asleep in the booth
Originally uploaded by renfield
pink bikini and knife and scissors
pink bikini and knife and scissors
Originally uploaded by renfield
Someone got a pink bikini today. And her very own kitchen knife.
The scissors she's always had, and used them to open the packaging of her other gifts.
Do NOT mess with this girl!
soboro gohan
soboro gohan
Originally uploaded by renfield
When she eats, she EATS. A bowl of cereal followed by a bowl of soboro gohan.
foots
So recently (ok, the past couple years) I've been overly concerned about how I walk. And my feet. Or more specifically, my shoes.
Lemme 'splain: I spend most of my day sitting in a (deceptively comfortable Aeron) chair. I do not go to the dojo nearly as much as I and my 74 kilo gut feel necessary for total mental and physical health.
So I try to walk as much as possible. Stairs vs. Elevator ("Up one, down two"), walk home whenever possible (i.e. not in the middle of thundering monsoon season), spend the weekend walking and pushing Tonchan, etc.
Much of my study about how walk centers around the various "old-school" Japanese budo walking styles: namba, nami-ashi, whatever you call it. There are many variations, but the basic concept is thus:
Instead of using the small muscles (calf, ankle, etc.) to push yourself forward with every step, let gravity pull you along. Concentrate more on stepping down with the front foot, not pushing off with the back foot. Also, don't walk balancing on a single line, twisting the upper and lower body in different directions, but walk on the two lines below the left and right hips. To propel one side of the body forward, relax the knee, let the body fall, and use the hips, back, and shoulder blades to move the hip/shoulder forward and in-line.
It is not nearly as neanderthal left-foot-left-hand, right-foot-right-hand as it sounds, and it certainly works when using a sword.
Over the past couple of years I think I have seriously changed the way I walk and my posture in general, and I certainly have no problem walking home for 40 minutes after working all day. So it must be working.
Related to walking is the choice of footwear. Barefoot is best, like in the dojo, but as I don't have soles made of hardened chitin, I wear shoes. Been preferring lightweight Ecco brand for a while. But then I discovered Terra Plana.
Founded by the son of the Clarks shoe empire, these really are the barefoot of shoes. Minimal sole, zero arch support, no heel, and a wide toe box.
To, from, and at work I sport the marginally acceptable Claudius, and on the weekends I am oh-so-fly with my lighting blue Aqua kicks.
Lemme 'splain: I spend most of my day sitting in a (deceptively comfortable Aeron) chair. I do not go to the dojo nearly as much as I and my 74 kilo gut feel necessary for total mental and physical health.
So I try to walk as much as possible. Stairs vs. Elevator ("Up one, down two"), walk home whenever possible (i.e. not in the middle of thundering monsoon season), spend the weekend walking and pushing Tonchan, etc.
Much of my study about how walk centers around the various "old-school" Japanese budo walking styles: namba, nami-ashi, whatever you call it. There are many variations, but the basic concept is thus:
Instead of using the small muscles (calf, ankle, etc.) to push yourself forward with every step, let gravity pull you along. Concentrate more on stepping down with the front foot, not pushing off with the back foot. Also, don't walk balancing on a single line, twisting the upper and lower body in different directions, but walk on the two lines below the left and right hips. To propel one side of the body forward, relax the knee, let the body fall, and use the hips, back, and shoulder blades to move the hip/shoulder forward and in-line.
It is not nearly as neanderthal left-foot-left-hand, right-foot-right-hand as it sounds, and it certainly works when using a sword.
Over the past couple of years I think I have seriously changed the way I walk and my posture in general, and I certainly have no problem walking home for 40 minutes after working all day. So it must be working.
Related to walking is the choice of footwear. Barefoot is best, like in the dojo, but as I don't have soles made of hardened chitin, I wear shoes. Been preferring lightweight Ecco brand for a while. But then I discovered Terra Plana.
Founded by the son of the Clarks shoe empire, these really are the barefoot of shoes. Minimal sole, zero arch support, no heel, and a wide toe box.
To, from, and at work I sport the marginally acceptable Claudius, and on the weekends I am oh-so-fly with my lighting blue Aqua kicks.
rainy sunday with ton
Once again tried to get a haircut for Ton, so we cruised down to Barber Kawamura as always, with a stop at Starbucks first for a late post-breakfast snack.
