another Japanniversary

We passed the two year mark a few weeks ago. We've been here longer than we were in Virginia, Ohio, or Maryland. 

This was our first visit to Fuji, just after we got here in 2017:

 It's been fun. I love this country. I love these people.*

*In the last week alone, we've had two experiences that remind me being a jerk isn't exclusive to Americans. Traffic here is different. People cut you off constantly, but they do it so politely that you don't want to go all rage-y on them. They just put their hand up and go. Or they throw a blinker on and go. If there's even the tiniest chance they can force their car into your flow of traffic, they will take it and then give you their flashers to say thank you. 

Sometimes, though...you can't stop.  

The other day, for instance. We were on our way into Tokyo for a bit of an emergency. As we approached an intersection, a lil work van started to cut over. There was no room. There was no time. It wasn't even close. Sean slammed on the brakes, but the work van pushed so far over, Sean had to whip into the next lane. Um, yeah. There was a giant dump truck in that lane. The giant dump truck driver managed to stop in time, but he may have been eating ramen and it may have dumped in his lap. The other joy of traffic here is that the red lights catch you. You may slip through one, but will surely be stopped by the next light, ten yards down the road. I knew the dump truck driver was mad. Not at the original work van that started the whole thing, he was mad at us. 

To our chagrin, he pulled up alongside us as the next red light and rolled his window down. We did the bow and mime forgiveness in the gaijin way thing, but he still yelled at us. Not sure what he yelled, but yell he did. 

Instance number two happened at Costco. Baby cakes was worn out from all her being cute and wanted a snack for the ride home. I was parked behind a divider, so it wasn't a big deal to nurse her real quick. Naturally, another work van backed in in front of me. Three men got out. Man number one noticed what I was doing and said something to the other two. Instead of being polite, knowing full well what I was doing, they went out of their way to walk directly beside my car and all three of them looked down on me. One of them said something rather obnoxiously and they all laughed. I have never once felt like I needed to lock my doors while out in public here, but that experience made me feel so violated. 

But wait. It gets worse. 

After I locked my doors and made sure they'd moved on their merry way, I settled down...only to notice another man in their party. He was about 175 years old, so I didn't notice him at first. I glanced up and he was peeking at me around the corner of their van. The fella looked just like the hyena on Lion King, crazy eyes and all. He wasn't just peeking at me, he was taking a whiz. Once he realized I saw him, he turned his back to me and finished emptying his bladder on the wall. No lie, he peed for a solid three minutes. Yeah. Ew.

Last year:

This was close to our two year mark:

And Sean got this one at the Tokyo Tower. 

Two years. Man. MEN. In two years two of them have turned into men.

Another story I'll want to visit when the Japan homesickness gets strong: Today I had to renew our JCI(Japanese Compulsory Insurance, is a government regulated, mandatory safety inspection that must be done every two years for cars in Japan). I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.

Let me tell you how big of a deal it actually is. I had an inspection with the Auto Hobby shop on base. I thought it was THE inspection, but no. There's an inspection before the inspection because governmental headaches is also not America specific. Thank goodness, a friend offered to take two of the knuckleheads since my babysitters are currently galavanting across America with their Pops.

90 minutes of pre-inspecting resulted in a failure to pass. My tires are worn(funny...just bought brand new tires 10 months ago. *sniff sniff* I smell a racket) and some other automobile piece a gal like me can't care to remember needs replacing. I learned today that JCI and regular insurance are two different things. How fun that they both expire this month. I got the two things cross threaded and as it turns out, only one is not due til the end of the month, and the other...expired two weeks ago and I'm basically a fugitive, likely to be arrested at any moment.

Can I just continue on with this money grab and slip on past the Bounty Hunters to the garage to have my tires changed? Heavens, no.

I had to go to the Insurance office to pay the JCI(not to be confused with the insurance-even though it's the insurance office).
Then I had to go to the bank because I didn't have enough cash.
Then it was back to the Insurance Office.
Then it was to City Hall(off base) to get temporary plates that last five days.
Then to the off base garage to have repairs done.
Then to a restaurant within walking distance because the garage has no waiting area.
Then to the bank again because the off base garage is cash only.
Then it was to spend a few minutes repenting when the ATM brought me to my daily-withdrawal-limit-met knees.
Then it was reaching victory via my change purse and getting my van paid for.
Then back to where it all started at the on base Auto Hobby Shop to get the magical red "pass" inspection stamp.
Then I managed to slide across the finish line at the insurance office just as they were closing.

