Evie

Evie is now 15 months old.

She's got her 4 front teeth on the top and still the lonesome 2 central bottom ones. She's so cute when she smiles!! She's got a molar that's busy working its way through at the moment, causing some distress and sleepless nights. But I think she's nearly past the worst.

(oh, short regress...I just heard some thunder! Urgh...gotta walk up the hill in the rain again just now to fetch Josephine from the bus stop. Keeping 2 littlies dry and happy... (no parking) )

Her hair is still strawberry blonde and beautiful. She's got brown eyes.

She loves walking. But only with "The Finger". The woman attached to The Finger is not as important. Although, I dare say she is rather picky about whose finger she holds. Anyhow. Once she has the right Finger in her tiny clutch, she's off. Guys, she CAN walk alone. She can. I've seen it several times. She clears a passage. But she doesn't WANT to. She WANTS the Finger to accompany her everywhere.
Sometimes I get frustrated that my Finger doesn't come with ME to where I want to go. But then I do have to stop myself and say "it's a season. It's a precious time. Be thankful ISABELLE, that she WANTS to still hold your hand!" And so, I scold myself. She's precious. Very affectionate. When I pretent to cry she comes racing up to me, hugs me and slaps my back with her whole arm to "calm me down" every now and then peering into my eyes to see if the "tears" have dried up. She's totally cute!!!

She weighs 10.5kg. She's 83cm long (in the 90th percentile for her age group). She's tall and lean. Quite petite little bones.

A few weeks ago she was incredibly sociable with anyone and everyone. Now, she's done 180 degrees. She's not unfriendly to others. But she wants Mamma. All to herself. She's going through a big dose of separation anxiety. Mostly I love to be with her, especially when it's just her and I in the mornings. But her clingyness can be challenging when Josephine is home and I want to spend time with them both.

She still eats and drinks very well.

She loves shoes and is always fiddling at the front door with everyone's shoes trying them on.

She basks in the moments when I allow her to feed herself. When she's hungry, she's actually pretty good (sure, there's a lot landing elsewhere too, but generally also getting a lot IN). But when she' bored or full, you may see pasta being flung full force towards walls or even you.

Evie likes playing with balls and is not bad at throwing them either. Could be a future interest, let's see?

She also likes scribbling with crayons, trying to copy her big sister.

She's very attached to her Puppy. And generally loves soft toys (different to Josephine at that age who didn't care all that much for them).

Josephine

Coming home after KG....
Josephine: "Mamma, this boy. He just pushed me."
Me:  "Oh no. Why did he do that??"
Josephine: "He just didn't want me to play wif him, dats why"
Me: "Well that wasn't very kind of him, was it? Next time he does that you take a step closer to him, look him in the eye (me demonstrating) and say sternly "don't push me". And if he still pushes you, go and ask your teacher to come and help you and tell me too when you come home."
Josephine: .....thinking...."No Mamma no. Dats not my way. My way is dis: I just walk away."

She is such a gentle thing, and here I am telling her how to kind of bully him back but with words and body language. On the one hand, we want her to be confident and even a little bit competitive and on the other hand gentleness is so beautiful. I don't think this is a "weed" in her garden, but rather a beautiful "flower".


- she loves making us laugh. Her eyes shine when we laugh at her jokes and then she continues with the same jok (a little overkill involved), but nonetheless delightful!

- she's very open in telling me all her thoughts about her little friends, teachers, etc at kindergarten. I love this.

- sometimes when she does something, she peers forward with big eyes and says "don't wowwy. It's just our secwet. Pappa doesn't have to know a fing about it." :-) Hilerious!

- her and Evie are having more and more moments of playfulness. Evie has finally fallen in love with big sister and is enjoying her company more than ever...until the love gets too tough. Then she wails and bails.

- Josephine is still loving KG and is feeling like a big girl now. She even walks taller. Seriously.

- Josephine's new friends in Japan are: Isabella, Sophia, Victoria and Timo. She still talks about her UK and DE friends though.

- She's got a good memory. When I quiz her about things from a while back, she can clearly remember every event on Evie's birthday for example (even what dress she wore, what we did, saw, who came, etc).

- she loves reading books with me, more than before.

- she still loves dancing and challenging her body to do new circus tricks.

- she's very tired in the afternoons. Sometimes missing her nap (overtired from KG and can't fall asleep then). So some afternoons are grumpy ones or just slow ones. But if she naps (in pram on the way back from bus stop for example) then she's full of renewed energy and everyone is happy.

The cat, the donkey and the mouse. Squeak squeak!

Fooling around on Saturday morning at home. If you press the noses of these masks, they make the animal sounds. So we were having some fun in our own barnyard!

