Somewhat Selfish

These days I've been staying up too late again - reading, listening to podcasts or music, trying to get the most out of my Apple TV Plus free trial. I'm re-watching Ted Lasso.

Today was day two of my plan to end nap time for the boys so they sleep more at night and thereby let Eri get more sleep. I don't have any hard data yet on the success of this endeavor, but when I finally rolled out of bed around 7:30 this morning the boys were already fed, dressed, and deep into their play.

It was raining, so our original plan of going chestnut gathering and goat petting in Wakuya Town was out. I decided I was gonna make the most of the day anyway, in spite of the fact that the boys not taking a nap would be challenging and taking them out with me to run errands while carrying umbrellas was gonna be pretty exhausting.

First order of business: get the boys set up with a good task while I got ready.

They love drawing and making paper airplanes at their window desk. One of my favorite things is looking out the window with them and watching the seasons change.

I'm sometimes amazed we even make it out of the house. On weekdays it's a miracle because there's the added pressure of having a bus to catch. We've gone two-and-a-half years without a single day missing the kindergarten bus.

Today was Autumnal Equinox Day in Japan, so we were all off and we had no set time schedule. The goal for me on days like this is to just head out with the boys and give Eri some quiet time and the boys some adventure time with papa. When the boys grow up I want them to be adults who have tons of memories, hopefully good, of their early days. In particular, and this may be somewhat selfish of me, I want them to value the experiences we are sharing so that they become people who in turn value experiences, relationships, and their human existence over materials things.

Today did not disappoint. We kind of ran amok in the Tomiya Aeon Mall. I was playing with fire by taking the boys into the game center with no intention of playing any games. I do this with the toy store too. Little by little, through trial and error and a few tears, I'm doing what I can to set the expectation that we're not buying stuff or putting money into game machines every time we go out. I'm like a broken record when I say to the boys, "Those are special things and if we do them all the time they won't be special anymore."

Later on I was cleaning and organizing some shelves and closet space and I came across a box of my old journals.

Oh boy.

Just like with old pictures, you can spend a whole day sifting through them. I did my best to keep it quick this time. I will make time for retrospection and reflection on these things at some point for sure, but I had the boys "helping" me today so that kept me on task.

Comments

Mr. Blue Sky

Man, I conked out so hard on the living room floor tonight. Right after bath time, before story time. I barely remember. Completely exhausted. Big adventure day. Another in a long series I hope the boys will remember when they’re older... our first IMAX movie, a downtown city outing, and some life lessons in the game center. We left the house at 9:15 a.m. and didn’t get back until nearly 6 p.m., totally spent but full of pizza and memories. The Wild Robot in IMAX was totally stunning. The scale, the colors, the sound. We could feel every gust of wind and rustle of leaves. I made sure we had prime seats, row G, right in the center. Two big buckets of popcorn too, which, according to Kenzo and Osamu, I absolutely should not be sharing. “You should get your own!” they kept saying. I think a little bit of popcorn thievery is well within my rights as the papa. After the movie, we headed through the cold and wind across to the game center on the other side of Sendai Station. Being...

Not About Baseball

I stayed up past my bedtime again last night. I almost made it. I watched a couple of episodes of Ted Lasso and came to a good stopping point where I was satisfied with myself for enjoying some quiet TV time with my favorite show and even though it was after midnight, I was confident I could still get a pretty good night's sleep. But no. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to just lay on the living room carpet and put on a movie. I saw the first seven or eight minutes of Goodfellas and then I woke up when the end credits were rolling with Sid Vicious' is cover of My Way . I brush my teeth and I can see the light of day already shining in through the bathroom window. "It’s almost the longest day of the year," I told myself, to at least rationalize why I'm brushing my teeth and crawling into bed at this hour. I was trying to minimize the mental anguish I regularly put on myself for not just going to bed like I should. I told Eri that I was thinking a...

Sendai vs. Tokushima

Osamu said he had to go pee, and I make it a habit to believe him most of the time. Another habit I have is taking him to go pee, much of the time. When we came out of the restroom I decided it was time for a beer, so with Osamu holding my hand we waltzed over to the food concession and I was checking out the selection, and the prices. Seven hundred yen for a draft beer. I had a feeling. It was only 500 for a whiskey cocktail (whiskey with water on the rocks) but I wasn't about to be that much of a derelict this early with my four-year-old son in tow. The tickets were free, the seats aren't bad, might as well spend seven bucks on a beer. The problem was that the dude next to us with his little boy about the same age as Mumu-chan loudly and with braggadocio you don't often see in these parts ordered a Blue Hawaii snow cone for his kid. I heard this and panicked. Last weekend at Michinoku Park I got a Blue Hawaii snow cone for Osamu and he loved it. I looked down at my l...

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