Osaka: Prep and Day 0

Osaka Prep

About three months ago, we decided to splurge and take our first international trip since Max was born. As soon as we bought the tickets and booked the hotel, we were SO excited. We even made a countdown poster that Squish and I would tick off every morning when we woke up. We were heading to Osaka, Japan! (Max would say “‘Pan!” every time we marked the poster).

Our countdown poster. 

Japan has a special place in our hearts because we initially intended to go before we were going to seriously try for a baby (initially scheduled during the second half of 2016). But we were advised by many to get off birth control 6 months before trying to give your body time to recalibrate. My first birth control free month was December 2015 and I found out I was pregnant by January 7, 2016. We were shocked and so happy, but we knew that Japan would have to be shelved.

But now that Max was a little older and has gone on two domestic airplane trips, it was the perfect time to un-shelve Japan. We chose Osaka because we were worried that Tokyo would be too fast-paced for the newbie parents and toddler. It seemed like there was more than enough in Osaka (and the nearby Nara and Kyoto) to fill our week.

We decided early on that this trip wouldn’t be Max-centric. Soon, the little boy will have words to clearly express his preferences and we’ll have to seriously take them into consideration. We completely took advantage of his one- to two-word sentence limit. Hahaha.

Unsurprisingly though, the initial drafts of the itinerary I drew up included many activities that Max would enjoy as much as we would. I guess this is one of the benefits of having really childish parents. (It makes me wonder about how equipped we would be to handle teenaged Max, but that’s for future Char to worry about.)

For two months, I watched every vlog, read every article, downloaded every possible helpful app, made estimates on excel sheets, and bothered way too many friends (Hello, Darm, Ram, and Ronna!) for advice.

Our final itinerary looked nothing like the itineraries I used to plan. I used to pack in as much as I could each day, but we needed to consider Max, his attention span, and his energy management needs. Our formula was to have one scheduled “must-do” activity for the day and a list of suggested activities. But basically, we left a lot of room for flexibility and exploring and rest. It didn’t make sense to pack in as many activities at the expense of our enjoyment and sanity.

We chose a centrally located hotel that was, admittedly, pricier than many of the other options. We used to scrimp on accommodations, but since we’re travelling to a new place with Max, I told Mikey that it would make sense to get a hotel that (1) had an English-speaking staff (so they could easily help out in case of an emergency) and (2) was located near many of the things we wanted to see (so that if Max needed to rest in the hotel, one of us could easily explore without being too far away). Mikey agreed and we booked 7 nights at Hotel the Flag Shinshaibashi. It was probably the best decision we made for the trip, but more on this later on.

We were busting with excitement for weeks and that all came crashing down a few days before were scheduled to leave. We were scheduled to leave on a Friday, and the Monday of that week, Max got his first-ever fever. At it’s highest, he hit 39.9. We even missed the wedding because we were waiting for results in the emergency room. The fever lasted for about a day, and the day after his fever broke (Wednesday), he developed a rash. His pediatrician believes that it was Roseola. And even if the rash looked bothersome (it wasn’t though), it was a great sign because that meant he was OK. I only allowed myself to start thinking of Japan when his pediatrician gave us the go-signal Wednesday night. And because we had been so focused on Max’s health, Thursday was all about last minute errands for the trip. When we finally got Max to sleep Thursday night, Mikey and I shared a quiet squeal: we were going to Japan! Ok, it was Mikey squealing because I was still on edge about everything. I was half expecting Max’s fever to come back and having to give up the trip altogether.

Day 0 (Friday)

Our flight was at 3:30 PM, so we needed to be at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Terminal 3) by 12 noon at the earliest. But we were ready to go by 10 AM. My mom lent us her car and driver to take us to the airport, so we had help in loading and unloading our bags. Max wasn’t completely himself yet. He was on his 4^th(out of 5) day of the decongestant, so he was still a little clingy and fussy. And because we allowed him unlimited screen time when he was sick, he had a lot of pent up energy to spare.

