Cherry Blossom Adventures

Well it seems we are going to start house hunting sooner rather than later.

Up until now no firm decision had been made for 2 reasons- 1. We didn`t have quite enough saved up for a down payment and 2. We were not 100% sure we would still be in Japan in 5-10 years time. Shun had I did a lot of talking a couple weeks back about his career, what he wanted to do, whether he wanted to stay in Japan or think about going to Australia and also about what I wanted which was a place of our own. Either in Japan or Australia. When I married Shun I already knew that there was a 95% chance we would be in Japan forever and I was okay with this. I have good friends here, a nice life and I like my life here most of the time. I am far away from my family and this is hard but I can visit and they can also visit us here.

We have decided that living here is probably better for us financially if I don`t want to return to full-time work while Noah, or our next child, is young. I can do part-time work and earn decent money. Shun would also be unable to get work in his desired field in Australia with his current English language skills.

As for the down payment- we had about 1-2% saved but recently found out there is a chunk of money in Shun`s name for when he decided to buy property (him and his brother, and his three cousins all had these “trust funds” i guess you could call them which were set up by Shun`s grandma when they were born or very young) and we now have 5-10% of the down payment saved (it depends on the price of the house we decide on and the loan) and while we are in no hurry to find a place we have decided to start doing some research and looking around.

This Saturday we are going to look at some model homes in this area. We have also spoken with Shun`s parents and they really want us to live closer to them (at the moment it is only about 12km but it is a 30 min or more drive), like within a bike ride distance and I am happy with this. I have always maintained with Shun that living close to his parents would not be a problem for me. But that living with them or next door might be. I would be happy to be close though. They see Noah currently about once a fortnight but I would be happy if it was more often than this especially since Noah is so far from his other grandparents. So this weekend we are looking at some model houses in Funabashi but my MIL plans to keep any info she gets about property in Moto Yawata or Ichikawa and give us when she sees us next time (things show up in letterboxes, newspapers etc).
We are not 100% set on a new house although I think it would be my choice since houses here only have a 25 year shelf life anyway ( I read that somewhere? Shun`s parents house was built before he was born so it is at least 30 years old though and is still standing although there has been recent talk of reforms now that it is just Shun`s parents that live there so I am not sure if this figure means that after that time you are just paying for the land and not the house)

We have got some other wants and of course the list just keeps growing although until we start looking around some more none of these are definites.

We would prefer to be on the JR sobu line within a 30 minute walk of one of the stations between Ichikawa-Tsudanuma. We are looking for 38 tsubo or more (I think 1 tsubo is about 3m2? Sounds tiny right? But yeah, that is the norm in this area or even a bit bigger than the norm for a new place. My PILs land though is 79 Tsubo) of land, there must be a small garden or enough space outside for kids to play, within a 15 minute walk to the local elementary school (This is Shun`s requirement- he lived a 1 minute walk from his elementary school and his brother, father and grandfather went to the same one), the house needs to be 100m2 or bigger (4LDK or more) (This is my requirement) and there must be room for one car at least. Pretty loose guidelines at the moment- we have a maximum price in mind too although will have to wait and see what sort of loan we would be eligible from the bank.

Again, like I said, we are in no hurry (although paying rent each month is looking less and less appealing especially when our mortgage would be the same or less a month than what we pay in rent. The timeline is to have bought and be living in a place within 2 years and I doubt anything of interest will happen until I get back from Australia in January but for now we are having fun looking online and around and crunching some numbers.

So any advice?

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We live next to a park (like right next door!) and I have taken Noah for a walk through there a couple of times or for a sit on the grass but last week on a really nice sunny day when we had no other real plans I took him to play in the sandpit there for the first time. It is fenced off so luckily no cats or anything can get in and the sand, while a blackish colour (is there any other kind in Japan?) was quite clean (I thought!).

He LOVED it. At first he kept picking up the sand and then looking a bit shocked that it slipped through his fingers. I snapped some pictures on my phone. He only tried to eat it twice and I managed to stop him both times!

He is down for a nap at the moment. His night sleeping is a bit all over the place meaning I am getting very little sleep. I fed him twice last night (7:30pm then to bed then fed at 12:30 and 5am then up for the day at 6am) But he woke up two or three times before the first feed and needed to be re-settled (which luckily doesn`t usually take long) and I resettled him at least once between 12 and 5 too. He has decided 6am is his time to wake up now- much to my dismay. Actually I wouldn`t mind much if he wasn`t up so often….I am hoping it is just a sleep phase.

