Nara

We had every intention to see Japan (at least more of our neck of Japan) this break. Truth be told, we've been a bit lazy and haven't gotten out as much as we would have liked. Also, Maximo has been either magnificent or pushing EVERY one of my buttons during vacation. We've mostly had good days, but we had a couple of rough sleeping nights, so Max and I weren't doing so hot.

TODAY. HE. WAS. AN. ANGEL!

Credit: I stole the tiger (in honor of the Year of the Tiger from bluebison.net)

Today, we went to Nara for a day trip. It's about an hour and a half train ride from us to the east. Historically, it was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. It was a really beautiful place. It was a nice mix of city - modern and ancient - with a lot of green space and it was nestled against a mountain range (and we got a beautiful - blue-skied brisk winter day). There are MANY shrines and "wild" deer roaming around. We would have liked to meander around a bit more, but it took us a little longer than planned to get there since we got on a local train for a bit of our journey, and we can't just stroll and take our time like we used to due to Prince Maximo. (We're not saying he's not worth it!)

Strolling up to the deer for the first time!

Fortunately , it was a great place for us all to take a day trip. Once we entered the main Nara Park, he could roam free. He was enamored with the deer - which he kept calling cows. We bought some "deer crackers" and let him feed them. They were a little more aggressive than I expected, so I got a little antsy as one tried to stomp Maximo and another was trying to but him. All in all, they were pretty docile and had their horns cut off, so John kept me cool. In between our deer feeding, we visited a couple of shrines, made a wish, rang the bell and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.
We headed back sooner than we would have liked because many restaurants were near the train station, so we ate (falafel, yeah!), then headed home, on a rapid express train which almost delivered us back to our doorstep over a half hour quicker than our morning trek. Maximo slept the whole way home, and seriously was fantastic, even with the long train trip on either end.


I've posted a couple of our favorite pictures. The rest are here.

Lazy Days

We haven't been doing a whole lot these past few days. We've had some lazy mornings, that involved TWO cups of coffee, not the boring, regular one, and staying in our pajamas until almost lunch time.Max "helping" John put together MORE Ikea furniture

We had a nice quiet New Year's Eve here, just the three of us. We put together a seafood spread - fish and chips, sushi, cocktail shrimp, edamame and Maximo was in heaven. John and I had to fight him for the shrimp and sushi.NYE Spread

Here are a couple of pictures from the past week... Bridget came over yesterday to watch Max, so we could go over to a friend's house for brunch. She took some cute pictures of Maximo too which was nice!

On top of the slide!


Cheese!

Here's the completed Dec 2009 photo gallery.


And here's the beginnings of the January 2010 photo gallery.

A Little Outing

Yesterday we ventured out in to the Kobe Flower and Bird Park. It's a huge greenhouse with plants, flowers, fish and birds! It was very interactive for Maximo. We had a nice buffet lunch there, which was nice, and we don't think we made too many faux pas while we were eating there.

Kobe Flower and Bird Park - Dec 09

A Christmas Fly on the Wall

Here are some snippets of our Christmas morning.
Max loves everything "boy" - dinosaurs, trains and construction,
so he made out well.
It was a nice low-key Christmas just the three of us.

And a couple of pictures from today:

I made play dough - edible of course, because, well... Max always has to try everything, usually by putting it in his mouth (I thought we were past this stage, but he actually didn't eat any - he only licked one piece). I set him up at the table, gave him some kitchen utensils, a popsicle stick and some cookie cutters and he played for an hour and a half!
We've never seen anything keep his attention for so long!


In my head, I always hear "Mama Says Knock You Out"
when I see a hoodie sweatshirt.
He helped water the plants this afternoon
and came in soaking wet and shivering,so we had to bundle him up!
P.S. Denis, he LOVES the slippers, thank you!

And to report important news, since this is somewhat of a "baby book"... Today we said bye-bye to his "pons" - chupons... pacifiers. We've had a few tears, but he went to bed fairly well, we'll see what tonight brings. He's been using one since he was about a year old but only when he slept or we were traveling. We've been really ready to get rid of them, but was glad he had a little something extra to help him keep it together during the move and transitioning here. Hopefully it'll continue to go smoothly - though I know I usually curse myself when I post something on the blog.

A Very Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

First, let me apologize for the bazillion pictures I have/will post in the next 24 hours. This really feels like our first Christmas with Maximo. The one where the Christmas magic (and the lies) begin. His first year was a blur, last year we went to Machu Picchu and didn't even put the tree up.

He still doesn't totally get all of it, and told me "No!" when I said Santa was coming tonight.

No, you don't have to sit on his lap today and smile through the tears for another photo, all you have to do is go to bed, sleep through the night, preferably to about 7:30ish (ha!) and then you'll have a bounty of presents under the tree!

Yesterday we went to Harborland on our quest to learn about more about Japan, especially the city we are living in and have explored very little of since we arrived. It's a labyrinth of stores that ends up outside (at a harbor, hence the name) where there are more stores AND some rides, the best being the 200 Yen Thomas ride.

