Down and Out!

Fuzuki was down for the count.

You always feel sorry for people when they have a cold or a fever, but when you have a little (4 month) old baby, with a fever of 39.5, diarraeha, and vomitting... that just breaks your heart. Our little fuzu-meister caught some nasty bug last week and has been suffering terribly ever since.

Instead of crying, all he could manage was a little puppy dog wyne. (<--sp?) He couldn't smile, and didn't seem to understand what was happening when he emptied his stomach on himself and his dad.

Anyways, it's been two days now and he's almost back to normal (crying and demanding to be picked up and carried around) which is great!

Schools Out!

Well today is my last day of work this year! If you’re getting excited because it’s only March, I will remind you once again that the Japanese school (work and everything else in fact) begins in April. Nonetheless, I am entering into a two week holiday! YEAH!

Grandma and Grandpa (as I can now call them) are coming over to meet Fuzuki for the first time. They’ll be staying for a couple of weeks. I have some projects lined up for them so they can earn there room and board. For my mom: sewing. I have put on an inch at the waste since becoming a father. Yes, I know that no one in Canada will believe me when I say that the original “Bean Pole Boy” is actually having trouble fitting into his pants! (Luckily I was so skinny when I bought all my clothes that I had to buy a bigger size and have the waist taken in. Now I just have to get it taken out.)

Also, (and she doesn’t know this yet) my mom will be making a swimsuit for Fuzuki. As for my Dad: Hmm… let’s see… Ah hah. He is a project carpenter, and so we’ll be getting him to spend some time at the hardwood store with power tools making some new furniture for us.

Anyways. That’s the plan.

Grumpy

For the last month or so Fuzu has been a wonderfully cooperative, sleepy-at-night, smiley-in-the-day charming baby! That was until last weekend. A week before his four month birthday, he decided that that period in his life had passed.

My friend Rosalyn (thanks Ros) has described the situation to me like this “Ah yes...you have reached the boredom stage. He's big enough to actually stay awake for periods of time, and has realized that only being able to be on his back really sucks. He's basically frustrated because he can't move on his own.” It could also be early pain from teething.

Either way. He is very very grumpy. Fuzuki recently enjoys getting upset with us for; putting him on the floor, picking him up off the floor, putting him in our laps, putting him in his bouncy chair, putting soap on him, taking soap off of him, etc. He seems to (as Rosalyn and Itsuki have both pointed out) enjoy a sitting position best. This can usually only be achieved by holding him.

The good side of this is that carrying around 6.3 Kg in my arms is sure to tone-up my shrunken shoulders and arms. So look for a new buff Daddy-G in a couple of months!

Custom Cars

The picture above is of Fuzuki and I at a custom car show in Nagoya. This sweet “Toy” is street legal and weighs only 500 Kg. Because the guy who custom designs and sells these is a friend of Itsuki’s friend, we were allowed to take some shots with it. Sticker price: $100,000.

The rest of the show was pretty neat. The most memorable being this glitter Benz. I can’t imagine it’s very easy to go through the car wash with it.

Frog

Our son is a frog. No seriously. Just look at the pic! He's a sailor too!

Recognition for wardrobe coordination goes out to MacRitchie for the Sailor's Outfit. Thanks dude!

Jolly Baby

I'd like to thank the inventor of the spring for his wonderful invention (and while I'm at it the inventor of pizza was a pretty cool guy. But that's beside the point)! Springs truly are a Godsend. The go up and down... and if you put something, (like for example a baby) in them, the babies are quiet and self-entertained.

If you still don't know what I'm talking about do a web search for Jolly Jumper and you'll probably find their home page. Anyways, here's a picture of our happy guy, and a link to see him getting a workout. (sorry it's so short, the max size was 2MB) (Also those without Quicktime will not be able to view it.)

http://photos.buffmuthers.com/gallery/v/graham/jumper/

Next week we'll be teaching him some breakdance moves to go with his jig. The Tango and other ballroom classics we'll save for next month.

Sleeping Like a Baby Part II

Taking full advantage of undisrupted sleep opportunities, my body has apparently gone into hibernation mode (the same way the students in my 2nd grade communication class do at the start of every period) every night upon my head hitting the pillow. Much to the delight of my exhausted wife, a loud snoring sound soon follows (or so I'm told.)

The solution so far has been to plug my nose with her fingers. On occasion I will wake, say something rather illogical or incomprehensible, and then fall asleep again. The next morning I will have to recollection of such events. There was a scare last night, when apparently, I snored progressively louder each time after having my nose pinched. The solution was to hold my nose plugged for longer... after a period of I'm not sure how many seconds, it seemed to Itsuki as though I had stopped breathing all together. There was complete silence, and she was worried she had killed me! Then I believe I snorted, opened my eyes, apologized, and returned to sleep. Right out of a movie about at terrible husband hey!

Sleeping Like a Baby

I'm delighted to announce 4 continuous nights of 6 or more hours of shut eye! Yes Fuzuki is really starting to learn that a dark quiet room, while tucked under a comforter and wrapped in a blanket means sleep! We even check on him sometimes to see if he is OK after getting such a long break to find that he is just lying by himself with his eyes open waiting for it to get light out so that he can call to his servants.

But that's not all! We actually put him to bed a good 2 or 3 hours before we sleep, so he is going for 8 to 9 hours without demanding to be fed. However, I've been told that this blissful period of rest (like a popsicle on a hot summer day) is not meant to last. In addition to days getting longer, and thus the sun rising earlier, babies start getting teething pains at around 6 months. With that comes the good old fashion pattern of 2-3 hour wakings! How delightful.