He had his 3rd DPT shot today and didn`t cry- in fact when the doctor took the needle out Noah gave the dr a big smile as if to say “thanks for taking that out”…. His eczema is flaring up a little bit again- I think it might be the weather but am not sure. I don`t think it is a particular food but it is hard to know. We have introduced yogurt about a week ago…he has only had it twice though. It could be dairy related though I guess- will have to monitor it.

I haven`t uploaded the photos yet but we went to meet our niece for the first time yesterday- Noah`s 1st cousin. Shun`s brother and his wife gave birth to their little girl on Saturday, 2 weeks early and she weighed in 2.6kg (5 pound something- so TINY!) – she was so small and cute with quite a bit of hair. I sadly didn`t get to hold her (which is a story for another time) but hopefully I will get a cuddle sometime soon. Oh and they named her Rina! So yes, I am now officially and aunt!

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I feel so behind on blogging lately- I have had some movies to upload of Noah for ages- some are recent and some are from a couple of weeks ago and yet I am only now getting around to posting them. Some are long- so if you skip them I won`t mind- they are more for my mum anyway. Whenever I take movies too I promptly forget that they will not display up the right way once I upload them to the computer- oh well, those who want to watch might need to turn their heads a little…oh and excuse my commentary- it isn`t like he is up to talking for himself yet!

I put some wiggles on while I did some cleaning and came back to him bopping away…

He squeels a lot now- I tried to catch in on camera but he went strangely quiet and then got grumpy because he wanted to grab my camera.

Playing

I have a good one of him eating too but I guess it is still on the camera…

Back to been behind on blogging. I follow too many blogs- I loved into my reader today for the first time in 5 or 6 days and had over 1000 posts to read- not that I read them all. I have crafty blogs, news sites and cooking blogs come into my reader too so they add up to a lot (sometimes I skim, sometimes I just say “mark as read”) but even then, I still have a lot of other stuff to get through and now, since Noah sleeps less during the day and I have other stuff I need to do at night, I don`t really get much time to read blogs. I still love it though. I still love the community I am apart of through blogging and the friends I have made I just don`t have hours each day to sit reading everything- so my favourites go to the top of the pile and if I have time for others later then I check them as well. Anyway- to those of you who used to get comments from me all the time, but now don`t I`m sorry- I still read but sometimes by the time I read your posts I am probably a couple days late or the baby wakes up before I get to comment.

I had my mummy English class here again today- it went well. It is hard though because the mummies want to learn but they have to of course jump up and follow their kids around. I really need a gate I think. I block off the three rooms but our living room/dining room/kitchen is all one big room (with the kitchen off to the side) and one boy in particular is just a little nuts. He was obsessed with opening and closing our rice cooker today as well as opening and closing the fish grill under the stove. Oh and opening and closing our bins in the kitchen. So pretty much anything that opened and closed had him running around the apartment. I originally thought the mums wanted their KIDS to be exposed to English but it is actually themselves that want to learn which is fine- I just feel bad because of the noise of the kids and their been 5 or 6 people (there was 5 today) they don`t get much chance to practice. That said I charge for an hour but they usually stay for almost 2 hours by the time we do coffee and cake at the end…

I have fun though. And I do like the extra money. I might separate the class into 2 groups of 3 though…if they would be okay with that. One mum said she might want to do private lessons as she is more interested in learning basic vocabulary and stuff she can use with her son.

For July I am also working on Friday`s for a couple of hours in West Tokyo- bit of a commute but transport is paid and I can take Noah. So that will be nice. Not sure if anything will come of it from August but that is okay as it is a bit far anyway. If something did come of it, and the money was worth it and Noah travelled well for July then I would definitely consider doing a couple of hours there each week too.

Any work where I can take Noah with me is great! I don`t really want to return to full-time work anytime soon but part-time stuff is great for now. Bit of extra cash and gets us out of the house (or gets me to clean the house since people come here! HAHA! Ideally I need a bit more though- I have the once a month mummy class, once a month private student and then for July I have the classes out in West Tokyo. If the West Tokyo classes don`t go anywhere ( I am subbing for July but if they get more students who want classes they might start some more) then I will definitely need something else, preferably out this way. I am not opposed to putting Noah into part time daycare once a week or having my MIL watch him- Shun looked into the daycare for me and there are a couple places within 15 minutes walk that charge 2500yen a day ($30) – although Noah still will not take a bottle so at the moment it isn`t an option but definitely something to think about when I come back from Australia.

