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!

A LOVE-ly Day

Ice on the trees on Mt. Rokko

Today we went up Mount Rokko to celebrate Evan, Kiyona and Allie's birthdays. They are all teachers' kids that also go to Yume Club with Maximo. We went to a "park" that has a man-made ski slope and sledding area for kids. It was fun and really the first time Maximo saw snow - except for a flurry on a back of the bike last weekend. Max had a good time, but was a bit out of sorts because it was his first day out of the house in about four, since he's been battling a respiratory infection.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures. But here are a few that I got. Happy Valentine's Day!
His bibs - so cute!
I'm hoping we'll get a couple more wears out of them!

Max and Daddy sliding down the slope!

I packed a L-O-V-E- inspired lunch.
I LOVE my "hard boiled egg shapers". Only in Japan!

Sending Cyber Love

Please excuse my singing.
And my collection of gray sweatshirts.
Focus on Maximo.

We just wanted to send you some L-O-V-E!

Yesterday, we received our Old Navy order of summer clothes for Maximo.
It was our first time playing "dress up". It was quite fun. Without any prompting, he started peeling off his clothes and tried on some of his new wares as I started taking all the clothes out of the bags (all individually wrapped - ugh). Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do with the underwear - except to wear it as a bracelet. I showed him where they belonged, but he insisted on putting them on over his diaper. This is something we'll tackle this summer.

Two is better than one

Water wing and undie bracelets

He insists on wearing this hat sideways - granted it's one size too big!

Signs of Spring

Although it snowed this morning - a mad flurry for about 15 minutes, Spring is sneaking in as, I hope, Winter bids us farewell. All in all it's been a mild winter - the coldest it's been is about 30 degrees and that's only been a few mornings. Needless to say, anything under 40 is cold on a bike and the wind can whip around the island and make it feel a lot colder than it really is.

On the way back from brunch this morning, I noticed a man taking photos on the Greenbelt (the 5 km walking path around the island). I looked beyond him and noticed small purple flowers dotting the trees around him. I've never seen trees blooming this early. Come to find out, they are plum blossoms. The white ones look like popcorn hanging on the tree and they are really fragrant.

So this afternoon, we went out and climbed around a bit and took some pictures.Climbing the hill behind our apartment.

Denis & Max cracking up when the cars went by!

Setsubun

節分
Bean Throwing Ceremony

Setsubun is the day before the beginning of each season in Japan. February 3rd there is

a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き, bean throwing).

Roasted soybeans (fuku mame) are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (鬼は外! 福は内!)., meaning "Demons out! Luck in!"

The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them. Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat roasted soybeans, one for each year of one's life plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come.

I knew about this because our Japanese department notified us, since our students would be participating in this - and some ground rules had to be laid, primarily no touching the Oni, as if chasing around poor high school boys dressed as the Oni and pelting them with beans wasn't bad enough. I went out to watch my kids run around like banshees tormenting the onis.

It didn't even cross my mind that they would do this at Maximo's daycare.

But they did.

Whereas fifth graders loved the cat and mouse chase, the little ones were terrified. From what I could gather from the senseis EVERYONE cried. Talking to my friends who have had their kids there for a few years, EVERYONE CRIES EVERY YEAR. It must be an important tradition and crucial for a lucky upcoming year, because, really, why would you want to traumatize a bunch of little kids by chasing them in a scary ogre mask/costume. Don't think tubby, green Shriek ogre - think of horned, red, and petrifying. This is more like it:

I wonder if any of the little ones were even able to throw beans, or if they just clung to their senseis for dear life.

Here's the Oni Maximo made at daycare the day before ~I like how the oni's horns look like they were turned into fangs and he's wearing a party hat~

and here's the nice little English description his senseis put into his bag for us. They wanted to have an explanation for his "oni nightmares".

I've added some pictures and completed the January 2010 photo gallery which is now in the sidebar to the right!

Note: I added some kanji, because I think it just looks cool. Too bad I can only recognize about 2 characters.

The Boring Bits

We're trying to deal with the roller coaster ride of being parents of a toddler. The highs are so high, and the lows... well, suck.

Max has had more highs than lows lately although he isn't going to bed without a fight, which he's never done up until this week.

Here's a video - it's long... sorry.

And another shorter one of the little Angelito.

Maximo fought me as he went down for his nap today, saying "No Cuna (crib), No Cuna". So I pulled the futon out and plopped it on the floor and he went to bed. He hasn't fought a nap, ever, and thought that it must be the crib, since it's happening at night and during naps, so we decided to make a change.

A BIG CHANGE.

We took the side off of his crib. He went down easily (the first time in a week) although we're waiting for him to fall out of his bed or try to come into ours in the middle of the night.

We'll see how this goes!

