Since it is finally warming up, after Maximo's baths in the evening, we've been letting him run around naked, partly because he's cute, and partly to prep him a bit more for our potty-training venture in a few weeks.
As soon as I stepped out of his room to answer the phone, I had a feeling it was just the right mood and silence he needed to do his business. I was only on the phone with Kirsten for about two minutes - she was cackling away about some wacky Georgian democrat. (Who after YouTube "research" turned out to be entertaining and quite an ignorant nut-job.)
If you're squeamish about poop, you may want to not hit "play". Otherwise, enjoy. We did. And we do plan to save this for his first prom date, or future wife or for another time we really need to blackmail him.
I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but when we moved here we both got iPhones. Soon after accepting our positions, we received an email from the school laying out the phone plans. It was nice to get that email because the phone was handed to us as soon as we arrived on the island. In Peru, we rarely used our phones. We shared one before Max and then each had one after Maximo was born, but they were cheap and we always prepaid our minutes. The only time I really wanted one, was when we were out to dinner or away from Maximo, especially when he was little and then it would lay in my lap while we enjoyed dinner out.
Then, we became Almighty iPhone users. Oh, it is so much more than a phone. You can watch podcasts and videos on it, you can listen to music, you can take photos and video. You can search the internet. You can use the Google Maps option and find your location or drop a pin on a restaurant or store you love and want to find again sometime. I can access all my personal files on it. And the list goes on and on...
It's almost always with me, so it's fun to have the photo/video option to capture moments when I didn't have our large (but wonderful) camera with us. Unfortunately, I often forget I've taken pictures on it, until I'm sitting on a train by myself, wondering what I should do and start thumbing through the photos. (Note: this does not happen often.)
Today, I took the day off of work because Max has seemed to have a mysterious illness - which goes and comes, which makes him cough, and often times leak vomit and diarrhea. What fun! He first got sick when we were in Cambodia and we chalked it up to something bad he ate. But, it seemed to go away, then come back again, but a little different. We waited. I planned to take him to the doctor last week, but then he seemed to recover. But, this weekend, we ended up doing about 20 loads of laundry, most of which was covered in puke. Anyhow, the doctor says that he thinks he's at the end of a bad stomach virus going around and he has a respiratory infection as well. After a successful doctor's visit and an uneventful train ride, we came back, I got Max to take his medicines (mixed in a chocolate jelly - which he loved) and then we giddily sat on the back porch so he could eat a popsicle and enjoy the warm weather. This is when I started scrolling through my phone and found these...
Vietnam Air - better than it sounds!
John and Maximo's firsts steps in Cambodia
Max and D riding their imaginary bus!
Max and Flavi in the backyard - used CameraBag Application on iPhone
Max and Flavius playing in the garden
Flavius and our tulips!
Max in the yard on top of the water table.
Our garden looks 100% better than when we moved in, although the grass looks like crap!
On the way to the doctor's today - a beautiful cherry blossom at the shrine.
SAKURA! The cherry blossoms are peaking this week and look gorgeous!
And all was fine and dandy, until Max tripped, fell off the back porch steps (3) landed on his face and got a bloody nose. He recovered quickly, ate a decent lunch, and is now sleeping. That gives me time to blog, make homemade benne wafers (YUM!) and enjoy a cup of tea. I could get used to this staying home bit.
And... here's a gem from my iPhone archive. I took this after wine and chu-his and then forgot about it. John and Jon singing "Y Control" by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs at a karaoke bar after dinner one night:
It has been a long winter. Not ridiculously cold, but l-o-n-g and wet. When you're living in a small Japanese apartment, wet and cold weather really, well, sucks, especially when you're living with a two year old.
Today, the sun finally shone and it was in the 50s. We had big plans for the day, so after boiling a few dozen eggs and getting some laundry on the line, we headed for the "Tulip Festival" on island. It was a small little plot with a few hundred tulips planted on it. Maximo loved walking through the rows and surprisingly enough, he just looked and smelled and refrained from touching or romping through the flowers.
After that we headed off island (barely) to check out some cherry blossoms and go to the home goods store to buy some more flowers for our garden. Maximo loves the "animal" section of this store - it has a huge fish selection and also quite a few (expensive!) puppies and kittens for sale. He bought a toy (a bag of balls) for Flavius and was so proud of himself that he even carried the bag the whole way home. When he got home, he couldn't wait to get out of his shoes and jacket to bust open the package to give to Flavius. He was frustrated at first when Flavius didn't show much interest in the balls, but I think two of them had catnip in them, so Flavius was soon kicking them all over the house which pleased the pants off of Max.
After a nap, we colored Easter eggs with our dear neighbors, Kai, Luka and Eiko. Maximo is in love with Kai and Luka. Unfortunately today, he was a bit fussy and puked while they were here, but I think everyone was overall happy with their eggs.