For us it is definitely more a financial thing than me actually wanting to go back to work. Not that I am against working I just think that the more time Noah (and future children) spend with me then the better their English will be. But if I want to go back to Australia each year or at least once every 18 months then I have to make some money, even if it is just a little.

We are also trying to save for a house. We want to buy in the next couple of years (probably in the next 3 years) and we are readjusting out budget this weekend. I have to update all the bank books on Friday and do some money transferring (to pay off the credit card which I put the Australia tickets on!) so that we can sit down and make a plan. We have been making some decisions about houses lately actually- we have decided we definitely want a house either new or less than 10 years old, we want to stay in Chiba either in Funabashi or Ichikawa and Shun would prefer we stay on the Sobu line but that is not a 100% definite. It is fun thinking about houses though!

Noah still has no teeth. I keep thinking they will pop up since he has really grumpy periods, chews on anything, drools on everything, and I give him approximately 3 or 4 frozen teethers or facewashers to chew on each day. But, alas, still no teeth. Not that I am complaining- I just kind of wish he would stop TEETHING if he is not actually going to get teeth. Maybe we will have 3 or 4 pop out at a time?

I had to take Noah to the doctor last week because he got constipated- I guess from eating more solids lately.
So if you get quesy stop reading cos I am going to write about poo! The doctor was at the new clinic but he was old Dr M – it seems that the clinic is run by young Dr M and old Dr M- a father and son team but the older doctor only works 2 days a week (Tues and Sat) where as the younger doctor works mon, wed,fri and sat. Anyway old Dr M was just as nice as young Dr M so all good there. He gave me some medicine for Noah and said not to be too concerned (Noah had not pooed in 4 and a half days by this time and was sleeping CRAP because of it and constantly TRYING to poo I thought) – anyway long story short, as well as the medicine I got some home enemas. Yeah, something you really should never have to give your child is an enema. But I did it. And it wasn`t so bad and Noah didn`t cry and I have 6 more in case it happens again. Holy crap (excuse the pun!) there was a lot of poo 30 minutes afterwards though!

I am now only giving rice cereal every second day for breakfast usually mixed with some fruit. I am trying to limit banana`s and pureed apple as apparently they don`t help with constipation either. So he has had rice cereal with prunes or plums lately. Or mango or papaya by itself. His dinners this week (since I made heaps yesterday) are peas, brocolli, avacado, carrots, spinach or pumpkin (the spinach and pumpkin were still in the freezer)…I don`t think he actually likes eating much yet though. He will usually do the first couple of bites no problem but gets bored and frustrated after 15 minutes or so and has not usually eaten so much by then. I mix some of the veggies together sometimes like tonight he had peas and brocolli mixed together and last night was spinach and pumpkin. He still breastfeeds 8 times a day though so I guess he is not actually eating much “real food” yet…

As for sleep. Well at least I had a couple months of him been a good sleeper. Now I feed him 2 sometimes 3 times overnight (in a 12 hour period) and gone are the days where his first sleep of the night would be 7-9 straight hours. I often have to resettle him 2 other times on top of the 2 or 3 feeds so I look like a bit of a raccoon from so much uninterupted sleep…Sassymoo was kind enough to send up a safe cot bumper that breathes as a lot of resettling him was coming from him rolling over and getting stuck in his cot or bumping into the bars. At least he is usually fairly easy to resettle (and even feed and resettle) and usually only takes 5 minutes or so.

Naps are also not so great- he is back to three short naps a day instead of 2 long ones. So today for example he took 1 1 hour nap and then 1 30 minute nap and 1 40 minute nap. He is a lot genkier if he has 2 90 minute naps or even 1 90 minute nap and 1 2 hour nap but he wakes up and once he is awake he will NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. It is as if his nap clock gets reset…

Shun`s first father`s day went well- he got a new wallet (badly needed) and a world cup japan key ring (I let Noah help me pick that one out- ie, he grabbed at it when we were looking so that is the one “daddy” got!) and we went out for lunch to Shun`s favourite yakiniku place. Noah “gave” the presents to his daddy but he had a chew first. Of course.

