Oh they put a gate up. We can't get in. This is terrible!" A long pause, followed by, "Oh well." Then she turned and started going back to the car. What? No tantrum? You're perfectly fine with this? I don't understand. This child amazes me sometimes.
Posted by Kimberly at 3:05 PM | Comments (1)
Weekend Update
September 9, 2007
Mia's been feeling a bit under the weather this weekend, so there's not much to report. A lot of sleeping and not much eating. She did wake up long enough to report "Mia is miserable!" this morning. Poor girl.
I decided to catch up on some backlogged video and post it. This is Mia having fun at last week's playgroup location, called Family Fun Land. It's this huge 4 floor FUN place for the whole FAMILY. Pretty adeptly named I'd say. We stayed in the toddler area of course, but Mia was not lacking for things to do. She really loved the windy balloon cage and as always, the ball pit.
Posted by Kimberly at 6:13 PM | Comments (1)
More singing
September 7, 2007
Mia will wander around the house singing to herself all day long, but the minute I get the camera out she immediately stops and refuses to perform. Lately, if I try to start a song to coax her into it, she won't even let me sing and says, "No, just quiet."
Posted by Kimberly at 9:18 AM | Comments (2)
Two Little Blackbirds
September 4, 2007
Mia trying to sing her Two Little Blackbirds song. It's very confusing!
Posted by Kimberly at 3:34 PM | Comments (1)
Cocok's Toes
September 3, 2007
From the moment we landed here, we started noticing that everyone seemed to have these ornately painted pedicures. It wasn't long before we discovered Cocok's (sounds like Cocoa's) was the place that decorated every toenail on the island. Now, I love a good pedicure, but it's just not my style to go all out with rhinestones, multi-colors, glittery polish and that sort of thing. However, after a few weeks of being surrounded by "Cocok's Toes" I succumbed to the pressure and had to make an appointment!
I was supposed to be there at 2pm and I figured I'd be done in an hour. Well, that was because I was expecting the standard soak a few minutes, let the jets give you a massage then dry and pick a color-- or if you're really going all out, then a french pedicure. That is not exactly what I got. An hour into it I was still in the middle of my 30 minute personal foot massage all the way up to my knees. And during this time I was still wading through all my design and color options that they presented in their book. Flowers, dots, stripes, you name it. Whatever your imagination can cook up, they can paint on! I was amazed at some of the intricate designs they've got in their portfolio. They even have some kid designs. Mia is already begging for Woah Woah Kitty on her very own Cocok's Toes. Once you make a decision, they go to town painting all of this freehand. I can't even get a single solid coat on without smearing it all over every finger or toe nearby, but somehow they manage to do this with no other tools than a paintbrush. I am truly amazed. And officially a convert. I'm spoiled already and don't think I can live without Cocok's Toes!
Posted by Kimberly at 7:14 PM | Comments (0)