FTO Osaka

During all of my pregnancy, I kept telling my baby! You have to come out strong and healthy! So I can show you Osaka. Well! We did! Sadly enough, Osaka has changed. It has changed a lot. It is no where near are Funky as it use to be. It made me sad. But what made me even sadder was the fact that Hudson slept most of the time and Tristan was totally not impress by MY favorite city in the whole world. But that being said, we still managed to have an amazing time!!







We had Takoyaki at Tsutenkaku Tower!

We had Okonomiyaki in Dotombori!

And we did lot's of sightseeing! We mad-dashed Osaka in two days! We saw and we did everything the city had to offer!

Japanese Roadtrip!

It's time for another post about our wonderful trip to Japan! After our first few days in the Japanese country side, we headed out for Tokyo! Having been there many time, we didn't do the touristic spots, we just hung out in our favorite neighborhood and did some shopping! Here are a few pictures taken that day!

View from the Shinjuku government offices.

And Hudson's first time in the train!

Little Miss Tuna is 11 months

Little Miss Tuna is 11 months. She was up every hour last night. That was what I like to call "a-bad-night". Otherwise... the rest of the time... she is up 3-4 times a night. Well more like 4-6 times... but I am so exhausted, most of the time I stop counting after the forth time she gets up. Still... I have to keep in mind, this is a major improvement. Little Miss Tuna is 11 months and has never slept the night. Not even close. Not even once. She doesn't have any teeth either. 

But little Miss Tuna can walk, can clap her hand and can feed herself. She poos on the toilet and love to "try" to color. She flips the pages of her books and can undo and do up velcro and snaps. But she won't sleep. She just won't sleep. I tried. I read the books. I tried even harder. I asked around. She just won't sleep. 

 Last week, the nurses at the doctors office told me, they couldn't believe how great her fine motor skills are. The ladies at the drop in day care also told me the same. I hear it all the time... I always answer the same thing. Off course she has great motor skills! She practices 24/7. She never takes a break... SHE NEVER SLEEPS! Off course I mean it as a joke! I am so proud and happy that Hudson is showing great motor skills. I am so happy that she is finally walking ( as of Aug 30, 2012). I am so proud that she could walk a whole 1km for Terry Fox and again yesterday as we went hiking. We are doing so well with all the milestones... except when it comes down to... yes... you guessed it... sleeping. So in honor of my dear 11 months old daughter! Who hates sleeping more than anything, I decided to post a few pictures that I would like to title as "My Baby Never Sleep" serie.

MATSURI!!!! Washoi! WASHOI!!!!

I could write about the two festivals we attended in Japan on august 4 and 5 (Sosa, and Tanabata in Asahi) but it just would be too hard to explain the sight and sound. So here it is instead! Enjoy!

 


In Sosa, Chiba! Hudson's very first Matsuri!

Food for my little Tuna : Le-tout-en-bar

Ok, so here is a little recipe I created for Hudson. I thought I would share it with you guys! It is essentially a soft-chew bar that could also be baked as a muffin or bread. For the last couple weeks, I have been looking at alternative for Cheerios. Most of the product I could find in store were either over priced organic goodies or cheaper kid's oriented food containing lots of food coloring including caramel food coloring. So I surfed the internet looking for recipe. I tried a few ones that were good but not "tasty good". I was also looking for a recipe that used no honey, no nuts, no egg and limited dairy. It also had to be soft enough for my toothless 10 months soon to be 11 months baby. So I decided to come up with my own. I took every food Hudson loved and mixed them together... here is the result!

-1 cup of oatmeal (I buy a special type mixed with flax seed)
-1/2 whole wheat flour (or you could use a gluten free flour)
-1/2 cup shredded carrots
-2 over ripped mashed banana
-1/2 cup of applesauce (or 1 egg)
-1 tsp baking powder
-1tsp cinnamon
-1tsp vanilla
-2 tbs of soften cream cheese (optional)
-1 tbs of olive oil

(You could replace the carrot with coconut or squash)
(I grated some old cheddar to put on the top before baking.)

In no specific order (I know some will tell you it's a crime, but with a walking baby in the house, I had no time to be fancy) I mixed everything together and spread it about 1 inch thick in a baking pan. I baked it at 350 for 18 min. And voila.

This recipe does not make a big batch since it won't keep long anyway and baby doesn't eat all that much, but cut into little pieces, it's perfect as a snack, on the go or for "dessert".

 

Oh Japan! How I missed thee!

It felt great to be back! Oh Japan! How I missed thee! It all started with a great flight with JAL. We got picked up at the airport by our host and headed out for the small town of Sosa.

Unfortunately by then, Hudson was exhausted and decided it would be appropriate to scream at the top of her lung for the whole 35 minutes it took to make it to our host's house. Tristan did his best to keep her occupy while I apologized non-stop in broken Japanese. Talk about a good first impression. lol But lucky for us, they did not seem to mind at all. We arrived at Ayumi's house, and I was so glad to find it just as it was when I left 2 years ago. I was so happy to see everyone! The greetings were short and after a delicious meal, we all headed out to bed.

The next morning, we all went to visit the Kyudo dojo with Ayumi and her grand-father. Tristan tried his hands at Japanese archery while Hudson watched very attentively. We then made our way to Shimamura! We shopped A LOT! We bought jimbei for the matsuri and a lot of cool Japanese houseware.

For lunch, we traveled to the next village, Asahi, and went to my favorite sushi place! I ate more Maguro than I should and even Tristan was able to enjoy himself!

We ended the day with a trip to the local park with the coolest slide ever! It is so long! I would have just LOVED to ride it as a kid!

Tristan and Ayumi both went down in it. I did not... Hudson was in my arms... asleep....