Okay so this is a bit of a random post of random bits of info- it definitely sounds as if has come form someone sleep deprived. I feel like I haven`t even written coherent sentences. I am sure I planned to write other stuff but the thoughts have definitely escaped me and while is only just after 9pm I might call it a night soon…

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Dear Noah,

Happy half a year buddy! Where is the time going little man? You are six months old already- this time six months ago you were already here and I was probably holding you, or feeding you, or you might have been sleeping in your little bed in our hospital room. I am the mother of a six month old- when I say that out loud I just can`t believe it.

Here is you six months ago

And this is you now

Hard to believe that is the same little boy huh? Imagine how hard it is for ME to believe!!!

You are becoming more and more independent- you don`t like to be put to sleep, instead you much rather to go into your cot yourself and settle yourself. Even for naps, I might put you in your cot, and 20 minutes later you might still be playing and chatting to yourself, but you don`t cry, you just get yourself comfortable, settle down and go to sleep. Sometimes you wake up in the oddest positions though and at a complete different end of the cot to what I put you in. You also like to sit up to play now that you have beyond mastered the sitting thing. Although you can`t yet get yourself into a sitting position from your tummy (or back) yet so if you are on your tummy you will kick your legs letting me know you want to start sitting!

You also like to show your independence when you eat and this is the month we have started you on some vegetables and fruits. We did rice cereal only for awhile but have now moved on to some veggies and fruit- So far you have tried, in no particular order, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, sweet potato, avocado, brocolli, apples, banana, papaya and watermelon. I think that is all? So far you definitely like avocado, papaya and pumpkin the best. You don`t mind spinach either-especialy mixed in with carrots or pumpkin. You are a very messy eater though- and I let you touch your food (otherwise it may end in tears!) and you would love to be able to feed yourself. Due to your messy eating style though (and mama`s dislike of washing/soaking) you usually eat just in a nappy. Luckily the weather is hot now so it works out perfectly!

We tried some baby led weaning (where I put bigger pieces of food in front of you and you can play with them and suck on them or eat them if you wish) but you were not that thrilled with the idea after about a minute. You seem to prefer the purees for now- although that doesn`t stop you from trying to swipe my food. You did try a baby cracker though- which was extremely messy. But you loved it!

You enjoy seeing other kids and you even attempt to “play” with them- playgroup this month was great and you seem to have a nice time. There is a nice mix of ages but everyone seems to have fun- including the mummy`s!

You also have fun playing with other friends- we went on a picnic this month with some friends and also Leilah came to visit us too! You are usually the youngest so having Leilah around was nice for you as you got to be boss! I think she will be bossing YOU around in no time though!!!

You can get a get grumpy at times- I keep thinking your teeth must be close to coming in because you are constantly chewing on things and drooling but you have made it to six months with no teeth!

Yeah- this is proof that when you were six months old you also liked to chew on your own feet! Mama`s feet are fair game too it seems as sometimes you roll and your mouth lands on my feet and I have to pry you off (often ends in tears, you definitely have a temper!).

Most of the time you are a happy little boy and your smile is still as infectious as always. You have such a fantastic smile.

You love daddy- sometimes it is hard to get you to breastfeed if he is around and also hard to get you to concentrate on anything else as you follow him around the room instead with your eyes. You give him such big smiles when he plays with your or you see him in the mornings- it is lovely to watch you two developing your own bond. Daddy does some silly things with you.

He does a great job feeding you your solid food though- he can usually get you to eat more than I can (except for pumpkin or avocado- in that case you will take it from whoever you can get it from!). For your age though you are a pretty good eater already- some days are definitely easier than others and you much prefer your evening food than your morning food (which is rice cereal with breastmilk or rice cereal, breastmilk and mashed bananas or apple).

I am trying to recall other milestones you have reached this month but you were already sitting and rolling both ways before four months so I guess the next thing will be crawling. You do move around in circles on your belly a lot, to reach for different things (or attack mama`s feet!), you start to put your arms in the air if you want to be picked up and you have moved backwards along your tummy and forwards once or twice. No sign of actual crawling yet. Not really anyway.

Before you turn 7 months old you will have your first little cousin- Auntie Kazumi is due in early July meaning this time next month we should certainly have a photo of you and your first cousin. You like Kazumi and I get the feeling you know that she has a baby in her tummy but of course I am not sure. People do say babies are intuitive about these things though! You also love visiting the in-laws because that is where Holly the dog is- and you do like to harrass the dog!

