School!

 The Japanese school year has begun!

Clara and Taran finished their first full week of Japanese public school and they did great! No tears their first day, and they've had a really good attitude every morning. It's been a steep learning curve for all of us, lots of materials to prepare and organize and label and we've made mistakes, but the teachers have been very patient and understanding. Since Taran is a first grader, we also got to participate in a special ceremony for kids starting Elementary school, called a Nyuenshiki. All the first grade kids and their parents got all dressed up and listened to speeches from the Principal and others, and then the kids were shown their classroom while the parents mingled outside. Taran was very wiggly and I had to remind him to be quiet a few times, but we made it through. 

I've been walking the kids to school in the morning and picking up Taran in the afternoon, since the first graders get out earlier than the rest of the school. I walked Clara home the first few days, but she's already okay with walking home without me, and there are a lot of neighborhood kids she can walk with, including a couple kids who live at our same apartment complex. 

Japanese school kids help clean the school and take care of the school grounds, and Clara is very proud of her green pepper plant and Taran has his own flowers that he takes care of. All the kids at school (minus those with allergies/special needs) have to eat the lunches provided by the school, and lucky for me, my kids love rice, haha. They're pretty picky when it comes to veggies, but they like Japanese food in general and so I haven't had to worry about them going hungry at school, which is nice.

Clara and Taran have a Japanese Language Instructor who tutors them four times a week and helps them know what to do, where to go, etc. She's also been super helpful at answering my questions and letting me know if the kids need anything. Homework has been pretty manageable so far. They always come home with a math worksheet and a couple sheets of Japanese writing to practice, and they haven't had any trouble with it so far. Clara was supposed to be in 3rd grade, but since she doesn't read any kanji yet, they recommended she start in 2nd, and so her Japanese teacher is going to help her review her hiragana and katakana and then help her catch up on 1st grade kanji before she starts 2nd grade kanji. Since Taran is in 1st grade, he'll be going at much the same pace as his Japanese classmates, in writing at least. Clara and Taran are the only Japanese language learners in their school this year. I know they miss being able to talk to classmates, but they get a lot of one on one instructions as a result of being the only two kids in Japanese class and I'm confident they'll pick it up quickly. 

Taran is studying English reading at home too, a little everyday, and his English reading is coming along really well. He can read a full page in his reading book now (we're using a text called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons). Clara still loves to read and we have lots of English kids books that we got from a fellow American Jet, and the local library has a good sized English section too. 

In non-school news, the weather has warmed up already and the humidity has begun to set in. It's not too bad yet, we haven't needed to turn on the air conditioner, though we have had the fan on a few times. Our apartment is on the second floor and when I open the door and windows we get a nice cross breeze that cools down the house nicely. 

I'm almost in my third trimester of pregnancy now and so far everything is going well. It's hard to sleep because my hips hurt and I have to turn a million times a night, and sometimes I get bad heartburn, but other than that I'm fine. The baby is very active, especially in the evenings, and the kids like watching his movements and feeling his kicks. Clara is SO excited for this baby to be born, she wants to talk to him and wants to hug my belly all the time. I have to keep telling her that sometimes mommy needs her personal space haha. 

Braden is enjoying his work at City Hall. He says his coworkers are all really nice and the office atmosphere here is a bit more laid back than it was at the Prefectural Office in Nagoya. He does English story-time at the local library once a month and also does school visits in addition to his work doing translation/interpretation at City Hall. He has a little segment that he writes for a local city newsletter, and a lot of people at church and other parents at the school read it and tell Braden they enjoy his articles. 

Sorry it's taken so long to write an update on the blog, I've been pretty distracted and kept putting it off, but I hope you enjoyed catching up with us!

New Furniture and Explorations

Hi all! We got some furniture last week and the apartment is looking much homier now! The sofa and table came as is, but the kitchen cabinet, a bookshelf, and a TV stand came in flat boxes and I put them together myself while Braden was at work. I was pretty proud of myself for managing it, but boy was my right arm tired when I was done.

I got a small oven from a yard sale page on Facebook, so I can bake now. It's also a microwave (those Japanese sure are inventive when it comes to space saving devices). A couple days ago I bought a washing machine and it's coming tomorrow (yay for not having to walk uphill with a bag full of laundry). All we have left to get for now is a TV and a car. The car is going to be a lifesaver around here. The buses only run once an hour most of the day, and they're often late... or early. 

