What a Wonderful Weekend..I love Japan

This has been a good weekend. We managed to make a trip to 2 new places. Normally on weekends we don't go anywhere far, just malls nearby. But Daddy brought us to a new mall at the Tokyo Skytree, Solamachi Mall and a short road trip about 30km away from Tokyo.

First up was the Solamachi mall on Saturday. We didn't want to go up the tower coz we knew it would be crazy packed, so we'll wait till the hype dies down. Instead, we went to the mall, which was quite wonderful, but damned crowded. And unfortunately by the time we reached, it was dinner time, so you knowlah...human traffic jam. We headed straight to the restaurants, but each one had a long queue and Gabe wasn't gonna give us that kinda time to wait. So we decided to walk the mall abit, then went outside to a nearby noodle shop, quite yummy, no queue. Anyway, we didn't get to explore the whole mall coz it just was too packed. I'll be there again with Gabe coz it's a straight train line from my place..yay!!!

We did take some pics

P/S: ignore my crappy hair, was tired and the wind was a bother...i hardly take nice pics these days, so if i needed to choose any "nice" ones, there wouldn't be any to upload...sigh

Yeahh sorry 2 pictures only, was starving..next time i'll hv more

Then Sunday, i decided that from now on, we'd have to go out somewhere, not just sit home at the TV or laptop...it's just once a week, so we'd have to make an effort do go or do something with Gabe. Daddy had a great idea to go to the "island" about 30km away, where there was nice seaside scenery.But before that, we needed lunch..and coz Mummy and Gabe has been watching this Jap TV show every evening that recommends great places to eat, we headed to Sushi-No-Suke in Yokohama.

What's the hype?..Well we saw on TV they had special sushi flavors...Crab and Fish Roe..Mummy started salivating...and true to the hype, yes yes yes...super super yummy, Mummy filled her big tummy...

This is the delightful super generous egg roe sushi..unbelievable..btw Gabe had his fair share as well n loved it

Ahhh..heaven...yummy Crab meat sushi

Super crab soup...

Special unagi sushi

We also had other more normal sushi like Tuna, Salmon n Ebi...all really nice..me going there again...Umm..total bill was JPy5,160 about SGD83...Ok???

So after eating such a great lunch, off we went to Enoshima. We arrived at about 4pm plus abit of traffic. But worth it, something different from the city life. Tons of people walking about and playing on the beach..we parked and walked, on the observation deck to the small street of shops nearby. Umm..ok, after our lunch we were like super full, but once i saw the stalls selling fresh seafood, i coudn't possibly walk away without trying..hey, it's seafood u know...So anyway I was super duper happy, though i think my supposed to be on diet body isn't:(...

The deck, where the view is wonderful

Daddy n Gabe

The three of us

A near decent pic of me at last..i think

The Happiest Baby

So adorable

Clapping Hands

Sotong Bakar

Huge Delicious, Sweet Lala..I'll be dreaming of you tonight

Yes a very happy outing and a very tired baby..we headed home at about 7plus....

Oh yes.....anyone in need of cabbage? No need supermarket...just put in some coins into this vending machine and the cabbage is urs..weird huh??

Okies, off to bed now, hope u guys had a good weekend...

We're Gonna Work our Butts Off

Just got good news, the therapist called and said that the doctor has cleared Gabriel to start his twice a month therapy next Monday 28th May..yay!! Finally. That was rather fast. We just met with the doctor on Tuesday, so just a few days. I had thought it'd take a month or so.

So we'll take pics for you guys to see, but meanwhile i pray that with therapy Gabe will soon be able to sit alone and start crawling real soon.

Clever Lil Boy

I'm so proud of him. He can do a few "tricks" now.

1) Clap your hands: he doesn't understand what it means, but if u say it he'll do it. And even when he falls off the bed eg, he cries and clap:)

2) Kiss: Say "kiss...." and he will, well you may have to insist..he loves doing it to his singing doll and stuffed toys. Sometimes when he's being sweet, i just hold bear bear in my hands, he will lean forward and kiss. With me though, i have to beg mostly, and he'll just smile cheekily n turn away until i beg n beg

3) Hi-Five: this one took me sometime, i think like 1 week plus to finally get him to learn it.

4) Head bang: it started out with me thinking of trillion ways to keep him entertained while feeding him his meals. So i just played this with him n said head bang...and bring my head forward to knock his, he does the same too n laughs...this was fast, he learnt it in 1 day:)



Yes it takes awhile for him to learn most things, but the pride n pleasure i get when i see him get it is so rewarding. With DS kids, it's all about repetition. You just need to repeat it everyday again n again till they learn it. Well, practice makes perfect doesn't it?

Mummy's so proud of u baby....though you're becoming too cheeky most of the time...

