This'll Just Take a Minute

Right after dinner the doorbell rang and the boys ran to the intercom in a frenzy. Osamu can't reach the button yet, but Kenzo can. He pushed the button and both he and Osamu greeted the caller with a, "Haaaaiiiii." The delivery guy outside announced who he was and we all ran to the front door and opened it and Osamu grabbed the hanko because he knows we gotta stamp our seal to get deliveries and the guy asked if he could enter the entranceway because he had two pretty heavy boxes. And they were filled with bottles of wine. Eri found some great deal online and got us a shipment of assorted Christmas and New Year wines. I unpacked the contents after the boys went to bed and stowed them all in the "cellar." We have storage spaces under the floor in the kitchen and in the laundry room. The kitchen one is a proper mini cellar-esque place to keep cans of soda and beer, coffee, and other stuff that has labels that say "store in a cool, dry place." The laundr...

Eri came back from taking the boys to the kindergarten bus stop this morning and brought me this momiji leaf that Kenzo told her to give me and keep. Our neighborhood, and really most of Japan, is littered with these leaves in the autumn. This one was pretty nice, though. I can see why Kenzo liked it. I put it on my desk and seven hours later when he came home he actually came to see if I still had it. I did. I had been enjoying having it on my desk all day. By evening it had already started to dry up and wither, though. I love that he loves leaves and that he wants to share them with me. I have a friend at work who works in a department that is filming the kindergarten winter recital and he messaged me with pictures from the rehearsal today. Kenzo is playing a sheep herder and apparently also an angel in a musical play about the story of Christmas. Eri and I and a few hundred parents will get to witness the spectacle next week, but I got a sneak peek today thanks to my insider. The fi...

"Is today Christmas?" When he wakes up in the morning and after nap time in the afternoon, that's all Osamu wants to know, and he is devastated when the answer is Christmas is not today. According to him, Christmas is too slow and bath time is too fast. Kenzo got this cool Christmas stocking with a K for Kenzo on it. I'm not sure where he got it from. I should know these things. The important thing is that we don't have a stocking with an O for Osamu on it and we're gonna need to rectify that very soon. We got some cake from one of the moms at the kindergarten bus stop. Their family got covid a few weeks back and Eri went grocery shopping for them so they gave us a box of desserts. Kenzo devoured his after dinner tonight. Osamu ate the face off the bear, had one more small bite, and announced it was too chocolatey for him. I had a few bites after that. It wasn't too chocolatey for me.

We love having friends over.  Even though it was a bit chilly, the boys and their friends and all of us had our lunch out in the park down the steps from our house. And there was lots of play time. Osamu loves playing with Milo. Our friends are going to be spending the holidays overseas so they brought early Christmas presents. Matching Paw Patrol sweatshirts. I'm so terrible at gifting. Even when I do it I do it awkwardly. Thank goodness Eri knows what to do, and in the most Japanese way.  The boys and I and our friends played for the better part of five hours. With no nap time. Which meant dinner and bath time were early. Eri brought home some amazing sashimi that I chowed down on and reluctantly gave a few bites of to the boys. I did a late afternoon/early evening walk. The crescent moon floated overhead like an aloof supervisor. The sky in front of my house. 17:00.

Osamu ran to me, with his arms open wide, wearing his rain boots on a sunny afternoon, smiling wide and shouting, "Papa, you came back!" I did come back. From a haircut and a trip to the drugstore to pick up some shaving cream. He waited as patiently as he could. I told the boys as they headed up for their nap after lunch that papa was gonna walk over to my barber in Ichinazaka, run an errand or two, and by the time they wake up and have a snack I'll be back and we'll play in the street and ride bicycles.  Nap and snack time happened a little faster than I anticipated. Eri texted me that Osamu was super excited to play outside. I quickened my pace. As I turned the corner onto my street I could see Eri and Osamu. Even after a Saturday that included soccer club and tons of horseplay with Kenzo, Osamu was ready to double down on the shenanigans. The neighbor kids were out, too, so excitement was in the air. The streetlight rule was slightly bended tonight. The rule is th...

I am probably an irresponsible parent. Kenzo got another letter from his friend Ibuki today. It reads: Underwear (slightly mistaken spelling but contextually it makes sense) Poop Fart I know Ibuki's mother would be horrified if she knew this was the correspondence her son was engaging in, which impresses me because obviously Ibuki wrote this himself without help. That's pretty good. Kenzo can't do that yet. The reason I am an irresponsible parent is because I am not calling Ibuki's mom. I think this is great. I love that Kenzo is trading letters with his friend. There was actually another letter in the same envelope that had a nice message once again saying how much Ibuki likes Kenzo. Also, when Kenzo read this he laughed so hard he fell on the floor. Actually, to be perfectly honest, Kenzo asked me to read it. The misspelled part at the top threw him off, as it did me (though I quickly realized what it was supposed to be), and he's not quite there with reading hira...