Life These Days

Sweet Max - Posing with Flavius

Not-so-sweet Maximo kicking Flavius

I've been trying to think of an appropriate simile for living with a toddler. The only thing I can come up with is that it's like living with someone with multiple personalities. Some days I sit back and sigh and think I could have a hundred more. And others I'm ready to put him on a plane to his grandmother's by himself.

He does some really cute things and some really not cute things. How do people choose to have a second child when they have a two year old in the house?

Rather than rant or brag, I'll post a few pictures of our week. Sorry I've been bad about posting, work has been busy and exhausting!

Playing with his "digger" and "Dizzy" in the yard.

Surprisingly strong - wheelbarreling around the kitchen

For months we could barely get him in a jacket.
He gets a new jacket tonight and we can get him out of it, so he wore it to dinner.
It's a nice puffy snow jacket, so he could barely connect the fork to his mouth.

872 days ago

this teeny furry little kid literally almost fell out of my body. In those dark, scary first days, we never dreamed we would be where we are today. I didn't believe he'd ever leave the hospital, we weren't even sure he'd live.

But now, 2 years, 4 months, 19 days after that wild day, we have this strong-willed, smart, handsome little guy that dictates our lives.

Since we're so far away from many of you, let us fill you in with this little blog post.

LA-LA-LANGUAGE
Maximo LOVES words, books, letters - a true product of English teachers and avid readers. He is always reading. His favorite books right now are: How a Dinosaur Says Good Night, Dinosaur Roar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, My Truck is Stuck, and Blue Train, Green Train, to name a few. He can recognize some letters: A, B, C, D, M, O, P, T, U, and X and he can recognize 1, 2 and 5. He loves finding these letters and numbers everywhere in his books, on the sides of buses, in stores, and on his clothes.

He loves finishing (or repeating) the last few words or word of a sentence or verses, it would be annoying if he was an adult doing this, but it's cute for now.

He always uses the words two and too. "Two Os, Two apples" or "Daddy poopy too" for example.

When we ask him to talk like a big boy/nicely besides using please, he changes his intonation and his voice goes up about an octave which is a crack-up.

THE PHYSICAL
He is the happiest outside. If he's inside too long, we're just asking for a meltdown. He loves to climb and jump. He walks on his tip-toes like I do, especially when he's tired. He's replaced his "telling everyone he loves them when he's happy" to galloping when he's happy.

He loves putting his hands in his pockets. He also loves stuffing his pockets with junk. I can't tell you the amount of crap we find in the bottom of our washing machine - acorns, yen, rocks, stickers.

He has boycotted sweaters and John and I have decided not to fight this battle (anyone want cute 2T boy sweaters?) after a huge blowout one morning this week. Even though it's cold out, he is going out with a long sleeve t-shirt. We can get a jacket on him, so he should live through the winter.

THE EMOTIONAL
Let's just say this is not his strong area.
Maximo is a very sweet, loving boy when he is not overtired or hungry. He gets really frustrated when he can't get what he wants. He is getting better about sharing, but again, he's not consistent with his willingness to share. He has not totally let go of biting. He bit a kid this week at daycare. It seems to happen more at daycare because he's around more kids and I'm not sure his Japanese is where it needs to be to try to share. We hope he grows out of this soon!

He has recently (past 2 months) started to full-out scream. This is horrible in the middle of the night. Since we live very close to our neighbors, we have a hard time letting him scream it out, so he doesn't get the response of us running to him when he does it. During the day, we're trying to ignore him and tell him that we won't come see him if he screams that way.

He seems quite smart, but can't seem to put some of the emotional-concepts together like, biting your friends is bad and it gives them an "owwie" or throwing your markers all over the floor is not cool. We're hoping this stuff will all end on or before August 28, 2010, since that will be the end of his Terrible Twos (ha).

Between the meltdowns and full out tantrums, he is sweet and loves to give kisses and hugs to everyone. He wakes up and usually has a "Good Morning, Mommy" and he'll just randomly come up and give us a "tight squeeze" which is quite different from a hug, because it also includes a grunt.


MAXIMO'S CURRENT COOLEST-THINGS-EVER! LIST

Maximo loves cranes, trains, big boats, tractors, backhoes, buses

Maximo loves dinosaurs

Maximo loves expressing cool things by saying, "coo-all" or "W-O-W" or giving a thumb's up.

Maximo loves saying "I did it!" whenever he does anything, and many times when he didn't even really do it!

Maximo loves Japanese food - especially sushi and miso soup

Maximo loves the T.V., but not to worry, we make sure he doesn't sit in front of it all day - he enjoys Dinosaur Train, Bob the Builder House Building, Thomas the Tank Engine the most!

Maximo loves big kids. He is totally enamored with Kai and Luka (below) and Riley and Tess. And it's great for us, because the big kids are patient with him and since he's so in love with them, he hasn't tried to bite them yet.

Making gingerbread with Shina, Kai and Luka!
Everyone left covered in flour!