I’m never relaxed on travel day. I can only relax after immigration. So, I made Mikey skip all the yummy restaurants you can only access before immigration. I made all of us go straight through immigration after we got our boarding passes. We ended up eating so-so food for lunch. There was a National Bookstore inside and we found him a Finding Dory busy book on sale. We thought it would be perfect for the plane. On our way to the gate, we found a small play area so we let him go wild until it was our turn to get on the plane.

Spot Dory’s Dad and Paw Patrol. 

Looking back, I think the plane ride would’ve been perfect, but the flight was delayed and we spent an extra 45 minutes taxiing. So, even though Max fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane, he woke up halfway through the ride and there was a period of boredom/fussiness. Thankfully, the flight wasn’t full and the man sharing our row moved to another row at the beginning of the flight. Max ended up having a seat all to himself and he watched a few videos while seated. But he really wanted to run up and down the aisle, so we placated him by taking him to the bathroom and letting him push all the buttons in there. At some point, he fell asleep again and when we woke him up, we were in Osaka.

We landed at the Kansai International Airport passed 8:00 PM Osaka time (about 1 hour ahead of Manila). Mikey put him in his front facing carrier so that we could get through immigration, get our bags, our sim card for internet, and an MRT card. We got through everything pretty well, we even had dinner at a small fast food Udon restaurant. Max only acted up when we finally got to the train. When we got to the train, he wanted to breastfeed right away. I read that breastfeeding isn’t normally done in public in Japan, so I resisted. I offered him videos and I tried distracting him with the view (but it was dark). Eventually, I caved, and it was calm again. The walk to our hotel seemed long that night, but it’s probably because we had no idea where we would end up.

Only Squish looks fresh and camera ready. 

Seeing the hotel for the first time was like seeing an oasis in the dessert. We were sweaty and tired from the trip and in desperate need of comfort. The fancy faux wooden hotel doors opened automatically (sideways!) and we were welcomed by the staff on the 2^ndfloor lobby. The hotel was fancier than we imagined. There was a quaint library, a nice coffee machine (free! FREE COFFEE 24/7!), a fireplace surrounded by leather chairs and couches, and an ornamental giant stone that Max freaked out over (“stone” is one of his words).

This is the library. E house a nice selection of kids’ books. 

Our room was small, but not in the claustrophobic kind of way (at least not on the first night)—it was very cozy. The bed was so inviting. I was worried about the beds in Japan because most rooms for two only offered a double bed. Our hotel had what they called an extra large double bed and it was very comfortable. Max fell asleep pretty quickly, and Mikey took a stroll to the nearest konbini to get us some water and pick up a snack. I unpacked, took a hot shower (Shiseido amenities!), put on PJs, and got into bed with Max. We were in Japan. We survived our first international flight and our first MRT ride. Now I was squealing. What a day. We made it.

See, I was really excited. I had all sorts of paraphernalia made for the trip. Hahaha. I love our matching passport holders–mine and Max’s, I mean. Mikey’s (the brown one) is so annoying.

Our 11 month old Squishy

The countdown to Squishy’s first birthday has begun! Squish is well on his way to toddlerhood and I can’t believe that we survived! I still remember our first few weeks at home where I would dread Mikey leaving and count the hours before Mikey’s return. Now, we’re still excited for Papa to come home, but the day goes by pretty quickly. I think the day goes by quicker because there’s so much that Squish can do already!

There’s no stopping our little walker! He is now allowed to roam around our room and living area unassisted. He can walk around the rest of the apartment, but someone has to watch him and hold his hand because we haven’t baby proofed everything yet. Squish really enjoys walking and it seems like he only crawls now when he’s tired (or when he wants to go really fast). He confidently (and seemingly drunk-ly) walks unassisted from the TV to the couch or from our bedroom door to his toy box.

He also LOVES climbing! He can climb the walls of his playpen (thank goodness he hasn’t jumped out yet), he can climb on and off the couch, and he can even safely get off our very tall bed (even though we don’t really let him do it independently yet). We’ve also caught him trying to climb a shelf after he removed all the books/CDs in them.

