Roseola does not make for a carefree weekend.

Kudos to those people that have their weekend blog posts ready to go first thing in the morning. Seriously, how do you find the time? I am genuinely impressed my friends.

So, there was once a nice family who lived on the Upper West Side. They did fun things like go to the park together, attend play groups, and watch the occasional Disney movie while eating ice cream. They were such a happy family. One day, the youngest of the clan got a fever. A fever that was to last 4 days long. This fever would then be followed by a rash, and the great medicine woman diagnosed said illness as Roseola.

Yes, my friends....that little intro is what we have been dealing with for the past week....and let me tell you...it is not fun. Not one bit. This made Mia's ear infection seem like a trip to Hawaii. She has been miserable to the tenth degree, but we have been assured that it will all end soon....here is to hoping!

Anyway, while battling her virus....we did decide to get out and do a few things over the weekend. The doctor said that she was no longer contagious, and I seriously had to escape the nightmare that we had been living...even if it was just for a little bit.

Proof of said nightmare: Cream stew for dinner on Friday night....none of us like it much....but it was the fastest thing that could be made so I could get back to nurse duties.....sad night.

Anyway, on Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the Rutgers Presbyterian Church to attend a performance of Stomp, Clap, and Make Bangs. It was a puppet/musical show put on by Theatre Arts Japan, so we decided to take advantage.

Ten and I are still debating what this animal was supposed to be. In the end, I think it was part mouse, part bear, part raccoon. Yes, that must be it. 

Mia stayed entertained for most of it though, so winner.

Off she goes to check out what is behind the scenes.

After a really confusing show about Boo and her forest friends, we decided to stop at a diner for lunch. After our cream stew dinner....we were wanting something with a bit more substance I guess you could say....so we had gigantic burgers.

Mia enjoyed some tots. Can't you tell how thrilled she was to be out after the show. Notice the spots on her face?

Moving on to Sunday. Ten went to Trader Joe's and picked up this lovely cinnamon whisk. At the same time, I bought this Yankee Candle in cinnamon stick.....hahaha. I guess we both thought cinnamon would be the perfect scent for the apartment. So, random.

We decided to brave the world again and see if Mia would like to go to her swim lesson. She was doing a great job for about 90% of it, but she got cranky at the end.

shot of the whole class

On the way home, Mia did have quite the meltdown. We put her straight to bed, and then Ten decided to use her nap time to go to the pumpkin patch (aka Trader Joe's) and he picked some beauties I might say.

Mia deciding that the pumpkins needed to be stacked.

....and then that 4 pumpkins was totally too many for a family of 3. She promptly put one pumpkin in the bottom of her stroller to dispose of at a later time.

On the agenda this week: decorate lovely pumpkins, slay the evil dragon of Roseola for good, and welcome out of town family (the only kind we have) here for a busy 4 days. Have a great week all!

Art, Music, and Story Time and Japanese Books

I was going to do a Monday/Tuesday combo post...but then realized that that would be way too long and each probably deserved their own space...well at least Tuesday...so here is a glimpse of our Monday.

In the morning I made lunch for Ten and went to the gym (for a mere 10 minutes....but hey better than 0 minutes) and then saw Ten off to work. Mia and I did some coloring after that. Actually, she tried to eat the crayons and then after her billionth unsuccessful attempt (thanks to moi)...she decided that she would just dump them all out and play with the lid...and I was completely cool with that game.

After a few games, she went down for a morning nap. She typically sleeps for 45 minutes while I straighten up the apartment and prepare for the afternoon. She woke up a little bit late on Monday, so we had just enough time to eat some lunch and then head to the New York Kids Club for her classes. I decided to only take pictures during the second part of class this time. I'm still not comfortable whipping out my phone camera while the gymnastics portion is going on. By the way, this week's skill was log rolling...and by the third time...Mia was an excellent log roller. She also did a good job with her stretches (meaning she actually let me move her legs into position) and donkey kicks.

After gymnastics, we have a couple of minutes to take a break before the next part of class. Mia ate a few bites of rice and then headed over to the toys of course.

Next up is snack time. As soon as Mia is seated at a table...she automatically claps her hands together for us to say "Itadakimasu." Very cute...and we still do it even in public...she expects it and we want to make sure she gets used to doing it.

Itadakimasu!

Back off my Cheerios.

After snacks and a story, we made sunflowers with dot paints. Mia wasn't too interested in the dot paints...maybe because we don't do it at home? I don't know...but this was the finished product. A lot of the parents were trying to arrange the petals perfectly....but I'm like hey...1 year olds and art....we just need to let them go at it.

Abstract Sunflower

Next we headed over to the toy and puppet/song time. I soooo wish I could have gotten more pictures. They were singing a song about the sun today and had to wear sunglasses...giant sunglasses....so it was beyond cute. Mia just wanted to keep taking the glasses off and then putting them right back on though...so no time to get a shot :(

Finally, we headed home and picked up a package that was waiting for us at the concierge. Yay! Our first shipment of books. Now, I know that these books are too old for her at the moment...but we will have them for later... and she loves looking at the pictures.

These are a set of 18 Japanese fairtytales/folk tales. 

After looking at the books, Mia took a long nap while I threw together some sukiyaki, did some admin stuff, and cleaned the apartment yet again. I'm hoping next Monday I'll be brave enough to take pictures during gymnastics!!

