Down for a nap…
Noah is down for a morning nap so thought I should try and get a blog post in before he wakes up and needs my attention (Read: More boob)- after a bit of a shocker of a weekend he is now back in a routine and taking naps, usually 3 a day, and in a happier mood. I think Saturday might of been a peak of a growth spurt which is why he was so grumpy/hungry/unsettled.
I have my first lesson today since Noah was born- we will be going to Myoden this afternoon to do English conversation with MIchiko. Was meant to be last week but because he was sick I switched it to this week. Michiko has her own little girl, Yuna, who just turned one, so she has no problems with me bringing Noah to the lessons especially since we only meet once a week anyway (and I go to her house)
Yesterday, a friend, Darlene, took me to a craft shop to pick up some scrapbooking supplies- Amanda also put me in touch with a lovely lady named Kirsten who sells imported supplies so I am all set now to start work on Noah`s baby scrapbook. I am really excited to get started on this new project even though I know my time will be limted I hope to do a little bit each day til I am up to date and then continue from there. I have the photos printed and ready to go and have already semi-mocked up a first page draft so hopefully all will go according to plan and I will be able to start tonight or this afternoon. I promise to upload photos of my progress as I go!
Noah slept from 6:30pm til 1am last night but then was up at 3:30am and 6:45am- Shun took him until 8am so that i could get a bit of extra sleep. When I say took him I mean took him into the living room, changed his diaper, put him in his bouncer and I think Noah just sat there while Shun fell asleep again! But hey, Noah wasn`t complaining and I got an extra hour of sleep! Since Shun gets home from work so late (has been after 10pm the last two nights anyway) I am usually in bed (even if I am awake reading for a bit) and he doesn`t get to see Noah until he wakes up for his feed (which is between 10:30pm-1am) and so we usually catch up while I am feeding Noah and talk about our days. Last night we talked a lot about buying a house- not that it is going to happen anytime soon but I was under the impression that if we bought our own place we would stop getting rent allowance from Shun`s company (They pay 3man of our rent a month and we pay the other 7man) but he said that we still would get it would just be paid half yearly instead of each month. I would love our own place, although we are happy where we are for at least another year or two, it would still be nice. While buying an apartment would be cheaper we still have our heart set on a house as I know Shun would love a dog, and I would love a small garden. We are not sure if we would ever be able to afford to buy land and build our own place though (which would be my dream!) and think we would have to settle for a place already built that would be a couple of years old or more. I guess it would make sense for us to buy though, especially if our mortgage was around the same amount we already pay monthly at the moment although I imagine it would be a little more- we decided we definitely wouldn`t be able to buy until I had some more regular part-time work as we are only managing to save a little bit each month at the moment on one salary. I think I also need to learn to be more frugal (Who am I kidding, I definitely need to learn to be a bit more frugal) and while we are sticking to our budget each month I know there are places we could save more money- for example on groceries and probably our keitai bills too (as I call home a lot!). This is why I have enjoyed Kel`s recent post on their budget and how they save money each month. I am definitely going to buy a budget book and start writing everything down- I tried to do it in excel but I know I would have more luck if I physically wrote everything down at the end of the day instead. The excel budget is good and I refer to it each month to make sure we are meeting our budget and to see how much money I need to take out on the 25th (pay day) and also how much I need to transfer. I also record how much the bills were for each month but that is about all!
We need to start saving for a down payment on a house and also for a car- which we will eventually need to buy. At the moment we really don`t need one but it is on our “want” list- there is parking where we live for an extra 1man a month (about $100) but at this stage since we can use Shun`s parents car or grandmothers car whenever we want we haven`t bothered looking into buying on yet. Truth is though. I have my license but have only driven in Japan a handful of times (and most were before I even had my Japanese license) but would like to start driving more.
Also, on my 101 things list I have read a Japanese newspaper/magazine and understand it- and Kel has mentioned a couple of magazines about saving money and budgets that are in Japanese so I think I will make that my challenge for February- even if it takes me the entire month to read the magazine and understand it!!!
For those of you in Japan that have your own place- please feel free to share your experiences! I know where we live is a bit more expensive than some of you (since it is so close to Tokyo and we would still want to buy our own place in Chiba somewhere)- what were your considerations when you did buy? For those that have an apartment over a house- why did you go that way? If it is not to personal and you are happy to answer- how did you budget for a down payment? I have no idea how things work in Japan or how much a downpayment needs to be but I am guessing it is a fair bit- to tell you the truth I really have no idea how much a hosue costs either- although I have a bit of an idea of how much land costs as we have looked into it before.
Talking about buying our own place is definitely exciting though and funnily enough we also talked about when we would like to start trying for baby number 2- I would like to have bub number 2 around the time Noah is 2 or 2 and a half but am I crazy to think having another baby while he is going through the throughs of “terrible 2″ is a good idea?
Well Noah has stirred and now on my lap feeding so I better go!
Oh and if anyone knows of some private lessons/work that I could take my baby too please let me know!
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