Only to find out it wasn't the finish line. "The car has to go for an inspection."

"What, pray tell, have I been doing for the last 7 hours?"-me, in my head. "This(rifling through the large stack of recently accumulated paperwork and receipts) isn't it?"

"That's pre inspection," matter-o-factly, as if I'm the crazy one and this all makes perfect sense.

Imagine my glee as the Insurance lady made sure to cement the smile on my face by telling me that due to President's Day, my temporary tag will expire before the inspection can be done and I will have to go back to City Hall to extend my tag and then back to the Insurance Office so they can take my van to Tachikawa.

This is why people sell cars before JCI is due. Now I get it. I did find a small(infinitesimal, really) solace in the fact that I actually knew where all these places were, but still. Dang. I know this will all be funny tomorrow.

I feel I should mention(& receive an award for) the fact that Sparrow's teething, Jude's behavior clearly reflects that he's in mourning from his grandparents departure and Titus is overly fulfilling his "man of the house" role by being a touch bossy.

*sigh* I haven't blogged the little things in a while. I ran into a friend at the commissary I hadn't seen in quite some time. She mentioned she reads my blog. An aisle later, she stared at my circus somewhat bewildered. We'd managed to make it down the clearance Valentines aisle before I had to say, "Kick your brother again and it all goes back." I'm not sure if you were curious or horrified, Friend, but you did manage to bring me back to center with, "One day, you'll miss this, right?"

I think so...?

Yeah, I think so. 

favorites from this week

And by week, I mean month. I really can't keep up with time. The months are flying by. She's made it to four months. I managed to get her to her well baby appointment. Surprise, we went in well and walked out with a lil cold. Awesome. 

Anyways, the most valuable info from that appointment is that she weighs 14 1/2-ish pounds. Could've gleaned that by weighing her at the BX and skipped the hospital germs, but I'm not even sure they sell scales. 

She's started dabbling in the world of real food. Well, baby food, which doesn't seem entirely real given the colors and concoctions. I did baby led weaning with Jude, because he was cloth diapered and it's hippy baby law. Not really, I just didn't want to deal with the combo of cloth diapers meets baby food. Ew. 

Little Miss kept eye balling our food and she's not really all that interested in things like sleep. I thought food might help. It hasn't, but she's super cute when she's gumming the slop off the spoon. 

On that subject, we figured out the noise of the Osprey wakes her up. She'll sleep through a lot, but the low thump of the Osprey blades and she's all, "Gooooooood morning!" Today I managed to get her back to sleep three separate times. By the third PEEKABOO, I was ready to join the Japanese in boycotting the Osprey.

If she remembers to grab her cheeks like this as she grows up, she'll be able to get anything she ever wants. 

Pinky out! She's practicing for all the tea parties we're going to have. 

It was hard to compete with Santa's face on this fabric. She kept turning away from the camera to stare at jolly ole St. Nick.

The dimples! The halo...err, hair bow! Oh what an angel, she is.

And we're off to try and ramen away our colds.

Sixteen

I could wax on about how amazing this kid young man is. I could blather about how studious he is when interested in something. How he's focused and diligent and respectful. I could repost comments so many of his customers have made in regards to his work ethic. I could weep openly about how quickly my baby boy grew into a man. I could retell so many stories of the little everyday moments I remember from every age. I could write a list of all the people who love him and type all the ways he's touched their lives.

But I won't. I mean, I kinda just did, but I'll stop. It's a mom's job to gush, no? We are so proud of this guy. Our first born. Our greatest experiment who has somehow turned out, is turning out, so much better than we ever could've hoped. 

Just one mom moment...HOW(hooooooooooow?!?!??!) is this only a two year difference? Time, you jerk!

Forget it. I can't leave it at just pictures. 

Gone are the days of reminding him to brush his teeth and change his socks and pick up after himself. The hot wheel cars and legos and pockets full of little boy treasures are long gone. Once upon a time he seemed to need me. Now it's me hollering up the stairs, "Hey, Simon! Can you help me?" He turns to his dad more often for advice, to share a joke, to discuss his future, to help with math. We got to shaving and driving and college shopping and future building a lot more suddenly than anticipated. What felt like a steady drive now feels like we've reached some kind of turn off. A little parking area, to gather our whits before moving on to the next leg of our journey. What scares the crap out of me and makes a little sob catch in my throat is that I'm not the one driving for the next piece, not figuratively or literally.