We had our first official baby sign class this last month which was fun- I have been doing some baby signs with you or a couple of months but now I am trying to do about 20 or so (although sometimes I throw out some other ones, that said, you are not usually paying attention!)- the regulars include milk, hungry, finished, yummy, cat, dog, pick up, drink, water, more, ball, playing, daddy, mummy, nappy, read/book, eat, want, and I am sure there are others. No sign of you doing any back yet but you always laugh when I do “yummy” and you get quite interested and seem to know what “milk” means.

You are a little sneak sometimes- you look at me when you are doing something that I think you no you shouldn`t. I can only imagine that will get worse. Sometimes when you are rolling (and yes you do roll, then roll again sometimes to get where you want to go) you look at me as if to say “Did you see that mum? Did you see that?”.

You are a little chubber- weighing at least 7.5kg now! I can`t believe when I look back at older photos how much you have grown. It is amazing to see what you have developed from. Goma-chan, you have been here six months now. How are you liking it?

Love mama

Ps: Forgot to mention sleep. Such an important thing that it is. You usually take two naps a day, sometimes three if we are out part of the day because they will be shorter than usual. Night sleep- well you have gone from a baby that was waking up only once a night (between 7:30pm-7:30am) with the occasional twice a night wake up to waking up pretty much 2 or 3 times every night again. UGH, sleep regression! Just a warning- by the time you are 8 months, I will be only feeding you once during the night, if that, so get used to it buddy otherwise it will be water for you!!!

We also have moved you into the big bath and you LOVE it. You sit in there (with me, or daddy) play with your toys, smile and giggle and don`t complain about having spinach scrubbed out of your ears, nostrils, neck creases and what not. This is why you have your bath about half an hour after you finish your dinner- because you look like you need a hose down!!!

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I missed Things I love Thursday yesterday because I had visitors and a friend and her daughter stay over, so playing catch up today while baby naps!

Things I loved this week

• Home made ricotta cheese for the lasange for dinner.
• Sunny weather yesterday, despite the fact rainy season is DEFINITELY upon us.
• Baby napping so I can blog.
• Sleepovers with friends- was great having Cassie over (and I can`t link to her today because her blog is down- hope it gets fixed soon hun as it looks like her account was hacked!) and having extra hands to help with Noah and I always have fun spending time with her and her daughter. She is such a lovely house guest too – not only did she watch Noah while i had a shower this morning but she also did the dishes at the same time while simultaneously making sure her daughter ate breakfast. Yeah, she rocks!
• 2 year old speak from Cassie`s daughter Nana- “dope” for soap (Like, “where`s the dope?”, “mukit” for music oh and when she talks about Noah she always calls him “A Noah” or “Its a baby Noah”- so cute.  Can`t wait til Noah starts talking!
• Chiba Peanuts playgroup 2nd meeting success- had lots of fun at the oyako cafe the other day and some new members join too. English playgroup rocks!
• Seeing Nay, Naoki and Leilah for a bit yesterday- Leilah has changed already and getting so big! So cute in her little black and white outfit.
• Been all prepared for father`s day this Sunday. I am prepared because I thought it was 2 weeks ago but still!! Shun`s first father`s day!
• Recent videos of Noah- I will eventually get around to uploading them!
• Aircon- it has been so hot but I am glad we have aircon. I can`t leave it on all the time though but it is nice to flick it on and cool down the room for an hour.
• Looking at houses/apartments online- not that we can afford to buy one right now but looking is fun too!!!
• My mum getting time off work to come to Melbourne while I am there later in the year for  a wedding.
• Parcel from Australia with some stuff for Noah.
• Baby sign
• Bonus day (not sure if it is Bonus Day for others in Japan but Shun`s work bonus came in today- most salary men in Japan get two bonus`s a year!)
• six month birthday for Noah tomorrow- yep, my little koala munchkin will be six months old! Hard to believe that this time six months ago I was sitting on the sofa, probably watching re-runs of ER, without a baby but that I had had him by 11am the next day…(he came FAST!)
• Cooled teething rings and frozen wet face washers- Noah is grumpy a lot because of teeth coming in (yet we still have no teeth) but If I give him one of them he will happily sit and chew for awhile which is a bit of a lifesaver.