The kids and I have done a lot of exploring recently, mostly in the big Urasoe Park behind our apartment complex. The park is huge, and we still haven't seen all of it. Last week while we were walking we saw some wooden steps going up a small cliff with some stone masonry set into the hill, so we went up to investigate. 

Google called it the 'Iso High Tomb'. There was an explanatory placard nearby but it was all in Japanese. I found an English explanation on a sign elsewhere in the park.

It says: "This tomb was made from a cave in the middle of a cliff and the front of which was sealed with stone masonry. The entrance to the tomb is large and of an old style, and it is said that Esonoyononushi, the father of King Eiso and three Aji (local rulers) are entombed here." The kids thought it was pretty cool and asked me if a zombie or ghosts would appear haha. 

Speaking of ghosts, Urasoe park surrounds a pretty massive cemetery. We walked by it today on our way through a different part of the park. Okinawan cemeteries are really different from the ones on the Japanese mainland, which are all concrete and consist of many small monuments all crammed together in a tight space. The cemetery in Urasoe was full of small stone buildings with monuments out front, all lined up in rows like quaint ghostly houses. 

We saw one that was particularly large and even had its own stone courtyard of sorts. Taran bravely went in to investigate.

Another interesting thing we did today was walk down a cobblestone road that is more than 300 years old. I was following the Google maps navi trying to find a nearby shopping center, and it took us to a really rough, stony road that went very steeply down into a ravine, over a small stone bridge that traversed a narrow river, and then very steeply up out of the ravine (apparently the King who had it built did not believe in switch backs. Only the shortest route was good enough for him XD).

We found an explanatory placard at the bottom of the ravine giving a little history of the road and the King who was known to traverse it frequently. The final paragraph says: "In the valley where the Makiminato River flows, an approximately 200m long and 3m wide stone paved road remains. The road in this area was called 'umadukerashi' (umakorobashi) as the slope was so steep that horses often collapsed from exhaustion. The bridge over the river was rebuilt in the Taisho and Showa periods."

All in all it's been a pretty interesting last couple of weeks. I found a couple of Japanese tutors for the kids, and we made some new friends at the local LDS church. One of the families had us over for dinner a couple nights ago. They have five kids and Clara and Taran had a lot of fun playing with them. Their little girl Noa, who's four, wanted to follow Clara everywhere, and Taran was in awe of their eleven year old son Riku and his set of battling tops. I'm going to try and find some for Taran's birthday next week. 

Well, that's all for now. We're hopefully going car shopping this weekend or sometime next week, and I hope we'll have one by the time I make my next post. 'Till then!

Urasoe Shi

 We made it to Okinawa!

Sorry for the wait, we've been pretty busy the last few days trying to set up house and such. Okinawa is beautiful, and the weather right now is great, warm but not stifling, and it feels like there's always a breeze coming from the ocean. 

On Monday we met in the lobby of the hotel where we did our quarantine with the other JETS, and then we were ushered onto a shuttle and to the Haneda airport. The flight to Naha was fairly smooth, no problems, and then the nice people from Urasoe City Hall met us at the airport with a cute banner that said "Welcome Braden, Melissa, Clara, and Taran." They asked if we were hungry (we were very hungry, as we had not had much to eat at the airport or on the flight) and Clara was craving McDonalds, so our first stop was Mcdonalds haha. After two weeks of cold meals the hot burgers and fries were amazing. 

After that, Braden was taken to the real estate agent's office while the kids and I were taken to a big park containing the ruins of Urasoe Castle. It was really interesting.

The views were AMAZING. The ruins were cool too, you can see them on the right of the picture where Taran and Clara are running up the path. I'll have to take a better picture of them next time. After Braden finished at the real estate agent's office, we all met up at the apartment and the real estate agent showed us the apartment and gave us the keys. It's a really nice little place, clean and well maintained, though the exterior is not very attractive.

For the last few days we've been doing a lot of shopping and exploring. The people at City Hall have been really great, taking us shopping and showing us where we can get good deals. We ordered some furniture from an outlet store, delivery on Wednesday, and then we were able to buy a stove and food. I'm glad I can finally cook again. Despite not being a very adventurous cook, and despite regarding cooking as a chore, I love eating home cooked food. 

