Third Culture Kid(s)

Part the One: Obon

We went, we saw, we were conquered. By the toddler, who insisted on running amok at every opportunity. At one point, “running amok” meant slamming into the shins of a young woman, falling back on her butt, and then banging her head on the pavement. The girl was beside herself, simultaneously apologizing (for which I tried to reassure her that she had done nothing wrong) and telling me I needed to keep an eye on MM (thanks, I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m running after a 2 year-old while pregnant and wearing bad shoes). At least there were other amok 2 year-olds there, and the quiet ones were locked into the baby-jails of their strollers.

One of these days, I’ll remember that we can bring both a blanket AND our own food - not that the food was bad, because it wasn’t bad at all - we could all have just used a little more (think onigiri, which M. is constantly on my case about not making). But my niece and nephews seemed to have a good time, I was able to catch up with my Japanese playgroup friends, and I even got in a little bon-odori before the toddler meltdown really kicked in.

And we did get a few good pictures - the lovely little jinbei that MM is sporting was donated by the equally lovely L.:

With Daddy, who is clutching his Ramune bottle for dear life

Still clutching the bottle…

And one that just came out very well. We’ll be sending these pics to Grandma and Grandpa.

*******

Now for something completely different.

Which is going to have to wait, because M. is now ready for his dinner. After keeping me waiting for 20 minutes while he futzes around on the computer. Argh.