6 months

Yesterday my baby girl hit her half-year mark. I know it's cliche, but I seriously cannot believe how fast this time has flown. That little ball of jelly is now scooting, sitting, and grabbing her big brother's hair. (Of course, he's shoving his head in front of her and asking for it, but she takes the bait!) She loves to eat, with large pieces of apple being her favourite, and miso-soup soaked rice a close second. She is a chip off the old block, indeed (or a Cupcake off the Old Tart, if you prefer.)




Hope the next 6 months slow down, I want to savour every minute with my funny, independent, huggable little girl.

Japanese Swimming Lessons

Japanese Swimming Lessons, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

Wonder why we call him Little Fish? lol

Possible our last day at the beach this summer

The nice thing about being on maternity leave is that most mornings we head to the beach. There are a couple around here, the closest is a 5-minute drive away from our house. In years past we have been able to see our friendly neighbourhood volcano from the beach, and let me tell you, it's quite a view. This year the volcano has been acting up, and is covered with clouds of ash every day. We've probably only seen it twice since we came back from Canada in August.

Hanging in the ocean with my kids is one of my favourite things in life. Floating in the warm water while holding Cupcake's float and watching Little Fish splash and jump and spin around in the water is pure joy. It's been even better this month. August 31st is the official end of beach season in Japan so we are now alone to enjoy the nice hot but not overly humid weather.


It looks like I will be heading back to work a couple months earlier than planned so our time in the ocean is coming to an end. Little Fish starts swimming lessons with his daycare next week, so I'm not worried about him missing out. I'm going to miss our lazy mornings in the sea though.

My little girl is sitting already!

My little girl is sitting already!, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

She's growing too fast. Somebody make it stop.

Faux Mo

Faux Mo, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

We are disguising the need for a haircut with a Beckham look.

This made my night

This made my night, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

Vodka and coke in a can. I hope they put it in vending machines next!

Little Fish's Favourite Magazine

Today I have a rave and a deal for the expat parents out there. A friend passed on her old copies of Chickadee magazine, from a few years ago. They are aimed at ages 6 to 9 so I had them in storage. I was moving things around while packing to go to Canada and Little Fish spotted them. He was quite interested but the crafts and reading pages were a little beyond him.

I went online and found that the company that publishes Chickadee also publishes two other kids mags. Chirp is aimed at ages 3 to 6 and Owl is aimed at ages 9 to 13. I ordered some back issues of Chirp just to see if it would be worth subscribing. It took a while for the mags to arrive, but once they did, Little Fish fell in love! He asks for Chirp time at least once a day.


He especially likes the cut out page (we made a dragonfly today, cutting together and he glued it by himself) and the silly jokes. His favourite now is: What did the sink say to the toilet? You look a little flushed. LOL! He get his sense of humour from my dad.

There are two awesome things about Chirp for us expats. One is the online page. There are things the kids can do, but also printouts for colouring and other resources. The other is the fact that ordering back issues means you pay the same shipping as anyone else! $3.25 for a magazine to be shipped to Japan is a deal I can't resist.

Did I mention it's a Canadian magazine? It is! ;)

Crafting for my cook

Little Fish loves to cook. He's a big help in my kitchen, cracking eggs and making rice and retrieving items from the cupboards. I thought it would be nice if he could have control of his own kitchen. Now that Cupcake has outgrown her swing (*sob*), we have a place to put his.

I started with an apron. I used the free Montessori Child's Apron from Sew Liberated. I like that it is designed for kids to take on and off themselves, and I made it reversible so Little Fish could choose how to wear it.


He even hangs it up himself when he is done.


Then I made a coordinating oven mitt. This was the first time I've ever quilted anything (you can tell) and it was kind of fun.


Then I took inspiration from Christie at Childhood 101 and made a cardboard box kitchen.


All in all it took about 1 hour (spaced over two days) and 1100 yen. I got the boxes free from Big Fish's company and the rest are ¥100 store finds. The hardest part was getting Big Fish to remember to bring home his box cutter.


I think that this kitchen is going to get a lot of use.


I have a chef's hat in the pipeline as well. I can't figure out how to make decent cooking pots and a rolling pin and whatnot (they take a lot of abuse from Little Fish!) so I am on the lookout for some. Until then he'll have to settle for sharing mine!

