Skip to main content

As Insane As Papa

Eri was like, "See? When I'm in a bad mood, I go out and get something delicious, and you benefit." She was in a bad mood because the boys' morning behavior got to her. Kenzo has been especially rebellious of late.

A little after noon, she asked if I had eaten. When I said no, she asked if I wanted lunch. I told her I’d eat if it was there, but if not, no worries, I could take care of myself. She doesn't always have to cook for me, as I always reiterate.


Then she revealed that she had gone out and picked up yangnyeom chicken and this crazy good kale salad from Selva. She even plated it all fancy. For lunch.

Kenzo likes me to drive him to the bus stop because he likes listening to music. Today, his picks were Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House (again), Mr. Blue Sky by ELO (again), and, on the way home, Bad Day by Daniel Powter (again). He has started learning the lyrics to Mr. Blue Sky and nervously sings out loud in the front seat of the car on the way to the bus stop. I sing like a mad person while I drive the boys places, so maybe Kenzo is testing out what it's like to be as insane as papa.

I brushed my teeth in the bath specifically so I could hug and kiss Eri in front of the boys at bedtime. I even trimmed my beard. More and more, I believe that what they see matters far more than what they’re told. I want them to know that Mama and Papa love each other and that we love them.

fully loaded mentaiko on rice... Eri knows 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

Experiences I Will Never Know About

Eri and I were checking out one of Kenzo's school notebooks tonight. This page has so much going on, and I love all of it. It made me realize something that I can easily forget - he's a person. He has a life separate from mine, lives each day having experiences that I will never know about, and has thoughts and ideas that I can't nor should get in the way of. "Thank you for doing everything," she said. Eri walked with me this morning as I went around the neighborhood and delivered planter box maintenance information and schedules to various folks.  We stopped at the first house and I rang the doorbell and handed the old lady the three-page information sheet I had made and copied and we exchanged greetings and then I realized this is going to take forever if I ring every single person’s doorbell and chit-chat with them. I’ve got 20+ more of these to hand out.  So we started just sticking them in people's mailboxes and made better time. Most folks aren’t home an...

Certain Luxuries

I work from home. My office is in Osamu's future bedroom, though he doesn't know it yet. At some point a few years down the line he will probably start to yearn for his own space. For the time being he and Kenzo share the room next door and sleep in a bunk bed and have a grand time playing, roughhousing, and quarreling. As brothers are prone to do. I started the day with a two-hour meeting with an esteemed co-worker who is based in a city far away. He manages a team associated with mine, and I value our developing relationship. We're both in management positions where people depend on us, and for my part as a relatively new manager I respect and try as often as possible to seek out his advice and perspectives.  We're very different, though. We dance around the topic, but it's pretty clear that one of our differences is that I embrace ambiguity and he does not. I think that it's okay if meetings don't end with a clear solution, as long as the relationship be...