back to back parenting lessons learned

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Marjorie

The last couple of nights brought me blessings, blessings in the form of lessons on how to be a better parent.

Everyone who’s close to me knows that I’m a cleanliness freak. And being an OC for cleanliness poses a problem when you have a toddler who likes to explore and who needs to explore for her learning, freedom and independence. So what I did was wipe with alcohol the suspiciously dirty areas (think toilet door for one) that are within her level. But if I’d be doing that every night, what with all the evening chores, I probably wouldn’t have the time to sleep. So we decided to let go and be a little lenient and let her explore half of the kitchen (the part without trash cans and stove/grill knobs) and all the other safe parts of our house. She’s definitely happy.

Earlier, when the box of tissue was used up, I gave it to Yui, thinking she’s going to like playing with it. Then she walked about. I gave a shriek when she headed to the trash can, with “dirty! Dirty! Dirty!!” on my head. But what she did astounded me. She cleanly dropped the box of tissue on the trash can; cleanly being not touching any of the other trash. Of course our daughter heaped praises from us after that, her face radiant.

Never underestimate your baby. Let her explore and learn whilst keeping her safe.

The other lessons learned touched me more deeply. My bonding time with Yui is cuddling her during bedtime. More often than not, she would sleep with any part of my upper body as pillow (yes, even my face, during the wee hours of the morning). But last night my body was just aching all over and that I was so fatigued that her pushing her body against me made me wince in pain. And that using my tummy as pillow further drains my energy. So every time she pushed her little body against me, I pick her up, hug and kiss her and tuck her to her bed, explaining that I wasn’t feeling well and that she had to be a grown up girl for the evening. We repeated the same procedure five or six times more that night, until finally she fell asleep on her bed. I woke up in the morning with her still in her bed, woke up missing her head touching mine, woke up missing her dominating my side of the bed and sleeping soundly in the middle of my pillow. Of course it bothered me the whole day.

Come bedtime this evening, after finishing a story from her Beginner’s Bible and after prayer time, she started to crawl back to her bed, looked back at me with an expression that tells you she was weighing things, and then proceeded to crawling to her bed, holding her blankie close to her. It pierced my heart. She didn’t go to me anymore for cuddling. Then I reminded myself that I taught her to do it. With a sigh and the thought of how babies learn fast, I tucked her into her blankie so she’d feel more snug. I didn’t dare ask her to come over to me. It’ll just confuse her. So I let her be, and we just stared at each other from our individual pillows as I sang her her lullaby, me patting her arm.

But then she made a loud grunt and heaved a sigh that suspiciously sounded like exasperation. She then rose and stood up, hesitated, one feet on the top of the edge of her crib that was positioned almost attached to our bed and waited for my invitation. I stretched out my arm and she jumped down into my embrace. And so we cuddled and cuddled some more, my daughter obviously very happy. She switched into several positions, burrowing into my arms some more, and every time looking at me with a very happy face, confident that she is loved.

Babies grow up really fast. And before you know it, it might be you who’s chasing for her hug. Treasure the now. I’ve already borne the pains of childbirth, it surely doesn’t match the pain of an achy body, especially if your baby is hugging you back as well.

Yui anak, thank you for the gentle reminders. I now have my first bout of pollen allergy for the season and I know from now it’s going to be really hard, health wise. So thank you for this early gentle reminder.

Happy New Year 2014!!!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Marjorie

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!!

The year that was has some heartaches for me, where friendships are concerned, from the first month and right to the last month. But the inner struggles somehow gained me wisdom – that the friendships were blessings right at the time that they should be in my life. That probably the friendships weren’t meant to last. That I should be thankful that at some point in my life, I had their friendships and that those friendships blessed me (and hopefully them too). That probably, we have to move on, to be better persons. Someday our paths may cross again; and who knows those friendships might yet be rekindled. But until then, I would just have to be thankful for the time we’ve been together – be it in laughter and tears, joy and sorrow. And with these experiences, I am yet reminded again to cherish and nurture the relationships I have now.

And yes there are lots to be thankful for too! Me going back to work (and be being able to wholly take care of Yui for eight months! What career mom wouldn’t be thankful for that? It’s like getting the best of both worlds), Yui going to daycare, Yui celebrating her first year in the Philippines, Hubs’ overseas business trips and safe arrivals, us finding our perfect place paving the way for yet new beginnings, good health for us and our loved ones, good food to enjoy with love ones, and so much more other blessings besides. I welcome the new year with a grateful heart, Lord. 🙂

Now, the new year! The new year has lots of exciting NEWs for us. And with this is our fervent prayer that our decisions be guided by Him and that it be according to His plans for us and that these NEWs will see us with more love and laughter. We’re excited to receive the blessings you have in store for us this year, Lord! 🙂

Compliments on a fine autumn day

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Marjorie

We’re having yet another great weather weekend. And since I have to work overtime tomorrow (can’t work today because the networks are down) and today’s a special holiday so our Nihongo class is off, I hounded Hubs that we go out and enjoy the wonderful autumn colors. So off we go to Shinjuku Gyoen.

As the park’s quite far from our place, we first had to take the local Keikyu line and then take the rapid Shonan Shinjuku line. While waiting for the rapid train, we were queuing behind a distinguished-looking old gentleman, the type who exudes authority.

When our train finally arrived, we were lucky that we queued on the door near the priority seat and that it wasn’t crowded hence we could take Yui out her baby car and the three of us could all sit down, with Yui sometimes standing to enjoy the passing scenery, the old gentleman sitting the seat opposite us. I was doing what I usually do when we travel long distance – pointing out to Yui interesting and new stuff, giving her a book or a toy when she got bored looking about, giving her a blanket or towel when she wants one, (she already had snacks and a drink earlier in the local train) and rocking her to sleep, ultimately putting her down on the baby car so she can sleep more soundly and so I can browse the internet with my phone (hehe!).