Worldwide Shipping (aka I love free stuff)

One of the annoying things about being an expat is finding things online I want to buy and finding out that either they don't ship overseas or if they do shipping is prohibitively expensive. For large orders I always use Expat Express, since they repackage things and ship really quickly to Japan. But if I am only buying one item, I prefer to buy from places that will ship directly.

I'm sure you know that I am a fan of Etsy, a conglomerate of small shops specializing in handmade items. That's where I got Little Fish's messenger bag. I am an even bigger fan now that they tell me which sites offer free worldwide shipping! Just click here- but you might want to do it now since some of these awesome free shipping deals only last through this weekend.

I'm quite partial to this bonnet- don't you think Cupcake would look great in it?


I'm also eyeing this cute shrug.


But what is even better than free shipping? How about free products?

The lovely Jessi is having an awesome giveaway bash on her blog. She has even lined up some retailers who are willing to ship to those of us who live far far away! So far she has three worldwide shipping giveaways:
1. Men's Bamboo Shirt from bambooclothes.ca. This is so cool- we found out about bamboo when buying cloth diapers and it is so soft and stretchy.
2.Minky Blanket and Burp Cloth set from Spunky Monkey. Love that store's name!
3. Teething Bling from Smart Mom. Jewelry mom can wear that is safe for teething babies to gum! I love this idea.

What are you waiting for? Go enter!

I am really hoping for this Onyx and Pearl Gift Set from Smart Mom. Isn't it adorable?

Birth Options in Japan

I was inspired to write this by a comment over on Lulu's blog. It reminded me of how ill-informed I was about what kind of choices I had for my births. Mostly that's because of the language barrier, but also because before I popped my chili peppers out, I didn't have any mommy friends to talk about birth choices with. I have been lucky enough to have two totally different births, and have gathered a lot of information on other choices.

In Japan, you have 3 main choices; a major hospital birth, a clinic birth, or a midwife-attended birth in a midwife clinic or at home. I guess you always have the choice of an unattended birth as well but you'll have to ask someone much braver than me about that! Of course, where you live is a deciding factor for all of these. But even I, in a small city in southern Japan, had more choices than I'd thought.

Hospital births are usually reserved for high risk births, but not always. The pros of a hospital birth are; specialist doctors are right there, you can have more interventions if necessary, and if either mom or baby need specialist care after birth, you can stay in the same hospital rather than mom or baby being transferred alone. The cons are; more regimented care, rooming in is probably discouraged or outright banned (because you'll be staying with 5 other women), babies are likely to be given sugar water or formula before mom's milk comes in (this affects breastfeeding), short visiting hours meaning less chance for daddy to meet the baby, more interventions for the doctor's convenience, and long waits for prenatal appointments with rushed doctors. Also, if there are no beds available you can be denied a place. My pregnancy with Little Fish was difficult and it looked like I was going to have to give birth in a big hospital in the city, but I was able to avoid that. I was pretty disturbed by the impersonal nature when I went for checkups on my pregnancy. I also got some very outdated information about breastfeeding and mastitis at 3 different big hospitals which was very concerning.

Most women in Japan give birth in private clinics. The care at these clinics can vary greatly depending on the philosophy (or ego) of the doctor who runs the clinic. Usually these hospitals are pretty nice, focusing on a long and relaxing stay for the moms (5 days after a vaginal birth is standard, at least 10 days after a cesarean). You can usually pay extra for each night stay to get a private room so daddy /other kids can stay overnight.

Little Fish was, luckily, born at a private clinic which was pretty nice, rather than the big hospital where I was going to have to give birth if things didn't go well. They let me go home after 3 days (I do not like staying at hospitals), the food was decent, the lactation consultants were very helpful, and I could room-in or have the baby in the nursery, as I chose. When I got a very bad case of mastitis (made worse by bad advice at a hospital), Little Fish was able to stay with me at the clinic (at 8 months) so he could continue to nurse (the best way to get rid of mastitis) while on an iv drip. The down side for me was that I felt pressured into an induction and that led to a long uncomfortable labour because I couldn't move like my body was telling me to, and I wasn't ready for labour. Other than that my experience was good- but it really depends on the type of clinic it is. There is a WHO-introduced standard for care which promotes breastfeeding called the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. You can search for a clinic/hospital that has been given a BFH designation here.

