A Fish Out of Water

Mei Tai

This is one of the four baby carriers I own (carriers are one of those things, like strollers and diaper bags, that nobody seems to get just right, causing you to go through several before finding one you like or at least tolerate). It's a mei tai, which is a traditional Chinese carrier that is wonderful for its simplicity and comfort. It was made in America by Mei Tai Baby and cost a small fortune to ship, but as mei tais are hard to find here in Japan it was worth it.

I was originally interested in a mei tai because I'd read about how comfortable they are and that they could be used with newborns. I'd been having trouble getting the hang of my sling, and totally hated the Japanese-made hand-me-down carrier we had, and when my mei tai finally arrived when Shuma was about a month old, I fell in love. Daily walks have been the norm ever since, with none of the soreness or worry that Shuma would suffocate/break his neck/fall out I experienced with the other carriers. It is even more comfortable than my Ergo (my other favourite carrier), especially for long distances- it somehow fits perfectly to both of our bodies and doesn't pull on or dig into any one part. And it doesn't cause wobble-head when Shuma falls asleep, at least when worn in front- the straps and positioning keep his head steady (and there is a head rest panel that can be worn just in case).

It's also fairly sleek and when tied in the front carry can be worn under a regular jacket. For my pre-Shuma jackets I leave then unbuttoned/zipped, or just do up the bottom. And when it's really cold I have a coat bought a few sizes too big that can be done all the way up.

The best thing about my mei tai is that it has nifty interchangeable front panels. This dinosaur print is one of six panels that I have, and if you think six is a lot then I suggest you check out the fabrics available- it was very hard to narrow it down. Those rainbow stripes, by the way, are not part of the carrier: they're baby leg warmers, worn on the shoulder straps to protect the mei tai from drool. You can see Shuma taking a chomp on the strap above.

There are a few drawbacks to the mei tai though. One is that the straps are long enough to drag on the floor as you put it on, so if you keep house the way I do (as in, the floor is lucky if it gets swept once a week) then you'll end up with linty, dust bunny-covered straps. The length of the straps also makes it a bit awkward to take Shuma out of the carrier when we're out, especially when we're on public transportation (exactly when he is most likely to want out). So I tend to use the mei tai only for local walks.

Another potential problem is body heat. So far it's been great in that being so close keeps us both warm, but I don't think it will be very nice in the summer. Most carriers have the same problem though. Also not the mei tai's fault: my husband doesn't like it. He admits it's comfortable but claims it's too hard to put on (although my Dad got the hang of it after a few tries) and looks too girly. True, the bow in front shown here is a bit feminine, but there are other, more manly ways to tie it. But I've stopped pestering him to use it, because if I can be picky about carriers, it's only fair that he can too.But if I'd known I'd be the only one using it I would have got it in purple. Sadly the black shows every speck of lint, something I should have anticipated after a couple decades of wearing black clothes.

Finally, it would have been nice if this had a little pocket or two sewn in somewhere, something I love about my sling and my Ergo. Somewhere to keep my keys, a train pass, and a little handkerchief. If I were a better sewer I'd add one myself, but then again if I were that good I could just sew my own mei tai- there are plenty of patterns online. But I'm not sure I'd be able to find all those funky fabrics.

Speaking of which, here's a close-up of the dinosaur panel. In an imaginary world where I had the time and skills to sew, where Shuma had his own room, and where every fabric store carried patterns like this, I'd buy fabric and make curtains for the baby room.

Unbearable

Here is an unbearably cute outfit I bought at Costco last month. I didn't need more clothes for Shuma, but I was shopping with my sister-in-law and there was a mountain of very cheap sets of baby clothes, each ensemble more adorable than the last. I could bearly stop myself from buying them all, but I did manage to settle for just one. It consists of four pieces, three of which I am going to show you now. Yes, it's a lot of pictures to load, but please bear with me.

Let's get a closer look at the onsie, shall we?

Here you can see the paw print pattern and the little bear patch on the front. I actually thought it was a dog when I bought it, but on closer inspection when I got home it seems to be a bear. Which is OK, I like bears too. In a cuteness battle with bears ursus doggies, there would be no clear winner. (An actual battle between the two could be quite grizzly, depending on the dog.)

