First week in Imabari

Last night, I put Kelsey down for bed right before running to the store to check for deals. When I got back 20 minutes later, I checked to make sure she had gone to bed, and she was laying in the exact same position, fast asleep. Stef and I watched the last part of a movie, and then got ready for bed. Stef peeked in to check on Kelsey and groaned when she saw Kelsey's face covered in ink. It must have all happened in the 20 minutes that I was gone.

Today, I saw exactly how bad it was. Kelsey drew on her hands and face, and then stuffed eight felt-tipped markers inside her footed pajamas. She had a leaky diaper, and the combination of liquid, ink, and rolling around at night covered her whole body and pajamas in permanent ink. After an hour-and-a-half of scrubbing, she's still got ink all over. At least it's light enough that it shouldn't transfer to other things. And I got most of it off her face.

What a little stinker.

So, as I said before, Mia's home, and we're living in Imabari, where we used to go to church every week before Mia came early. I got transferred early, and I start work here on Monday. It's the beginning of a new school term, so a lot of the teachers will be new. In Japan, government employees transfer to new positions in new places after three years or so. People often have to work away from their families, and some even have to live on islands during the week and travel to see their families on weekends. Most just have to commute every day.

I have five schools that I visit--three elementary schools and two junior high schools. My main mode of transportation is a small ladies' bike with a basket in front. I haven't yet seen my schools, but I know that it takes between twenty-five and forty-five minutes to pedal to my different schools. I'm going to get a lot of exercise.

Mia is doing pretty well, though yesterday she started needing to be held all the time. She gets very upset if she's not lying up against our chest. When she is up against us, she sleeps. Before that, she really liked to sit vertically and just look around. So far we haven't taken a lot of pictures. I bought batteries for our camera, but they weren't even strong enough to keep the camera on for more than 2 seconds. I turned it on, the lens extended, and then the digital display flashed "battery depleted" and it shut off. We got some new batteries yesterday and took a few pictures. Mia wasn't in a picture-taking mood, so I snapped some of Kelsey. Those are the ones that we posted to facebook and Stef's blog.

At Mia's discharge meeting with the doctors, they showed us pictures of her MRI. They said that her left cerebral ventricle is a little larger than the right one, but that it wasn't really anything to worry about. She might experience some difficulty with motor skills, but most of the time, there aren't any problems. We'll be keeping an eye out for the first few years. Everything seems normal so far.

Stef has been getting between five and six hours of broken sleep every night, which is much better than when Kelsey was a newborn. I've been getting about 7 hours of broken sleep. So we're dealing with everything pretty well. It's a lot easier when you're sleeping.

Our place is pretty cozy. It's old and has sparkly corkboard walls and tatami floors, but it feels like home. Kelsey has her own room, we have a small living room with a couch, and we have a bigger kitchen. The fridge was much too small, so we had to buy another small one in order to have enough room for all our food. At Hard-Off (I kid you not), a second-hand shop that sells everything from video games to couches, we found a practically brand new fridge for $150. We also found a baby bath for about eight bucks. To keep Kelsey out of the fridge, we got some locking plastic belt-clips.

Even if our place in Uoshima was slightly larger, this place is much more convenient. We have a big shopping complex called Saty that's five minutes away on foot. Inside the three floor building, there's a nice 100 yen shop, a play area, a nice grocery store with great prices, an arcade, a clothing store, and much more. Within a half-mile or so of our apartment, we've got two or three other grocery stores, a full-size 100 yen shop, a two-story electronics store, Hard-Off, a video rental store, and a full-size McDonald's that serves breakfast.

We're looking forward to things getting back to normal, so we won't be tempted to go to McDonald's. It's hard sometimes to ignore the convenience. And Kelsey loves chicken nuggets. Back in Matsuyama, I took her to McDonald's and got her some nuggets. Stef also took her a few times during her grocery shopping trips. One time, she told Kelsey that she had to get money from the ATM, and then they'd go buy some nuggets. When we tell Kelsey that she's going to get to eat nuggets, she shouts, "Mommy get da money, Kelsey eat nunnets!" The other day, I mentioned that I had to get some money for the next day, and Kelsey Pavlovianly chirped, "Nunnets!" Awesome.

Kelsey's being a good big sister. She's occasionally too rough when she wants to hold or kiss Mia, so we have to keep a close eye on her.

We won't have internet access at home until the 23rd or so. I can walk out into the neighborhood an pick up an unsecured wireless network, which is enough to check e-mail and post to the blog. Last night, I was walking around with the laptop in my hand like a waiter holding a tray, watching the top of the screen to see how strong the connection was, when I walked across the street. Suddenly, I didn't feel the ground under me--I had stepped into the meter-deep gutter. I knew it wouldn't end well, so I tried to protect the computer. It flew up into the air and landed upside-down on my neck, and I grabbed it before it could fall off. I bruised my left leg just above the knee, but was lucky to not have suffered worse.

Things are great here, but I wouldn't recommend walking into meter-deep ditches.