Big Girl Room

Toto has been a bit apprehensive about the upcoming arrival of the new baby she has named Baby Genki. But the big girl room has helped a bit. The Shark transformed her room while Toto and I were in DC. 

Urban Recreation: Ortigas

Finding ways to entertain children in Manila is not easy. Taking advantage of the lack of traffic on Sundays, we headed to Ortigas. What would be a 45 minute ride on a weekday took only 15 minutes. We started with breakfast at Cafe 1771. Cute setting and decent food.

Afterwards we were among the first to arrive at the Ark Avilon Zoo. Their website was misleading, marketing it as a conservation organization when it was actually a dismal zoo with tiny cages. Redeeming factors were the guinea pig feeding area-it was fun watching Toto hold a carrot on a stick-and the play area which included rocks and sticks. Always a winner with two year olds. We will not be going back.

We also discovered a closed off street full of bike rentals. Toto had fun riding around with The Shark.

Just another Manila experience...

Cebu City

Although I was in Cebu for a work trip, I managed to squeeze in a little sight seeing. Side note: we stayed at the Parklane instead of the Marriott to save money. If money is not a concern for you, avoid the Parklane. There was nothing special.  And on to the sights.

Magellan's Cross is worth a stop. Wikipedia says it is cased in a protective layer because people were chopping off pieces of the wood. But my local guide said rumor had it the cross is not inside. Who knows? For a fee you can buy a candle and someone does a special dance with it to make your wish come true. I passed.  Just next store is a huge church--Basilica del Santo Niño (Church of the Holy Child)--which I did not photograph, but you can see pics and read more here. Apparently the feast every January draws more than a million and the pilgrims sleep in a park. I also heard things get a bit wild with some non-Christian type activities.

The San Diego-Yap House is an interesting place to visit, despite the lack if parking or sidewalk. For $1 a guide lets you touch all the fading antiques, but gives a good tour. Apparently the current owner still sleeps there on the weekend. And put an a/c unit in. Also the street is old. Is that why there are no sidewalks?

And non-history related, Tablea, a chocolate cage with 7 branches in Cebu is amazing. Apparently it is traditional breakfast drink and the owners are bringing back as a gourmet snack and also preserving tradition. Please come to Manila.

Toddler Fractures and UTIs (or How Not to Spend Your Vacation)

Want to know a great way not to spend your vacation? At the hospital. After noticing several of Toto's pee diapers (I know, we plan to start potty training as soon as the potty arrives in the mail!) smelled strange and googling "weird urine smell toddler" I was convinced she had a UTI. So we headed to Munson Urgent Care in Traverse City. Warning: do not take your children there if you value their life. First they gave her a toy fan to distract her, which promptly began smoking. Then they took a non-sterile urine sample and spent the next week calling me to change her antibiotics as the culture results came in. That was awesome. After talking to our real pediatrician, it turns out most of the bacteria in the culture are normally found on the skin and she may not have had a UTI at all. But so glad we got to dose her with tons of antibiotics. The smell is gone, although it may have something to do with the new Seventh Generation diapers - they get super bunchy and maybe give off a strange smell??

Then a couple days later Toto tripped over a cord and cried harder than usual. Clearly something was up when she wouldn't walk on her left foot. So, we packed up the Green Lake cottage and headed back South to see her pediatrician. After an x-ray showed a minor fracture, we headed to the ER for a splint. Despite the fact that she couldn't bear weight on the leg, Toto was a champ and spent lots of time crawling wildly with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. After five days, we saw a pediatric orthopedist who took the splint off and said that the fracture was so minor that if Toto would walk on the foot she was free to go. Did I mention she is a bit stubborn? No matter what I promised her - ice cream (at 8am), a bike, watching movies - that child refused to walk on her foot. Probably because she was freaked out to be at the doctor's AGAIN and have everyone staring at her begging her to walk. In the end they sent us off with a removable walking boot, which she seemed to love.

We made the long drive back up North to The Shark's childhood home where Toto immediately ripped off her boot in order to ride the new bike from Grams. And that's the end of that story.

Despite the medical drama, we managed to squeeze in lots of fun.

The Henry Ford Museum. Lots for Toto to look at while sitting in her stroller wearing a splint.

Cranbrook's science museum. 

Birthday breakfast at the Original House of Pancakes - oven baked omelette. You need extra protein at 33.

Birthday dessert - lemon meringue pie. Delic.

Lots of butter at The Shark's family reunion.

Back in Manila. And happy to be here.

The Last Two Months

So, I guess I disappeared for a while. But I have good reasons. Namely getting pregnant while on vacation in Japan and the ensuing 16 weeks of brutal morning sickness. That was awesome. There was lots of crying and eating of Cheerios.

Then Toto, Yaya, and I packed our bags and flew to Washington DC for 6 weeks of training. Toto had a blast doing American things like playing on grass and going to the library. She also had lots of first tastes like raspberries, blackberries, peaches, and nectarines. She loved visiting the zoo, Lincoln Memorial, Botanic Gardens, riding the metro and bus, and eating her weight in gelato.

