Making Crayons

We have many broken crayons that kids don't want to use any more.

I think they are such a waste not being used. But, I have to agree that they are no longer fun to use.

So, I thought there might be some way to change the shape. As I searched the web, I found many people posting ways to recreate crayons.

The easiest way was this one.

1. remove the wraps around the crayons.

2. Reshape the rinsed off cans so that they would have spouts.

3. Put the crayons in the can. The can will go in electric frying pan with water set just above "warm". Water will create small bubbles, but not boiling!
*This is the chocolate molds I purchased in Japan. I bought this and two others. Silicons ones are super easy! This one has star shape, heart shape, and shell shape.

4. Crayons start to melt. Stir frequently.

I let my daughters pick what crayons to go in. Well... They will all turn green... This was an experiment for her!
5. Using the oven mitt, pour the melted crayons into the molds.
6. Ta Da!! New crayons are made!

Well, this was fun. But, I think we will stick with one color at a time from next time.

When Potty Training Becomes More Challenging...

I had potty trained one child.

She was relatively easy to potty train, and just took a little longer to be trained for poop. She went completely diaper free when she was 3 years and 1 month.

Now, I am training my youngest, and it is CHALLENGING.
She is extremely stubborn. And, a little speech delay is not helping to communicate.

I have tried:
- cute potty with her favorite character
- bribe (she loves sweets, so M&Ms have been her treat for successful peeing in toilet)
- cute training pants (I like Japanese training pants with more absorbency and they come in kids favorite characters)
- posters on bathroom wall to explain potty procedure (they are illustrations I pulled off from internet)


I learned that kids personalities and characters have A LOT to do with potty training.
While my oldest was motivated to go pee in toilet by giving her stickers on her "good job, you did pee/poop in toilet" chart, my youngest has no interest in such an activity. She looks at me like, "so what?".
That is why I used food to motivate. The oldest asked me, "did I get sweets for reward, too?" When I answered honestly, she was quite unhappy saying "that is not fair!"

Also in her case, motivating with "you can go to school if potty trained" or "you can wear pretty underwear if potty trained" is out of options because she can care less about these or she has no comprehension when I explain those things.

But, we as parents have to do what works for each child.

However, food attraction has not overcome her stubbornness. Now, we are at the place where she does not care if she gets her treat or not, she does not mind being uncomfortable in wet training pants, and I am running out of option. It is almost as if she realizes that I am trying to potty train her when things start to go well. That is when her stubbornness kicks in and tells her brain saying, "hey, your mom is trying to change something that you are totally fine as is."

I really like her to be potty trained so that she can start school in the fall. It will help her speech and social skill big time if she can start.

Still, my friends are giving me some ideas to try. I am willing to try anything after carrying around two to three extra sets of clothes and training pants, having "accidents" in the bookstore, even poop.

Travel Diary 5 - Getting Sick

Sickness does not take vacation even if you are on vacation.

We have had our share of sickness on vacation stories, and this trip was no exception so far.
I must admit though what we have experienced so far on this trip is not the worse so far.

The girls and I flew thinking we had mild allergy symptoms. And, I think we really did.
But, that somehow turned to cold and I was having a terrible cold symptoms. Thanks to Benadryl at night and Sudafed and Ibuprofen, I got through the first week of our stay in Japan and got over the cold relatively quickly.

However, I got something else...

Pink Eye.

Really.

I had not had pink eye for many many years. Probably since I was a child. It was so bad that my eye did not open one morning (probably around 4th day here) that I had to go to an eye doctor. Good thing that my parents purchased health insurance for us during our stay.

As I went in to the eye doctor, I was immediately separated from the other patients because it could be very contagious.
After waiting for an hour, the nurse swabbed inside of my eye lid (more like scrubbing!) to test if that was viral. It turned out it was not, so I was prescribed antibiotic eye drop and oral medication.

All of the bill from doctor's office and Rx costed only 9700 yen which should be about $100. That is without insurance! I love how affordable Japanese health care is. I must add that the nurses/doctor was sympathetic that I had to pay that much out of pocket since my insurance will reimburse later. You kidding?? This is inexpensive comparing to what we would have to pay in US for not having insurance.

My health problem did not end there for this trip. While I was staying in Tokyo for the weekend, I had food poisoning.
I spent a good hour in the hotel bathroom...


