January 2006 Old Blog Posts
January 29
Baby Shower & The False Alarm
First, to deal with the false alarm, since I know the grandmas are saying "WHAT?!".
Well, actually, I guess I'll have to tell about the baby shower first and then get to the false alarm, because I'm thinking that the baby shower may have caused the false alarm. Possibly it was something that I ate or maybe that I had a large cup of chai tea and two Cokes in a relatively short period of time. Possibly it was that I ate a large quantity of very good quiche that was filled with peppers and a very large slice of heavy chocolate cake...do you see a pattern here? All this and more within a five hour time period. I think I overindulged and I paid for it. I had some seriously tight Braxton-Hicks contractions the entire time I was at the shower, then when I got home, I took a snooze on the couch and was woken by some serious cramping.
Probably the Coke and peppers, but I called Labor & Delivery to see if I could come in and get checked out, just in case. They told me to go ahead and come in, so we ran through the house, throwing the remaining necessities into the suitcase/Josiah's bag, jumped in the van (the shocks in that thing...an entirely different story), dropped Josiah at Mariska's and headed for town. Of course, by the time we were halfway there, I was feeling fine and already anticipating what they were going to tell me, namely that I was imagining things. My husband refused to consider turning the car around, bless his heart, and kept assuring me that the people at the hospital probably wouldn't yell or throw things at me when they discovered that I might be overreacting.
Got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitor, took vital signs, and I proceeded to lay there with a sheepish look on my face for half an hour while they monitored contractions and heart rate. Or rather, heart rate, because I didn't have any contractions the whole time we were there. Of course. Little faker. They checked me out and determined that we hadn't made any new progress since last week's appointment, except that she has dropped a little more. They were very nice, very reassuring and kept telling me that it was absolutely fine to come in anytime I felt something could be up, especially considering my quick first labor, the 4 cm dilated and our drive from Ikego.
Ugh, no baby. And if even one of you dares to tell me something along the lines of "She'll come when she's ready" or "She's not done "cooking" yet"....well, I don't know what I'll do. I just know that I'll be disgusted with you, whoever you are, if you dare. No pregnant woman wants to hear that crap. We just want to be done already. OK, can you tell I'm just a little frustrated? Today, I started on a strict regimen of ignoring her and using reverse psychology, saying things like "I am the happiest pregnant woman in the world", "I love being pregnant", and "I want to be pregnant forever". Maybe if I pretend that I'm happiest with her in there, she'll come out, just to spite me. I'm just wondering what patterns this predicts for our future together. Sigh. If she's anything like I was, I'd better get back on the Zoloft.
Anyway, the baby shower was wonderful. It was myself, Mariska, Alexis and the captain's wife, bless her, came all the way from Yokosuka. A couple more meant to attend but had some emergencies come up. We had an excellent brunch as I've attested to, opened presents, chatted and played a few games. Let me just describe the best game so that when you see that particular picture, you won't be completely repulsed! Mariska got five little newborn diapers and five different varieties of candy bars, then the candy bar went into the diaper, which went into the microwave until melted. This results in an astonishingly realistic-looking dirty diaper. The shower attendees are required to guess what kind of candy bar originally went intact into the diaper. And yes, you are allowed to sniff!
So, to recap, nice shower, nice test of our emergency baby evacuation plan, uneventful trip to the hospital. Hopefully, we'll have more news very soon!
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January 22
Snow!
Well, we had a bit of a snowstorm yesterday. We got somewhere between 3-6" of snow. It's a little hard to tell how much we've gotten because it was very wet and a lot of it has melted away already today. My neighbors tell me that they haven't had snow on this scale for a couple of winters. I think every kid in Ikego (and a lot of the adults, too) was out playing in it yesterday. There's a snowman in every backyard and not an unsullied inch of snow on any flat or sliding-worthy area!
We took Josiah out for a little while. The hat he has is getting a little small and so are the mittens, so he wasn't very fond of keeping them on, despite our explaining to him several times that the snow (or "nos" as he calls it) is too cold to handle with bare hands. He and Hans built a snowman. There really wasn't anything special about our snowman except that it was Josiah's first, so it earned a picture. Many snowballs were thrown, a particular good shot by Rachel right in the open crevice between Hans' waistband and the hem of his coat--that tiny bit of skin was too much to resist! And I nailed it, hehe!