The midwife-assisted birth option is the one I personally like best, but you need a healthy pregnancy to do it. It's also the cheapest option. You need a backup doctor as well. If you give birth at the clinic they will have a backup doctor, but you need one near(ish) your house (or your mother's!) for a homebirth. Also, you can only have a midwife-assisted birth from Weeks 37-42. Midwife clinics are rarely fancy, but the give really good care. Usually there are a few large tatami rooms and the whole family rooms together. Mom can give birth there or in a labour room. Midwives can give pitocin if necessary and have all sorts of other things to help you out, they don't just show up with a couple towels and put the kettle on! What I liked about the midwife-assisted birth was that I was never rushed. Each appointment included an ultrasound and was at least an hour long. I felt that they always listened to me, and that they were truly excited to help me get the birth I wanted. Cupcake's birth was long but nowhere near as painful as Little Fish's, just because my body was ready, I didn't have a heavy heartbeat monitor around me at all times, I could move how my body told me to, and the midwives were there for just me so I didn't feel bad about asking them to apply counterpressure. Being in the bathtub was great for managing the pain too.

Very few women in Japan choose homebirths, but I'm sure it's the same percentage of North American women. Everyone I talk to in Japan about homebirth is interested but worried about their small houses. I think that homebirths will start to be chosen by more and more women the world over in the future.

If you are looking for a midwife clinic or someone who will attend a homebirth, the Japan Midwives' Association has a list of members and what they provide on this page.

The one constant in Japan is that you get an ultrasound at every appointment. They don't do blood hcG checks or anything, just ultrasounds. Normally it is the doctor (or the head midwife) that does it rather than a trained sonographer. Also, there is a focus on unmedicated births. Although there are more places now that offer epidurals (my backup clinic for Cupcake is one), it is still a rare choice. The costs are pretty high, between ¥50 000 and ¥90 000 (USD 500 - 900).

The other big thing that is different in Japan is that most women stay at their mother's homes during their confinement, from about 36 weeks until the baby is about 6 weeks old. I think that is very helpful, but honestly, I think that recovery takes longer if you aren't allowed to exercise during pregnancy or eat anything for fear of gaining more than 5kg in 40 weeks, and you are supposed to stay laying down for a month after birth. We went out a few hours after Cupcake was born to buy a watermelon juice at the department store next to our house and it was fine. I thought we might have given the old women there heart palpitations though!

I found my best resource is the health centre in my city run by the municipal government. That's probably where you will go to get your mother-child handbook at 8-12 weeks. Of course, if you want to choose a provider before then you can totally call yours and ask for information. The nurses who work at mine were very helpful and looked up all the information I needed to know about homebirth regulations and even got 4 different doctors to agree to be homebirth backups for women in my city. They have all the info on playgroups and kindergartens and other resources for babies and toddlers. If you are looking for area-specific information, definitely call your local health centre.

My Ikuman

One of the buzz words this year in Japan is "Ikumen." Basically, it's a play on words which means a father who is cool because he is involved with his kids. Shock! Horror! Yeah, in Japan fathers spending time with their kids is so rare that it becomes a news story.

All I can say about this trend is, it's about fricking time.

I guess it's like the old adage about the only people who don't care about money are those that have it. My husband is pretty darn good with our kids- and other people's! He is Mr. Popularity around here at parks. Probably because he's not just a kid at heart, but acts that way all the time. None of this uptight "I'm too cool to play around" stuff for him! It can be embarrassing for me, like when he rides kids toys around stores. But adorable too.



We went to a birthday party on the weekend for another international family. He was the only Japanese dad who showed. Lots of other dads there from other countries, though. See, it's normal in other countries to spend time with your kids. I don't know if it was the novelty or what, but Big Fish was completely surrounded by kids the whole time. He deftly held Cupcake on his hip while pulling around other kids and teaching them weird songs about balloons.



I'll take the embarrassing bits in stride- what I really feel is a mixture of pride and gratefulness.

Not grateful enough to pop out 4 or 5 more to make him happy though!

Sunday in the Park

We spend a lot of time at a lot of different parks lately. Being home with the kids and no backyard means we need to find somewhere to work energy off. I like parks because they are free. I prefer going in the morning, right after breakfast. We know the kids who go at the same time. For now we break these trips up with days at the beach but it won't be long until jellyfish and the cold force us on ground for the season.