As parents, we do so much for them for so long and then one day...they're doing it all for themselves. I suppose that's the whole point, to get them to this place in life. The milestones look so different here. The little peeks into their future that let you know they're gonna make it. As I breathe a little sigh of relief, I know the jobs not done, it never will be. 

He doesn't say, "Hey, mom, watch this!" nearly as often anymore, but I am. I'm still watching, my boy.

Santa Baby

One of my little elves talked me into making sugar cookies after dinner. I made coffee because...sugar cookies are a serious time commitment and I was running on half a tank. That little elf gave up after one batch, but this little elf hung out with me. She got her first real food in the form of some frozen pureed pumpkin I roasted last month in the hopes of making something pumpkin-y for Thanksgiving. She was a big fan. 

Anywho, that coffee has me all <blink blink> at quarter to one while everybody else is off snug in their beds. SO pictures. The BX had this lil hat in my line of vision the other day. Not sure if the hat is tiny or baby girl has a big head, but I could barely squeeze the sucker over her melon. :)

Her being an August baby tracks right along with Felix's baby seasons as a September baby. I only wish I'd thought to recreate this one of baby Feefs.

Why can't they stay babies?? Just to compare and since I'm wide awake...

Titus at 4 months:

Jude at 4 months:

I don't have one of the oldest at four months because he predates my digital files. 

On that note, I'm off to take a walk down memory lane via pictures in the hopes it will send me off to dream dreams of when they were all sweet little babies. 

Right place, right time

Sean is a homebody. We have a few small people who have taken after him in that trait. I am the complete opposite of a homebody and we have a few small people that take after me in that trait. Every weekend is a bit of a battle of wills. Over the years, I've figured out if I suggest a day trip that's completely ridiculous, I can get him to agree to other slightly less ridiculous places. Today, I wasn't at the top of my game. I had a place I really wanted to go, but he caught me off guard and I spit out, "Showa Park."

Dang it.

I already went there this week. I even have plans to go back next week. I knew the leaves hadn't changed yet, but I couldn't reel it back in once he'd already said, "Hm. Okay." So off we went. The stinking (literally) leaves are still mostly green, but I got a few keepers and we got the bonus of feeling like movie stars/a freak show as so many people eyeballed our crowd of children. 

Boy, what a difference a year makes. 

As we were leaving the park, I noticed an older fella up ahead of us on the path. He was shuckin' and jivin' a bit and it seemed odd. I was about to say aloud, "Why is that old man dancing?" He kind of jerked backwards several steps before going completely stiff and slamming to the ground. The sound of his head hitting concrete is something I wish I could un-hear. True to their culture, no one freaked out. Only one family cautiously walked up to him as we rushed to his side. A small crowd soon gathered as the silly white man tried to communicate with the unconscious old Japanese fella. Thank GOD the one Japanese lady who had stopped understood enough of what Sean was saying that they could help him. 

They got an ambulance en route. Sean was making sure he was breathing and had a pulse. He was holding pressure to his head wound. About that time a Romanian(??) guy came running up speaking a heavily accented English and Japanese. Turns out, he used to work on an ambulance. Between the three of them, the got the guy to tell him his name(Ohashi san), but he was in bad, bad shape. The ambulance got there in probably five minutes. At that point, we were kind of in the way. Sean lost his sun glasses in the chaos and quietly asked the Romanian if he'd seen them. One of the Showa Park workers overheard and it suddenly became top priority to find Sean's sunglasses. Despite the, "Mondainaidesu (it's okay, it's okay)," over and over again, Mr. Ohashi played second fiddle to finding those sun glasses. 

They were located quickly and, thankfully, Mr. Ohashi didn't die while they were searching. One of the medics had tucked them in with the patients belongings thinking they were his. Then it was all over and we walked away with zero closure. I'm so sad he was there all alone. I hope he has a family to go home to to take care of him. I hope his melon was okay. I hope it was just a fall and not a heart attack or stroke. Sean made sure to calm my fears (nope) by telling me all about what could've been wrong with the man. :(

 A few more shots to compare last year with this year. 

Felix and Simon have been going to the gym 4 days a week with Sean. Buncha beef cakes. 

 And one of the sleepy princess. She was such a trooper. I kept pulling her from the warm cocoon of her stroller for pictures. She wasn't a huge fan of that, but still gave me a few apathetic stares into the lens. I'll take it, Kid! 

Shh

I know we aren't supposed to have favorites, but she's definitely my favorite daughter.