Today, we lounged around, finished some shopping, then had our Christmas Eve dinner. We have been tossing around ideas about what to make - we wanted it to be special, but there's no sense in making a whole roast for just us three... And it turned out very special. We sat around sipping from my great grandmother's crystal, eating Kobe beef with blue cheese butter, smashed potatoes, salad and red wine. We really had a nice time, Max sat like a big boy and enjoyed the extra props of the candles and his "special glass".
A meal fit for a king - bite sized.


We tried for 5 minutes to use the timer to get a family picture.
We finally decided to enjoy our dinner and not worry about the picture!

We think Kobe beef should be our new Christmas Eve tradition.

We've played Santa already which was fun, but we realize that this job will get more and more difficult as he stays up later and we can't just keep things in the back of our closet. We assembled his tool bench at 7:15, just fifteen minutes after putting him to bed, that won't be the case ever again, we're sure.

The stockings are too swollen to be hung.
Wine for Santa

Love, Maximo

(Love, Maximo in Japanese)

Maximo wanted to make his own additions to the Christmas tree - washcloths!

Today, we put Maximo in day care for a half a day. Just writing that makes me cringe, BUT... I was able to put together a gift bag for his senseis, we were able to do some things around the house, and he was able to play with his friends and keep his routine. He will not be going back until January 5th, so don't stone me!

We put together a goodie bag for his senseis, full of faux-gingerbread cookies (I forgot to add the ginger, but they turned out okay), Starbucks giftcards, chocolates and a letter from Max. It's hard to get his teachers gifts because:
1. I don't know all their names
2. There are about 5 (or 6?) regular teachers, but many we see on and off.

I wanted to write a little letter from Maximo and then decided to go all out and translate it and write the characters. I'm sure it reads all strange like:

Senseis Dearests,
Thanking you for my happy days and for me moving to Japan. Christmas Merry and New Year Happy!

Love, Maximo
(okay, that wasn't too bad, though I'm sure the iTranslator is a bit awkward).My first ever batch of (faux) gingerbread. It was pretty easy. I like recipes where I can do the messy part the day before and refrigerate! Yesterday, at IKEA, I bought an outdoor animal cookie cutter set - who doesn't need moose, porcupine, bear, squirrel and snail cookies?

And our budding genius reading his favorite book this week, Dinosaur Roar.

Transcript:
dinosaur roar, dinosaur squeak
dinosaur fierce, dinosaur meek
dinosaur fast, dinosaur s-l-o-w
dinosaur above, dinosaur below
dinosaur weak, dinosaur strong (with hand pumping fists)
dinosaur short(didn't come out right), or very, very long
dinosaur fat, dinosaur tiny
dinosaur clean, dinoaur (Ewww, bath) - should be slimy
dinosaur sweet, dinosaur grumpy
dinosaur spiky, dinosaur lumpy
all sorts of dinosaurs eating their lunch (all I can hear is lunch)
gobble, gobble, (nibble, nibble, munch, munch,) scrunch
(Then he points out the Mommy and Daddy dinosaurs
- everything has a Mommy and Daddy these days)

Feliz Año, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc.

I have been working for hours trying to get our Christmas card made. The other night, I gave up because I was tired. I thought I couldn't find a solution because I was tired... but I think it's the Kodak website.

For a few years, it has allowed me to make my own card, upload it, then the nice people at Kodak would individually ship them to my recipient list (which is a huge favor when living overseas, though a bit more expensive). This year, they are not so nice. I don't know if they are calling it something else or have stopped offering this service, but I am tired of trying to figure it out! I could have hand delivered them by now. Therefore, this is what it is supposed to look like. Those of you on my list, you will get something, I assure you, what it will be remains uncertain.

(Take 1)

(Take 3)

What Life is Like in December

Pretend sleeping with Flavius.
Flavius is the most patient (or most desperate for cuddles) cat I've ever met!

Just a quick post to share Max's cute voice and counting/pet-loving/washing skills. Enjoy.

If we don't get him over the hump of 1-2-3, it usually turns into 1-2-14-15-16.

Santa, Baby

On Sunday, some of the teachers and their kids had a brunch and Santa stopped by for a visit with big bags of loot! Max was a bit scared of Santa, but bravely fought back tears and sat in his lap after he got his present.

Denis & Max

Playing with his dinosaur puzzle from Santa and DD's trucks too!

Let It, PLEASE!

This is our forecast for the end of this week:


SEE THE SNOWMEN??? We haven't lived somewhere with snow in years. I can't tell you the last time I enjoyed snow. Maybe ten years ago when John and I were visiting my family and we went sledding in an inch of snow on the hill in their backyard.

This may not be great for many of our friends who are flying out on Friday and Saturday, but it'll hopefully be fun for us! We can't wait for Maximo to go play in the snow.



He loves his book, The Snowy Day. Hopefully he'll get to play in the snow like Peter.