Tofu-bunny Barf-O-Rama

Don't let Maggie get too upset.  She'll barf everywhere.  Seriously, just like the scene in Pitch Perfect.  The last time this happened was when I tried to give her medicine against her will almost a year ago.  

Well, our friend Jack came to spend the night while his parents hiked Mt Fuji.  Jack and Maggie played so nicely together and were having so much fun.  Eventually, it was clear from both of their demeanors that bedtime had come.  Lots of yawning, lounging and rubbing of eyes.

I was thinking of putting Maggie in her crib in the same room with Jack in his pack 'n play.  Poor spoiled Maggie hasn't had to sleep by herself in an enclosure since before we went to Singapore (that's nearly 3 months ago), however and didn't take it very well.  She cried so hard she started coughing.  She coughed so hard she barfed.  She barfed everywhere, as if to ensure she would not be sleeping in her crib this particular evening.  I took her out of there, stripped her, stripped the bed, and separated the barfed-on animals from those spared such humiliation.  

Poorest Jack!  All of this was very upsetting.  As if he wasn't upset enough to be going to bed without his own Mommy to tuck him in.  

To make the situation all the easier, Arthur hadn't gone to sleep yet either.  I couldn't do all of this fast enough to get Maggie in the bathroom before she made it to the tatami mat room (和室) we have been sleeping in as a family while Matt is away. I found her a few minutes later laid out in the bed, her vomit-crusted ear on the pillow.  Oy.

After bathing Maggie and wrangling her and Arthur to bed, I started the load of unbarfed-on laundry that was already waiting.  I went back upstairs armed with wipes and a flashlight and wiped up the splatters of barf on and around the stripped crib, doing my best not to disturb now-sleeping Jack.  From the diaper-changing table, Buttercup watched peacefully with her best air of tofu-kitty nonchalance as I went through wipe after wipe on the corner of the rug and snipped off chunks of barf-laden tuile from the bedskirt.  

I had to run the barfed-on load twice and will have to run a couple of items a third time. Really glad I fed Maggie raspberries and rice and broccoli.  I was going to try a new smoothie after the kids went to bed, but settled for a bowl of cereal instead.  I really had no desire to see anything blended after that episode!

Anyone want to babysit Maggie?  Whoa, don't speak all at once.  Everyone can have a shot at tofu-bunny barf-o-rama!

**update** I drafted this post at the end of August.  Since then, Papa has returned.  This morning, when he had to go to work, Maggie let the whole neighborhood know how opposed she was to this.  It was quite the scene at nearly 6am, and while it didn't end up a barf-o-rama, she did spit up part of her bottle between sobs.  Glad we were outside this time!

If only I had known we were going to see this dinner again later...

Gentleman Jack, he's so gentle with both Buttercup and Arthur.

Not-quite-so-gentle Maggie

Getting sleepy...

Watching Peter Pan together in Matt's big comfy la-z-boy

Getting our shoes on in the morning

That's the 8 o'clock bell... time to head to school!

How to Potty Train a Tofu-bunny?

So this month Maggie got a potty.  It's a little red one, very simple, from Ikea.  Says it was made in Latvia!  So far, she's pooped on it twice and peed a number of times.  At the good suggestion of a friend, she has been receiving little rewards every time she uses it successfully.  I have a grab bag with small trinkets (mostly little Japanese animal- and Hello Kitty-shaped erasers and a few other things), but some how a bag of animal crackers ended up in my cart last time I went to the commissary, so these have been used to reward Maggie, as well.  Plus, she's not always so good at just taking one thing out of the grab bag... A tofubunny can fit more than you think into that little chubby paw!

And how is it going?  The first day was STELLAR!  She used it twice, once to pee and once to poop with very little prompting from me.   Then she picked it up and brought it to the big toilet, dumped it, put a wad of toilet paper in (just like Mommy!  Well, almost.  She failed to wipe herself with it first. Also, she likes to put the potty paper ALL the way in the potty rather than just dropping it in and trusting that it will make it into the flushable part of the bowl... *sigh*) and flushed! She loves to flush.  She also loves to wash her hands, thank goodness!  