I shouldn't be so cruel to my husband, because he was sweet enough to do the grocery shopping for me yesterday, bring me flowers and Rolaids, and go to the mini-mart today to get me various "sweet/fruity" candy, which I had a craving for. The sugar cravings right now are intense. I'm having that urge to fill a glass with pure cane sugar and suck it out with a straw. Hey--I should get some pixy-stix. Duh, why didn't I think of that? "Oh sweeeeetttieee"....Nah. I won't make him go out in the snow again!
Not much else to report. I've pretty much been hibernating this week and Josiah right along with me. We have seen his new Thomas video about 72 times since it arrived on Friday. I'm just hanging in there, ticking off the days. I have to say that they are passing reasonably quickly. It's just very tough at this stage of the game to be patient. It's so hard to explain to men or anyone who hasn't been pregnant. I'm just on tenterhooks, waiting and watching. Watching and waiting. Who knows? By this time next week, we could have another baby. But I guess that's up to God to decide. And God always brings things to us in His own time and for His own reasons.
I did order a stroller today, so at least I can stop obsessing about that!
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January 12
Combimini Catalog is UP!
Hi Everyone! Exciting news--the Combimini catalogs that Josiah modeled for are finally able to be looked at:
http://combimini.jp/want/catalogue_order.html
Once you get to the site, click on "SHOPPING" in the upper right corner (on the menu bar). You will get a screen with one large picture in the left corner and three small pictures. Click on the pink arrow directly across from the first picture. This will take you to a screen with some different catalogs listed on the left side. Josiah is in the "Kid 'n Play" and "Daily Wear" catalogs. If you click on them, you can then use either the index or the back and forward arrows to flip through each page of the catalog. There is also zoom, so if you want to see a picture more closely, just click on it and then click on 100% on the menu bar to zoom back out.
AAAAACCCCKK!! It's so exciting for me to see this for the first time! I cannot wait to get my paper copy in the mail. I promise that I will do what I can to get extra copies for people. I'm not sure how to order them or where they would be available, but we will keep our eyes open. We still need to go to Tokyo to pick up payment for his last two shoots, so we'll check with the agencies then and see if they have extra copies. BUT--I can't promise anything. Sorry, grandmas.
Not much else to report. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, not much is going on, though I am dilated to 2 cm, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. A woman can walk around dilated for quite awhile, so don't anyone get excited just yet! It IS a good thing anytime you can get dilated without really going through any pain, though. I know plenty of ladies who went into labor less dilated and took eons to progress, so making any progress before having the baby is a good thing. I'm not complaining! I have my next appointment in two weeks.
Besides that, we are all fine and just hanging in there, waiting for the big day! Enjoy the catalog! I want to see some comments, people! Besides from Mom, Dad and Gen! You must do as the pregnant woman demands. Appease, appease!
Sayonara.
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January 09
The Mysterious Transferrable Powers of Coldsores
So, the other day I picked up a copy of "Us" magazine. It's a horrible, dirty little secret that I cannot resist smutty magazines about movie stars and their trials. I just really, really need to know if Jessica Simpson had lip injections (yes, definitely) and all about the Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love triangle. I just don't know what the media will do once interest in that triad dies off. But what I love the best in these trashy magazines are the "real" pictures of stars--you know, the ones where they're caught in their pajamas with no makeup on and messy hair. I get an enormous, perverse rush of joy at seeing the beautiful people looking, well...everyday. I would kill for a picture of Nicole Kidman in her jammies...she is the one star I've never seen anything less than perfect.
Anyway. Called Gen because there was a picture of Katie Holmes in "Us" with a big lipful of cold sores. Sorry, Gen, your secret is out. We both happen to like smutty magazines about the stars (but I am reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" right now, too, cut me some slack). We proceeded to giggle about Katie Holmes having cold sores--it was really a nasty picture--she had a really BAD case. Then, Gen and I started worrying that because we were discussing cold sores, she would get one. Gen is extraordinarily prone to cold sores. Just mentioning the word "herpes" or "cold sore" is pretty much enough for her to break out in one (or six).
Sure enough, she e-mails me the next day to say that she's gotten a cold sore. But--it gets better--two days later, I wake up with a cold sore! It's too strange to be coincidental. It's creepy. It's either scientology or the mysterious sibling transferrable power of coldsores. She and I just have to share the best things in life. Ugh. Maybe I'll be able to find Zovirax over-the-counter here. Either that, or I'm prepared to take a lit match to it!
