Our Summer Hol Road Trip

It's Summer Holiday here in Japan, so Daddy had some free time to bring us on a short road trip. Our original plan was to go to Hamamatsu followed by Shimoda in Shizuoka. Hamamatsu is a small city, with some tourist attractions like a flower park, small zoo and lake hamamatsu where their famous eel (unagi) come from. We planned our trip for a 3N4D one. But, as you will discover, plans are plans...

We started our trip on Monday 13th August at 9am. Gabe was a happy baby, eagerly awaiting our departure and he knew we were going kai kai once he saw me taking his baby carrier and wearing it. He was already bouncing bouncing in anticipation

Waiting patiently....

Hamamatsu is about 150km from Tokyo. So, i had to strap Gabe up in the car seat. He wasn't very happy at all, screaming n crying. Then, after awhile he realised i wasn't gonna budge, so i think he kinda just accepted it and fell asleep soon after.

Yup, him showing his sad face...

Unfortunately it took us much longer than expected to reach coz it's holiday season and boy was it jammed. Many many cars along the way. I think we were caught in the jam for like 1.5-2 hours. Thankfully, after that it was pretty OK. We reached our hotel to check-in at about 4.30pm....Yes yes you're wondering why so long....err, you have to take into consideration toilet breaks and lunch breaks mah....

Anyway, our hotel looks pretty old from the outside, but thank goodness they did a lil refurbishment in the rooms. Actually, the room was pretty nice n comfy. Clean too. We had a twin room and the beds could be joined together....yay!! That meant we had a super duper huge bed and I didn't have to get squashed by Gabe.

Since it was too late to go to the flower park n fruit farm, we decided to just go for a drive around. It was pretty quiet even though it was a holiday. For dinner we decided to go to Aeon mall to look around and settled for a simple dinner of tempura noodles, nothing remarkable. And had ice cream which Gabe loved.

Uneventful first day since most of the day was taken up driving...

On the 2nd day, we woke up early (ok, actually Gabe woke up early n woke us up too). We had breakfast at the hotel..err...i didn;t eat much just coffee. Their idea of rice with fish n veg for brekkie wasn't my ideal...i'd rather have scrambled eggs n bacon. Oh yes, the weather...down right disgusting..it rained the whole early morning until about 10am and the forecast was more rain over the next few days. Anyway, we decided rain or not, we had to get out.

So, Daddy suggested we go to this Toyota Museum first since it was probably covered and wait till rain stops. Umm...turns out, the museum was set in a very very traditional Japanese house. But huge....apparently this is the house where the founder of Toyota was born. So it's like a tribute to the family. But the museum pays tribute to his father, the person who invented the loom machine. It's a beautiful house, with gorgeous trees and landscapes. We walked the compound and had to climb stairs. Not easy since it was still raining and i had about 7kg worth of weights.

Oh yah....Uncle HK, this is for you...our car of the moment. Daddy says must show you

Next off, we decided to go to the Flower Park coz by then it was just drizzling lightly. Ad by the time we got there, it stopped..yippee!!! Surprisingly, not many people at all...so sad...holiday yet deserted...I guess Hamamatsu is just not a touristy place.

But we had fun..the park was beautiful...the flowers n trees...and it was connected to the Hamamatsu Zoo, a small one.

Letting Gabe touch the grass..

We only have 1 photo of us at the zoo coz by then we were hot, tired and hot..

Phew....we walked alot, like alot...but when we finished it was only around 2.30pm i think. So we decided we'd go to the Fruit Farm. I mean, we were already sweaty n sticky, may as well get sweatier.

You need to take an escalator to get to the hill top where the farm is

Hello!!!!

It's pear season now..and oranges

Gabe plucking a pear:)

here you go...all sweet n juicy..yummy yummy

We plucked a total of 10 pears...oops...actually 11, but we secretly threw it onto the ground coz silly Daddy was trying to pluck this one pear, but pulled so hard, another dropped too...and it wasn't a pretty pear so we didn't want it..10 pears for JPY1400....good deal eh

Yay!! What a fruitful day...so happy we got to visit at least a few places and it didn't rain more. We headed back to hotel to rest..Gabe fell asleep for an hour and then we went to have ramen and ice cream. After that, sleep time, we were all tired.