And the next day?  Oh, she changed her mind and wanted very little to do with the potty.  She decided the floor was a better place to relieve herself.  I had been encouraged to buy her cute little panties because of the day before, but all that did was create laundry.  I have had to be more proactive, putting her on the potty every ten minutes or so.  If that means she can't keep playing what she was playing with, I let her watch a video on my iPad or play a silly iPad game.  Maggie now loves PokoPang and Birzzle.  I hope she gets good at Birzzle, so we can download the cute stickers for free for our fun new messaging app called LINE... Anyone with a smartphone who loves to use emoticons (ahem, T-Bone) should download this app straight away and friend us!  Our user ID is mimispyce!  LINE makes it very easy to share multiple pictures and videos, and they have the cutest stickers!  (Like emoticons, but cuter, funnier and more expressive).  Back to the story...

The conclusion?  Well, after a couple weeks of several morning and evenings a week without a diaper, her diaper rash is a lot better.  She's still not potty trained fully, however, and hardly uses the potty without a lot of input from me.  It keeps me very busy.  We would probably have more success if I didn't have also to meet Arthur's needs and could focus my attention on helping Maggie to appreciate the potty and want to use the potty.  Right now it's all I can do to get her to sit on it and be regular about it every 10 minutes when we are at home.  I don't think a cuter potty with more whistles and bells would help.  If I were able to be more consistent and not stop the training every time we go somewhere or have guests stop by because I don't have a big enough attention span to deal with my charges here, the outside world, and the possibility of an accident, we might be more successful, too.  Perhaps a potty story in French and one of those pants-wetting dolls I've read about might help... Next time, I suppose.

Some friends living in Hawaii took their daughter to Maui and sent her to a lady's house for the day who potty trains kids, professionally.  She likes to have a group of them and she potty trains them all in one day... Oh wouldn't that be nice?  If anyone knows of such a service here in Japan, please, tell me!

In the mean time, less or no diaper rash is worth the trouble.

How long do I have to sit here?

August 5, 2013: POOPY IN THE POTTY!!! 

YAY!!! Hello Kitty eraser for our efforts!

Back in the 'Pan

The month of July went by without a post.  The same will not be true for August, though.  We've had such a big summer that writing about it is a little overwhelming.  Listen up, Maggie and Arthur.  Take a cue from your father and learn to do a little bit of something that is important to you but not urgent everyday.  Don't take up Mommy's perfectionist tendencies and wait until you have a chunk of time to devote to it... It will never happen!  Not after you have kids anyway.  Learn to make the most of 5 minutes.  All right, enough moral tales.

We are sick today.  We made it through all our travels healthy, so we can be thankful for that. Maggie's at home sick yesterday and today with a fever from Wednesday night and a cough from a while ago that got worse.  We went to the pediatrician's office (Dr. Suzuki 鈴木先生) at the hospital.  He gave me 3 different things for her, but you know Maggie and medicine.  She is wearing her chest sticker, though.  I'm not really clear about how that works, but I followed the instructions. At least no one tried to give me an enema this time!

Arthur's had a cough that sneaks up randomly, but seems pretty healthy otherwise.  Some nights he gets congested and has a hard time.  I got a hearty がんばてくださいね (gambate kudasai... I.e. hang in there) from the doc, but not much you can do for an infant.  He prescribed a couple of things, but I haven't needed them.  No cool chest stickers like Maggie-chan, anyway.

Arthur, Maggie and I got so used to sleeping in the same room during our travels, that we've continued the practice here at the Tanaka House.  Saves on air conditioning, anyway!

Here's Arthur sitting on our friend Akemi's lap while Mommy enjoys an iced tea and some Japanese conversation!

Maggie, hard at work on her Tervis Tumbler... We LOVE these, by the way!

Morning at the Tanaka House

Sick Maggie

Maggie with her medicated chest sticker

Feeling better this morning, though.

What's up, doc?

Nap time for Tofubunnies!

Anyone need a diaper change?  Buttercup can handle it.

A little of what Papa has been up to down under...

Doesn't Nemo live there?

Look at the postcard we got in the mail today!  Maggie will be so excited...