At the barber she was surprisingly cool and mellow, but I had to go first, so I got my head shaved and Ton read books and watched TV and sat in all the chairs and was reasonably good. Then when it was her turn, she balked and wanted to leave. Oh well, next time.
We went downstairs to Queens Isetan and did some shopping, then got on the subway up to Azabujyuban to avoid the rain, then had a quick lunch on the steps outside; yer basic onigiri and Calpis.
She was getting grumpy so I made her sit in the stroller and she was soon out. Slept for an hour and by then we were home. P and BabyMo were napping on the couch, so when Ton woke up I held her and we all crashed on the couch for another hour.
At the barber she was surprisingly cool and mellow, but I had to go first, so I got my head shaved and Ton read books and watched TV and sat in all the chairs and was reasonably good. Then when it was her turn, she balked and wanted to leave. Oh well, next time.
We went downstairs to Queens Isetan and did some shopping, then got on the subway up to Azabujyuban to avoid the rain, then had a quick lunch on the steps outside; yer basic onigiri and Calpis.
She was getting grumpy so I made her sit in the stroller and she was soon out. Slept for an hour and by then we were home. P and BabyMo were napping on the couch, so when Ton woke up I held her and we all crashed on the couch for another hour.
saturday ton
Started the morning with a quick walk to the dry cleaners. The power company was doing work on the lines down the street, so they had a couple of cherry-picker trucks and lots of cable strewn about. Ton wanted to watch the cranes for a bit, then we finally got to the cleaners and she got a lollipop.
After dropping off the stuff at home Ton wanted to head to the park, but the weather was crappy so we went to Appi instead and started with a lunch of random bits and bobs from the Combini.
She soon got bored and the weather had cleared up, so we went to the park.
The usual posse of boys had dug a huge hole in the wet sand and were recreating the flooding of New Orleans, so we stayed away from the sandbox and played with the bubbles.
There were a bunch of older girls in the park, too speaking English and having a good time. Ton immediately joined in and soon was sliding and swinging with them. I was told to stay away.
Turns out the older girl's name is Ocean; dad is French, mom is Japanese, and she is trilingual (Japanese, French, and English.) She was there with her sister, and there were two other girls who were sisters as well, also bilingual.
After dropping off the stuff at home Ton wanted to head to the park, but the weather was crappy so we went to Appi instead and started with a lunch of random bits and bobs from the Combini.
She soon got bored and the weather had cleared up, so we went to the park.
The usual posse of boys had dug a huge hole in the wet sand and were recreating the flooding of New Orleans, so we stayed away from the sandbox and played with the bubbles.
There were a bunch of older girls in the park, too speaking English and having a good time. Ton immediately joined in and soon was sliding and swinging with them. I was told to stay away.
Turns out the older girl's name is Ocean; dad is French, mom is Japanese, and she is trilingual (Japanese, French, and English.) She was there with her sister, and there were two other girls who were sisters as well, also bilingual.
riku and baba
riku and baba
Originally uploaded by renfield
P and Ton having breakfast whilst Baba enjoys a moment of quiet contemplation with BabyMo.
successful surgery!
R1012665
Originally uploaded by renfield
Ton was grumpy this morning, what with the splinter in her foot and finally getting over her sniffles and cough. She took a nice deep nap about 10am, and while she was konked out on the futon, I grabbed the surgical tweezers that P remembered I had in a med kit, fired up the white LED lantern, and went to work.
The superfine and sharp point of the tweezers made it easy; in a few seconds I snagged the splinter and slid it out. Given the relatively small size of Ton's foot, that was one big splinter!
When I removed it, it looked to be more like a thorn or something, not just a sliver of wood from the steps at the park like I originally thought.
Anyway either Ton will be less likely to want to run around barefoot, or more careful...or she'll completely forget about this.
updates and uploads
Uploaded a bunch of photos and a couple of videos of Tonchan.
The Ton has a new phobia: recently she really, really does not like having her eyes or face covered.
She whines whenever she has to pull her shirt on or off, and she goes absolutely ballistic when I cover her eyes with a washcloth and try to rinse the shampoo from her hair.