What a Bummer

We went for Gabe's doc check up today. His weight is up slightly to 6.895kg so that's a good direction. Unfortunately, his oxy levels were around 73%-75% in sedated light sleep. Dr H says, it's not good, neither is it bad, just OK. Which then lead him to inform us that in his opinion, it is not advisable for Gabe to travel back to Singapore come July. Up in the air, his oxy levels may drop to below 70% and that is not good, risky. And 7 hours flight journey is rather long.

So, we have decided to heed his advise. I am so terrified that anything may happen to Gabe, like last time, so we'd rather not take any risks.

Which then lead me to ask Dr H this, based on what i have been seeing in terms of Gabe's stats past few months:

"His next operation is due when he reaches 10kg. But based on what you see now, and in your experience, can he last that long to wait till then? Wouldn't his oxy levels drop further?"

Answer:
I think that it is rather unlikely he can wait till he is 10kg to do the major surgery. He may have to do one when he reaches 8kg or so. It depends on what is causing the oxy levels to drop. If it is the shunt narrowing, then we can do the balloon dilation. But if it is due to his body weight increasing, then we may need to schedule earlier surgery for an artificial vessel. Depends.

Sigh....i wish Gabe did not have to go through so many surgeries. I wish they could just insert 1 shunt or vessel and it lasts for a long long time. I wish Gabe didn't have a heart defect. I wish Gabe need not go thru such major obstacles in his development..I wish alot of things for him...

But, it is what it is. I just hope that he can last till 10kg without any invasive op.

So, there goes our trip back, so sorry everyone back home...we'll hv to reschedule. And based on the current scenario, we will not be going back for at least the next year or so :(

Summer is Here...and so are the Spiders

Yes, summer is here, temps have been at a high of 24 degrees in the afternoons. And that means everyone comes out to play here in Tokyo. By everyone i mean: the kids, the parents, the dogs, the ants, the mozzies and the dreaded spiders. Yes that's nearly everyone huh?

Poor Gabe was the victim of the spider. I just saw the bites this morning and let out a stream of "oooh u poor baby", coz it looks really bad. And yes I am quite sure that those are spider bites coz i got them before myself and actually saw those disgusting small spiders and put two n two together. Gabe's bites were exactly like mine....and from experience i can tell you, it itches like crazy, no joke.

But of all places his landed on the face..2 of them and 1 on his hand. My poor baby. So this morning, i vacuumed and mopped like crazy, every single corner. Took all the bedsheets, ours and his, and washed it. All shoes were overturned. His soft toys didn't escape the vacuum too. Sigh, i just hope i got rid of the damned spider if it was there.

And, also i think due to him eating watermelons for the first time 2 days ago, he developed a rash on his cheeks. His skin is very sensitive to start off with, so well, there goes....But i did read it maybe is not an allergic reaction, rather melons may cause rashes in some cases...poor Gabe again...Ok, here goes....poor thing right?

Yesterday we went for a long walk, by long meaning i think about 3km? And ended up at our park where it was packed. Told you, Japanese love sun, in Malaysia or Singapore people would be headed for the mall instead at 1pm. He ate his bread there, then on our way back home, i decided he was old enough to sit on the swing, and he would enjoy it....err....nope. The moment i lifted him from his stroller and hadn't even put him into the swing, he held on for life on my shirt and started crying. I thought maybe he needed some encouragement, so i sorta forced him in...wrong move...baby screamed and cried crazy....sigh...there goes the swing for now..maybe in another month...and because we needed to top up on groceries i had to drop by the supermarket. Unfortunately Gabe became fussy and kept reaching out his hands for me to carry...so thank goodness i brought the carrier...in the end, i was all sweaty, had blisters on my feet (bad slippers), but a happy baby

For now it's just gonna be pics with the swing, not in the swing :(

Yes, this was the best shot i could muster up...

And updates:

Gabe's Feeding
Much better last 2 days. Let him watch TV while i fed him. Finished his meals without force. I think the trick here is water...after 2 mouths, on the 3rd i tell him "after this Momma give water" he will eat the 3rd and happily sip his water. If you don't do that, nope that 3rd or 4th mouth ain't gonna happen...So i'm hoping it's a start to some solid solid food eating.

Gabe's Sleeping:
Bad to worse to bad to worse...still waking up between 3am-5am to play. Last night i got so frustrated. He woke at 4.45am...yes...to play. I hadn't had anywhere near 4 hours sleep straight for the past month i think...coupled with my insomnia problems, u can imagine i was about to scream the roof down. He doesn't want to feed, so I'm not sure why. I just know if it doesn't end soon, i'm gonna need to see a shrink.

We are counting down the days till we get home to Singapore....yay!!! And see Mei Mei...