It's still too chilly for bear legs and heads so the outfit is completed with a hat and footed pants. Let us paws here a second so I can explain about the missing fourth component of this set: it's a sleeper that was ruined on its very first wearing- who knew grated apple could stain?

Now ears a close-up of those feet.

And some bonus shots of Shuma, because he's just such a cutie. Don't you just want to give him a big hug? A bear hug maybe?.

A real Kodiak moment, don't you think?

Easter

Shuma's first Easter went well, although being just seven months old he didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary. We didn't do a whole lot, except take some silly pictures (in bunny ears we made at our playgroup), which he's used to, and eat lots of chocolate, which he is also quite used to.

He did get a new stuffed bunny from his grandparents, which he loves. And he got to watch Hideaki and I decorate eggs. No psanky for me this year, just regular crayons and dye. Although Hideaki developed a new technique with tape that I think looks pretty cool. I took the eggs to a kid's Easter lesson, which was my first time working in ages and ages and it felt great. I can't wait to start doing more.

Our playgroup had an Easter party, which started off in a member's home due to rain. We had lunch and did an egg hunt. Shuma really sucked at egg hunting and didn't find a single thing, but some kids took pity on him and shared their eggs. He still doesn't know about chocolate, but seems to like how tinfoil tastes.

When the sun came out we went to the park and admired some late cherry blossoms. The older kids played around and Shuma patiently posed for pictures. He's such a good sport.

And here's Shuma going at the tinfoil again. Green seems to be his favourite flavour.

Spring Supper

I've been in Japan so long I forget what people eat for Easter, so last night I just made a dinner that celebrates spring: green pea soup; sauteed gyouja ninniku (Japan's version of ramps); and pasta with shrimp in meyer lemon cream sauce. Dessert was a strawberry crisp with too much soupy juice to bother taking a picture.

The pasta was made with this recipe from the Toronto Star, with the only substitutions being cavatappi pasta instead of linguine and a splash of chardonnay to make up for the paltry juice of my little meyer lemon. What a fantastic recipe! Maybe it's because it's my first encounter with Meyer lemons (I finally found one, a tiny little thing grown in Shikoku), but yum.

The gyouja ninniku was simply sauteed in butter and flavoured with salt and pepper, my first time giving it such a simple treatment. Now I know why there are so few recipes for ramps out there: they don't need much done to them. The soup was just frozen peas breifly cooked in stock made from the shrimp shells, pureed and garnished with a dollop of homemade yogurt. (That "homemade" is not meant to be show-offy, by the way- yogurt is one of those products, along with nattou and orange juice, that is very hard to find these days, thanks to the earthquake.)

 

Happy Easter

No, I'm not a cow. I'm a bunny! Jeez, you've never seen a black and white bunny before?

Sleeper

Shuma still wears sleepers during the day sometimes, even though I can now kind of tell the difference between pajama type baby clothes and daytime type baby clothes. For one thing, he has nearly a dozen sleepers and other pjs that he's about to outgrow and I want to get as much use out of them as I can before they're too small. They're also great when his eczema is bad, as he tends to scratch his ankles a lot and footed sleepers protect them. (Have I mentioned he has eczema? You've probably already noticed his red cheeks, but yes, he's had it since about two months. It's not so bad so far.)

This is my favourite sleeper. Even though I'm so tired of car-themed boy clothes (is that all boys get? girls get flowers and butterflies and lace and rainbows and bunnies and frills and bows, and boys get cars? not fair). This is an example of a good use of the car theme, and I'll be sorry when Shuma outgrows it.

Here is a bonus action shot, in his new (well, new to him) Jumperoo. He loves it, but only when we're watching and only for a few minutes at a time. There goes my dream of installing him there for hours and hours while I cook, do housework or, dare I dream it, sit down and read a book.

And here is a bonus opposite-of-action shot.

Nikomi Ramen

Nabe (hot pot) is my favourite thing to eat in cold weather, but we didn't eat nearly enough of it this winter- and how could we? A squirming baby in our laps does not go well with a konro (portable gas range) at the table. But once Shuma was big enough for a high chair it was safe to cook at the table once again. We were all about nikomi ramen this season, a simple nabe using unfancy ingredients and instant ramen noodles. What's special about this dish is that while nabe is usually finished by cooking noodles (usually udon, but ramen is occasionally used) or rice in the leftover broth, nikomi ramen involves cooking and eating the noodles together with the other ingredients. No waiting until the end for what many people consider the best part of the meal.

