bernard!!
Originally uploaded by renfield
Working hard
Working hard
Originally uploaded by renfield
I am not the kind of person to talk endlessly about something without taking action (though I am the kind of person to talk endlessly in general, but I digress...)
My dad taught me, when I was a wee little thing: "Anything worth complaining about is worth doing something about."
The corollary is: shut up if you aren't willing to try and fix it.
Ton-chan started at a new Kindergarten this week. Mo-kun had his 3-year health check up today.
So since my wife had to take Mo to his check-up, I had to pick up Ton at 2pm when school ended. The plan was to take her to the health center so that mom could then take both kids home.
As I am wont to do, I changed the plan. Instead, father and daughter got in a taxi and came back to the office. After getting sorted with a sufficiently sugary beverage from Starbucks, I brought her up to the office, walked her down the trading floor, introduced her to the folks in the general vicinity, and sat her down at the empty desk next to me.
She was given an ample supply of colored markers and I printed a couple of black-and-white pictures of her current favorite anime characters to color.
She got to work immediately, and I caught up on emails then ran to a meeting.
After about an hour, mom called and we all met downstairs, son happily sleeping in the stroller. Handed off Ton with a hug and a kiss, and that was that.
Barely
So apparently there is such a thing as too much running barefoot on rough concrete.
Today at lunch I took advantage of the beautiful weather to run around the emperor's palace. Barefoot.
Knocked out an easy six clicks in about half an hour, but when I was done I realized I did some proper damage to the bottoms of me feet.
Big blood blisters on the balls of both feet that burst kinda messily, plus smaller blood blisters on a few toes, and a couple of regular blisters on other parts of my foots just for good measure.
Oops.
I lanced open most of them to get out the unpleasant juices, and patched it all up with bandages, but still feeling a bit sore. Will take it easy for a few days to let them callous up more, and do more shod training I guess...
successful weekend
First, on Saturday, after making a careful sock selection, we headed over to Tokyo Station. Took a bit of a wander around the Marunouchi area (nice, not crowded!) before getting on the open-roof double-decker bus.
Nothing new, but driving under Tokyo Tokyo, across the Rainbow Bridge, and through Ginza in the brilliant weather was actually really cool. Only took and hour, and Mokun zonked right out after the first 20 minutes.
Carried him out and headed to Marubiru for some sushi lunch. He woke up just as we finished, so we took the subway to Ginza and bought Ton a new backpack (purple! Fjallraven!) then hit the old stand-by Ibaraki Cafe for some familiar snacks and treats.
Then we walked back to Shinbashi Station, with a stop at the Lindt shop for some chocolate before getting the bus home for dinner.
Then, on Sunday we got soba for lunch in Azabu-jyuban before taking the subway up to Yoyogi Park. We rented a bicycle (pink hello kitty!) and in about an hour Tonchan was riding on her own. Big Mo was napping and when he woke up he got his own bike (with training wheels) and did a lap before riding on my shoulders as I jogged along with Ton on her victory lap.
Vids #1, #2, #3.
We stumbled through the crazy crowds in the park and finally got some killer gelato in Harajuku, then checked out the awesome outdoor deck at Starbucks in the newly opened Tokyu Plaza. After taking the subway to Shibuya we loaded up on sashimi and gyoza and Vietnamese food for dinner and took a taxi home to eat.
And then this morning we all woke up early to check out the eclipse!
Nothing new, but driving under Tokyo Tokyo, across the Rainbow Bridge, and through Ginza in the brilliant weather was actually really cool. Only took and hour, and Mokun zonked right out after the first 20 minutes.
Carried him out and headed to Marubiru for some sushi lunch. He woke up just as we finished, so we took the subway to Ginza and bought Ton a new backpack (purple! Fjallraven!) then hit the old stand-by Ibaraki Cafe for some familiar snacks and treats.
Then we walked back to Shinbashi Station, with a stop at the Lindt shop for some chocolate before getting the bus home for dinner.
Then, on Sunday we got soba for lunch in Azabu-jyuban before taking the subway up to Yoyogi Park. We rented a bicycle (pink hello kitty!) and in about an hour Tonchan was riding on her own. Big Mo was napping and when he woke up he got his own bike (with training wheels) and did a lap before riding on my shoulders as I jogged along with Ton on her victory lap.
Vids #1, #2, #3.
We stumbled through the crazy crowds in the park and finally got some killer gelato in Harajuku, then checked out the awesome outdoor deck at Starbucks in the newly opened Tokyu Plaza. After taking the subway to Shibuya we loaded up on sashimi and gyoza and Vietnamese food for dinner and took a taxi home to eat.
And then this morning we all woke up early to check out the eclipse!
oh boy
So the mighty Mo has successfully navigated the first three years on the planet. In days bygone, this would be a milestone worthy of celebration; the general luck of having avoided any number of things that killed infants fairly regularly.
Luckily, thanks to modern medicine and despite his genetically inherited desire to jump off of high objects and speed downhill on his kick scooter, the boy had little trouble making it to three.
I was mainly along for the ride.
This being my second time, it was all generally familiar. Plus Ton helps alot; she loves telling him (and everyone else) what to do, and she is also almost too self-sacrificing. She hates to see him cry or even moderately upset, even when he's being a selfish little brother, so she will always give him her last chocolate, or the final cup of ice-cream, or his choice of YouTube videos.
So anyway the boy got himself an awesome shinkansen cake, and a new toy train, and now that he can basically put his pajamas on by himself, he seems to enjoy putting on ALL THE PAJAMAS IN HIS PAJAMA DRAWER AT ONCE. A slight improvement over his joy of running around naked, I reckon.
Ton, BTW, is feeling better. She looked like she was getting sick, with the sniffles turning into a proper cough and sore throat, and she took the day off from school yesterday to have an adventure with mom in Yokohama, but she was genki going to school today, though her voice is a bit husky.
Speaking of mom, yet another reason (as if there was ever any doubt) as to the awesomeness of my wife: came him tonight to find a bag of sweet potato skins left for me. Everyone knows how I loves me some baked sweet potato, and the skin most of all. My family is much more into the squishy potato innards, so it works out just fine.
Plus the skins make farts.
Which is a plus.
Luckily, thanks to modern medicine and despite his genetically inherited desire to jump off of high objects and speed downhill on his kick scooter, the boy had little trouble making it to three.
I was mainly along for the ride.
This being my second time, it was all generally familiar. Plus Ton helps alot; she loves telling him (and everyone else) what to do, and she is also almost too self-sacrificing. She hates to see him cry or even moderately upset, even when he's being a selfish little brother, so she will always give him her last chocolate, or the final cup of ice-cream, or his choice of YouTube videos.
So anyway the boy got himself an awesome shinkansen cake, and a new toy train, and now that he can basically put his pajamas on by himself, he seems to enjoy putting on ALL THE PAJAMAS IN HIS PAJAMA DRAWER AT ONCE. A slight improvement over his joy of running around naked, I reckon.
Ton, BTW, is feeling better. She looked like she was getting sick, with the sniffles turning into a proper cough and sore throat, and she took the day off from school yesterday to have an adventure with mom in Yokohama, but she was genki going to school today, though her voice is a bit husky.
Speaking of mom, yet another reason (as if there was ever any doubt) as to the awesomeness of my wife: came him tonight to find a bag of sweet potato skins left for me. Everyone knows how I loves me some baked sweet potato, and the skin most of all. My family is much more into the squishy potato innards, so it works out just fine.
Plus the skins make farts.
Which is a plus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)