Wait for us...

Truly Happy

It's Mother's Day today, my first as a mummy...and it feels great. The lil rascal decided to show me love by waking at 4.30am to play and didn't fall back to sleep till 6am....urghhh what a way to show me love...sighh...

Not sure what we're gonna do just the 2 of us, but it'll be a quiet affair, perhaps a walk in the park eating cake....and lots of cuddling.

Thank You Gabe for making me a mummy. And i'm a happy mummy with you around baby.

Off to the Farm and SeaWorld

Prior to GW holidays, Terry and I had been deciding where best to go. Can't go too far coz all highways would be super jammed anyway. So in the end we decided to go to a farm in Chiba and the Seaworld. Both places were not too far away, about 40-50km from Tokyo.

We decided to rest early the night before coz we had to depart by 9am. Unfortunately Chucky decided to make a visit that night. The boy woke up quite a few times and even at 2.30am to play. Then again at 5am, where he decided enuff sleeping, it was wake up time....sigh....he just made noise till we both had to wake up by 6.30am..still sleepy. We were gonna be needing lots of coffee.

So anyway when Uncle Sako came off we went, heading to the Farm first. However, trips aren;t trips without the usual hoo-hahs, in this case a terrible jam. Apparently everyone was headed to the farm too?... So we got stuck in jam for like 1.5hrs. There are certain recipes for disaster when you're with a baby IN A CAR:

1) Non moving car
2) Sleep deprived baby
3) Baby being forced to be strapped in a car seat
4) Baby who does not like sun

Yup, not a good combo. Gabe started to get really whiny and fussy. In the end after what seemed like an earful of whines, he fell asleep for a short while, but i think the sunshine kinda got to him, waking him up

Pee time was a frequent event (with me being there), so we stopped at a seaside rest area first, where we could take some nice photos before we continued our journey

We finally reached the farm after 3+ hours. In between had the urge to just turnaround and skip it, but thankfully we didn't coz it turned out to be a really really nice place. Saw the usual farm animals. Gabe i think was pleasantly entertained, just bummed by the sun shining on him..yes he dislikes sun, squints everytime and tries to turn his face elsewhere...my snow white. Tons of people there but the whole greenery and scene was breathtaking. The even had a mini amusement park. And best part was lying on the grass eating our delicious ice creams. Gabe enjoyed this part the most.

At the Entrance

In his usual one leg up on stroller pose, not looking too happy

Ok i think for Gabe this is the 2nd Best Part...or maybe 1st. He has this bad habit now of pulling hair, anyone's hair. Especially mine, so i lose i think a few every few hours. And he just loves doing it, no matter how you scold him. So he got the big chance today to do a similar thing, just well, on grass. Same technique, same concept. And he did a great job. Smiled all the while and seemed so content. Think was also the fact that this was his first "real outdoor" environment. So pluck pluck pluck he went, and boy did he get a kick out of it.

Then, his next fave part. Ice cream eating. Greedy boy shared with Daddy and even pulled Daddy's hands to bring ice cream to his mouth...And yes he looks sleep n tired coz he was.

Did we enjoy the trip even with the traffic? Yup, we sure did

Ohh gave Gabe 100yen to sit on this ride. He was so still from beginning to end, guess it kinda scared him a lil

And here's Daddy with his Bone-Sausage...yes the sausage has a bone..yummy yummy

And to end the farm trip,a cute souvenir

Because of the traffic jam, our time was running short. We left the farm at 4pm and had to rush to the Seaworld before it closes at 7pm. Unfortunately, yes we met with traffic again along the way, but made it there at 5.45pm. So since we were already there, we decided to go in and make the most of it. Probably due to it being late already there weren't that many people there. And coz it was after 5pm, we paid only 1000yen per person. Seaworld Kamogawa wasn't as big as i expected it to be. And by the time we got there, all the performances by the killer whales and dolphins were over..what a bummer. That was supposed to be the highlight. Sigh, so we just went around and managed to catch the Beluga performance. Gabe was not interested at all, cried for his milk instead. So after taking some photos it was near closing time. On our way out pass the dolphin pool, we managed to see them for awhile. So cute and intelligent, one even swam past us twice to say hello by clapping!!

Gabe's expression, good huh...he's saying Sharks are scaryyyy

The I'm Still Sleepy Look

Daddy giving Gabe a hand to get a closer look at the jelly fish

And finally Uncle Sako n Daddy..

Gabe's clothes today, all courtesy of H&M...ain''t he lookin cute?

We were bushed by the time we got back home at 12am...next time, we'll need to plan carefully during long holidays, but then, no matter how you plan, it'll still end up with jams right? Sigh...But we enjoyed this trip much. We'll be back to the farm again ....