In this case we used chicken thigh, carrot, kombu (kelp), shiitake and maitake mushrooms, shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), atsu-age (fried tofu), and cabbage. And for a taste test, two kinds of ramen noodles: the regular dried instant kind, and fresh.

Here it is being cooked in a broth of dashi (kelp stock), sake and soy sauce.

And here are the fresh noodles: nice, fat and toothsome, but with the disadvantage of clouding up the broth a little.

And the instant noodles, perked up with a topping of chili peppers and sesame. A little on the mushy side, but with the advantage of being, well, instant.

The verdict: the fresh noodles were way better, and the extra time needed to cook them is not much of a drawback considering nabe is supposed to be a slow, leisurely meal. But the instant noodles didn't suck either.

This is one of the coldest springs ever, so I don't think we're done with nikomi ramen quite yet.

Happy Chance

Here's a surprise: what looks at first like a boring outfit has a happy ending. Happy Chance!

Hatsuhanami

We had an ohanami (cherry blossom viewing) picnic yesterday, a bit late in the season but our usual spot still had enough flowers on the trees to enchant Shuma. It was his hatsuhanami (first hanami) and was very well timed, as he's starting to really notice stuff around him.

Above is the view I had, and below is our picnic. Nothing fancy, just home cured gravlax and cream cheese on whole wheat (still loving my new breadmaker); cherry tomatoes; fava beans; pineapple; leftover tuna, red pepper and shungiku (chysanthemum greens) frittata; and ham-wrapped carrot sticks. A proper Japanese style bento would have been nice, but until Shuma either grows up or learns to nap, sandwiches it is.

Shuma was kind enough to pre-moisten our sake cups. After that they were filled with sparkling sake, which I bought because it was the only small bottle of sake from the Tohoku region I could find. I didn't expect much but it was nice, although more like cheap Asti than sake. Not that there is anything at all wrong with cheap Asti, but right now northern Japan needs all the help it can get.

Shuma's interest in cherry blossoms, like most things, revolves around whether or not they fit in his mouth. So after having to pry theseventh petal out of his hands or mouth we gave up letting him play with them. So he just enjoyed the view, and we enjoyed viewing him enjoy the view, and much enjoyment was had by all. A very good hatsuhanami.

More pictures are here.

Safari Buddies

A monkey and giraffe adorn this t-shirt. They are safari buddies.

And on Shuma's butt, another buddy!

 

Bibs!

I haven't bought a single bib, although Shuma has a seemingly endless supply. His first bibs were given to him at his baby shower, before he was even born. And then he got some more after he was born, and then some more for Christmas, and he's probably going to get a bunch more for his birthday. And I'm not complaining, he does need a lot of bibs.

But at first I was a little puzzled by the bibs. I thought "Why are people giving me all these bibs? He won't be eating anything for months and months". And then when he was three months old the drooling started, and I understood. I've since learned that bib in Japanese is yodarekake, which means "drool cover". Makes sense.

Here are some of Shuma's bibs. You'll notice that in the last one he's graduated from drooling to eating. And now I'm really glad he has lots of bibs.

Overalls

Nothing looks cuter on a baby than overalls. That is all.

Osaka

At the end of March Shuma and I spent two weeks with my in-laws in Osaka. The trip was originally planned to coincide with my sister-in-law and her family's visit, since my niece had spring break, but to get away from the earthquake's after-effects we left earlier and stayed longer.

Except for a few extra-chilly days (I'd packed for spring but it felt like winter, with more snowy days in those two weeks than I saw all winter) we continued our daily walks, and it was nice to have some new scenery.

My in-laws live at the foot of the mountains in Minoh, in northern Osaka, and in one direction there is a series of terraced allotment farms that make for nice strolling.

In the other direction is a neighborhood with some very traditional old Japanese houses. This one comes complete with a nice kura (storehouse).

Another kura.

Most of these houses are very large by modern Japanese standards.

Not all of the houses retain their traditional charm though. What would have once been a handsome home is ruined by elictrical wires, an air conditioning unit, and a crumbling wall.

I loved the little details like tis little statuette of Ebisu (one of the Seven Lucky Gods) atop a garden wall,

and the roof tile decorated with a family crest.