However, I must say the worst medical experience we have had during the trip was my youngest daughter's stomach flu.
It was when she was about 18 months old.
She started throwing up and having diarrhea non stop. She would not take anything and got dehydrated.
Her temperature was close to 40 degree (is it about 105??), and she was limp.
We took her to a pediatrician here in Japan, and she got an IV one day and another one the next day to be hydrated. She did not even fight to get the needle in which was very abnormal for her.
Thanks to the hydration and good rest, she bounced back quickly and in 4 days she was almost back to normal with high energy.
The pediatrician bill with two visits with two IV and anti nausea Rx..... less than 17000 yen (= less than $200) without insurance!


Even with sickness, we always manage to get things done and enjoy the stay in Japan.
We spend a lot of money for flying here. So, sickness won't stop us!

This is the photo from Shinkansen between my pink eye and food poisoning...

Giving up the Best Strawberries

I have huge passion for food. That sounds wonderful, but in other words, I love to eat. And, I eat like a vacuum. My oldest daughter had told me that in the past.

She knows my favorite food: Strawberries.

This time of the year, we have wonderful strawberries here in Oregon.

Almost every week, we buy them at farmer's market.

This one is from a Tuesday farmer's market at OHSU. I bought 3 pints at Saturday farmer's market and by Sunday morning, the three containers were empty!! So, it was unplanned, but I replenished with the ones from Tuesday farmer's market.

Knowing how much I love strawberries, I was sort of surprised to say that I hardly ate any of the strawberries from farmer's markets. The girls did! This is another sign of being a mom; give up your favorite food so your kids can have them.
Seeing the kids happy faces with red mustache is all worth of giving up the best strawberries around here :)

Expedition to Farmer's Market ALONE!

PSU farmer's market has open for this year since a few weeks ago, and I could not wait to go.

The only problem is the kids. My oldest is very helpful, but sometimes very demanding and dramatic. More problem is the youngest who has super strong will and very physical and loves to run away from me all the time. So, today was a test. How much can I handle???

First, we bought very sweet strawberries. They started eating them while we look around. That was totally fine with me, and I thought they were cute.

Then, we bought two different kinds of cheese. We love the cheese we bought last week, so we went back for more. They kept sampling, sampling, and sampling...

Here is what started to go down a little.

The youngest and I decided to eat a crape. It turned out she only wanted to eat whipped cream. I ate most of the rest. Then, the oldest want a breakfast sandwich. Pine State Biscuit has breakfast sandwich, and I could tell from the long line that they must be good. I decided to wait in line with two kids. I must have been crazy. The oldest might behave, but the youngest? Of course, she ran away from me like she always does. Did I think she would wait in line with us? Of course not. I made the oldest wait in the line as I went to grab the screaming child who wanted to run some more. Finally, we got to order, but the wait was another 5-10 min. So, the kids wondered around the trees and climbing some of them during the wait. Near the end of the wait, we went closer to Pine State Biscuit and made the oldest go up to them when they called her name. The guy refused to give her food because she was a child. She kept telling him "that is me. that is my food!" I had to yell out from 10 yard away "Yes, that is hers!!"

Finally, the oldest is somewhat happy with her breakfast sandwich, but that did not last long. After a few bites, she dropped the whole thing on the ground!! She is very upset and tears coming her cheeks saying "I wanted to have patty!" I salvaged the part that did not touch the ground; egg and bacon, and gave them to her.

Now, we want to look around some more but the youngest still refused to leave the tree area. She rather climbed the tree and fences than look around the market... I once again grab the screaming child, and when she gave up, I put her down and made her walk. Now, she was calmer and we got to see and shop some flowers. Before we left, the kids tried art booth that were there for the earth week. They got to make ladybugs using recyclable material (egg carton).

I am not traumatized from the expedition. I might give a try next week, again.

"Beauty" of Motherhood

These are some things we "mothers" get to do.

1. wake up almost the same time every morning without the alarm.

2. clean up a training pants with poop thinking "I wish I could just throw them away..."

3. answer millions of questions coming from preschoolers mouth from "are babies born with clothes on?" to "what is the difference between DNA and RNA?"

4. try to figure out how to sneak vegetables in meals without kids noticing them.

5. eat with one hand while holding a newborn with the other.

6. eat in 5 minutes without tasting anything.

7. "Don't" get to push elevator buttons any more.

8. step on small plastic toys in the dark.

9. have the "pouch" after having kids and being asked by kids' friends "are you having a baby soon?"

10. order/make one serving of meal thinking I could share with my daughter and end up not being enough

AND order/make two servings thinking that would be enough for me and my daughter and she hardly touches her food.

Here are some things that I, "the hybrid mom" get to do.

1. realize my kindergartener's english pronunciation is getting far better than mine.

