Today we received a note from customs to pick up a package which turned out to be from Julius’ uncle Tim. A belated but very welcome xmas surprise. So Julius got this very cute stuffed cat which he had to inspect right away. He is very happy about it. (There was also a scarf for Ritsu and a Music DVD [Die Ärzte - Rock'n'Roll Realschule] for me)
Earlier he had lots of fun again standing in front of the mirror.
Lazy Sunday, scrambled eggs for lunch, Julius and Ritsu did a lot of napping while I continued on my current web-project, preparing dinner in advance (once again, Koenigsberger Klopse) and then taking a walk to the seawall altogether.
Miscellaneous highlights of the day:
First time riding on daddy’s shoulders. Visiting the USP bookstore and getting comfy on a stack of text books. Sleeping through lunch at Daikoku. Spending most of the afternoon half naked thanks to the climate. Tasting tofu for the first time as a dinner treat, face afterwards indescribable:
Those knowing me and my eating habits know that my 2 favorite sushi toppings are Uni (Sea Urchin) and Ikura (Salmon Roe). Sushi in Fiji is usually only tuna, snapper, squid, prawn, and then tuna again. Rolls are cucumber 
Daikoku had once salmon as a daily special … and again so today! I was very happy to see salmon on the menu .. and guess how far my jaw dropped when I read that they had sea urchin!!! And with 5FJD for 2 pieces it was even cheaper than the salmon (7FJD/2pieces)
I was very glad we decided to grab Julius and head to Daikoku for lunch. He was a good boy and slept through most of it. Ritsu had the tonkatsu lunch, and I had the small sushi lunch platter (4 pieces nigiri plus one cucumber roll) and one order each of uni and salmon. And both were surprisingly good. The uni was nowhere near the quality of the stuff we ate in Japan, but even in Japan we had uni that was not as good. The taste was not fishy (as one would fear with cheap uni), the color was a bit off, and the texture a bit more chewy … nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of soy sauce. I was surprised that the regular platter had NO tuna at all, but also featured uni.
As we found out later, this was actually Fijian local sea urchin. Did not expect that, I mean I keep seeing the guys when diving. But that eventually someone would pick them up and offer the filets as food? The market for this seems to be very small. But I was very glad and I wonder how much longer they will have that. Maybe I check again on Monday.
Today mommy came back and we picked her up from the airport. Julius was a pretty good boy during the car ride. He was so overwhelmed by all the people and noises at the airport that it took him a while to realize that it is mommy who is back. But once he got it, he was very happy.
Then at home he showed another new trick which he had kept up his sleeve to show Ritsu first: sitting, using only his arms to stabilize.
Finally we got a bit of a break and the humidity sank below 70%. At 32C that makes a big difference. And obviously Julius felt more peachy too and played quitly hide-and-seek by himself on his towel on an original Fijian tapa mat. He even slept there at times.
Allegedly we can see his teeth now coming through, that is at least what Vula pointed out. I tried to look and maybe I saw something white shimmering through, but we will know for sure soon enough.
The biggest surprise was that I got him to bed before 7 PM, usually his time is more like 8 and some time dancing around with him and trying to not let him know that I am laying him down (If he wakes up while I am doing that I can start the whole routine from the beginning!)
Not so this time. He peacefully nodded of while hanging on my chest while I was working and at some point I walked him to the bed, laid him down, his eyes popped open … he looked at me, quick glance to confirm where he is, that the pacifier is securly attached and he rolled his head on his side and just dozed off.
Now I am curious when he will wake up again.
He had done that before .. but probably more accidential than on purpose … but it seems he has now gotten the concept of turning over / rolling around. This morning, he woke up at 5AM and fell asleep again at 7AM. I laid him down on the bed behind me on his part of the baby carrier and he slept on.
20 minutes later I hear him waking up , but avoid turning around as that usually stirs him up. So 2 minutes later I look … and .. see for yourself …. he turned either once and then inched his way to the edge of the bed .. or, what I rather think, he did 3 half turns to end up in this position.
He later did it again when napping on the big bed in the master bedroom and managed actually to fall off. Gladly on a pile of clothing I had left there … so .. from now on , napping will happen in the crib.
On the food news, I tried banana on him today. First he was grumpy and wanted the easy milk…
… but after the milk craving was satisfied, he was open to experiments … and seems he does like banana. That little monkey boy
There is hardly any better place to go take a walk when the weather is not that great than Cost-U-Less, the warehouse style supermarket which is a spot we frequent quite often. The isles are wide and rolling Julius around in the shopping cart seems to be a lot of fun for him. He is protected from the elements (Rain, Sun, Mosquitos), he gets lots to see and he interacts with people and other babies.
Pretty much all of the cash register people know him now by name, which is kinda funny: I have been going there for 2 years, and they have seen my name on my credit card a bazillion times, I know most of them by name, they never bother to remember mine, ah well.