On one of the station stops, the old gentleman stood to get off. He was standing quite close to the baby car so I looked up. And got surprised to see that he was beaming at me. And with a jolly tone, he said “いいママですよ！” (you are a great mother!). I was so touched with the conviction in his voice and that he really told me so that there were tears in my eyes as I bowed and said my thanks (heck even now I’m teary-eyed!). Being a firs time Mom who is also struggling with keeping a balance between career and being a wife (and a daughter and a friend und so weiter), being complimented like that by a complete stranger (and one who looked snobbish at first glance!) can really touch you deep. Thank you dear stranger. But thank you as well Yui, for being such a well-behaved baby.

Great weather (perfectly blue sky!) and great compliment had me floating as we entered the park. To see all this beauty (unfiltered!).

We had lunch here.

Lunch! This is the best quiche I’ve had. The blueberry muffin we saved for Yui’s snack. I wish there’s Dean and Deluca in Yokohama!

In which the baby had a stroll afterwards in the picnic area.

A couple of hours later, we had our snacks here.

Thankful.

One coin

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Marjorie

this has been the longest blogging hiatus I’ve had in this website. The reason being no other than that I am overwhelmingly busy at work. Hope to blog some more real soon.

In an industry that has seen casualties and injuries during a course of a project, milestones like a year or a million manhours that’s incident free are celebrated. Recently, our project celebrated a year sans injury among its project members. As a thank you note, we were given a coin token bearing our project’s logo on one side (reminding us of our objective and goal) and the “no change” sign on the other side (reminding us of the expectations in the project).

We thought of ways of how we can make use of the token but we couldn’t think of a novel idea other than the reasons why it was given to us in the first place – a token of celebration of safety among members and a reminder of our goals/objectives/expectations as we move forward in our project execution.

When my colleague who was seated next to me got to his desk, he noticed the coin and asked me what it was and from whom did it come from and what it was made of (gold plated? Not sure, probably not). And so I explained. Now this colleague usually has a serious face. But the expression he had and what he said after my explanation (and also partly because I know his wife died at a young age) left me speechless that I can only say “ooohhh”.

With a tender expression and a smile on his face, he said, “I’ll give this to my son”. His smile was a knowing smile, confident that his son will be happy with it.

We surely can’t beat that novel use for our token coin.

Rootote

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Marjorie

It was a Monday, yet a holiday in Japan. Hubs had to work however and couldn’t accompany me and the baby around. Albeit we met for a few minutes near the office.

When he came home, I had a gift to open. Said he missed me so he came home earlier than planned. With a gift. A gift that was so timely I used it the whole week. And probably for quite a while, as long as Yui is still a babe.

Thankful. Happy.

World Fiesta Yokohama

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Marjorie

We wanted to go to some park after church so we decided to walk from the church to Yamashita Park. There were a lot of stopovers along Motomachi (including a store for kids/babies that sells fashionable and affordable clothes – a shop to take note of and to go to when it’s sale season. Yes, we just window shopped haha. I guess most moms wait for sale season?). When we finally reached Yamashita Park, we were surprised of the crowd and the booths. And people wearing their national costumes. It was only then that we learned about the World Fiesta Yokohama, an event showcasing the culture of countries around the world. There were local foods (we just salivated at the aroma. We couldn’t buy because the queue in all booths were long!!), ethnic music, and dance performances (we didn’t hang around the stage so we couldn’t see the dances though we did hear the music), as well as folk crafts (very interesting!).

This little girl was making beautiful music from this wooden instrument (I couldn’t catch the name!) so much so that the shop owner decided to accompany her. Beautiful music.

Our loot from this Balinese shop – den den daiko. It’s japanese-y yes but the art is definitely not.

Yui was sleeping when we bought this. So when we gave her this after she woke up, she just wouldn’t part with it and enjoyed hearing the sound she’s creating.

And so she was creating music while she stared at the sea, looked at the birds and people/dog-watched.

It was so hot (very unusual for mid October!) but we weren’t able to bring her hat (and no sunblock too! oh dear) so we used her Peter Rabbit towel to protect her from the heat. It reminded us of Red Riding Hood and milk maids haha!

Food food!

For Czech Republic, it was dolls of course. Wanted to buy this caterpillar wooden toy but it was just so expensive at 2500yen!

There were so many countries around, from Asia to Europe, from Ecuador to Nepal to Peru to USA to Egypt. But we didn’t see a Philippine booth. Probably because the Filipino community just recently held Barrio Fiesta also in Yamashita park.

We stayed in the quieter part of the park for a while, sitting on the bench, the dad sleeping, the mom and baby people/sea/bird/dog-watching. Stayed there until Yui cried out of boredom and so we have to go.

On we walked through Nihon Odori and chanced upon a band playing jazz music. The baby was delighted, the mom and dad agreeing saxophone is just so sexy.

We also saw some Yokohama mascots walking about and took the chance to have some photos with them. We’re not sure if the baby liked them haha.

Oh. One really remarkable thing. As it was a festival, of course it was held mostly on the street and the park. Away from malls, away from institutions. When we came by the Yokohama Stadium, one of the booths that was set up was one dedicated for nursing moms and for changing diapers. Wow, so typically Japanese, very thoughtful.

We had quite a walk, from 12 to 6. So now all three are hanging their feet up, the baby copying the dad and mom.

Thankful for family days and festivals! 🙂

On Chocolate Hill

A chocolatey journey, with Yui!

Category Archives: life