More snow!!

It snowed today- Kagoshima got 10 cms which is pretty much unheard of in December (or ever really) and so everything was thrown into chaos and Daisuke spent most of the morning on the phone dealing with students and other colleagues. Today is the last day before the school holidays start (although his holiday doesn`t start until next thursday.. stupid Japanese school system!) It has been a while since I blogged properly so I decided to play catch-up today! (as you can see from the posts below!!) It isn`t that I have been that busy, I just haven`t had much to say. Someone commented at the weekend that I seem to write about nothing but Joey and I guess that is true. Made me a feel a bit like a sad nerd because I realised that my life at the moment totally revolves around the baby and that there is very little else going on!! :-( I guess it can`t be helped though as he is still so totally dependant on me and I have to admit although it might be terminally boring for everyone else to read about, he is alot of fun to hang out with!! We went to a Christmas party on saturday at KAPIC and it was alot of fun. Got to hang out with a couple of other foreigners which is always nice as I get to speak english at a normal speed! It kind of got me more into a christmas mode but I have to admit that no matter how hard I try, Christmas in Japan really never happens for me. It doesn`t matter how many places have decorations and piped Christmas music, the spirit of Christmas just isn`t there! It all feels very superificial. Maybe next year once Joey is a bit bigger and more able to understand what is going on, I will enjoy creating my own traditions etc.. Speaking of my adorable son.. ( we all knew I would get to him sooner or later..) On monday morning as I was checking out my e-mails Joey was roaming about on the floor like he has taken to recently, pulling up on chairs and his walker etc.. when I suddenly heard a horrible screaming. He had pulled himself up on the ceramic heater which has a humidifier and he must have touched the steam outlet (which I didn`t even know existed or I would have been more vigilant) I quickly realised that he must have burnt some part of him and figured it might be his hand to tried to run it under cold water but he was screaming and struggling too much and I couldn`t keep his hand there for long. Then I tried an ice pack which helped a little bit but he kept throwing it away. He cried for about 30 mins and then fell asleep with exhaustion. When I was finally able to check his hand properly he had huge blisters. I didn`t really know what to do so I put him in his buggy and walker down to the pharmacy and got some cream and guaze for the blisters and put the cream on (using my best girl scout first aid skills) and wrapped it up pretty well and put a sock on it for good measure. I asked the pharmacy if they thought it would be worth taking him to the hospital and they said that with the medicine, it would probably heal on its own. joey was very very clingy all afternoon though so I knew he was definitely hurting. I had to teach that night and apparently while I was away he wouldn`t stop crying (I think this is a mixture of a separation anxiety phase he is going through and the fact that he wanted Mummy because his hand hurt.) so in the end I asked my student if it was ok to leave early and came back and we took him to the hospital. The doctor basically did the same thing I had done but obviously more professionally and we got bandages and medicine so I could continue to do it at home. I learnt my lesson though, going to the doctor and getting seen and getting medicine cost less than getting the same stuff at the pharmacy!! (and we get it all back because J is less than 6 years old) In the future i will be taking him to the doctor when anything goes wrong!!! He has a great big bandaged hand but other than that he is pretty genki so I am very relieved it wasn`t more serious..(He is actually asleep on my lap right now and just gave a big smile so I think he is dreaming about something nice...) I feel sorry for him though because he can`t use both hands to play or move around so he is finding it harder to do stuff and has been falling over more because he can`t grab onto stuff with his left hand.