Fuji-san

Ah the joys of a public holiday! Yay for them! We had some lovely family time - always welcome!
On Friday we went to Mnt Fuji. The Japanese call it "Fuji-san" which then basically means they're referring to Fuji in a polite way. They call everyone by their name-san. So, I'm Isabelle-san.
The weather just DROPPED in temperatures. By about 20degrees. It was nearly 40 degrees last week and on Thursday it just poured with rain and the temperatures plummeted to about 25. At Fuji they were 14!!
Some interesting facts about Fuji-san
-Mnt Fuji just stands out in the crowd of mountains!! It's mega steep. With a big crater at the top.
-It's 3,776 meters
- It's a volcano. It last erupted in November 1707 and has been dormant since February 1708
- there are volcanic lakes around it (4 that I know of, we went to one of them....big!)
- the clouds just cover it in almost seconds!
- the hiking season is during August & September.
- It's only about 90 minutes from Tokyo and it feels like you're in another world!!! GREEN NATURE!!!

So on Thursday Japan had LOTS of rain. On Friday it was very overcast and looked like it could rain any second (it did at times). We passed about 10 mudslides where parts of the mountain had just....slid away! I've never seen that before. On our navi, we got redirected due to a "Disaster".

Here are the kids in the backseat:  Why do I always take photos of them there or eating at the table? Because they're trapped. Sitting ducks. :-)

my little Evie and her "puppy"

our precious girl

Japan is VERY mountainous. Wow, yes it is! Up and down, up and down. Mostly uninhabitable. With THICK vegetation, trees, etc. What a contrast to Tokyo!! So, because it goes up and down so steeply, the Japanese have mastered the art of digging tunnels. If you look waaaay over there to your right and doooer over there to your left, you'll see bridges, more bridges and tunnels. Here's just one example above.

We rode on some very scenic passes.

first glimpse of Mnt Fuji. Note: we're already at quite a high altitude.

Lake Yamanaka - we spent the day here going on walks, etc. This is at the foot of Mnt Fuji (not in picture)

Believe it or not, that's mnt Fuji hiding behind those clouds. Ok, not the greatest shot, agreed.

and there it stuck its nose out...just literally 2minutes later.

off on our walk. We did about 5km, which was super for the kids!

the swan that hissed at Jozie (but she was fine with it)

Evie's bedroom

5 minutes later...it wasn't looking quite as neat anymore. But that's fine with me too!

Evie at work

Odds and ends

arranging teeny weeny mini gardens. Very fine gardening going on here!

a transformer ( a huge box to convert from 220V to 110V), so it's not only an adapter plug change.

Silver week and stuff

On Sunday afternoon we took a walk / Puky bike ride towards the sound of beating drums here near our house. On Monday (yesterday) we had a public holiday (Silver Week) and the Japanese kids with their parents and other dedicated adults paraded up and down about a 100m stretch of pedestrian area for a few hours. They echoed words "HISHO" or something like that. The leader shouted "Hisho!" and the pack following him shouted back "Hisho!". The lacked no energy or motivation and just went up and down and up and down and up and down as if it was always the first time they were doing it. Wow. I'm not as dedicated as that.

What is Silver Week? There are 3 public holidays - which is unusual. The first one (see pics below of that one) is "Respect for the Aged Day" and the other ones are to do with the Autumn equinox.

Anyway, here are some photos of the lot...

Josephine following the bunch

Ok, someone was exhausted. A true exception.

a little Japanese girl and her dad

A sushi bar. The lady behind the counter...disappeared. OOps.

the audience in their traditional clothes. Spot the shoes with a toe pouch.

the crowd watching

the children carrying a "caravan/tent?" Don't know the right term!

chatting away!

motorised bikes. Oftentimes kids in front and at the back. Helps with the steep "Donkin str" hills like PE!!

and .... heave!!!

our girls!

my best friend.

The Silver Week ornaments that get carried by the children

The BIG Smooch

Josephine and Pappa having a real smooch session on the weekend. Boy but she was giving him her "juiciest, summer strawberry smooches" EVER! Well, of course, as you can imagine, he loved it! Which father wouldn't? :-)

Our home in Tokyo

Josephine's bedroom (if you don't have a tree to climb...)

a "Wall Tattoo" - a great invention of adhesive design so you don't have to drill holes (good for rented places!).   In Josephine's bedroom

Josephine's bedroom. Wonderful Ikea stuff! All things accessible and visible. All things can be neatly packed away again. Yes! (other stuff can be stuffed into the cupboard of course)

the Hubby-zone. My man is amazing! He's linked up this computer to a TV in the same room as well as to a TV in the lounge. We watch online TV all over the house controlled by this computer. Let's say, I'm probably behind with the times, but he's not. High tech stuff I tell you! And did you spot the jar of Haribo jelly babies that he loves to nibble on? Yes, it's right at hand for those cravings!

Master bedroom. Actually a huge room. Don't want to show you all the MESS on the other side and in the cupboards...

but well,  ....here's part of it. (master bedroom)

and down the passage we go...

and into the lounge

other end of the lounge (it's BIG!)

and into our kitchen where everything happens. I love our new big chunky table!

and our fridge plastered with fun photos!

and LOTS of spots and corners like these which the camera was allergic to recording...chaos for sorting and finding a home for. Lots of these spots! 2 bathrooms full of STUFF!

Evie's room remains undocumented as the little princess sleeps peacefully trying to recover from her chesty cough. I shall let sleeping babes lie.

x