sleep cures all

Last Saturday night, we slept for 10 hours. Straight. Okay, Yuki slept for 12-1/2 hours, Philip slept for 10-1/2 hours, and I slept for 10 hours. I don't remember the last time I slept that much, uninterrupted. We have had instances where we slept in shifts in the morning adding up to about 8 hours, but straight-through sleep hasn't happened in over 2 years. Yuki has been sleeping well during the past month or so, but because I was directing until 10:00 pm, I was not getting to bed early and, consequently, neither was Philip. And then my parents were in town, so that added to the irregularity and finally, things were calming down and I was totally exhausted by Saturday night.

A new kimono! We can wear it to the Bon Odori festival!
Which was last week.
Crap.

So as we often do nowadays on Saturdays, we went to bed at 10:00 (yeah!). By 10:30, Philip was snoring, and I was struggling to watch the end of "The Closer." At 11:00 on the dot, I turned my reading light out. Then I had a series of really strange dreams. In one I was in high school and this gang of people and I blew up a wall to bust out and as I was running away like mad. I thought "Oh my god, I have ruined my future."

Project Grandpa

I woke up at 5:30 after that dream to stagger to the bathroom and went back to sleep to have some more odd dreams and woke up at 9:00 to the sound of Yuki cooing and Philip changing her. We were high five-ing each other recently because Yuki is sleeping until 7:30 instead of 6:00, but this was the first time she slept past 8:00.

A good night's sleep means more energy for running around like an insane person!

I didn't understand the clock. I couldn't lift my head. My brain has obviously swollen up from too much sleep. It was like my college days when I would sleep for 14 hours on the weekend. The amazing thing about sleep is that it actually fixes EVERYTHING. Our moods were better, my back ache went away, we were able to think straight and have coherent conversations. Awesome. While I certainly don't expect this to keep happening, I sure hope we get it again soon. It's a treat. On a different note on sleep, Yuki can now put herself to sleep. Well, she has learned to do this at daycare a while back because when the room goes black, and all the other kids go to bed, what choice does she have? But we have fallen into the pattern of putting her to sleep and since last time we tried "sleep training" was so stressful, we have not done it at home.

Yuki no like naps!

But last week, out of necessity, I put her in her crib at nap time and went to take a shower. I figured, I needed to get ready anyway and if she fell asleep, it was a bonus. I knew she could do it now, but she too has fallen into a pattern of having us help her at home. She was crying when I got in to the shower, and when I stepped out 10 minutes later, was still crying, but sparsely. By the time I got dressed, she was out. "I knew it!" I said to Trixie, then I was determined to start trying this at nap time at least. So I tried it yesterday and it took her 10 minutes. Then last night, Philip tried it at bed time and it also took about 10 minutes. This after noon was about the same, and tonight, she gave up in 5. This is great. This was the only thing I have been worried about lately and trying to figure out what would be the best way to break her/us of this habit. Thank you, Megumi School. This alone is worth the tuition.

"C'mon! We're going out!"

Lastly, but on the related topic of "thank you, Megumi School," Yuki is exhibiting signs of bilingualism. She now can clearly say, "Hi Trixie," "Bye-bye," "Mama, "Dadoo" (yes, he goes by Dadoo), but she can also say "hai!" when she is done with something, which is totally Japanese. "Hai is generally "yes" but we use it also to emphasize things, like saying "there, I'm done." She can also say "Dozo" which is "here you go." At the beginning of a meal she can put her hands together and bow if I say, "Itadakimasu"(which is a kind of thanks before eating) and at the end of a meal she do it again if I say, "Gochisosama" which is a kind of thanks for the meal you just ate). It's pretty dang cute, I tell ya. Also lastly, we scored at a consignment store today where I found a Japanese cartoon character (Anpan Man) toy cell phone--which speaks Japanese. 99 cents.

"Dirk? Hang on, someone's talking to me.
WHAT? I'M ON THE PHONE!"

10 hours of sleep. New Japanese toy for a buck. It was a good day.

It was a pretty good day for Trixie, too.