Nothing else new to report beyond the cold sores. Hans and I did go on a "date" yesterday. We found a new babysitter, quite by chance (she was hitch-hiking and we picked her up), so we got her to babysit and went to see "The Chronicles of Narnia", which was pretty good. Of course, grandmas, I am kidding about the babysitter--she happens to be a 13-year-old neighbor, fully certified in CPR. She did a great job, though I came home to find my baby with his diaper on backwards! Oh well, it could have been worse.
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January 01
Happy New Year!
Happy 2006 everyone! I hope that everyone had a good holiday and heartily enjoyed themselves, though not in so much excess as to cause regrets the next day. God, it's been soooo very long since I've had a hangover. What a thing to regret, eh? I do vaguely remember a New Year's of excess with an old roommate in Mankato, running around in subzero temps in nothing but our bar clothes, and the super-long line at TJ Finnegan's. It was so crowded in there that we had to queue up outside and when three people came out, three people could go in. And I remember tripping home by myself, having lost or surrendered the roommate at some point. Thank God we only lived about three blocks away from the "Barmuda Triangle", still I remember being very tipsy and almost getting lost, and holding a loud conversation with myself all the way home. And the headache the next day, alleviated by some nice, greasy Hardee's. Do they even have Hardee's anymore? Ahhh. The good old days...
Anyway. As usual, I go off on a tangent. Hans and I decided, very late, to go up to Tokyo for New Year's. I've felt fairly energetic this last week, which is probably not a good sign. I've probably misdirected my "nesting instinct" into traveling around the subways in Tokyo. Oh well. We found the last hotel in Tokyo with an open room, booked it online and set out on Saturday morning. After a long train ride and a couple of transfers, we arrived in Ikebukuro, which is (I believe) northeast of downtown Tokyo. I think. Don't hold me to that. California has been the only place on earth where I always knew what direction I was pointed.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Metropolitan Hotel, which turned out to be very nice, but extraoridinarily tiny. Seriously. Our room was about 10'x10', with a tiny bathroom. Very nice for 10'x10' and it was on the 21st floor, which afforded us a fantastic view of Tokyo. A little difficult for those of us who are claustrophic and/or 19 months old. Everything was well within reach for Josiah, so it was a bit of a challenge keeping him out of places like the minibar. I guess we'll just have to take that $7.00 bottle of tea out of his allowance!
We decided to visit Akihabara, which is the big electronics district in Tokyo, so we got back on the train and headed in that direction. Hans only went to about three stores. His wife no doubt put somewhat of a damper on his electronics-buying zeal, because I really don't feel like he needs any new electronics at this point, having been spoiled for at least a while yet by the purchase of the enormous, flat-screen, plasma TV. There are some really, really cool things out there though. We just had no idea if they would even work in the US. So, our trip to Akihabara was pretty short and sweet.
By the time we were done there, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to go over to Tokyo Tower and go up to the observation deck. Don't ask me how tall it is or anything. Google it, because I can't translate meters into feet. Or kilometers into miles, or degrees centigrade into degrees...whatever we do. Hans is always like "Just take it times 9/5ths, divide by 3.1828059 and add 1.35555". Uhhhh, yeah, OK. English...no challenge. Math...BIG challenge. I just get close and that'll have to do!
Tokyo Tower was pretty cool though, I have to admit. It looks like the Eiffel Tower, a bit, except that it's orange and white. We went up to the first observation deck and looked out over Tokyo's skyline, then Hans and Josiah went up even further to the highest observation deck. I guess it would have been a little more interesting had I been more familiar with Tokyo's architecture and landmarks, but it still a beautiful bunch of lights to me! It was nice to have a few moments away from the boys. I found a nice chair, sat down and had a nice think about the year that has passed and the year that is to come...I keep reminding myself that these moments all to myself will get more and more scarce in the coming months.
We headed back to the hotel after the tower, had some room service and had housekeeping come and wedge a crib into our tiny room. We literally had to climb over furniture to get to the bathroom. We finally got Josiah into the crib around 9:00 p.m. He was pretty wound up. We had the crib parked right up against our bed, and when Hans put him in on the open side, he just got his belly over the other bar and did a neat somersault over onto the bed, which had us all giggling. It was cute the first three times, then we had to get serious about staying in the crib. And not to worry, grandmas--he can't and hasn't tried to get out of his crib here at home. It was just a smaller and different crib.
Woke up this morning a bunch of grumps, all three of us, and headed home right away. As I've said before, we are a family of homebodies, and the best part of any trip is returning to the nest!