My favourite, though, is Sunday at the park in the big city. We might not live near Tokyo, but some days it feels like we do. Weekday mornings are just kids and their moms in the playground, and that scene could be anywhere in the world. But Sundays are when the blue collar workers who only have one day off a week come out to play.

This last Sunday was one of the best days in a park I've had. We stopped by after having a steak lunch (have I raved enough about weekend lunches in Japan? great courses for around ¥1000- I love it!) so I could nurse Cupcake before we moseyed on out of the city.

First stop- an old car exhibition. Just some guys who took their old cars out to show off. My favourite was the 1965 Daihatsu Midget- a 3-wheeled, one-seater milk truck. What struck me was just how small every car was. If you saw the same kind of thing in Canada, guys showing off their cars from the '60s and '70s, they would be huge! You could fit 3 of these tiny Daihatsus or Datsuns in a single Chevy Impala!

In other parts of the park there were some guys painting, a yoga session, some beat-boxers and some skateboarders. You could probably see this in other parts of the world too, maybe not at the same time though.

Little Fish's favourite place is in the water with the other kids, natch. Of course we never intend to go swimming and I never bring swimming trunks for him so he's in there in his underpants. Most of the other boys go in naked but I'm not comfortable with that.


By the wading pool we see the most Japanese of the lot: a group of guys in full 50s get-up, with folded-up and pressed jeans, bowling shirts, leather jackets, and huge bouffant duck tails. They aren't just hanging though, they are getting down! They have a speaker set and all the rockabilly faves are a blaring while these guys dance in a circle. They did the hop, the twist, and the jitterbug stroll. It was so very Japanese. They were trying so hard to be unique, but had to do it in a group with a uniform.

Little Fish loved these guys. At first he was just staring, then he went up (in his underwear, soaking wet) and stared. Eventually, he walked up to the guy with the biggest bouffant and sporting the most Elvis-like lips, held out his hand, and joined the guy in dancing. Oh my boy- what a corker! It was so cute and so funny and so very Japanese. I wish I had a camera to capture the moment.

Mee A Bee

You might think that Little Fish is a character on Sex and the City. See, he loves bags. He has about 6 now. He has a JAL handbag to carry around toys, 2 backpacks, a giant bag for daycare, and a couple others. He's finished with diapers though so when he goes back to daycare his big bag will be passed onto Cupcake and he can take a smaller one for just his communication book.

A friend in Japan has her own business, mainly using Etsy to sell the very cute things she makes for kids. Both Little Fish and I have been eying her wares for quite a while. She made us some fabulous napkins and placemats last year, but those aren't quite as fun as a bag for an inventive preschooler!

A couple weeks ago, we spotted the perfect bag for Little Fish on my friend's blog. Little Fish likes the Beetle Cars, I love the grey fabric that feels a little retro. I contacted her and asked her if she could make it sometime before December, when I am going back to work and the kids are off to daycare. She whipped that bag up in no time and it was at our place a couple of days later. Well before December!



It's hardly been off since. This bag is adorable, and perfect for preschoolers. It closes so there's no worry of losing toys like with his JAL bag, but he can put it on and close it up himself, unlike his giant backpacks. It's the perfect size to carry his wallet with all of his pennies and dimes and 10-yen coins. And he doesn't have to bug mommy to carry home all the rocks he's picked up!



He generally carries it on one shoulder rather than across like messenger bags should be carried. I guess that's from seeing me and my purse(s). I should show him more Veronica Mars to show him how cool a messenger bag should be!

If you have a toddler or preschooler, rush out and get them a messenger bag from Meeabee. She's awesome, the bags are awesome, and your kid (or grandkid) will love it.

Like a duck to water!

Like a duck to water!, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

She's taking a sippy now too! I am so happy. I was worried about what will happen when I go back to work because she won't take a bottle. This is a load off my mind!

Earthquake!

Our place has been rocking for the past 3 minutes. Babies still sleeping, luckily.

Mommy made this for me!

Mommy made this for me!, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

I made this using the free pattern at habitual.wordpress.com/sundress-pattern/. So easy, so cute, just right for the girl who is outgrowing everything.

First food

First food, originally uploaded by Medeafication.

My baby girl took matters into her own hands by stealing his rice cracker. We were both surprised, especially when she gobbled it right down.Time to break out the blender.