Cambodia Photos

Maximo's Cambodia

My mother confessed that this was another one of those trips that she worried about. She always worries - and of course, I have inherited that gene, but some trips we've taken, coincidentally, those beginning with "C" - Cuba, Colombia and now Cambodia have put her a little more on the edge, than say a trip to France or Canada.

This photo montage is of Maximo's highs and lows in Cambodia. Surprisingly, it was a great place to take kids, especially a two year old who likes nothing more than rocks and dirt.

Kansai Airport - checking out the planes with Daddy.


The pool and floaties! Necessities for our 95+ ° days!

Romping around Ta Prohm - our favorite!

Silk worms at the farm!

We got to watch the whole process,

but Max liked the caterpillars the best!

Either a stomach bug or something

he ate started to get to him...this night was spent naked

in the bathroom with lots of bodily fluids,

let's leave it at that.

The elephant ride up the "mountain"

to Phmom Bakheng.

He loved it!

Future Explorer entering Angkor Wat

On Pub Street, playing with the

"dead-skin eating fish" while waiting for dinner.

John titled this well...

TEMPLE TANTRUM! Too hot!

But his dump truck got him through.

He does not handle the heat well.

We were out one day and some tourists

were gushing over him, and one said,

"El esta el color del tomate!"

He's never really had jewelry before and

he covets this soccer ball bracelet we got at the old market.

He wore it the rest of the week.

Trying to lure the kittens back in the house

while we purchased traditional leather puppets.

He had little interest in the puppets and

was enthralled with the cows,

chickens, dogs and cats

we passed every day on the road.

Riding My Bike, Riding My Bike

THIS IS MAXIMO'S FAVORITE THING TO DO RIGHT NOW! He has finally gotten good at it and he just loves tooling around on his little bike. Last weekend, we went quite far with him riding his bike.

I won't be posting this week, not that that's a big change from any weekday since we've move to Japan. We're heading off to Cambodia tomorrow, and I'm leaving my computer at home.

I'll post next weekend when we get back!

Sumo Sunday

John and I went to our first sumo match on Sunday. An email went around from the Elementary Social Committee and all I had to do was hit reply, type "2 people" and go pay a colleague for the tickets. For me, this was perfect!

We got a babysitter and went just the two of us (with 30 other colleagues/families). It was a really fun experience. We sat in the first two rows of chairs, which was a bit far back, but the gym was not too big. We got a good English guide book which explained the rules and the history of sumo, which made the experience a lot more understandable and enjoyable.

It was the first day of a 15-day tournament held annually in Osaka. It's definitely something we'll do again. Next time, we'd like to sit on the tatami seating next time and bring a picnic and maybe in a few years, drag along Maximo.

We had a nice outing, unfortunately, the pictures aren't so great.
Next week we're off for Spring Break and on Saturday, we're off to Cambodia! Yipee! I may not post until we get back from that trip.

Adventures at a Japanese Daycare

Here's the rather long video made from clips while we were at Max's daycare yesterday. They had an open house type thing on Friday and Saturday for the kids to show us the songs they've been singing and dancing too and they did a little play. On Friday, all the kids from the daycare were there, so it was a more complete play. On Saturday, there were about 7 kids there with their families.

We weren't sure how Maximo was going to do with us there. He was a bit worried when we rolled up to daycare, but was quite the performer once we got there. He danced and jumped his heart out.

It was a fun time for all and it was nice to get out of the house because it's been raining all weekend.

The video on top seemed a bit hard to stream. If that doesn't work, try the one I uploaded on YouTube (same video):

The Silence is Broken

Yes, I know I haven't posted in over 3 weeks! WOW! That's been the longest I've gone since I started blogging a couple days after Maximo was born.
My excuses:
1. Work is hard.
2. Parenting is hard.
3. I am tired ALL OF THE TIME.

I often think of what I want to say or write my blog in my head as I ride my bike on the way home from school or while I'm fumbling through the grocery store, but then by the time I can sit down after Maximo has gone to bed, I've got nothing. I can barely make my Scrabble moves on my online games and make myself a cup of tea,

Unfortunately, I've gotten into a bit of a funk with many things I enjoy doing -
blogging, exercising, sometimes even being positive is a lot of work.

But we continue to trudge... The first year in a new school, new position, new country, new language is difficult. It's been a good, but sometimes challenging transition for Maximo, and this, on top of his tumultuous toddler emotions.

Anyhow, I'm back. And hopefully more consistently. Today we went to the end of the year (school year is April - March for Japanese schools) Parents' Day at Yume Club - Maximo's daycare. It was really cute. I have a ton of video I'm trying to post, but it may take another day, because it's a bit long. Here are a couple of pictures from our day:

Miho, Maximo and Evan ready to start

He jumped almost the whole time we were there.
He now jumps all the time, especially when he's
happy!