Oh and onto rants because, well, what week would be complete without some?

I went to go do Noah`s Polio immunization today. For those not in Japan, Polio, at least in most cities, is only administered 3 times a year to all the babies in the area. You don`t make an appointment- you just go, get a number, line up, take bubs temperature and go in. They still do the oral version too (same in Australia, right?). Anyway I went today for it but turns out If I want to do Noah`s 3rd DPT shot on time (10 days away) then I can`t do Polio. Shun rang the clinic previously to make the DPT appointment- usually I would just ring and make the appointment but it was going to be our first time there (although then I got sick and went anyway, oh and then Noah got constipated so we went again!) so Shun rang to make the appointment etc etc. He asked and said we wanted to do Polio today at the cattle call but that the 3rd DPT shot has to be done within 8 weeks of the 2nd (or you have to start over again) and they said the appointment he took etc would be fine, blah blah blah.

I go to get Polio, want to double check first (AGAIN!) and they say, no no, if you want to do DPT in 10 days you can`t do Polio today. And then I said well maybe I would do Polio and reschedule 3rd DPT shot and they look at Noah`s baby health book and say “no no, then it will be more than 8 weeks” and so yeah. a wasted trip to the community centre to line up with all the other mums to get the Polio.

DPT seems to be more important so I am glad we will finish those shots up first but I had been hoping to have his 2nd Polio in October (another cattle call) before we went to Australia but now he will have his 1st in October and his 2nd next February when we come back from Australia. Good thing Australia doesn`t have a Polio problem I guess.

I wish that we could do all the immunzations at the same place and they would just put a schedule in place when the baby is born- would make it a whole lot easier. I would rather do Polio at a clinic instead of a cattle call too but there is no choice for that unfortunately…

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Anyway visiting from FYBF- HI and welcome!

It is Flog  Yo Blog Friday over at Mummy-Time so go join in!

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• I seem to spend so much time on the internet or in front of the computer that time flies by and before I know it nap time for Noah is over and he wants to play or it is my bedtime and often I still haven`t gotten around to blogging myself. So easy to spend hours searching the net, skyping, twittering, facebooking and reading blogs- I might need to start limiting my time on here. And actually turning the computer off (it is pretty much on 100% of the time). Have discovered so many great new blogs lately though and have also spent a lot of time studying up on signing to do with Noah and also reading baby development and activities.
• In case anyone missed my facebook or twitter update. Papaya + lemon juice = YUM! Cassie introduced me to this gem last summer. I have saved the other half (minus the lemon juice) to give to Noah for breakfast tomorrow. Just have to mash it up a bit. I have been doing some baby led weaning techniques with Noah but I am still concerned about the choking. I might give him a piece of papaya to munch on instead of mashing it though to see how he goes. He is fine with bits of banana but they are kind of slimy and hard for him to hold.
• A password protected post should come before the end of the week. Anyone that reads often and thinks they deserve the password or have misplaced it please contact me via the contact me page above. I very rarely do password protected posts but occasionally they are needed.
• A package arrived from Australia today- it was from my mum but my mum had gotten my dad to send it. It contained some more organic rice cereal, 2 squeeze packs of baby food (these will be awesome when we go camping next month) that have just veggies and fruit and no additives, baby panadol and a book of nursery rhymes. Oh and a card from my dad (since he sent the package)- the card was actually my mum`s birthday card which he bought before going to the post office but then used it to write  a message to me as an afterthought. He also bought the book while waiting in line at the post office. Very cute book actually- I love the pictures in it and has some nursery rhymes that I know but had forgotten so far to introduce to Noah so spent the day reciting some of them to him.
• I have some videos of Noah from recently that I will try to get up this week as well.
• I am wondering if I will regret staying up to watch Japan world cup game tonight. Shun is not home from work yet (It is 9:30pm) but I think the game starts at 11. Maybe I can manage to stay up for the first half?? There was no way I was waking up to watch the Aussie game last night- probably a good thing since they got slammed and I would of wanted to cry. Noah had a bad night (for him) last night so I guess I will wait and see if he wakes up between now and when the game starts…if not, then I might watch a bit.
• Rainy season has well and truly begun with rain now scheduled til Thursday I think. Noah heard the song “Rain rain go away” a lot today. Oh and also “It`s raining men”, “It`s raining, it`s pouring” and “Incy Wincy Spider” – you know, rain themed music! We did head out though to go to the supermarket to get supplies for the next three days.
• 2nd Chiba Peanuts Multicultural Playgroup meeting this Wednesday! Am excited. Reminds me I need to ring the venue tomorrow. Okay, post it written (my computer gets covered in post-its…yeah, the original kind and not the notes you can type.) – Noah is getting much more interested in other children so this should be fun!!!

