Beatle Update

It turns out that Flower Hedgehog, who you may remember as one of our rhinoceros beatle larvae, is actually a boy. Sorry about the pink container, man. Hope it hasn’t caused you any confusion.

I noticed the burrow he was digging was larger than the one the other larva had made. He molted last night, revealing the long, pronged nasal appendage from which the species gets its name.

I guess he knew who he was inside all along. If only we humans could be so lucky!

The other pupa, which has been renamed Missy in the hopes that this one will be a girl, molted last night, too. She looks very beatle-like now. Her back is a shiny, auburn color. But we can’t see her head, so I guess we will have to wait a while more to confirm her she-ness.

I don’t know if she will molt again or not. We’ve opened her container and put her into the plastic container that will be her new home. There is dirt, carefully selected leaves, and beatle jelly waiting for her. Whenever you’re ready, Missy.

HamakkoGrandma is staying with us this week. As far as I can tell, she didn’t molt last night. But I wasn’t watching her as closely as the beatles.

The Early Bird Gets in Trouble

They call Japan the “Land of the Rising Sun” for a reason. The sun comes up way too early here, especially in the summer.

If I was a master computer hacker type, I would manipulate some GPS satellite thingy-dingies and put this whole country in a completely different time zone. At least two hours different.

In spite of having sun-blocking curtains and mommy’s scary face shining down on them, every year around this time, the children start getting up earlier and earlier.

When they were smaller, I could just put them to bed earlier. Getting up early was a pain, and HRH would inevitably end up complaining about me going to bed before him, but it worked out even though it was inconvenient.

Now?

Different story.

School start and finish times don’t change; preschool start and finish times don’t change. Nothing else can be changed just because Me First got up at the first light of dawn (currently 5:10)and woke everyone else up with him.

If he would just play quietly and go about his business, preferably without waking me up but most definitely without waking his sister, that would be absolutely smurfing as far as I’m concerned. I have been contemplating putting him to bed a bit later, but the logistics are hard, so if he just got up a bit earlier and played quietly, he’d be doing me a favor.

But that is obviously not what he’s doing, or I wouldn’t be writing about it.

HRH usually uses the extra time to go jogging. Must be nice. I’m stuck with a tired, cranky preschooler and a third grader begging for breakfast and wanting to watch TV.

The TV thang ain’t happening. Yes, it would be easier for me, but it’s taken so long to get the “no TV before you’re ready for school” rule down pat that I don’t want to mess with it.

If you happen to see me today, and I don’t acknowledge you, please don’t get mad. I’m sleepwalking.

Rain Rain

Rain, rain go away.
Never mind, everyone seems happy enough to stay at home. I guess if it was destined to rain, today wasn’t a bad day for it.

The kids got up early, god only knows why, and we went to English school in the morning. Then it was lunch, then home to watch a movie.

Everyone seems tired and happy for an excuse to just lay around. HRH got home after midnight, and the kids haven’t quite recovered from their field trips yesterday.

Rest while you can.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, which means MIL will expect us to take her out. I don’t know how many of the motley crew will be joining us, but I’m sure the day will end with some combination of tylenol and alcoholic beverage. Just not sure of the order yet.

I think I’ve convinced MIL to go for a morning tea instead of a meal. No one can ever agree on where to eat, and MIL won’t choose even though it is supposed to be for her.

There’s only one nice tea place nearby; it’s been kid-tested AND I have a coupon.

Win win.

Field Trip!

It doesn’t happen very often, but today both kids needed to take lunch.

Well, in actuality it’s the second time in two weeks, and the first lunch was more involved. Last time I made hamburgers and pumpkin because Me First asked for them. This time I forgot about lunch when I was at the store. Oopsie.

I also confused Me Too’s field trip and observation days, so I spent a good chunk of this morning searching for picnic sheets and hand wiping thingies. Apparently wet tissues are not acceptable. Who knew? I sent Brother with those every time and never got The Look for it. I now suspect he just didn’t wash his hands…

Both kids just went to parks in the neighborhood, though not the same place. Everyone was tired enough to spend a quiet afternoon at home, though they don’t seem to want to go to bed yet.

Hope they go down easy. I have a few hours to myself and several episodes of Dance Moms to work through.

Unwritten Rules of City Life

It’s not like there’s nothing going on; I don’t know why I haven’t been writing. Last week was Golden Week here in Japan. There’s nothing particularly golden about it. The powers that be took the old emperor’s birthday, made up another holiday to bridge the gap until Children’s Day on the fifth, then passed a law that gives everyone Monday off when a holiday falls on a Sunday, and voila! You now have several days off so GO SOMEWHERE and SPEND MONEY.

Yokohama and the surrounding area seems to be a popular tourist destination. So everything is crowded and we avoid going anywhere. These aren’t your regular city folk crowds. Lots of people from the countryside come in, and god bless them, they mess shit up because they don’t know the unwritten rules. Don’t stand to the right on the escalator, that’s for climbing, and if you stand there no one can pass. Know what you want to buy before you get to the front of the line. Don’t stop at the top of the escalator, or when exiting the ticket gates unless you want to be trampled. Don’t make eye contact. The elevator is not for people who can walk. Line up for the train in two lines. Stand to the side when the train arrives, and let the people getting off go first. When you are on the train, don’t block the doors. Don’t take pictures of foreign kids. Really, stop!!

(Some random girls just sat on either side of me and tried to take a picture with me without asking. Good grief. They seemed pretty shocked when I told them, ご一緒ですか？席を代わりましょうか？Nothing outlandish, mind you, just asking if we should change seats so they could sit together. This is how you tell Japanese girls to knock that shit off.)

Anyway.

We spent most of the week at or near home. It was probably quite relaxing for those family members who were not continuously cooking, cleaning, or doing laundry. HRH put out laundry one day, ONE day, and I did everything else all week. And then he wonders why we can never manage to leave the house before ten… It’s a massive job, trying to feed and clean and organize and predict what everyone needs. Me Too isn’t at the stage yet where she can wait for lunch or just eat wherever. Same for the potty. So if I suspect someplace is gonna be crowded, then it’s better to bring lunch. Which of, course I have to make, which then makes us even later leaving the house. Vicious cycle, rah rah rah.

And I’m tired of writing now, so I guess that’s it.

Hope everyone else had an enjoyable holiday!

You asked for it…

Bug pics. The white one is the larva, surrounded by poop even though I just changed the dirt yesterday. The orange one is the pupa. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

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Toe the Line

Leave it to a man to ruin something for a boy.

(>_<)

The kids have been wanting to go to Build-a-Bear for ages. Well in truth, we’ve been numerous times but have never actually purchased anything. I promised the children, and I thought my husband agreed with me when I talked to him about it, that both kids would make a stuffed animal for Children’s Day. It’s been a long time since Christmas, after all. We decided to come today, a few days early, before all the country folk make their way here.

Me First isn’t interested in the clothes and accessories, but he was excited about getting a snake.

I certainly don’t think eight is too old for a boy to be playing with stuffed animals, especially if they have a younger sibling who is really into them. Seems only natural to me that he would want one and want to play together with his sister.

But I guess it was one of those conversations where the other party is not really listening.

As soon as we got to the store, the children excitedly went to choose their animals when HRH busted out with, “You don’t want that girly toy, do you?” and shamed Me First into not getting one. Then they left the store entirely. I can only assume they’ve gone to buy deer pee or something manly like that.

Wtf.

I would never have agreed to do something like that for only one child. And I’d like for Me First to enjoy his childhood being a kid, you know?

Not to mention HRH was supposed to be holding our place in line when he sauntered off.

Why the hell is this store full of grown ups without kids, anyway?