Happy New Year everyone!
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Baby Shower & The False Alarm
First, to deal with the false alarm, since I know the grandmas are saying "WHAT?!".
Well, actually, I guess I'll have to tell about the baby shower first and then get to the false alarm, because I'm thinking that the baby shower may have caused the false alarm. Possibly it was something that I ate or maybe that I had a large cup of chai tea and two Cokes in a relatively short period of time. Possibly it was that I ate a large quantity of very good quiche that was filled with peppers and a very large slice of heavy chocolate cake...do you see a pattern here? All this and more within a five hour time period. I think I overindulged and I paid for it. I had some seriously tight Braxton-Hicks contractions the entire time I was at the shower, then when I got home, I took a snooze on the couch and was woken by some serious cramping.
Probably the Coke and peppers, but I called Labor & Delivery to see if I could come in and get checked out, just in case. They told me to go ahead and come in, so we ran through the house, throwing the remaining necessities into the suitcase/Josiah's bag, jumped in the van (the shocks in that thing...an entirely different story), dropped Josiah at Mariska's and headed for town. Of course, by the time we were halfway there, I was feeling fine and already anticipating what they were going to tell me, namely that I was imagining things. My husband refused to consider turning the car around, bless his heart, and kept assuring me that the people at the hospital probably wouldn't yell or throw things at me when they discovered that I might be overreacting.
Got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitor, took vital signs, and I proceeded to lay there with a sheepish look on my face for half an hour while they monitored contractions and heart rate. Or rather, heart rate, because I didn't have any contractions the whole time we were there. Of course. Little faker. They checked me out and determined that we hadn't made any new progress since last week's appointment, except that she has dropped a little more. They were very nice, very reassuring and kept telling me that it was absolutely fine to come in anytime I felt something could be up, especially considering my quick first labor, the 4 cm dilated and our drive from Ikego.
Ugh, no baby. And if even one of you dares to tell me something along the lines of "She'll come when she's ready" or "She's not done "cooking" yet"....well, I don't know what I'll do. I just know that I'll be disgusted with you, whoever you are, if you dare. No pregnant woman wants to hear that crap. We just want to be done already. OK, can you tell I'm just a little frustrated? Today, I started on a strict regimen of ignoring her and using reverse psychology, saying things like "I am the happiest pregnant woman in the world", "I love being pregnant", and "I want to be pregnant forever". Maybe if I pretend that I'm happiest with her in there, she'll come out, just to spite me. I'm just wondering what patterns this predicts for our future together. Sigh. If she's anything like I was, I'd better get back on the Zoloft.
Anyway, the baby shower was wonderful. It was myself, Mariska, Alexis and the captain's wife, bless her, came all the way from Yokosuka. A couple more meant to attend but had some emergencies come up. We had an excellent brunch as I've attested to, opened presents, chatted and played a few games. Let me just describe the best game so that when you see that particular picture, you won't be completely repulsed! Mariska got five little newborn diapers and five different varieties of candy bars, then the candy bar went into the diaper, which went into the microwave until melted. This results in an astonishingly realistic-looking dirty diaper. The shower attendees are required to guess what kind of candy bar originally went intact into the diaper. And yes, you are allowed to sniff!
So, to recap, nice shower, nice test of our emergency baby evacuation plan, uneventful trip to the hospital. Hopefully, we'll have more news very soon!
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January 22
Snow!
Well, we had a bit of a snowstorm yesterday. We got somewhere between 3-6" of snow. It's a little hard to tell how much we've gotten because it was very wet and a lot of it has melted away already today. My neighbors tell me that they haven't had snow on this scale for a couple of winters. I think every kid in Ikego (and a lot of the adults, too) was out playing in it yesterday. There's a snowman in every backyard and not an unsullied inch of snow on any flat or sliding-worthy area!
We took Josiah out for a little while. The hat he has is getting a little small and so are the mittens, so he wasn't very fond of keeping them on, despite our explaining to him several times that the snow (or "nos" as he calls it) is too cold to handle with bare hands. He and Hans built a snowman. There really wasn't anything special about our snowman except that it was Josiah's first, so it earned a picture. Many snowballs were thrown, a particular good shot by Rachel right in the open crevice between Hans' waistband and the hem of his coat--that tiny bit of skin was too much to resist! And I nailed it, hehe!