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Well the cleaning is done, two loads of washing are out and the baby is fed and now napping and I am enjoying an ice coffee. He slept until 8am so has only gone down for a nap in the last 10 minutes (11am) and will hopefully sleep for at least 90 minutes. That said, his morning nap yesterday was for 2hrs10 minutes so I guess he must have been tired.

We hit a bit of sleep regression recently- it used to be that Noah would go to sleep about 7:30pm (after bath and feed) and wake up only once overnight and sleep until about 7:30am. Lately though he has been up a couple of times a night and feeding twice usually. Some night she wakes up a lot but I still only feed him twice usually. Kind of weird that it has coincided with the introduction of solids though because aren`t they supposed to sleep better after solids? I guess his naps are a lot better than before though. Last night he woke up once at 10pm but I just moved him back into the middle of his cot and he went back to sleep (he rolled over and got his legs stuck in the cot bars which woke him up) and then he woke up at 1:30am for a feed and again at 5:30am and then back down til 8am. I guess it is not bad though.

It is so light now at 5:30am though- when he woke up I got up to get him out of bed thinking it was like 7am or 8am but it was only 5:30 so I fed him and put him back to bed.

There has been discussion recently about me having a night out by myself with Cat sometime in the near future. Noah will still not take a bottle (just screams and screams and screams til he falls asleep starving) but I haven`t tried for about a week. He will take water from a sippy cup though but it used to be that if I put milk in there he wouldn`t drink it. I should probably try that again though. I am thinking I might wait until September though when it is her birthday and James` birthday (and when Noah will be on a lot more solids and hopefully taking a bottle). They usually celebrate together and have a big bash so it would be a fun night out but Shun would miss out if he was watching Noah…

The thing is even if Noah took a bottle I am not sure I could leave him with Shun to do the dinner, bath, feed, bed routine…He helps out when he is around on the weekends but he can`t do it all by himself the way I do it during the week. I think I would come home and it would look like a bomb had hit the house actually. I should maybe give him more credit, but I don`t know. During the day he can watch Noah for a couple of hours no problem- can play with him, change him and get him to nap no problem but it is the night routine that I think he needs help with. Perhaps I should let him do it all himself one night to see (I think I would actually have to leave the apartment though)…

Everything for the end of year trip back to Australia is booked now. Well all flights anyway. Noah and I leave November 10th and come back January 3rd so we will be home for almost 2 months. Shun will join us for 10 days from December 23rd til the 3rd but most of that time we will be spending up the North Coast in a unit. Christmas will be in Brisbane though. I have tickets booked for Melbourne for Gen & Alice`s wedding (which is Nov 12th) and my mum has already requested the 11th and 12th off from work so she is going to join me in Melbourne and watch Noah for me while I go to the wedding. We spend three nights in Melbourne then back up to Brisbane. I haven`t booked a hotel for Melbourne yet though- any suggestions? I looked online but I think I will wait a month or two for when the cheaper deals come out on wotif.com and quickbeds.com.

Noah is enjoying his solid foods- well playing with them at least.

