Pressing Thine Luck

The nice babysitter we got through the Izumi Ward Office, Zanma-san, came over today. Thankfully she was a few minutes early because I had a meeting at three and needed to be at my desk. I prepped the boys' snacks and water and when Zanma-san entered the house the boys, who were in their bunk beds for a quick nap but definitely did not sleep a wink, came running down excitedly. They love her. She's a super nice old lady who lives nearby and is great with kids. She even remembered that Kenzo has been into playing with string, kind of like Cat's Cradle but without the game part.

So Zanma-san went out of her way to bring a few colorful strands of yarn that both Kenzo and Osamu could could play with. They loved it. As usual, they had an amazing time. Later on when it was time for bed they conked out faster than I've ever seen. Kenzo almost fell asleep going up the steps.

The bummer is that I told Eri tonight that I don't think we need Zanma-san to babysit. It's super great to have someone watch the boys while Eri is at school and I'm working in my office. However, it's just trading one stress for another. Having a babysitter come over involves conversations and transactions and paperwork since it's the ward office. We just have another month to go before Eri's school finishes and I think I can handle the balance until then.

The boys have been as good as they can be under the circumstances. They're little. Eri is amazing because, among everything else she does, she preps dinner for us before driving to Yaotome, takes the subway downtown, does a four hour course four days a week, and makes it home just in time for bedtime tuck in. And mostly doesn't complain, even though no one could fault her if she did.

In the last two weeks I did an international manager Zoom meeting and a local department manager Microsoft Teams meeting, both of which lasted over an hour, from the dining table, with the boys right by me in the living room playing.

Maybe I'm pressing my luck, but I think we'll be fine without a babysitter for now. I think it'll actually be less stressful.

Comments

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...

Overpriced Highball for the Big Guy

I keep falling asleep at my desk and waking up all groggy and surly in the middle of night, stumbling downstairs to brush my teeth without waking anyone, and slinking back up the steps and into bed. So I was the last one up again this morning, but I made up for it by quickly getting ready and taking the boys out on a Sunday morning walk to look for bugs. Kenzo has been particularly keen on capturing another lizard. He doesn't understand that lizard season is ending and those guys are becoming more and more rare. He got his hopes up when we came across a little one walking up some woodsy steps. After that we took a break. Eri's sister and her husband stopped by to grab the car seats that the boys just graduated from. Their little girl Emika is just now big enough to start using one and next spring she's gonna have a brand new baby brother or sister who will also need a car seat, so the timing worked out nice for all of us. Emika apparently loves Thomas the Tank Engine (who d...

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...

This'll Just Take a Minute

Search This Blog