Seriously! How cool is this! But beware!!! It really hurts your bum! And for anyone who would be interested! In Ibaraki prefecture, there is one even longer! As a matter of fact, it is the longest in Japan. I believe it is about 150 meter long!
 

Art-Attack! Hudson is 10 months!

We are back in Canada! Hudson is 10 months! It's summer time! Let's do an art project! Hudson's first art project! To put up in her bedroom.



So we got a giant canvass. Some safe finger paint.



Two cameras, some old clothing and voilà!







And we let our 10 months old, have fun! Under mommy and daddy's watchful eye!

 And here is a quick motion video of the whole project! Enjoy! In a few days I will up-date with a picture of the final product!

Why you should take travel insurance when travelling!

Why? Because you just never know what will happen! As you read, we had to bring our daughter to the hospital because of an UTI. Well, we had to go back a few days later has she was having a very bad reaction to the antibiotic given. As she was finally getting better, it was my turn to be hit. But not with an UTI... I caught Dengue Fever which sent me straight to the hospital.

Not the great vacation we had planned... In total 8 hospitals visited, over 15 blood tests, 3 nights in a hospital, 5 emergency visits and a very long bill which our travel insurance took care off!

That being said, we have now been home for 2 weeks. In the next few days, I will start up-dating my blog again. I will not conclude the trip to the Philippines since I doubt anyone is interested in looking at hospital pictures! I will jump straight to the Japan portion of the trip. 

Now just before I go... This is a picture of our little family as Hudson celebrated 9 months! With me, at the hospital. 

Breastfeeding ;-)

As most of you know, I fought really hard to be able to breastfeed Hudson. It did not come easily. I worked around the clock with the nurses and lactation expert at the hospital to be able to breastfeed. Actually Hudson needed some formula for a little while. Off course, for medical reason I was very relieved to have access to some formula but I also knew that for the sake of my baby, I wanted to exclusively breastfed. I was so thankful to be at an hospital that had the funding for a lactation expert, and even more thankful that the lactation expert was in my room at every feeding to help me out. Hudson has been exclusively breastfeed since she was 6 weeks old. Just a few days short of 9 months, she is still breastfed and actually eating really little solids. (We are working on that).

Now, I know some of my friends did not receive the support they needed to be able to establish a good breastfeeding routine. The hospital close to our home even cut the position of lactation expert. So you would imagine how excited I was to see these posters at the hospital we visited in Bohol, Philippines.

I don't know how I exactly feel about it. Part of me think it is a great initiative. But at the same time, I do find it to be a bit extreme. (After all, some people do have really good reason to resort to formula).  I am not from Bohol, so it is hard for me to understand the whole social context. Is there a milk bank available? But, still my husband and I agree that if hospitals were to put more effort in breastfeeding and less in giving out free formula samples, surely more people would breastfeed.    

 Later on in Manila, we visited another hospital and met with a (American) pediatrician. As we found out Hudson was getting her rash from an intolerance to the many mango I was eating, the question of breastfeeding came up. The pediatrician stressed many times, that I should NOT for any reason stop breastfeeding while we were getting her rash under control. And that she was really happy to see "me", a "foreigner" breastfeeding. I explained to her that in Canada, we get a whole year maternity leave and for that reason, it was "easier" to breastfeed. She was also very impress by my cloth diapers. She called herself a cloth diaper advocate in her time but was amazed at how "cute" they got over the year. I was expecting her to ask me to switch to disposable because of the severity of the rash but in the contrary, she kept praising us (me and my husband) for using such a healthy alternative. Can I say how much I love her! ;-)

Cebu or how to run out of diapers in a day

 

So the antibiotic is giving Hudson the run…. And so I keep on changing, and changing, and changing her diapers. At this point, I just know I won’t have enough to last through the trip…. And so I keep on washing and washing and washing….

The fever is also persisting. Not as high as before but still always there. We just arrived from Bohol. The temperature here feels twice as warm! It is blistering. I don't think I have ever encountered such hot temperature. We took a ferry between Bohol and Cebu. After a short stop a Jollybee for lunch, we headed out to our resort (Bluewater Resort in Mactan). Cebu is not at all like Bohol. Here it is crowded, dirty, loud and very poor. Our resort is man made and stands in the middle of a shanty. Hidden by oversize trees are very high walls topped by barbwire. Inside the walls, everything is pretty. clean, wide and "happy". It somewhat reminds me a lot of Jamaica.

When we arrived at the resort, we were just in time for shark feeding show. Yes, they have a shark tank with about 10 black tip reef sharks. We then made our way to our beautiful room overlooking one of many pools. It didn't take us long, we put on our bathing suit and jumped in the water! Hudson loved it! And for the first time since she got sick, she laughed! We stayed in the water for a good hour and than headed straight to bed!

Hudson still has severe diarrhea... For the first time ever! She slept through the night! From 7pm to 5am. 

Our second day in Cebu started with another spike of fever. We went swimming. The water seemed to help. I also had 4 mango for breakfast! We are in Cebu after all!!! Best mango in the world!

We checked out of our rooms and we headed out on a tour of the oldest city in the Philippines. The island of Cebu is a very important historical place! This is where the Spaniards arrived, this is also the place where Magellan was killed by Lapu-lapu. There are many buildings on the island dating back from the 1500's. We started our visit with a trip to Magellan's and the Lapu-lapu's monuments. We then went to Magellan's cross and St-Nino's church. We ended the tour with a short stop at the Fort. I off course ate a few mango shakes.

During that time, we still had to fight the high temperature, and Hudson's fever. By then, Hudson had also develop a wide spread rash while still getting none stop diarrhea.

We safely flew back to Manila and decided to head back to the doctor early in the morning.