When the boys got home from kindergarten around 14:30 Kenzo came up to see me in my office, as he does. He gave me a hug and a kiss (I had to ask) and sat in my lap to see what I was working on, which was just some boring text messages to coworkers. Osamu skipped saying hi to me and hopped into nap time on his bottom bunk with mama, who was off from her class today. He was not wasting this chance to snuggle with mama in the afternoon. Kenzo was headed to nap time, too, but he stopped by to tell me, "Papa, we're going somewhere later." I acted surprised and replied, "Oh really? Where are you going?" He said mama said it was a secret. Or a surprise. One or the other. Either way, Kenzo didn't have a clue, and that was the point. I knew where they were going. After nap time the boys decided to watch Home Alone again. They just discovered it and they cackle with laughter. It is a funny movie. I have a hard time with the fact that it was made over thirty years a...

Rain or shine I gotta get my ten thousand steps and eight kilometers. Tonight it was raining pretty hard and it was super dark and windy. I busted out my rain suit, complete with waterproof shoe covers. It's been a while since I donned the entire regalia. It was cold, too. I still had 4.7 kilometers to go for the day, and roughly 5000 steps. Even after the crazy day I had out with the boys. Eri was heading up to bed early and she watched me top off my departure preparation with my super warm scarf. She asked me if I was really going out in this rain and I said of course. It's just rain. She's used to my ways. Mostly. I love walking in my rain suit because it makes me feel invincible against the weather. I noticed something, too. No matter how cold it is, if you have a good scarf to keep your neck nice and warm you're set. Even though the rain was coming down hard and kinda swirling all around in the windy night, and there were no people out walking like usual so the nei...

Most mornings I'm in charge of hanging laundry. I'm not good at it. Apparently there's a strategy to hanging laundry so it dries efficiently, especially on days like today when the sun isn't especially direct. Plus, I'm slow and methodical, which is not great when time is of the essence on a Tuesday morning and we gotta get the boys to the bus stop and take out plastic trash and generally get the day going. Sendai is also a place where the weather changes without warning. Today my weather app said partly cloudy in the morning and sun later. Just a cool, bright, breezy autumn day. About thirty minutes after I meticulously hung the laundry it started to rain. It was short, and I was at my desk and didn't even notice, but Eri came back from sending the boys off on the kindergarten bus and quickly brought in my precious laundry and hung it inside for a bit before the sun came out again and then she re-hung it outside in less than half the time it took me. As the sea...

Kenzo wanted to write another letter to his friend Ibuki, but he can't quite put the hiragana together yet. He asked me for help. This came soon after he got pretty upset at me because he came into my office fifteen minutes after I tucked him and Osamu in for a nap and reiterated very clearly that if you don't nap you don't get a snack. Well, they'll get a snack, but there's a special sucker kind of candy that Eri got for them that's meant to be given only for extra good boy behavior. That's the one that you don't get if you don't sleep.  He quietly came in and I turned around and said, "You have to sleep or no candy." Kenzo was adamant that he slept. He was on the edge of tears and said, "Papa always says I didn't sleep but I did sleep." I think he thinks he did sleep. Even though he didn't. He really resists naps. So I didn't push it. I told him I was sorry for not believing him and that his snack was on the kitchen ...

Eri and I went on an actual date today. Whenever we have special time like this we often do the same things; run errands, have brunch at Flat White , do a little shopping at Tapio . We always have a great time doing those things, but today Eri suggested we do something different. Our first stop was the Sendai Agricultural Gardening Center . We'd been there once before. It's kinda like a farmer's market combined with a garden park. It's simple, quiet, and relaxing - a great place to just walk around and smell flowers. They have a cafe. Eri got a fig parfait. She gave me a couple of bites and man I love Fig Newtons but this was next level figgy goodness. I got a chestnut gelato.  We just walked around smelling flowers.  And taking a few pictures. The autumn theme they had going on was dinosaurs and other animals fashioned out of dried sheaves from the local rice harvest. They were pretty fantastic. Eri and I just kept saying how much the boys would love them. But today wa...

The boys love the hot carpet. We got this when we lived in Osaka, but it's been sitting in the closet since we moved back to Sendai over four years ago. Before Osamu was born. Autumn in Sendai is amazing in the early afternoon when the sun is out and it's 14 degrees. The mornings and evenings are pretty cold, though, so sitting on a heated carpet in the living room makes you feel real cozy. And winter is approaching, snow and all. Even as I write this I'm just back from a late night walk and sitting in the living room on the hot carpet. The boys love it in the morning because it feels good to reclaim that warmth from their beds while playing on the floor. Eri loves it because she's sensitive to the cold. I love it because it just feels nice and we don't need to turn on the air conditioner. After soccer club this morning I took the boys to one of our favorite parks, Grande 21 in Rifu . We stopped off to get some onigiri and other lunch stuff, and then the shenanigans...