What we are reading, eating, and doing...

In an effort to try to eat healthier, I am going to a 95% Japanese menu for the next week. Even some of the most unhealthy Japanese foods are a million times less bad for you than typical American dishes.

So, I made up my list and we were all set to head to the Japanese supermarket together....however, Mia decided that she would take a nap instead. Ten volunteered to make the trip alone :( ... but it all worked out. Here are some of the things that were on my list.

Lots of tofu...grilled and normal. We are going to use this for the last nabe of the year as well as miso soup, etc

Natto (for Mia and Ten), takana, and miso

Dashi powder, furikake, 2 boxes of curry, 1 box of cream stew, and snacks for Mia. No idea why this picture is all stretched out.

Nori, cooking sake, white sesame seeds, ajipon, and bath powder (milk protein type). I was especially excited about the bath stuff!! Seriously...the best.

Ten also brought us back bento and a jasmine tea for me. I had the salmon and he had fried chicken...Mia ate bites of both. Seriously...in Tokyo this would NOT have been an exciting meal...but it is like a taste of...home...I guess you would say. 

After putting everything away and having an early dinner, we decided to head over to the Dinosaur Playground. We were surprised to see that they had the water features on since it was kind of chilly out, and of course Mia toddled over to the water as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Not a flattering photo I must say...and where am I looking ?? Creepy.

Getting ready to run through the water.

Needless to say, we had a great time...but we were cold and wet so this meant that when we got home we did showers and took baths.

Finally, Mia's library has been getting a little bit bland shall we say. We only have about maybe a dozen and a half Japanese books. English books...tons from the library, but we needed to switch them out. We took a quick trip over...and here are just a very few of what we are reading right now. Some of these Mia picked out herself...and some I found from recommended reading lists.

The Napping House, Moomin books, Dr. Seuss nursery books, Dear Zoo (the best book!), and some DK books. Ten also grabbed the Row, Row, Row your boat book since he recently learned how to play it on the xylophone...I know we are super cool.

We also placed an order with Amazon Japan for some Japanese books, but we decided that it would be best to go to Kinokuniya and pick up some new ones while we are waiting.

I guess you would say these are similar to ABC books...but they have so much more in them.

Different sounds and the faces that you make when you say them...so cute.

The Japanese version of "Do, Re, Mi"

Anyway, so that is what we basically did this weekend. Our summer is about to kick into warp speed from this week. Lots of classes, play dates, planning for vacation, working on projects, figuring out apartment stuff and so much more! How to avoid burn out...this will be the challenge. Wish me luck!

Mother's Day and Japan Day

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had such an absolutely great time celebrating with my hubby and baby and felt truly appreciated. I also want to say thank you to my mom and grandmother for all of the effort they put into being the best moms that they could be. Thank you!

Now our weekend started exactly the same as it always starts with swim lessons. Ten and Mia always take a stroll around the pool before their class begins.

Whose shoe is that? haha...oh well

Practicing floating...getting better

I'm excited to say that Mia will be moving up to the next level. The instructor told Ten that even though she was still a bit young for the class that she should go ahead and advance. Yay! Good work Mia! Mia can hold her breath underwater, splash around, and blow bubbles...so she is ready to learn some new things.

Also, on Sunday we headed to Central Park to go to Japan Day. I wasn't really sure what this event would be like, but it turned out being a lot of fun. They had a few different activities and some basic Japanese foods for people to try, and the best part was that it was entirely FREE! 

First, Mia and Ten tried yo-yo fishing. Mia was really looking like she wanted nothing to do with it at first, but when she actually got the balloon...she was super excited.

After her game, we headed over to the calligraphy tent to have something written for us. A lot of people were having the teachers write Happy Mother's Day or their names. We decided for them to go ahead and write Mia's name...so, we gave them her kanji and this nice lady wrote it out for us.

Unfortunately, she actually wrote it wrong...so Ten decided that he would sit down and do it himself. You should have heard the oohs and aahs over how beautiful (their words not mine) Ten's handwriting is....his mama should be proud since she is a calligraphy teacher.

Oops someone's little hand got into the picture.

The finished product is hanging on our wall at home :)

Next we headed over to the stage area. They were actually between performances but had some music playing and Mia wanted to dance...so we let her dance her little heart out.

Notice how there aren't many people in the picture...well they were all lining up at the food tents...free food can make people crazy...haha. We ended up going to the okonomiyaki line first which was a great idea because some people had to wait 40 minutes to get it!! Wow. We also had some gyoza, ramen, miso soup, and rice balls...all pretty good.

Okonomiyaki tent.

They were also handing out bottles of tea....by the box! I was shocked when Ten walked up to me with a box of tea. He said that they asked him to please take the whole thing, so we ended up with 24 bottles of flavored tea...It was so heavy carrying around the event, but I'm loving having the extra tea around this week.

We then headed home and showered and had a lovely dinner made by Ten. Also, here is a pic of my Mother's Day present. Two new shirts and a Vacation Candle from Yankee Candle...perfect for the summer. Thanks Ten and Mia.

Me and Mia then headed off to bed because we were pretty tired. I had the best Mother's Day. Thank you so much to Ten for making me a mom and to Mia for loving me!