Playgroup

Yesterday, I went to an unstructured playgroup, that is running for most of the day on Tuesday-Saturday in my town. I packed little Pi up and off we hopped on the bus. I was a bit nervous. I like meeting new people, but with the language barrier I wasn't sure if it would be filled with mums who were already in cliques. The place is called wakkun hiroba. (http://www.wakkunhiroba-tsurumi.jp/)

The staff were friendly, and after signing up, took me for a small orientation of all the things that I would need to know. She also introduced me to a Japanese mum who is married to a Canadian. She was super friendly, and was willing to put up with my bad Japanese, which was great.

Pichan had a great time climbing over things and eating all the various toys around. He wasn't too much trouble to other kids, but was much stronger than them- even the kids twice his age- so I was a bit worried with the inevitable toy snatching that comes with sticking a bunch of babies in the room. He is not a violent baby, luckily (do they even exist).

All in all, it was a really fun time. We only stayed for an hour or so as I had to get Pichan back for his nap. We will definitely go back, as it was good for Pi to see other babies and hopefully become a little bit more social. It was also free; which is my favourite price.

Picky eating.

Why is it that babies will refuse the meal you spent ages preparing, and other offerings of fruit and such, but eat anything off the floor?
I am really struggling with keeping things out of his mouth. He loves plastic, paper, and cardboard. Most of his books look like they have been attacked by rats. I do give him lots to eat. Both breastmilk and meals, so I know he isn't hungry. He is a good eater of regular food (except the last few days due to teething and having a cold), so in that I am lucky. I just wish he would stop eating every speck of food off the floor.
Thank goodness we don't have pets with pet food lying around or this would totally be Pichan...

Breakfast- what's on the menu

Breakfast in our house is usually about 8am. Pichan wakes up at 7ish (though sometimes much earlier, occasionally later). I bring him into our bed where he nurses to start the day, and then we play in bed for a while (read: Pichan tries to eat everything he shouldn't) before we get him dressed and then come downstairs to play again.

At about 8, or an hour (ish) after he has woken up, I usually make breakfast for us (we eat our meals together). I usually just have some sort of spread on toast, and Pichan has toast (sometimes with peanut butter, sometimes mashed banana, or plain), with some sliced banana for him to feed himself (he LOVES feeding himself). Sometimes I make some baby cereal for him, though that is happening rarer and rarer as he doesn't like being fed (prefers to feed himself). If he is still hungry, or doesn't eat much then I will give him some yogurt. They have this baby yogurt in Japan, which I think comes in perfect sizes! In Australia, the baby yogurt was in huge tubs, and while Pichan did eat it all, I think it was a meal in itself. Whereas yogurt here is in nice, snack sized containers.

This is what I feed him (it comes in different flavours- I usually buy the vegetable ones)





The main reason why I wanted to write this post was to share the type of bread I use. In Japan, they sell crustless bread for making cute little sandwiches. The bread slices are much smaller, and I find one is perfect, and nice and easy for Pichan to eat.





I used to cut the crusts off (beacuse I thought that they might be tough for him to eat), so this saves me some effort. As he only would eat half a slice of bread, this makes it easy and little wastage. The only thing is I would prefer to feed him wholemeal bread, but it is really hard to get wholemeal bread in Japan.

In, On and Under-standing

Thanks to this wonder week, little Pi is comprehending more and more. He knows "no" both in a firm tone of voice and normal, Mum, Dad, Nap and I think also kiss. I am sure he probably understands a lot more, but these are the ones where I have had a reaction to, so I know he knows it.

He is also getting better at doing things, not just destroying things. He can put the rings on the ring stacker, put small objects into a small bag- and as we have found, put small objects in shoes. We now have to go back to our Australian roots and start checking our shoes for things (In OZ you do it for spiders).

He loves reading, and lifting flaps, and turning pages. It makes it a really great activity that we can do together.

Right now, Pi is in the "stormy" part of the wonder week. AND teething (of course). But he hasn't been too bad, or not compared to last ones. Maybe because he can do things now. He is also taking some very wabbly, very flukey steps with his walker. I think walking is still two months off, though- he has just turned 10 months last week.

I will still be glad for the wonder week to be over, but it is exciting watching him be able to do things that were not achievable just a few weeks before.

 Pi's ring toy.

Glue Gun

Pichan is standing these days, but as it is winter and we have cold floorboards, I always like him to wear socks. The problem is that many of his socks don't have grip on the bottom, and the ones that do, don't have enough.

I read somewhere online that you can add grip to the bottom using a glue gun. Thankfully, Japan's dollar stores are well equipped, so well that you can indeed get glue guns and glue sticks from them. I have seen them both in Daiso and Seria. I bought mine from Seria as well as 20 glue sticks (for Y108 yen each, including tax). The power cord on it is TINY. Like, 15cms long. It's pretty pathetic, but who I am to complain for a dollar...



I tried it on a pair of my house socks and a pair of Pi's socks. Insert the stick, heat the gun, draw a squiggly patter on the bottom and wait for it to set.

It worked! But before I sound too impressed, it unfortunately did not work for long. It is a very temporary fix. The glue peels off after a while (and then becomes an eating hazard). It did kind of work (and survive the wash) on a very fluffy footed bear suit. A lot of the glue stayed on the bottom, but other socks not so much. Because of the eating hazard I probably won't do it again. But it was certainly good for a try.