He just loooooves kissing mama!
(Signs of chickenpox deleted on special request 
Click for bigger)
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Long time no talk about food here. Well, tonight’s dinner was a new experiment that turned out really nice.
I had planned on teriyaki chicken, but readymade teriyaki sauce is not available here. And finding soy sauce was troublesome, too: Di Per Di has been out of it for weeks, a specialty store nearby was closed (Wednesday afternoon .. why? why?) and a little Italian food store had no idea what I was asking for… so .. no teriyaki chicken …
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Ritsu had brought back a bottle of A1 steak sauce from New York (also an item I have yet to see here in stores) … and she had the idea to use that as a marinade. I added some red wine and garlic and cut the chicken into strips and let them marinate for half an hour. (I would have used also some tabasco, but no no when little kid eats along). Nicely fried in the pan (the sugar in the A1 sauce gives the chicken a nice glaze) and then we had these strips with leek and leftover japanese rice, very yummy. |
Ritsu made a strong request to not show Julius’ pox face on the blog anymore .. so .. what is a commited blogger to do … yesterday’s low res video was a good idea … and I have some more ideas in store until I have to use the old paperbag-over-head trick …
But today we had pasta with bolognese sauce, that classic Italian meat / tomato sauce … which he managed to apply semi evenly to cover up his face …
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Our little guy is handling the chickenpox quite ok (besides that it took him forever to finally fall asleep last night).
Of course on a sunny day like today he got cabin fever and made it very clear that he wanted to go out (bringing his shoes and jacket, bringing our shoes). So, being fairly certain that no other kid would be on the playground we headed over there. Ritsu had returned from NY yesterday and ‘worked from home’ today so we all could go together.
Julius had a lot of fun and displayed unusual strong interest in the swings. We had tried them before but he would either slide off or just refrain from using them.
So, to my big surprise, he stayed seated and actually did the right swinging movement
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Just a quick blurb on Julius’ latest illness … Yesterday morning I noticed 3 red spots across his chest .. not too alarming (he also had no temperature) but sure something to keep an eye on … then after his nap I checked again … and there were some more, 2 on his neck, one hidden in his hair and he had a slight fever of 37.9°C
I called our doctor and he came by to check on Julius. Usually that is probably not necessary (since there is not much one can do about chicken pox, other than keeping the kid from scratching and trying to not infect other kids) … but since Julius still has a slimed up respiratory system we decided that a closer look might be in order.
So, we are back to giving him all kinds of drops now and just keep a very close eye on him. He seems to be taking it quite well so far. But he woke up tossing and turning at 3:30 AM this morning.
Any good ideas out there other than confining his hands into socks to avoid scratching? I already trimmed his nails as short as possible.
(Click for better detail)
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Ritsu is in NY again on business and we are utilizing video chat whenever we can (the 6 hour time difference is making it tricky at times). Julius is getting more used to it (compare to earlier) and plays a fun game of peek-a-boo with mom. Amazing what is possible these days.
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Every once in a while Julius finds these xmas hats and plays with them. Usually he wants that I put on one too.
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Since Ritsu was in NY around the opening time of the new flagship Apple Store at 5th Ave, I had asked her to check it out and send a picture.
This place looks really very impressive … I wonder what the yearly budget for glass cleaning / class break insurance is …
One of these special moments But you can see his teeth really well … If I counted correctly he is only missing his second set of molars (4) and one of his canines .. so should be 15 on total
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That was an interesting first today: Julius made a very strong point about what he wanted to wear .. so .. ok .. Fijian bula shirt with color matching coveralls … I wanted him to wear some 3/4 lengths pants with that .. but ok .. good that he shows interest and he did not select something totally non-matching
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The below picture series is actually from last night … I played some Halcali for him and he was dancing around like crazy!
