☆My Daughter at her Undokai ☆

 Hello everyone!
The weather has been perfect these days.
I feel so good to be outside. I like gardening. 
The flowers in this time of the year are very beautiful, such as viola, pansy, cosmos, stock, and so on.I enjoy planting plants when my baby is sleeping.

 On 10th of Oct, it was supposed to be my daughter Yuina's Undokai at her Hoikuen. But it was postponed until next day due to a heavy rain. On the day, it was very best day for the event. She had been excited from early morning. In her class, there were two programs to enter. One is competition and the other is dance. Both of them are parents and children programs, so I also had to enter with her. According to her teacher, they had practiced the programs for two weeks so she was very excited because of that. Her programs were second and third. Parents and children were lined together. In fact, some children in her class looked very nervous. It's no doubt it was because there were so many people watching them. Some children were clinging to their mothers, crying out loud and running away from the line in the end. For them, it seemed to just not possible to take part in the program.

On the other hand, Yuina looked fine at all. In the first program, they were to rush to a box, grab one vegetable, run to the animals and put them into their mouths. It's our turn then. I said, 'Go and grab the vegetable, Yuina!' She rushed and did everything by herself. I only followed her and didn't help her at all.
And the dance, she remembered its sequence and danced very well. I also danced along the teachers.
There were some children who were just standing on the track and did not want to dance. And some of them were clinging to their mothers even though their mothers asked to get off. Well, those attitudes were also natural for their age I think.

When everything finished, she looked very proud and I praised her for the practice she had done in the past weeks.
I had a great relief anyway. If she had been like other children, I would have been embarrassed in front of my parents because they came all the way to see her. It was a day I found it she has grown a lot.

Scolding is difficult

Hello, everyone!! 奥です。皆さんお元気ですか？

Long time no see! I am doing well. My second daughter, Akina is getting bigger,'GOOD'.
Now she weighs 7.5 kg. These days, she understands more about what's going on around her than ever before. She has started eating Baby food and is very curious for food now. When I eat something with her in my arms, she gazes at the food (and me). Her eyes say, ' I want to eat, Mum!' She can eat lots, rice gruel, carrot, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, tofu, egg, udon, etc... She eats in the morning and evening.

And my first daughter is fine, too. I feel she is growing so fast. Her speaking is getting better day by day.
My family are often amazed by her precocious talking. One day, my mother was singing a song to Akina, then Yuina said, 'Grandma, please be quiet because Akina-chan is sleeping.' That was the thing I said to her often. The other day, when my husband came back from work, she said, 'Dad, you smell bad!' I have never said that. And I don't think he smells that bad. We don't understand why but he said, ' I was hurt.' Anyway, she can learn a lot of things at home, nursery school, and from people around her, etc..

 I feel it is complicated to scold her these days. Sometimes, I have to scold her when she does mischief.
Let me say the number of her mischief. Throwing toys, stamping books, overturn garbage box, upset the cup of drink, play with food, etc.

When those things happen, I have to say some words and redirect. But I wonder how I should talk to her.
I always say like this, 'Why are you doing this???' ' Is it funny to you??? 'But don't do that because....... ' I explain the reason. But she does the same thing again. Gradually, I like, 'I said to you before~~~~~.' (sigh)  then next time, same things happened. She played with food and I said 'No!', then she said, ' You said before?'

What is the best way to tell??? When I recall it, I think I can't say well when I am tired, irritated, not happy,,,, I wonder if she thinks I am a scolding mother. I know it would be true that disobedience is a proof of enhancing her identity, but ...
Scolding is difficult.

Time flies!!

 Hello everyone! How are you? Time flies! My life has been so hectic since my second girl was born. Now she is 5 months old, 7 kg. Her face has changed a lot since she was born. She is quite healthy and often smiling at everyone, sometimes laughing out loud. She likes to be hugged, or rather, she gets angry when she is placed alone. So I must hug her and move around when she is awake. But she is getting heavier.
 Now, her life is like this. Drinking milk, doing pee or poo, crying for sleep, and sleep・・・・ keeps doing them again and again. Honestly, I can finally relax in a brief moment when she falls asleep after crying out for sleep.
At the same time, I feel like this. I don't want to miss every precious time with her. For that reason, I'm trying to be with her as much as I can.