I shouldn't be so cruel to my husband, because he was sweet enough to do the grocery shopping for me yesterday, bring me flowers and Rolaids, and go to the mini-mart today to get me various "sweet/fruity" candy, which I had a craving for. The sugar cravings right now are intense. I'm having that urge to fill a glass with pure cane sugar and suck it out with a straw. Hey--I should get some pixy-stix. Duh, why didn't I think of that? "Oh sweeeeetttieee"....Nah. I won't make him go out in the snow again!
Not much else to report. I've pretty much been hibernating this week and Josiah right along with me. We have seen his new Thomas video about 72 times since it arrived on Friday. I'm just hanging in there, ticking off the days. I have to say that they are passing reasonably quickly. It's just very tough at this stage of the game to be patient. It's so hard to explain to men or anyone who hasn't been pregnant. I'm just on tenterhooks, waiting and watching. Watching and waiting. Who knows? By this time next week, we could have another baby. But I guess that's up to God to decide. And God always brings things to us in His own time and for His own reasons.
I did order a stroller today, so at least I can stop obsessing about that!
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January 12
Combimini Catalog is UP!
Hi Everyone! Exciting news--the Combimini catalogs that Josiah modeled for are finally able to be looked at:
http://combimini.jp/want/catalogue_order.html
Once you get to the site, click on "SHOPPING" in the upper right corner (on the menu bar). You will get a screen with one large picture in the left corner and three small pictures. Click on the pink arrow directly across from the first picture. This will take you to a screen with some different catalogs listed on the left side. Josiah is in the "Kid 'n Play" and "Daily Wear" catalogs. If you click on them, you can then use either the index or the back and forward arrows to flip through each page of the catalog. There is also zoom, so if you want to see a picture more closely, just click on it and then click on 100% on the menu bar to zoom back out.
AAAAACCCCKK!! It's so exciting for me to see this for the first time! I cannot wait to get my paper copy in the mail. I promise that I will do what I can to get extra copies for people. I'm not sure how to order them or where they would be available, but we will keep our eyes open. We still need to go to Tokyo to pick up payment for his last two shoots, so we'll check with the agencies then and see if they have extra copies. BUT--I can't promise anything. Sorry, grandmas.
Not much else to report. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, not much is going on, though I am dilated to 2 cm, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. A woman can walk around dilated for quite awhile, so don't anyone get excited just yet! It IS a good thing anytime you can get dilated without really going through any pain, though. I know plenty of ladies who went into labor less dilated and took eons to progress, so making any progress before having the baby is a good thing. I'm not complaining! I have my next appointment in two weeks.
Besides that, we are all fine and just hanging in there, waiting for the big day! Enjoy the catalog! I want to see some comments, people! Besides from Mom, Dad and Gen! You must do as the pregnant woman demands. Appease, appease!
Sayonara.
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January 09
The Mysterious Transferrable Powers of Coldsores
So, the other day I picked up a copy of "Us" magazine. It's a horrible, dirty little secret that I cannot resist smutty magazines about movie stars and their trials. I just really, really need to know if Jessica Simpson had lip injections (yes, definitely) and all about the Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love triangle. I just don't know what the media will do once interest in that triad dies off. But what I love the best in these trashy magazines are the "real" pictures of stars--you know, the ones where they're caught in their pajamas with no makeup on and messy hair. I get an enormous, perverse rush of joy at seeing the beautiful people looking, well...everyday. I would kill for a picture of Nicole Kidman in her jammies...she is the one star I've never seen anything less than perfect.
Anyway. Called Gen because there was a picture of Katie Holmes in "Us" with a big lipful of cold sores. Sorry, Gen, your secret is out. We both happen to like smutty magazines about the stars (but I am reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" right now, too, cut me some slack). We proceeded to giggle about Katie Holmes having cold sores--it was really a nasty picture--she had a really BAD case. Then, Gen and I started worrying that because we were discussing cold sores, she would get one. Gen is extraordinarily prone to cold sores. Just mentioning the word "herpes" or "cold sore" is pretty much enough for her to break out in one (or six).
Sure enough, she e-mails me the next day to say that she's gotten a cold sore. But--it gets better--two days later, I wake up with a cold sore! It's too strange to be coincidental. It's creepy. It's either scientology or the mysterious sibling transferrable power of coldsores. She and I just have to share the best things in life. Ugh. Maybe I'll be able to find Zovirax over-the-counter here. Either that, or I'm prepared to take a lit match to it!