Also she's not as stupidly fearless about blazing up to the top of the giant slide and sliding down all by herself. At the very top, when she can look through the grated metal and see the ground far, far below, she gets a little freaked out and needs to hold my hand. I reckon she's graduating from smart monkey to small human.
Finally, her favorite thing is running around barefoot. I think this is great; the parks in Japan are generally quite clean so I'm not worried about her stepping on broken glass or crack vials or anything, and it's a good way for her to build her sense of balance.
But yesterday at some point she got a massive wooden splinter in the bottom of her foot, just between the ball of her foot and her big toe. She was whining and crying last night, but made an even bigger panic when I tried to tweezer it out. We even tried stealth attack when she was sleeping, but she was having none of it. So either it works it way out naturally, or she gets a nasty infection and the whole foot falls off...
The Ton has a new phobia: recently she really, really does not like having her eyes or face covered.
She whines whenever she has to pull her shirt on or off, and she goes absolutely ballistic when I cover her eyes with a washcloth and try to rinse the shampoo from her hair.
Also she's not as stupidly fearless about blazing up to the top of the giant slide and sliding down all by herself. At the very top, when she can look through the grated metal and see the ground far, far below, she gets a little freaked out and needs to hold my hand. I reckon she's graduating from smart monkey to small human.
Finally, her favorite thing is running around barefoot. I think this is great; the parks in Japan are generally quite clean so I'm not worried about her stepping on broken glass or crack vials or anything, and it's a good way for her to build her sense of balance.
But yesterday at some point she got a massive wooden splinter in the bottom of her foot, just between the ball of her foot and her big toe. She was whining and crying last night, but made an even bigger panic when I tried to tweezer it out. We even tried stealth attack when she was sleeping, but she was having none of it. So either it works it way out naturally, or she gets a nasty infection and the whole foot falls off...
the update
Riku eats and sleeps on a reasonably regular 2-3 hour schedule, as expected from any newborn. Tonchan's cough and sniffles have turned into a proper cold, with a mild fever.
Which she also gave to me. But unlike her, I don't have the freedom to take a day or two off, so I slog through with an impenetrable defense of generic brand NyQuil / DayQuil.
Also I think I have Pink Eye. Or maybe the cold just makes my eyes bloodshot. Or the lack of sleep.
Well if I turn into a flesh-eating zombie, we'll know it's Pink Eye.
Which she also gave to me. But unlike her, I don't have the freedom to take a day or two off, so I slog through with an impenetrable defense of generic brand NyQuil / DayQuil.
Also I think I have Pink Eye. Or maybe the cold just makes my eyes bloodshot. Or the lack of sleep.
Well if I turn into a flesh-eating zombie, we'll know it's Pink Eye.
not helping
Did some shopping and other errands, had to get tissues and diapers, etc. Figured I'd get P something so I grabbed a roll of fruit flavored Mentos at the drug store register.
Gave them to P who promptly ate one, got it stuck in her teeth, and dislodged a filling.
Made an appointment with the dentist for Monday.
Oops. I am not helping.
Gave them to P who promptly ate one, got it stuck in her teeth, and dislodged a filling.
Made an appointment with the dentist for Monday.
Oops. I am not helping.
the ladies
the ladies
Originally uploaded by renfield
The Rudick posse came by the hospital to see P and Mo, then we took the kids to the park for a bit before heading home for a massive pizza fest.
napping
napping
Originally uploaded by renfield
The Tonchalizer refused to sleep until I just stopped the stroller, sat down on the curb, patted her tummy, looked her in the eye and told her: "Close your eyes, tilt your head, and sleep!" She peeked a couple times, but after a few minutes with her eyes closed, head down, and me tapping a gentle rhythm, she passed out.
Headed to the hospital and she slept for a while. When she got up she was kinda groggy so she crawled into bed with P for some more lazy cuddling. BabyMo issued the occasional grunt and breathed heavily through his nose most of the time, largely unaffected by the arrival of big sis.
sandbox!
sandbox!
Originally uploaded by renfield
Playing in the sandbox lasted all of five seconds, at which point Ton spied a mom blowing bubbles and demanded her own bubble-blowing. We headed up the street to the corner toy store and dropped 210yen on some bubble apparatus that kept us entertained for the next hour.
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