Her grandma and grandpa and two titas (aunts) came to visit, we spent every Saturday morning at Eastern Market eating pancakes, I caught up with old friends, found a prenatal yoga class, and we all had fun despite the dry heaving in the shower (water was a major trigger). But we missed The Shark.

After six weeks in DC, Yaya headed back to Manila (hard for both Toto and I) and we (with Tita A's help) flew to Detroit. I won't get into how badly Delta botched that short flight because, well, it's to be expected on Delta. The Shark flew in the next day and we were so happy to have him back!

We spent a week in Brighton swimming and running. Oh, that's another story. After running hard the first four weeks of pregnancy, I ran a total of .5 miles the next 12 weeks. Granted I did lots of walking and yoga, but I missed running terribly. In Brighton, I got in three runs--2 miles, 2 miles, and 3.4 miles. I was real slow and had to take several pee breaks (reminder: do those Kegels), but it felt awesome. And while I am ranting about pregnancy, what the hell second pregnancy? Why did I start wearing maternity clothes at three months instead of six, and feeling like my hips were breaking at 16 weeks instead of 30? The first pregnancy was awesome, this one, well not quite as easy. December 2 seems like a long way away.

Where was I? Oh yes, Michigan. Toto had lots of fun at the beaches near my parents' house. We caught up with lots of good friends and spent dinners chasing kids around while sneaking in sips of wine and reminiscing about the past. We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ and some grocery store fireworks. Just like my childhood.

Also got to see lots of doctors. Toto weighs 25 pounds and is 3 feet tall, putting her at 50% for weight and 97% for height! We also got to see Baby Genkee (did I mention that's what Toto named her unborn sibling?) who is growing along.

After a week of doting by the grandparents, we headed up to East Lansing to remind Toto of where she will go to college. Despite the Africanized mosquitoes (I made that up, but it might be real. I don't have time to do the research), we had fun seeing Sparty, the stadium which Toto deemed "too loud," the Red Cedar River, and the gardens where we got married 10 YEARS AGO.

Now we are lounging on Green Lake in Interlochen. More to come.

Last Japan Post: Osaka

We had a day and a night in Osaka before we flew back to Manila so we decided to stay in an airport hotel. It was fine, but it was a 30 minute train ride from Osaka. Our flight wasn't until the evening so we got up bright and early to head into the city. I beelined for an adorable "slow food" cafe for breakfast, but realized it didn't open for another hour. The rest of our traveling party was not thrilled. We managed to entertain Toto for an hour then stood pathetically near the doorway until the let us in. Toto promptly whacked her head on a table and screamed for a while. The donuts were worth the wait.

One of the main goals was to see the moss buddha. After walking for about 20 minutes, there it was in all its mossy glory. We poured some water on it.

Then we stopped by the must-see Dotonbori street, full of huge mechanized and brightly-lit signs.

 And then sampled the local fare - Okonomiyaki - a pancake. Maybe shouldn't have gotten the cheese.

Japan was an adventure. A clean, organized, rule-oriented adventure. Hopefully we make it back before we leave Manila in 2015.

Japan: Yudanaka

And back to Japan, folks. Yes, this trip occurred in March and it is now May. Carry on.

The original plan was for The Shark to do some skiing in Nagano (shocker: there is no skiing in the Philippines), but since we had limited time with Sister and her Hubby, we decided to nix the snow and stay in a traditional ryokan in Yudanaka, a small town outside of Nagano.

From Nagano it was another 30 minute train ride out to Yudanaka. Our tiny van pulled up and all 6 of us crammed in. Our driver spoke mostly no English and it was hysterical when we tried to ask him how far the hotel was from the station. He held up 5 fingers, then 4, then 10, while we shouted out guesses, Kilometers? Miles? Minutes? Hours? It turned out to be pretty close. Then we saw this cat. Maybe it was better he couldn't understand us.

Just, why?

The hotel was amazing. The whole room was covered in tatami mats and we slept on thin futons. The best part of the hotel was the many hot spring baths you could relax in, including the one attached to our room.

Every night we had an elaborate multi-course dinner.

That's Toto's seat in the middle with the Hello Kitty silverware. She mostly ate the rice.

It always looked pretty and tasted fresh.

The highlight of the trip, besides seeing Sister and her Hubby, was the snow monkeys. We decided to forego the bus and head up there on foot. There were lots of signs.

The monkeys were adorable soaking in their hot tub. And so docile. I am generally very wary of monkeys, especially after I saw one grab a woman's glasses off her face in Bali. But these guys were way used to humans and weren't looking to snatch any of our stuff.

And luckily there was a sign warning of us, you know, this:

We sampled some local soba and it was delicious. Funny story about this place. We had to wait outside for a table, so obviously we bought some beers while we waited. There are no trash cans in Japan, so we put all the bottles in a bag and stashed them under our table while we ate. And of course mine wasn't empty and may have spilled a little. I didn't even want to have that non-versation with the restaurant lady so we left a good tip, and got out of there.

Because more drinking was in order, we went to a sake brewery. This man was very nice. It was self-serve, which seemed like a bad idea. But was awesome.

Yudanaka was a nice break from city life, even if it did snow our last day. I, being from Manila, immediately assumed someone was burning something and that was ash in the air. It was Toto's first snow by the way. At least now she can recognize it in books.