Nothing else new to report beyond the cold sores. Hans and I did go on a "date" yesterday. We found a new babysitter, quite by chance (she was hitch-hiking and we picked her up), so we got her to babysit and went to see "The Chronicles of Narnia", which was pretty good. Of course, grandmas, I am kidding about the babysitter--she happens to be a 13-year-old neighbor, fully certified in CPR. She did a great job, though I came home to find my baby with his diaper on backwards! Oh well, it could have been worse.
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January 01
Happy New Year!
Happy 2006 everyone! I hope that everyone had a good holiday and heartily enjoyed themselves, though not in so much excess as to cause regrets the next day. God, it's been soooo very long since I've had a hangover. What a thing to regret, eh? I do vaguely remember a New Year's of excess with an old roommate in Mankato, running around in subzero temps in nothing but our bar clothes, and the super-long line at TJ Finnegan's. It was so crowded in there that we had to queue up outside and when three people came out, three people could go in. And I remember tripping home by myself, having lost or surrendered the roommate at some point. Thank God we only lived about three blocks away from the "Barmuda Triangle", still I remember being very tipsy and almost getting lost, and holding a loud conversation with myself all the way home. And the headache the next day, alleviated by some nice, greasy Hardee's. Do they even have Hardee's anymore? Ahhh. The good old days...
Anyway. As usual, I go off on a tangent. Hans and I decided, very late, to go up to Tokyo for New Year's. I've felt fairly energetic this last week, which is probably not a good sign. I've probably misdirected my "nesting instinct" into traveling around the subways in Tokyo. Oh well. We found the last hotel in Tokyo with an open room, booked it online and set out on Saturday morning. After a long train ride and a couple of transfers, we arrived in Ikebukuro, which is (I believe) northeast of downtown Tokyo. I think. Don't hold me to that. California has been the only place on earth where I always knew what direction I was pointed.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Metropolitan Hotel, which turned out to be very nice, but extraoridinarily tiny. Seriously. Our room was about 10'x10', with a tiny bathroom. Very nice for 10'x10' and it was on the 21st floor, which afforded us a fantastic view of Tokyo. A little difficult for those of us who are claustrophic and/or 19 months old. Everything was well within reach for Josiah, so it was a bit of a challenge keeping him out of places like the minibar. I guess we'll just have to take that $7.00 bottle of tea out of his allowance!
We decided to visit Akihabara, which is the big electronics district in Tokyo, so we got back on the train and headed in that direction. Hans only went to about three stores. His wife no doubt put somewhat of a damper on his electronics-buying zeal, because I really don't feel like he needs any new electronics at this point, having been spoiled for at least a while yet by the purchase of the enormous, flat-screen, plasma TV. There are some really, really cool things out there though. We just had no idea if they would even work in the US. So, our trip to Akihabara was pretty short and sweet.
By the time we were done there, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to go over to Tokyo Tower and go up to the observation deck. Don't ask me how tall it is or anything. Google it, because I can't translate meters into feet. Or kilometers into miles, or degrees centigrade into degrees...whatever we do. Hans is always like "Just take it times 9/5ths, divide by 3.1828059 and add 1.35555". Uhhhh, yeah, OK. English...no challenge. Math...BIG challenge. I just get close and that'll have to do!
Tokyo Tower was pretty cool though, I have to admit. It looks like the Eiffel Tower, a bit, except that it's orange and white. We went up to the first observation deck and looked out over Tokyo's skyline, then Hans and Josiah went up even further to the highest observation deck. I guess it would have been a little more interesting had I been more familiar with Tokyo's architecture and landmarks, but it still a beautiful bunch of lights to me! It was nice to have a few moments away from the boys. I found a nice chair, sat down and had a nice think about the year that has passed and the year that is to come...I keep reminding myself that these moments all to myself will get more and more scarce in the coming months.
We headed back to the hotel after the tower, had some room service and had housekeeping come and wedge a crib into our tiny room. We literally had to climb over furniture to get to the bathroom. We finally got Josiah into the crib around 9:00 p.m. He was pretty wound up. We had the crib parked right up against our bed, and when Hans put him in on the open side, he just got his belly over the other bar and did a neat somersault over onto the bed, which had us all giggling. It was cute the first three times, then we had to get serious about staying in the crib. And not to worry, grandmas--he can't and hasn't tried to get out of his crib here at home. It was just a smaller and different crib.
Woke up this morning a bunch of grumps, all three of us, and headed home right away. As I've said before, we are a family of homebodies, and the best part of any trip is returning to the nest!
Happy New Year everyone!
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