All of this activity means that he’s had a few bumps and bruises lately. He’s fallen off his mini chairs, tripped, hit furniture, and lost balance. At first it would really jar me and I had to really hold in my fear and surprise so that it doesn’t add to his distress. But now, we (the parents) handle it better. We pick him up and comfort him and tell him that he’s OK.

Whenever he gets hurt, he crawls to me (while crying) and gets into feeding position. I guess this is what they mean when they say that babies sometimes nurse for comfort. He’ll only latch on for a few seconds and then he’ll go back to playing. He’s pretty fair-skinned, so he gets red quickly when he falls! When the bump seems especially bad, I put a Kool Fever patch on it (in lieu of cold compress). My cousin taught me this hack! It’s really difficult to get babies to sit still to ice their potential bruises, so these cool patches are perfect because they stick on their skin so they can go about their business. We buy the baby friendly ones and so far, they’ve worked really well. I cut them up so that it only covers the spot where he got hurt. The only time Squishy noticed them was when he fell flat on his face and I tried to put one on his nose. He kept pulling it off and tried eating it, so he ended up being Rudolf for a few hours.

Now that he’s confidently walking, Squish is spending less times in his stroller or our arms when we’re out and about. He’ll really let you know when he wants to walk—he’ll squirm his way out of your arms! It’s pretty tough to hold him back. When there’s a large open space, we let him walk. But we still have to hold him when we’re in shops. Otherwise, he’ll pull everything out of the shelves.

❤

We still spend most of our time at home, but I can tell that he really enjoys a change of scenery. When his Lola or Gwa-ma comes over to play with him, he’ll point to the door because he wants to go out. (He points at the things he wants now. Oh boy.) He loves going to new places and meeting new people. When we’re walking around the mall, he’ll wave at strangers and attempt to “talk” to other kids. He tries to play peek-a-boo with restaurant hostesses and sales ladies. He’ll also tug at our waiters when they serve us food. He may look like me, but he’s 100% his father’s son.

Walking in public means that we always have to bring shoes now. His Lola got him really nice rubber shoes, but rookie mistake: LACES. Oh my gosh, it’s so hard to get an excited baby to sit still while you put on his shoes and tie his laces. That’s why when it’s just us, we stick with his Crocs. So much easier to put on!

Shoelaces X.X

Seriously eating his baby bread.

Max ends up eating more when we’re in restaurants because people-watching preoccupies him more than Sesame Street. He’s also added more to his list of staple favorite foods (Soups, XLBs, Tofu, Congee, and Bread): birthday spaghetti, ramen, and Mikey’s/Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs (he only likes Mikey’s, not mine). He still doesn’t really like rice though. Whenever I give him some, he’ll just spit it out. But his love for noodles makes me so happy! We can now eat in Japanese and Italian Restaurants! Yay!

Such a sweetie, even if we cut his nap short.

I think his developing sense of humor is the funniest thing! He giggles when we’re conversing (him babbling, me asking him questions). He laughs when his toys do something unexpected. And we caught him laughing while watching Full House a couple of times too! Usually when they say funny words or when the characters engage in slapstick humor. Also, he’s such a ham himself! He has a very detectable fake cry which breaks into a pa-cute smile when he knows we’re not going to give in. When I’m not paying attention (like when I’m on my phone or watching TV), he’ll come up to me, sit on my lap, and put his hands on my cheeks and sway my face from left to right while babbling. It’s like he’s saying: “Mama! Pay attention to me!”.

Watching Full House. Right before he caught Mikey using his laptop and before the meltdown he had when Mikey wouldn’t let him play with it.

Mr. Daldal ❤

I’m trying to be a bit more deliberate with my use of language with him. Pointing out things and labeling them. He can say Mama now, but not on command. He usually says it when he’s in distress. Most of the time, he just babbles to himself while playing. Sometimes, he’ll babble WHILE nursing (very much like someone trying to talk with their mouth full). He also screams a lot when he’s excited. The first few times he walked unassisted, he did it with his hands in the air screaming like a banshee. Hopefully, the screaming is just a phase.

