Sunday, December 04, 2005

Let me tell you about Saturday

First I would like to say that
IT GOT COLD!!
It is only about 5 degrees out and poor Mr. U just walked in the office after a month long business trip in Malaysia (no he did not enjoy it) and he is so cold his teeth are chattering. My legs are one giant goose bump.
I think I am going to give Mr. U one of my hot chocolates. He looks so pathetic.


So to start with I will tell you about Saturday.
I did ZERO housework and my kitchen looked like a dirt bomb exploded in there, but I decided no housework, as it would interfere with Li’s studying.
Li had taken a day off work in order to study. He had done a practice test a few days before and after we marked it he was very unhappy with the results: 65%. Not a safe enough margin for him considering that you need 65% to pass. He studied very hard all day and JiXiang and I did our best to stay out of his hair.

First we went to visit my friend Yoko who is a new Aunty. We went to see the new baby and WOW I totally do not remember Ji being that small. I have pictures that prove she was but it kind of freaked me out a bit. Here I was trying to keep this 10-month-old overly energetic kid from diving under my shirt as she had just gone into shy mode, and just a few months before she had been that tiny. It was a little shocking.

The two babies settled down for a nap and Yoko, her mom and her Sister-in-law showed me around their new renovations. They have a neat house because it is about 50 years old and actually made of REAL WOOD! Do you know how hard it is to find a house made of real wood in Japan? Basically non-existent.
They created some lovely very traditional rooms that are just beautiful. They made one with the traditional fire pits in the middle of the floor that are used for heating but also used to cooking. They even have it so there is a proper window above that sucks the smoke out: no fans or air ducts, and no smoky smells that I could detect. They even had fun with the rafters and created a study type reading room in the loft. It was really lovely. The place looks so small on the outside but is HUGE on the inside.
Then the babies woke up and Ji had a minor heart attack waking up in a strange room and I wasn’t there.

Because Ji’s afternoon nap was so short she was just exhausted when she got home. I fed her some more and she passed right out on the heat carpet. I took advantage and went shopping.

As I have mentioned every single winter I spend here, THERE IS NO CENTRAL HEATING and it sucks.
It is cold.
We have an aircon but it does not heat wonderfully as it is getting older. It does its bit but we try not to use it too much as the electric bill soars when we do. Normally we use our kotatsu every winter. I love my kotatsu, they are so comfy and Li loves to snuggle under them. Only problem is that they are very unsafe with a crawling baby. Because of the blanket there is a huge suffocation danger, and the heating element can get very hot.

So no kotatsu this winter. (sniff)

We do have two oil heaters that look like radiators and plug into the wall. They have no smell and are very safe. They are a zillion times safer than the kotatsu with Ji around but I have this fear of her toddling along and needing to grab something for support. If she grabs the heater it will hurt like hell. It won’t burn her but it will scare the crap out of her and possibly leave a tender mark if she does not let go quickly enough.
After talking to some of my students that have kids I had many ideas in my brain and I was off to the store to find something that would keep my baby safe.

I came home with a dog kennel.
Not for the kid for the heater.
Although I was seriously considering using it as a bed and sticking the kid in it after another night of her crawling, but that is another post on another day.

So I now have a really nice dog kennel (that was thankfully on sale for only 35bucks) in the corner of my living room, but when the living room doors are closed that little heater takes the edge off. You still need to wear a light sweater and your slippers but it is not cold, just comfortable.

And my kid is safe.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::12/04/2005 :: 5 Comments:

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