Last night was pretty ok .. he did not fight too much to go to bed .. I read him books and he did the ear thing again .. meaning that he just has to touch my ears (both of them) in order to fall asleep … I heard from one other mom that the kid wants to grab her breasts for falling asleep .. so maybe there is a parallel … not sure .. need to see if I find any info on that …
He woke up around 5 .. wanting something that he was not even sure what it was .. he ran to the kitchen .. so .. ok .. i open the fridge for him .. and he settled for uva (grapes) … being freaked out that he might suffocate on them I stayed awake until I could remove the uva leftovers from his hands without waking him up .. and then he slept well until 8 AM … i had to actually wake him up then ..
anyways .. here the promised dance pictures:
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Every morning we take a bath together … and one of Julius’ antics is to bring more and more toys .. and since I am somewhat to lazy to clear them all up all the time, it can get really crowded in there. Another thing is .. very often he does not want to get out .. the main 2 tricks are either to turn the shower head on (scares him) or to just drain the water until he sits in an empty tub … but he is getting resistant even to that … this morning he was very grumpy that I took him out and he ended up running to one of his 2 grumpy spots (fridge or entrance) to pout .. but well, let’s rather enjoy the bath together:
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Today was a very mixed bag .. starting with Julius waking up at 6AM .. running out of the bedroom and getting into tantrum mode before he can even tell me what he wants … (turned out he wanted banana) …
This also totally changed our schedule for the day as he took a nap again from 9 AM to noon (he follows a fairly constant 90min sleep cycle ).. and since I laid down with him at just after 10 and provided my ears as his security blanket (more on that later) he went right through his first light sleep phase into the next 90 mins .. which is rather rare …
so .. after he then woke up we had 2nd breakfast … took a bath and went out to the playground
Unfortunately he did not behave too well there: I had to stop him from pushing another child off the slide (Julius wanted to take his sweet time just sitting there enjoying the view), then he went straight for the water paly things and I tried to reason with him that it is still not warm enough to get all wet … one tantrum later I had him at a different, very close by play thing … and after some fun on the slide he just wanted to throw rocks down the slide .. it also got a bit too sunny and this place was fly infested (no shadow from trees like the other place) …
so we left (under protest) and checked out the monthly antique market at Gran Madre ..
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One of the fun Saturday morning things to do is the visit to our tiny neighbourhood supermarket. Not the best selection in town, and a bit on the pricey side … but best option if you don’t have a car plus the big supermarkets on the outskirts of town are crazy packed on weekends.
Julius can be a mixed bag on these trips .. either totally rejecting to sit in that baby chair of the cart, sit in the cart … or figures out new ways of sitting in it …
(click for bigger, unfiltered version)
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This photo came out like one of these actor’s headshots (of course, I tweaked it around in photoshop, but only contrast, b/w, no real further retouching)
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He keeps loving them
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Yes .. he is exactly 650 days old now Anyways .. 2 things about this picture .. a) he is a head sweater .. just like his dad .. and b) Veronica Mars uses the same IKEA bed stuff !!!
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From one of his daily yoghurt munching breakfast sessions …
Yes, we are desperate for extra income and we are trying to sell out our little guy for several product campaigns …
Kidding …
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I know .. most of the pictures here show him as a smiling angel .. but of course he also has his other side …
In this case he wants to get into my office … to rewatch the trailer of the new pixar movie cars …. I cannot wait for this movie to come out and magically find its way onto our TV shortly afterwards .. this movie must be a dream come true for little boys .. talking cars! what can you ask more for?
Well, he has watched this trailer a bazillion times now … while on the other hand he has totally lost interest in the ‘black box’ (the TV) .. so I guess the novelty has worn off … good thing ….
enjoy 49 seconds of uncut Julius madness
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Little things = big fun .. especially when you can open it and assemble stuff and find even more stuff in it that you can open … (amazing how b’class travellers cannot survive without lip balm, hand cream, fascial cream and socks of a shockingly weird color .. yes, ok .. I am being cynic)
So .. this sleeping mask was especially interesting it seems .. and he put it on all by himself …
and then of course the fancy toothbrush .. sure enough he had to brush mommy’s teeth right away
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We have not had any fun bathing pictures in a while … but Julius realy enjoys playing with foam .. and he appreciate all the hairstyles he can do with it
Some more pics …
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