Not all of the homes in the neighborhood are traditional. There are a few large and striking western style homes, like this one- I love the big mimosa out front.

Strangely, I seem to be the only one impressed by the houses in the area, at least by the Japanese homes. Interesting what people take for granted!

I didn't actually take many pictures while I was there, partly because it didn't really feel like a picture-taking kind of visit. I was actually slightly traumatized when I arrived, from all the aftershocks in Tokyo and fears of radiation, food shortages and blackouts, and it took a while to wear off. I did try to take pictures of Shuma to send to Hideaki, who was all alone back in Tokyo. I'm sure this one cheered him up.

And of course, with three little kids under the same roof, sometimes I just had to take pictures. Here Shuma and his cousin Yuuki share toys. Shuma had just turned six months old, by the way, and Yuuki was nearly three months.

And here they are in their little chairs.

On the sofa with Yuuki's big sister Marya, who is about to begin elementary school.

No big changes on the carseat front since New Years- sometimes he hated it and cried nonstop, and sometimes he liked it.

We took a few trips by train, something I've rarely done during visits to the in-laws. Once to Costco in search of water, which even in Osaka was hard to find, and once to Nakayamadera Temple in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture.

Nakayamadera is the Suitengu of Kansai, where pregnant women and new parents visit to have their babies blessed. Our mission was to find an omamori (amulet) for Marya to keep her safe on her way to and from school.

It's hard to make out, but the cherry blossoms were just starting to open up. This place would have been beautiful about a week later.

The first time I've seen escalators at a temple!

This summer is promising to be a busy one: Shuma's first trip home to Canada, and a few weeks of working at summer camp. So this is likely the last time all three kids will be in Osaka together for quite some time. Who knows, the next time we visit together Shuma and Yuuki will be walking and talking!

More pictures here.

The Layered Look

This look begins with a striped onsie, leg warmers and socks. Shuma loves leg warmers! They look cool, keep his socks on and his legs warm, and unlike leggings or pants, can stay on for diaper changes.

Next comes a romper adorned with monkeys, elephants and leaves.

The look is completed with a creepy-crawly-themed bib. Now Shuma is warm, fashionable, and ready to drool!

 

Firsts

We're back in Tokyo after two aftershock-free weeks with the in-laws in Osaka. We'd already been thinking of a spring visit, so we ended up just going a bit early and for a little longer than planned. Things settled down in Tokyo while we were gone: food shortages, tremors, radiation levels are better and it turns out my area is not even on the blackout schedule.

I've been dreading flying with Shuma and of course originally planned to go by shinkansen (bullet train), but I've become so scared of earthquakes that the thought of being off the ground and up in the air was highly appealing. So Shuma had his first airplane ride. It went far better than I thought it would- it's true what people say about babies being easy to fly with. I hope that's still true when we fly home to Canada this summer.

Other recent firsts include his first visit to a playground (not impressed), first swim (more interested in drinking the pool water than playing), first vaccination (BCG, which resulted in a few seconds of crying and a very ugly scar), and first case of stranger anxiety (an embarrassingly acute hatred of a friend of Hideaki's). More firsts:

This is Shuma's first art project. OK, I did most of the actual work, but those are his hands that I traced to make the duck's tail. This was at Polar Bear Club, our playgroup.

Here is Shuma's first hickey. A few months ago he started sucking on anything he could find, in this case my arm. OK, it barely shows up in this picture but in real life it was very impressive. Hopefully this will be the last hickey he gives for a long, long time.

The biggest first was last week: his first food, totally by accident. Shuma had been showing interest in food for a while and I wanted to start letting him have little tastes of what I ate. So one day when I was about to eat a banana I noticed it was very firm and decided to let him hold it and see if he'd give it a taste. He grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth all right, but instead of a taste he gave it a chomp. I had no idea his gums were so strong!

He looked as surprised as I did for a few seconds, then he started to gum on it. Just like he knew exactly what to do. He'd have a few chomps, then stop and kind of think about it for a while, then chomp a bit more. It was extremely cute and I was sorry it happened in Osaka where Hideaki couldn't see it. Not sorry enough not to try it again the next day (not as successful- he took too big a bite and spit it out immediately), but still pretty sorry. I guess this is his way of telling me he'd like to try Baby Led Weaning.

Firsts coming up this weekend: first proper on-purpose meal, first hanami. Wish us luck!