  This feeling didn't occur to me when my first daughter was 5 months. At that time, I used to drop her at my mother in the morning and went to work without feeling too much guilty.  I thought I should get back to work. But now I think I can understand what an important thing is in life. 

   My first daughter, on the other hand, is 2 and 5 months old now. She speaks many words. I am often surprised with her rapid growth. She has started showing her strong personality. She is so cute for me for sure, but is naughty and selfish in deed. Sometimes, I feel it's too much for me to look after her. But I'm so glad that she likes reading. Every night, I read books for her until she falls asleep. She asks me to read her favorite books again and again. I wonder why she doesn't get bored to read same stories. My reading goes for an hour every night. Sometimes I fall asleep while reading and she wakes me up saying, 'WAKE UP Mom!!!' oh, dear.
I guess she will be a chatty girl. Now my life is for my daughters and I enjoy it very much.

I have something to tell you.

  Hello everyone. Long time no see.
I have something to tell you.

  My second baby was born on 11th of January!
It was such a delightful moment in my life.
The big day was filled with strong emotion like 'Happiness', 'Satisfaction' and 'Pain'.

  It was about 12:20 am on 11th of Jan.
I felt labor was getting stronger step by step so I thought the baby was finally about to be born.
It was in the middle of the night, my daughter was of course sleeping.
I asked my husband to look after her and called the taxi, rushed to the hospital.
Around 2 AM, I arrived at the hospital.
Labor pains were getting so strong taht I could hardly walk.
I was placed in a delivery room bearing severe pain.
It was like waves in the sea coming back and forth.
 
  I just hoped to be able to give birth safely by myself calling the baby's name in my mind.
I was in the hard situation but the baby to be born was also in the difficult situation.
Although the pain was tremendous, the doctor said 'Labor is not strong enough to deliver yet'.
I was desperate. 'The pain was not strong enough although it was too much PAIN already!'
I lost guts gradually and the pain was so severe that I could not think anything.
Next second, the baby girl finally came out.
My husband said, 'The baby was born!' And I heard the baby was crying out.
At that time, I was much delighted with a strong sense of relief from torture.

 It was about 5 am when everything finished. So it was two hours battle in the delivery room.
My husband said, 'This two hours seemed to be endless.' 
 
 Anyway, 'The baby was born without any danger.' Nurse said.
I thanked God from my heart.
 
 More than two months have passed since she was born. 
My life has become twice as busy as before, but I feel happiness has doubled than before.

I'd like to cherish and enjoy the every single moment of raising my children.

Does an unborn child listen to mother's wish?

Hi, Everyone.
Happy New Year to all of you!

I'm still waiting for my baby to be born.
Well, since the last December I was waiting for an earlier deliverly so much because the doctor had told me that second baby come out earlier than expected with high possibility.

But the baby seems to have an intention to stay still.

Owing to it, the time has passed as I am with a big belly and now it's in a New Year's Holiday.

My daughter's kindergarten, of course, is 'closed' during this period.

If the baby was born during this period, somebody would have to take care of her all day long instead of me.

My mother is very busy.....What about my husband? Well, it must be too hard for him if he has to look after her for a whole day.

I told this concern to the doctor last time. She said, "Please tell your wish to the baby.It is said the baby may listen to mother's wishes and do so. So please try to talk to the baby everyday about the date you would like the baby to be born."

This is what the doctor, a professional of havingn birth, advised so it should be a reliable information.

After that, I have been telling to the baby everyday to be born around 6th of January: when my daughter's kindergarten restart.

I will see if my baby will make my wish to be true!

By the way, after the last blog, I have been reading my two thick diaries of Australia.
I thought "What should I write first?"

I definitely want to write about:

1. Swimming with Whale Sharks
2. Memories in a backpacker
3. Experience of working in Bush in Darwin

Oh! That's all for today's blog. ( My daughter started to cry.....)

See you next time!

Naoko OKU