It's time to check out...as i mentioned earlier, we planned to go to Shimoda beach. Unfortunately, the weather was shitty...it was to rain over the next few days. Even on the day we checked-out, it rained heavy...so, in the end, we didn't go to Shimoda. It was pointless coz firstly it's holiday season and hotel prices at the beach are double, nearly JPY20,000 and if we were going to pay that much, we'd better have good weather. So Daddy said, we'll go to Gotemba and over the weekend, since Shimoda isn't far away, we could go there then.

Of course, i was upset n disappointed, but fun at the beach is no fun if it's raining. Gotemba was Ok since we got to go shopping. As the saying goes "No fish, shrimp also Ok"...err...the saying is in Hokkien, so i just translate..

Gotemba was packed with shoppers. We just walked around and scored some good deals at GAP, especially Gabe. Had coffee too.

Oh...yes i said i'd show a video of Gabe's bye bye...here it is below. But it's funny, coz when i started to teach him, he did it with 1 hand, then i think he got it confused with clap hands action, so previously, he'd pause when u asked him to do one after the other. Then he'd just mix it both up....and in the end, the bye bye was modified by His Majesty to using both hands....



We had a lovely few days, short but precious. I love travelling with Gabe. He has his tantrums n all, but he's really so happy to be out and smiles so much and makes so much happy noises. There's nothing more than me being happy seeing him happy.

Us mucking around

Him crying his lungs out after being strapped in

What's not to love about this face

The cutest face ever....Mummy's Baby

Daddy, we need more fun trips like this....exhausting but precious.

Special Development

I am so so happy and proud...Gabe amazes me sometimes. There are days when i think of his development milestones and i worry myself to death that he is not achieving it soon enough. But this spirited & stubborn lil guy never fails to surprise me.

Just today, he was in PT and he still couldn't crawl as in on all fours. It was still just an army crawl, and he could only be on all fours if he was still eg, not crawling.

But then this evening, i was playing with him to do some exercises sitting, standing and crawling. Then i put the tissue box to encourage him. He loves tissue. I seriously mean it. When he sees tissue, his whole face lights up and he has to have it and proceeds to tear it into bits OR eat it...

So, i thought maybe i could use this to motivate him...and guess what...for the first time ever, he crawled!! Not just a one step thingy, but a few steps..which is a huge improvement..it means that he's so close to being able to really move soon...I've never seen him do it before n my eyes nearly popped open...i happened to record it, but wasn't expecting this, just normal army crawl..

Here it is:


And another time, using his cup as motivation...difference in terms of speed eh...


Ahhhhh, i'm so happy...amazing huh? Yeah i know, such a simple task for normal kids, yet such a feat for DS kids..and all the more amazing..

Also, here's another video, while i was asking him to say bye bye....this is him telling me he doesn;t want to..and it's not just a coincidence..he really knows the word "no" and shows it..


And, i have one video of him doing bye-bye, but unfortunately Terry was holding him and...Terry was in his underwear...so unless you guys wanna see a half naked man too, i'll re-shoot another video and upload it soon.

The lil guy at therapy practicing sitting and playing with toys, he's doing great..smart boy. Ands today, kissed his therapist on the cheek too...charmer..

To the Mall n Beach We Go

We had fun today! We took a short trip to Yokohama and the beach at Jogoshima...

At Yokohama, we made our 1st stop at the Yokohama Marina Bayside, where there was a Premium Outlet mall. Gabe & Mummy had yummy Gelato on a super hot day and Gabe did some shopping at Baby GAP. Daddy managed to buy something too...Mummy opted not to coz she's still chubby and besides, her clothes are overflowing already. Gabe was very happy, he always is when it's outing time. Coz of the super hot weather, we made sure he drank loads of water, which he did. Thing it's the Winnie Pooh cup that he likes. Previously while on other cups, he never wanted to drink so much.

Here we are at our apartment, on the way out...

While walking to our car, we decided to let him try the swing..this time he was OK for awhile...good boy!!

Outside the Yokohama Bayside outlet

The water fountain, where alot of kids were playing with water...

At the Marina..beautiful

After having lunch there, we took off and headed to Yokosuka where there was a Ship Museum, called Mikasa..

By the time we finished seeing the ship, it was 3.30pm and well, didn't wanna go home so early, so Daddy suggested we go to the beach area, look see look see. We passed by 2 beach areas, and boy was it packed...we didn;t get down coz there was too many people. So we drove on and landed up in the area called Jogoshima, where you can't go any further, coz it's right at the end. Err..at first, we were thinking wrong choice, coz not many people there and seems to be a very small fishing village...