 

Squish cut his first tooth a day after his 10^th month (July 14)! We were in the car with Gwa-ma and Lola Myrna when I noticed something white in his mouth. I thought that he had eaten some tissue, but when we looked closer it was a large tooth on top! It wasn’t there earlier that day, so it really seemed like it came from no where. I was watching out for his bottom teeth to emerge because those are usually the first ones to come out. A few weeks later, his other top tooth came out too. So now he has two top teeth and he looks like SpongeBob.

That’s Mr. SquarePants to you.

The doctor said that his lower gums were swollen too, so we may be getting more teeth soon. I think the teething it making him clingy and fussy. There are times when he isn’t sleepy, but he will cry if I put him down on the floor to play. He just reaches out and says MAMA over and over again until I pick him up. And then there’s the all night nursing! Gah. There was one night when he wasn’t nursing, but he just wanted to latch and sleep at the same time. Every time I unlatched him, he would wake up. And he wouldn’t take a pacifier. So he just slept on top of me, hugging my tummy and latched at the same time. It’s kind of like he’s a newborn again. It can’t be easy to grow teeth. I wish I could take all the discomfort away.

En route to Baguio. He’s sleeping on my cooled down Precious Pillow.

Squish went on his first road trip this month and while we started off a little bumpy, he had lots of fun in Baguio! He was pretty manageable in the car. I think the trick is to delay his nap until it’s time to hit the road. Hahaha. That way, he sleeps through most of the car ride. We hope to be able to go back up again soon! Or maybe we can take an international trip soon! ❤

I still feel like a newbie mom. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away?

I always feel like I accomplished something when I get him to nap.

 

Our 10 month old Squishy

Wah. Squishy is now 10 months old. 10 months sounds closer to toddlerhood than babyhood. And he’s acting more like a toddler than a baby these days. It’s happening way too fast! Flashback to the first few weeks of his life and I was a terrified new mom just staring at him coo on our bed. These days, he spends more time on the floor crawling, cruising, and WALKING. I can’t believe that we have a walker already! I thought he would begin to walk at around 12 months. He still prefers to crawl (especially when he wants to get somewhere fast), but he’ll gesture to ask to hold our hands more often now so that he can walk longer stretches. He can also take a few steps on his own when he’s using both his hands to hold up something. Just today, even when his hands were free, he took four unassisted steps to get to me from across his play mat. Oh, and he also knows how to climb stairs! He did it the first time he was allowed near the stairs in his Lola’s house. The first time he did it, he was cautious and slow. But after he did it once, he was fearless! 😱

Another thing that he really likes doing is army crawling. His co-sleeper/playpen has height extenders, so he can comfortably army crawl under it to retrieve toys. The first time he tried to do it, he wasn’t really army crawling, so he hit his head and he cried. But he figured it out the next time his ball rolled under it again. Sometimes we think that he does it on purpose because he actually likes army crawling.

He’s becoming more independent every day. This developing independence goes hand-in-hand with his increased awareness of others. If you ask him to share his toy with you, he will hand it to you—he doesn’t really let go yet, but it’s a start! He also likes to share his food with me and Mikey. When he’s eating and we open our mouths, he’ll put his food inside them. He also invites us to play with him. When I’m on the bed and he’s playing with Mikey on the floor, he’ll call out for me and kind of motion with his hands for me to come down. It kind of looks like he’s hailing a taxi. It’s so cute and very hard to resist.

This little boy kind of knows when he has a captive audience. He made friends with all the security personnel in our building. He waves at them when we see them. He will also initiate clapping after he does something he knows is “impressive”—like when he inserts a shape in the right hole or when he eats his food from a spoon.

Maaaaxiiiieeee!