He also doesn`t mind munching on his own feet…

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• Sometimes when I pick up Noah after his nap, or in the morning, when he has had enough sleep and wakes up happy he snuggles into my neck for a couple of secs and then flings his head back to smile or giggle at me. I am not sure I can express in words how happy this makes me. Sometimes how much I love my little koala munchkin leaves me speechless…
• Noah does not seem to be a fan of carrots. He must get that from me.
• He is starting to find other babies more interesting. Today at the doctors surgery a boy (a twin, his sister was close by) about a month older than Noah reached out to try to pull of Noah`s sock and Noah looked up, smiled at the boy and started babbling away.
• Noah is LOUD. Also, trying to shush an almost 6 month old is impossible…He is in a very happy squeeling stage that can be a bit embarrassing when in somewhat quiet places like doctors surgeries, Baby Gap, and on trains.
• A five year old at the doctors surgery came up to me and very shyly said “I am happy you speak to the baby in English. He is lucky. I like English class at kindy. When the baby starts talking maybe he can teach me some more English”- Cute, no? He was such a polite thing. His sister was lovely too- and she went through my handbag pulling everything out much to her mothers dismay (She was about 3 I guess and I keep a lot of toys in my handbag!)
• Noah seems to have perfected sitting and while not moving forward really when on his tummy he still moves around slowly like a snail without actually moving more than what looks to be a couple of centimeters.
• I am still really bad with money. I must review out budget, or lack there of.
• Twitter is growing on me.
• I bought all the baking ingredients I would need to make some basic sweets but have been tossing up too many ideas and have not ended up baking anything this week. Maybe tomorrow? The problem with baking is that Shun doesn`t really eat sweets so if I do bake something I will then end up eating all of it.
• Mummy brain is a real thing. I honestly thought it was a bit of a joke before having a baby but now sometimes I have to read something 10 times before I get what it means or before what I am reading actually sinks in. Sometimes it feels like my brain cells are disappearing faster than Japanese prime ministers (Last week saw the 6th in 5 years!)
• Baby signing is going well- I know about 30 signs and I am doing about 10 of them on a regular basis with Noah everyday at the moment with the hope to increase the signs each week.
• Rashie (Rash shirt/ UV swim shirt) is apparently not a common Aussie word like I thought. A FB status update from me bought up some questions when I thought it was a common word? Anyway, I bought Noah is first ever rashie today- bring on the water play this summer.
• Have been tossing up the idea of starting a new blog (but keeping this one going)- not sure if this will ever happen though.

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or which doctor, as the case may be.

Several weeks ago I wrote about an issue I was having with the city government town nurse and also the issues I was having with the clinic I had been going to when sick and where I had been taking Noah for his immunizations. I was unhappy with the clinic in general even before these issues came up so I was on the hunt for a new one.

Shun had already contacted a different clinic (one that was recommended to me by a Japanese friend in the area) and scheduled Noah`s next immunization but late last week I got another throat infection and I knew it wasn`t going to go away without antibiotics so I made an appointment for Saturday morning.

I had the same thing about 2.5 months ago and the doctor I went to said it was strep. I am not sure if it was or not though since they didn`t take a swab to test it or anything. It came back though so off to the doctors I went. This time to inspect the new clinic.

Overall I was very happy. Although I did have the song “Witch doctor” in my head the entire time.

Shun came with me and he had Noah in the carrier but he spent most of the time outside walking around because we didn`t want Noah to get sick from others in the waiting room (all kids by the way, I was the only adult patient- I guess they don`t see many adults either because when they called me in they called me by my surname then first name-chan as opposed to -san and then the receptionist yelled at the nurse- “no, no, m***-san, m***san” which was kind of funny.

The doctor I saw was very nice. He took a look at my throat and said “sugoi” (WOW!) and claimed it the worst throat infection he had ever seen. He even called in the other doctor, an older doctor (maybe in his late 50s), to have a look too. Kind of weird because it is not even the sorest throat I have had but anyway- It is pretty sore though and very red with white spots all over it (so gross!). Anyway they dosed me up on some drugs and said that since I had been sick a couple times since Noah was born that I might be lacking vitamins because I am breastfeeding so recommended I start taking some vitamins of mainly vitamin c and b. This is the second throat infection I have had and I have also had 2 or 3 colds?

The doctor asked if I had stopped eating because my throat was so sore and I said it took more than a sore throat to stop me eating. If only!!! I wish I was one of those people that when sick lost appetite and didn`t eat- I would be so skinny of that was the case! Instead I think I might even eat MORE when I am sick.

Both doctors seemed lovely, and the nurse on staff that day was a younger lady (not like the old nosy biddies at my other clinic!) and the receptionists seemed nice too. It was a pretty small place and packed on Sunday and I waited for 40 minutes to be seen. I had an appointment though and most others who arrived before me were still waiting when I left because those with appointments get seen first.

I think taking Noah there for his immunizations and eczema will be fine. And of course any other time he get sick or needs to see the doctor.

I was wondering though, what you used to get when you went to the doctors as a kid? We always got jelly beans. This clinic gives out stickers to the kids- INCLUDING keroppi stickers. I love keroppi!!! I kind of wanted to ask for some for myself…

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