lookin tired/feelin good

I can't even read the clock right.

Eri: "You're going to soccer, right? Aren't you a bit early?"

Me: "Yeah! We usually leave at this time and get there right on time. We gotta go! Let's go guys!"

Soccer club starts at 10 a.m. The boys know that when the long hand on the clock gets to the 8 (9:40) it's time to go to the bathroom and get our socks and shoes on and head down to the car. The big hand was on 8.

The problem that Eri saw was the short hand. It was 8:40, not 9:40.

I'm going nuts. ~~Slowly~~. Rapidly.

An hour later, after I slowly enjoyed my coffee and disposed of the last beetle (yes, all four beetles have now gone back to the earth) and cleaned his bug box to make room for new bug acquisitions and the boys chilled out on the sofa watching TV, we set off.

While the boys played soccer I headed across the parking lot to grab them some juice boxes for a job well done. This is not standard procedure, but Kenzo made his comeback today after missing soccer club last week and generally the boys have been needing a boost of praise and motivation for overcoming being ill and dealing with life.

After soccer we stopped off to grab some lunch stuff. Osamu chose cucumber maki-zushi, Kenzo wanted a rice ball with cod roe but they didn't have that today so he chose natto maki-zushi. Some days they're all about pizza and french fries and some days they're into the heavy duty Japanese stuff like fish eggs and fermented beans. I love it, and I have anxiety sometimes about whether I can effectively nurture their dual identities, culturally, lingually, and whatever other aspects there are that I haven't even considered yet.

Next stop was Mizunomori Park for hiking and bug catching. For my part I was doing reconnaissance on the campsite area. I've been sorely in need of some camping with the boys.

Kenzo wanted to catch a lizard, but we came across none. I think the season for lizards is over and I don't have the heart to tell him. Luckily the boys were more than excited to try and catch dragonflies to feed the mantis we are currently housing. I had a couple in the net, but they all got away. Wily dragonflies. They're pretty fast. And clever.

Kenzo was not into pictures today. He was in one of those moods where he was pretty tired but when I mentioned going back to the car and heading home he announced he wanted to play more.

So we ventured into the deep dark woods. That's what the boys call it. They love The Gruffalo. At one point we even came across some piles of logs and Kenzo got worried because in the book that's where the snake lives. He said we should stay away because that's a snake house.

Kenzo was also worried when he saw this warning sign about bears. He's probably still worried about the wild boar that was loose in our neighborhood park a few weeks ago. Osamu was not worried in the slightest. He was excited to see a bear.

In the evening Osamu wanted to do bicycle practice. I'm always up for that. Especially when the sky is so amazing. The streetlights came on, and the boys know that's the signal to go inside. Tonight I told Osamu he could do a few more laps up and down the street. Papa poured a beer and was taking in the Saturday evening beauty.