One of the things we do now is we try to woo him by calling to him in a sweet way: Maaaxiiieee, we would say, with a big grin and inviting eyes. He loves it! When Mikey does it, he cackles and turns to me, and then he peeks back at him waiting to be called again. Mikey keeps going until he “catches” him, and then he traps him a tickle bear hug.

His play got a lot more complex this month! One day, he just started playing with his toys the way they’re meant to be played with. He has this dog walker thing where you can shoot balls into it’s mouth to make it talk. (It’s not as weird as it sounds.) (Mikey: It’s exactly as weird as it sounds.) I’ve been trying to get him to shoot the balls in for months but he seemed uninterested. And one day, he just cruised towards it and did it! And soon after, he started playing with his shape sorter toys and he’s been putting the simpler shapes (the ones you don’t have to really rotate, like the circle or the star) into the right holes. It’s amazing! He’s kind of obsessed with putting things inside other things this month. He has stacking cups that he doesn’t really stack yet (although I caught him trying to do it before getting frustrated), but he finds smaller toys to fit inside the cups. He also likes to get into his toy boxes. He’ll sit or stand in them and play.

Watching other children play.

He still primarily plays by himself, but he’s fascinated by other children, especially those just slightly older than him. It’s kind of sad though, because they don’t exactly feel the same way about him. So Max just ends up looking up with wonder at these slightly larger humans, most of whom are minding their own business. Mikey saw this the other day and started getting teary eyed.

Squish trying out the hamster wheel.

We recently took him to Kidzooona. It’s this heavily padded baby-proofed play area where he can roam around freely. There’s a ball pit, slides, different play centers with manipulatives, a bouncy area, and these inflatable hamster wheels that you can run in. He loved it! We loved seeing him so free!

I think that he’s mastered object permanence already because he experiences separation anxiety from us. When either of us goes to the bathroom, he will cry and crawl to the bathroom door and pound on it until someone distracts him. He also looks for toys that rolls under our furniture. I’ve caught him prostrated while trying to reach for something under his little couches in his play area. It’s kind of funny because he grunts as he tries to stretch his arms to get the toy. He also expresses displeasure when he doesn’t get what he wants. It’s harder to distract him now that he remembers. Sometimes, he’ll kind of throw a fit—he’ll cry really hard and try to wiggle his way to whatever he wants.

Eating is still kind of a hit or miss thing with Squish. Sometimes he eats a lot, other times, he’ll take two or three bites and then he refuses to open his mouth for another bite. We’ve tried letting him feed himself, but he doesn’t eat as much and the food gets everywhere. But we noticed that he will eat more when we feed him using our hands. It’s very strange.

Breastfeeding is kind of sporadic now. Sometimes, he’ll just latch for a few seconds and then continue playing. And I noticed that he does this more when I leave him for a bit with other people at home. Or when there’s someone else in the play area with us. He’ll play with them and then return to me and get into my arms and get into the feeding position. Other times, he breastfeeds like a wild animal, which can hurt. He looks around while latched. He interacts with his surroundings while latched. And he stands up and sticks his butt out while latched. It can get very difficult, but it’s still the best way to put him to sleep, and he still likes to breastfeed after every meal. We’re considering mixed feeding when he turns 1 because he’s starting to undress and grab me in public already, like I’m some sort of vending machine. 😑

 

We’re horrible parents—we let him watch videos on our TV (we love our Chromecast). He loves Sesame Street, Hamilton, and music videos in general. It’s so useful when we need him to stay still, like when we’re changing a poopy diaper, nebulizing him, or when we’re too tired to entertain him in his carseat. We also use it when we’re out in a restaurant and we need him to sit in the high chair and eat so that we can eat too. But I have to admit that it’s really nice to sit on our couch and cuddle with him and watch TV as a family. I know, I know, it’s not good for him. But it helps us keep our sanity and surely having sane parents is an important thing.

I’m looking back at the last 10 months and I can’t recall an instance where I was bored. Having a baby really keeps you on your toes, and it makes everything zoom by insanely fast. I can’t believe we’re two months away from having a one year old!

2 days old.

9 months & 22 days old