I tiptoed toward the bunk bed and could see Osamu was fast asleep. He can't fake it. When he does try to fake sleep he smiles and giggles and his eyes open a lot to see if I'm looking. Kenzo is a little more sophisticated. He does a pretty good fake sleep. I crept up next him on the top bunk and I think he was aware of my presence because I could tell he was doing his best to not move or smile and just act like he was truly sleeping. I whispered "Kenzo" and he didn't budge. He's getting better at this. I waited about 20 seconds to see if he'd open his eyes. Nothing. He doesn't like taking naps and he is developing the patience to wait it out while fake sleeping.  So then after another beat I whispered "onara-boo," which in Japanese just means fart with an onomatopoeic gas passing sound. He immediately started laughing and the jig was up. With Osamu in sleepyland Kenzo came to my office and wrote the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, all by h...

Osamu woke up this morning, marched right past me as I was opening the upstairs windows, headed downstairs, and without even starting with a "Good morning mama" he asked, "Is today Christmas?" I could hear from upstairs as he started crying after hearing the answer. I think some of our neighbors could also hear. Kenzo was up early getting his letter ready to give to his friend. He packed it nicely in his school bag so he wouldn't lose it or forget to give to him. Luckily his friend Ibuki-kun rides the same bus to kindergarten, so apparently Kenzo was able to deliver it without any problems. Between finding out that today wasn't Christmas and for some irrational reason thinking that he was going to be "late for work" ("work" being kindergarten) Osamu was inconsolable for most of the morning. Also he and Kenzo were doing their usual horse play while changing clothes, running around and shooting guns and tossing balls all over. Osamu slipped...

Kenzo got a hand-delivered letter from his friend Ibuki-kun that said, "Kenzo-kun, I like you. From Ibuki." In hiragana of course. So he decided he wanted to write a letter back. As I was finishing up my work and starting to get dinner ready, Kenzo was doing his best to write his letter. Eri put a poster up on the wall of the hiragana characters, so Kenzo was consulting it and asking me from across the living room which characters matched certain sounds so he could put the words together. He knows how to say what he wants. Writing it out is something he is just starting to learn. He gets frustrated easily when he can't do something he really has his mind set on doing, like writing a letter to his friend stating that he also, indeed, likes him back. Kenzo got the first part down all by himself. He was able to write his name and Ibuki-kun's name in hiragana on his own, probably by copying utilizing his understanding of the characters he can already recognize but not qui...

"You seem to have a strong dependency on your calendar and to do list."  That's what my therapist told me last week. She's right. I never thought about my calendar and to do list as things one could become dependent on - "dependent on" being the polite way to say "addicted to". So I was chewing on that when this morning I realized my to do list was gone. I guess I inadvertently deleted it when trying to manage my icloud storage. Didn't realize that was a thing that could happen. I felt panic set in, but it wasn't a panic attack. Just a long-lasting feeling of, " Now  what am I supposed to do?" As I write this I am about 15 hours separated from the moment I realized my to do memos were all gone, and even though I still feel like disaster is imminent due to the fact that my iphone reminder won't tell me to clean the bath drain Sunday evening unless I re-enter it on my to do list, I kinda feel calm. Like when you accidentally dro...

Osamu is getting better at asking his big brother for help and Kenzo is getting better at helping his little brother when he needs help. Somehow Kenzo got really good at peeling oranges before I even realized it. Tonight's dessert, after Monday night oven pizzas and mama's delicious vegetable soup with chopped weiners, was mikan - Japanese mandarin oranges. I didn't feel like peeling kiwis. Kenzo peeled and ate his mikan super fast. He's motivated by the urge to play and color. Osamu... we're still not sure what motivates him. He's like me, though - he likes to take his time and he treats meal time like an opportunity for an open-ended discussion about life. And he can't peel fruit yet. He sorta whined to me, "Papaaaaa, help me." I told him to ask his brother and he did. Kenzo dutifully came back to the dinner table from his Cars coloring page and got Osamu started on peeling his orange. About 11:15 this morning Eri texted me from downstairs askin...

I was up a little late last night talking with a very good old friend, which is something I need to do more. Often I put it off because I'm tired, but since I'm always tired that's not a good reason to put off something that gives me energy. So I was the last one up this morning. Again. The boys came in and jumped on the bed and woke me up and announced they had already had breakfast and that mine was ready too. Eri always knows what I need, even and especially when I don't know it myself. I skip a lot of meals, or just have a few bites standing in the kitchen while trying to multitask helping the boys finish their meals and getting the bath ready or prepping them for school or brushing their teeth. I have really been trying to stay focused on the fact that I don't need to eat that much . I eat when I'm hungry and I drink when I'm dry .  This morning, however, Eri's wisdom won. I sat and ate a beautiful Sunday morning pancake breakfast. And then it was ...