We decided to park n get down coz Gabe was getting fussy...too long in the car i think. So, we took a stroll and saw people with kids in swimsuits n floats...wondered, where they went...the beach?? So we followed a small trail..and yes..led us to some huge rocky area where we saw people there swimming n playing with water...there was even a small onsen hotel. A really nice place actually for a stroll, but it's not much of a beach as in sandy beach. Too many rocks making it dangerous..but we managed to find an area where there was abit of sand and shallow water. Surprisingly, the water was clear...rare in Japan...

Since we were there, we took Gabe's shorts off and dipped him abit..at first he protested, but soon, he warmed up to the water and kick kick legs in it...ahaha..but i think we came abit too late coz sun was going down n water was getting chilly, plus the tides were coming in...but we had fun there....

Daddy n Gabe with Car of the Moment...

Beautiful

Can get wet, no worries, got extra diaper..n new clothes from GAP

I forgot some pics....our dinner...fresh donburi..yummy yummy...

And....Gabe having chocolate marshmallow...after he finished his lunch of course:

Tiring day, but lovely...Gabe was overall a good boy, plus he managed to eat quite abit...

Next week, in Japan, it's a long summer holiday. So, we're planing where to go, probably to a beachy area....time for Gabe to learn to appreciate Mummy's fave hobby...

Crazy About Cups

Just yesterday, Gabe and i went shopping to stock up on his food. In the process, i got him a cute lil Winnie The Pooh cup. It's the normal mug type with no sprouts or straw. The, i went home and did a lil housekeeping for his stuffs, and realised, over the year, i bought quite a number of cups for him....all trial n error.

We had been searching for a perfect cup, thus the testings. As you know, DS kids have a hard time in terms of drinking from cups, be it holding it by themselves or using straws, etc. Below are the 6 different cups Gabe had:

All different colors to...so pretty hor???

Alright, why so many yah...err coz we were really really confused as to which type is best for Gabe and is easiest for him to learn how to drink. And one of them, due to Mummy's kiasu attitude thinking Gabe would be ready for it...

Alrighty, the first 3 cups you see below

The first one, RED straw cup...Mummy's fault. I thought i could perhaps teach Gabe to try n use a straw much earlier...wrong move, this cup's straw was so hard to suck, coz you have to use ur lips to squeeze the straw slightly, opening the straw to allow water to come up....even i had a damned hard time...so obviously Gabe isn't gonna be able to use it...

The 2nd cup, yellow one. I thought that because the nipple resembled that of his milk bottle slightly, he'd perhaps have an easier time adapting..again, wrong...Gabe hated it, refused to even try to drink..his mouth touched the nipple, he immediately turned away...sigh...another down the drain.

The 3rd one, is a Honey Bear straw cup, specially bought online from Talk Tools, a company selling special therapy tools for kids who have speech problems. Yeah i know Gabe will not be able to learn to suck a straw so young, but the good thing is that I can control the flow by pressing the Honey Bear's tummy...yup..cute huh...And this was a good buy. Till yesterday we were using it. It was so handy, especially outside. But, after talking to some of Gabe's teacher and the Portage instructor, I felt perhaps it was better to use a cup for Gabe to achieve consistency. It's pointless to use a straw now, better to focus on teaching him to use a cup.

Purple cup...also from Talk Tools, good buy too....it's a recessed cup with a lid that has 2 different holes for water to come out from. Slow flow or a faster flow. We had been using this at home during feeding times with meals as Gabe loves the cup. The downside to this is that i couldn;t bring it out as the water would pour out from the holes. So it wasn't so handy.

Middle yellow cup. This i initially thought was good and Gabe would like it, coz the nipple was soft. Ahahha, he hated it at first touch..made a face and turned away. If i tried again he'd bit the tip really hard and prevent any water from flowing out...sigh...

LAst cup, with sprout, a sippy cup...actually Er-Yi gave this as a gift along with a plate set...unfortunately, Er-Yi...sippy cups aren't good for DS kids...they will keep chewing their gums on it..no good...and the cover too lose, always drop off...

So, after all those wrong cups, i decided we needed to have 1 cup only, to be consistent. To use at meal times and also handy outside. That's why we settled (maybe for now...) for this

Easy to use, just like a cup, and has lid to prevent spills. Used it today, and so far so good, Gabe stared at it for sometime, but he managed to get used to it after a few sips...He still has lots of training to do before he can fully hold the cup by himself and drink without spilling much of it from his mouth. But i guess now that we've found a good cup, he'll get there. We have a feeding therapy session end August so i'll bring this cup to see if they approve of it, otherwise it's another new cup?