i lost my camera over the weekend. that really upset me, mostly because i love to take pictures (if you hadn't noticed). i also had a good amount of pictures on the memory card in my camera, i am sad to lose them. most of them i had downloaded, but the pictures i took just before losing the camera are gone forever. ah well, most of them were more boring aquarium photos.

it's finally hot here. pleasantly warm for me. pretty soon we'll have to break out the fans. and i don't know if we'll be using the air conditioner at night. we still need to get one for the upstairs bedroom, but since we don't have a bed, or any clean floor space to sleep on, i guess it's not very important at the moment.

sasha is crawling all over the place now. she used to do an inch-worm kind of movement, and then army crawling. now she's almost got the mechanics down, though she still manages to fall forward onto her face. today she is also drooling a LOT so some teeth may be in her near future.

hiro talks a lot now, mainly in english. sometimes he just babbles along and i swear he's just doing it to make noise, not communicate. sometimes. he also seems to mix english and japanese (mainly with 'ne' at the end of sentences) which indicates to me that he doesn't quite understand that they're two different languages yet. of course, he rarely gets any japanese most days so it's not surprising.

i just started feeling movement last night. and so it begins. actually, i don't mind feeling a baby moving, it's actually hiccups that drive me crazy. as my mother calls it, chinese water torture! but i'm sure i have several more weeks before i begin to feel those.

anything new in your part of the world?

the other day i put sasha in her high chair to watch a video and have a snack. hiro wanted to be in charge of the snack, so i took the time to clean the kitchen after lunch. they were having fun, 'chatting' to each other and enjoying the snack. after a while, though, hiro started giggling. i went over to see what was up and this is what i saw:



poor little girl was so tired!

so, on thursday night, yoshi got home earlier than usual. this makes it easier to get the kids bathed and put to bed. usually, when i'm on my own, this is something of a marathon where i try to get people clean (and i usually lose out on this) and not drowned. then pajama'd. and those with teeth getting brushed. when yoshi is around, i can usually get out early with sasha, get her dressed for bed and then put her down (which means i lie down, too, and more often than not, just stay down.) yoshi gets hiro finished, teeth brushed and pajamas on in the right direction. then hiro says, 'night night' and comes to bed (he doesn't allow yoshi to put him to bed, or even enter the room.) hiro lies down next to me and i tuck him in.

on thursday night, though, i put sasha to bed as usual and lay down next to her. when hiro came to bed he started pulling my hair. i got up and snapped, 'don't pull mommy's hair!' and that's when i noticed he was sitting there and i had fallen asleep before he came to bed. poor little guy.

then, on friday, yoshi had made rice for his bento so hiro and i had the leftovers for breakfast and lunch. hiro didn't finish all of his rice at lunch, but about an hour later he ate the rest. then he said to me, 'more rice?'

'sorry sweetie, but there isn't any more rice,' i replied.

'please?'

'oh, i'm so sorry, but we ate all the rice. no more rice.'

'ask daddy?' he pleaded.

oh, poor little guy. and he knows the drill: if mommy can't do it, ask daddy.

hiro and sahara got along so well. she is two years older and was so sweet! i think maybe she was getting a kick out of being a 'big sister' for a change (she has two older brothers). i know she goes to daycare so she probably spends lots of time with younger children. but most of the time hiro is alone with me. when we see other kids he wants to play but doesn't know what to do. and we're usually in a situation where he cannot play with them (shopping or whatever). he and sahara ran around and shouted and played. it was great.

i should probably start taking him to meitomu. they have a daycare room for kids to play in. however, mothers have to stay there, too. and (to save costs, perhaps) the entire building does not have garbage cans or rubbish bins so you have to take home whatever trash you make (i.e. diapers). at the moment that's a PITA because of sasha and her frequent diaper changes.

yesterday was so rainy! it was good because this summer was pretty dry (but not tragic because rainy season was so rainy!). today is gorgeous and sunny, if a bit cold (hey, i'm wearing tights and socks!!) so i think hiro should play outside! gotta go...

at the moment i'm supposed to be cleaning the downstairs tatami room, but i thought i'd write a quick post so i don't forget! i'm still working on the long over-due post (ha!) so please wait for that! haha, i better not build it up or you'll be disappointed when i finally get it out here!

this morning we went to royal host for breakfast. before leaving i went to the restroom, and hiro went with me. he told me he had to poo poo (boo boo) so i took off his shoes, jeans and diaper. but he didn't go. he did try, though, and i really think this could be progress!!

ok, mommy blog over and out!

so, how do you teach a two-year-old to answer when you call? or come to you? hiro wandered away from me twice yesterday. three times, if you count the time when i was breastfeeding sasha and he left the baby room....

he was really trying my patience yesterday! we had gone to diamond city to look for some food for christmas. in jusco they were having bargain sales around the store. i started looking at clothes for hiro. he was toddling about making noise and then suddenly...he was gone! where the hell did he go?? i thought he'd be right near by, but no. i found him far off into the bigger boys clothes. *sigh* i went to the baby room to change and feed sasha. i also changed hiro before feeding her, and bought him a juice. he wouldn't go into the nursing cubicle with me, but sasha was so hungry and my breast was full to bursting (and hurting) that i sat down and starting nursing her. on thursdays there's a nurse type person there, and she actually (very kindly) fetched hiro for me. he was pretty good, drinking his juice and climbing on furniture--until he decided he wasn't thirsty any more and instead of putting the juice box down, he just spit the juice all down his front. everything got wet, including his jeans! when sasha and i finished, i took him out to buy him some new clothes--because i had used his spares during our weekend in miyazaki and hadn't replaced them yet! *sigh* so the second we left the baby room he disappeared! at that point i was running out of time (had to go to kita-q for 'work', which is probably more than two hours from diamond city!!) so i let him wander while i got him some clothes at the bargain table. (as an aside, let me just say that i got the last matching outfit, and while it wasn't my usual 'style', it was not so bad for being purchased off the bargain table!!) i looked for him again, calling him, but no hiro. i went back to the baby room and asked the nurse. no hiro. *sigh* she said she would help me again, but i had to buy the clothes. two minutes later, we found him. *double sigh* i took him back to the baby room and changed everything (he had a poopy diaper by then...) and we were on our way...

i think that next time i take him out it's going to be with the harness. my mom told me (when she was here) that she thought that i would shock her by using the harness and i honestly didn't know what she was talking about! since i bought it i only used it twice and until now, i haven't needed to use it. and one of the times i did use it, and old guy said, 'he looks like a dog.' i think he was actually amused, but i took it as a criticism. but...i can't let him get away from me! he may look like a dog on a lead, but i don't want to lose him. and until he can answer me or come when i call, we will be using it.

the real trick is whether or not i remember to bring it or not!!