What a nice way to start the week. At least it is not yet another murder. And hey, it is also no top-ten list nor is it a contest. Just the top headline of today’s Fiji Times.
Fijians ‘worst sex offenders’
(Monday, January 24, 2005)FIJIANS are the worst offenders of incest and sexual crimes and marijuana smoking has reached primary school level, a Senate committee says.
The increase in the use of drugs, in sexual crimes and prostitution is a major concern for the Senate ad hoc committee which has been set up to look into these social evils.[...]
I love how incest, marijuana and prostitution are all mixed together here, so we all know that everyone who smokes a joint is a gay sexworker who screws his uncle on the side.
I especially enjoyed the quote by Committee member Senator Ponipate Lesavua “All these are age-old crimes that have been in existence for a long time” [source: FT 1/24/05, frontpage]
If you are smiling now, then we share the same kind of humor.
A promising start into a new week.
He really loves his flying duckies.
Today for the first time I saw that he has become big enough to grab them.
You may have noticed that the pictures here have become smaller … but they are also clickable now and result in much bigger versions! Thanks to a neat WP plugin by dr.dave.
I know, I am too old and too big for the playgym, but seems like Julius really enjoyed the company.
Today went even better than yesterday, he slept 30 minutes before noon, had a power-2.5hour nap in the afternoon and another short one before his dinner. We did a walk to the bakery in the morning (it was hot and sunny, so I had to use an umbrella to get some shade) and in the afternoon we drove around and watched the waterfront. Another walk was planned, but it was either too sunny or it was raining.
I managed to feed him some pawpaw and he still does not like his overly sweet and sticky antibiotics syrup. Let’s see now how the night goes.
What are the chances of that? Ritsu travels maybe once a year to Solomon Islands and the morning after arrival the island group gets hit by a 6.4 quake. Gladly there are no big buildings and pretty much nothing happened. From what Ritsu told me, it lasted quite some time and she knows quakes much better than I.
I have no idea why he looks so scared into the camera.
So, how did we survive the first day without mommy? Fairly well I would say, we are both still alive
I think Julius is missing Ritsu and that keeps him up quite some. While on good days he naps 2h before lunch, 2h in the afternoon and then another hour later in the afternoon, all I got from him today was once 30 mins and then again 10 mins in the afternoon. And when he is awake, he demands full attention.
So we ran a lot of errands together, had fun with feeding and giving him his medication (he will forever hate me for that, I know it) and he really enjoyed bathing and taking short walks.
Finally around 8 I had him in bed and could stretch my legs for the first time. I called Ritsu in Honiara to check if she arrived safe and sound (she did). Later, around 11:30 PM, as expected, Julius woke up, I gave him a bottle, and now he is dozing off.
Ritsu is off for a week to the Solomon Islands on a business trip, and this will be the first time that she and Julius will be seperated. It will also be the first time I will take care of Julius alone for a week, which so far is going very well, we did some shopping together, just cleaned up a huge poop diaper and he is not really in the mood for naps, but feeding and giving him his antibiotics works very well. He just gets very impatient in moments like this, when I am sitting down and type. He rather wants me to move around and be sure that all my attention is on him and nothing else.
Today is a UN holiday (not really a Fiji country holiday), so it was funny when we went to Cost-U-Less, how many of Ritsu’s colleagues we met.
A new shipment of yoghurt had arrived which was great news.
The way how he now reaches for and grabs his bottle is fascinating.
And scary… what will he grab next. I recall ‘fun’ stories from friends about their kids running off with the remote control or the wallet to see if it either floats or sinks in the toilet.
I hope he stays with the bottle for some time. Old nacken tradition.
Thanks to the ongoing heat and humidity, we are bathing him now in the afternoon, too.
Earlier today I took Julius to see the doctor. Since our regular pedeatrician is still on leave, I had to deal with the replacement Dr. Qovu, who came to our 9:30 AM appointment at 10:10 (his first appointment of the day). Anyways, seems Julius has 2 mosquito bites on his finger, which do not seem to bother him at all, but they look fairly red and so, better safe than sorry, I had the doctor look at it and he prescribed, as usual, antibiotics, which Julius gets in liquid form and he actually is not too fussy about it … well .. 4.5 more days = 18 more times.
Like last year we were again invited to the Japanese Ambassador’s house to celebrate the new year (shinnenkai). It was very nice, very much like last year in terms of food and all Japanese speeches. Only this time I was indeed the only non-Japanese person.
So, we kept feeding him pawpaw (papaya) and today it was mom’s honor to deal with the change in poo, first time for her, I guess the pictures adequately show her surprise.
He has not even started crawling yet (thank god) but he loves to ‘stretch his legs’ and tries if he can support his own body weight. And see, he can! Very strong legs. Balance is a different topic … but he is getting there. In these below pics he managed to stand for a couple of seconds, just leaning his back on my tummy … before he would eventually slide of to one side (where my hands were waiting)
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