2. try to balance the exposures to each culture my children have, especially the languages without upsetting neither of grandparents.

3. find reliable information on good sales, restaurants, schools, and events from other hybrid moms. This network information is more suitable for me than other sources.

4. enjoy what Americans do such as having a huge birthday party for your own child.

5. learn to deal with long trips back home with little kids. Going to airplane lavatory with two small children hovering in the tiny space is nothing!

6. and learn to ignore those dirty looks when my child screams on the plane thinking to self "I will never see these people in my life again."

7. get used not to be humiliated when my kindergartener makes some rude but innocent comment in English in US and in Japanese when in Japan.

8. laugh at myself still when I mis-pronounce "l" and "r". I am still a typical Japanese who learn English later in life. "Would you like some peanut butter and Jerry?"

9. Not have to deal Japanese in-laws.

10. cannot answer a question like "how do you say that in your native language?" because I have been here long enough and start use the English word even among the hybrid moms. How do we say "share" in Japanese? I don't know...

Capacity of Love

When I was about have my second child, I was worried whether I was capable of loving this new baby as much as my first born. My best friend who also has two children and I recently talked about the fear we both had. But, the truth is that we never had to worry about loving the second child any less. I never knew exactly what happen to "my love" that I thought I had to divide into two children.

Then, the friend put in the very easy context that I can understand.

"Love expands." You don't divide your love. Capacity of your loving someone expands when someone important comes into your life. You don't love your existing loved one any less because of the new arrival. Your capacity of loving someone expands to accommodate the new arrival. That is true not only having a new baby but also having new friends and anyone special in your life.

My capacity of loving others expanded. And, it will keep growing.

Guilt - Balance of Individuality and Responsibility

Center of my mother's world was her children - me and my two brothers. She devoted her time to us and nothing else. She did not go out with her friends, and her socialization was limited to her neighbors, other school parents and her sisters. When we grew older and she began to have more time to herself, she tried to find hobby. She was not very interested in anything in particular, and tried many things but never stuck to one thing.

My oldest brother was 6 years older than me, but three of us got married in less than 2 years. Since my middle brother was still living with my parents until he got married (which is very common in Japan), once we all got married, my mom was left alone. My father works late coming home 1 am every night, so she was truly lonely and alone. No hobby, no kids, and only things left to her was her cat and tv. She went into deep depression and did not want to talk with me for about a year because I was the least obedient child of her (I left Japan and married a "white boy" against her will).

After living in US, I learned that importance of individuality. Though you become mom, you are still individual and allowed to be who you are aside from the time you have to be responsible to your children. Watching my mom for the 20 years I was raised in Japan, I learned how much I was supposed to devote my time to my children.

If I do what my mother did to my children, I would be destructive to my "self"; I would lose my identity, not take care of myself, and put a lot of pressure on my children to meet MY expectation because I sacrifice my "self" to them. Since my mom invested so much time to me and my brother, she became very unhappy whenever we did not meet her expectation.

This is a very hard challenge for me. Who do I need to please? I need to devote all of my time to my children to please my mom so that I can be a traditional Japanese mom. If I do that, my American family (husband and mother-in-law) and eventually I and then my children will be disappointed because I will no longer be an individual. What I know is what my mom did for her children. It seems selfish to seek my individuality while being a mom.

The balancing of the two will be my goal. What can I do? Being a Japanese mom in US is certainly a challenge and confusing.

Miyazaki movies and my daughters

I saw my first Miyazaki movie in high school. I think it was in freshman homeroom class, when Mrs. H decided it would be fun to watch one of Miyazaki movies "Nausicaa." My family was never a big movie watcher, and watching movie was refreshing experience. To add to that, I know this is sort of disgrace that I had not watched most of Miyazaki movies until my 20's.

Years later from my first Miyazaki movie experience, now I own most of his movies in DVD. It must be like Disney movies to American families, but what a joy to share those movies with my daughters. Miyazaki's movies have deep messages in the stories, yet simply enjoyable to any generations.

My favorite to watch with my daughters are Ponyo and Totoro, the cute stories and nothing really violent in them. Spirited away and Mononoke are also wonderful, but I will wait to show Mononoke to my daughters until they are a little older.

Recently, I realized that "Little H" has been repeating the lines from Ponyo. She says "Ponyo, Sosuke Suki!" (Ponyo likes Sosuke!), and "Ponyo, Ningen ni Naru!" (Ponyo will become human.) Though this is just repeating words, it is impressive for her who is speech delay to talk in sentences. She now sleeps with a Ponyo plush toy.