We live very close to Urasoe Park, which is BIG, and contains not only castle ruins but a big playground and slide as well. The play area is on the other side of the park, so it's a bit of a walk, but totally worth it.

The kids really enjoyed playing around in the park, even though the big playground was closed due to Covid concerns. They still got to ride the big slide though. There were so many butterflies and birds, and it was so sunny and warm. It's easy to forget that it's November!

Braden is getting settled into his new job at Urasoe City Hall, and today he got to interpret for a couple of Marines who called City Hall with questions. 

The kids liked the big tree outside City Hall. It had a lot of vines on it and the kids told me it was the tree's beard. The building itself is pretty large, and Braden works in the International Relations Division on the 4th floor. It's only a ten minute walk away from our apartment, which is very convenient. 

Yesterday we got to visit Urasoe Elementary School, where the kids will start school in April (the Japanese school year begins in April, and we decided to homeschool until then so that the kids can learn a little more Japanese before they start). City Hall told us that all the kids starting first grade next year are required to have a health exam, and it happened to be yesterday. So we went, along with a bunch of other Japanese parents and their five year olds. We were the only foreigners that I saw, but the staff were very helpful and patient with us as we tried to navigate from one room to another. It was a fairly basic health exam, with quick checks of vision, hearing, teeth, speech and development, and then a doctor checked his heart and lungs. Taran was very sweet and told everyone ever 'konnichiwa!' and was greeted with smiles every time. Clara had fun tagging along and watching the proceedings. When it was over, we took the kids to the local convenience store for an ice cream.

Today, the kids and I rode an Urasoe City Bus for the first time. We don't live super close to any grocery stores (very different from when we lived in Nagoya and there were THREE within easy walking distance). We went to the nearest department store called San-A (in Japan, a large department store is like a small mall, with lots of stores and even a food court). We had fun exploring and then we ate some food and had ice cream at the food court. I filled a backpack and a big bag with stuff and managed to get it home, though I was sure tired by the time we got off the bus and trekked up the hill to our apartment (we live nearly at the top of a big hill). 

Anywho, that's all for today. Tomorrow we're going to a JET meetup near Okinawa City. Next week, our furniture is coming and I'll take another pic of our apartment when it's more filled up. The big appliances will come later, when we can get to a second hand shop. In the meantime, someone at City Hall gave us a medium sized fridge and we have a coin laundry nearby, so we haven't gotten a washing machine yet.

Until then!

Last day of quarantine! We are so excited to get out of here!

Here's some pics of what we've been doing to stay entertained during quarantine and the view from our hotel room:

As you can see, we've all had a lot of screen time, hehe. Taran made those little drawings on paper coasters that came in the room, and we also had some origami paper that we got in our bag of instructions when we arrived. I also had my embroidery and my e-reader, both of which have helped to pass the time. The view of the city from our window has been nice to have. A couple times the kids saw window washers cleaning the building next to us and they thought that was pretty cool. 

Tonight for Halloween we're going to eat some little ice cream cups and pocky (chocolate covered cookie sticks) and watch Halloween movies. And then tomorrow, we're off to Naha! We meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30am with about five other JETs who are also headed to Okinawa, and then a shuttle will take us to the airport. Our flight is ANA471, leaving Haneda airport at 11:15am and arriving in Naha at 2:15, so about a three hour flight.

Clara says that the first thing she wants to eat when she gets out of here is McDonalds, haha. I told her that the airport might not have a McDonalds, but we'll be sure to get her something tasty. 

I'll be sure to put some photos of our new apartment in my next post!

 Welcome back to the blog everyone!

It's been a while since I last wrote an entry here. We moved from Nagoya, Japan to Federal Way, Washington in the summer of 2017 and now, fall of 2021, we're back in Japan! Braden applied for the JET program again, the same program he was in while working in Nagoya, and once again he was accepted! This time, he has been assigned to work in Urasoe City Hall in Okinawa, Japan. 

It's been a wild ride getting here. We're currently in our 11th day of our 14 day quarantine at a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We flew to Tokyo on the 16th (arrived on the 17th) and after a long and grueling walk through the airport presenting our negative covid tests, getting another covid test, and navigating various checkpoints (I have since dubbed this journey 'the trek through the nine circles of bureaucratic hell'), we finally made it to Immigration. The kids were real troopers, but we were all very tired by the time we got there. Thankfully, since we had kids with us, we were permitted to skip the regular line and use the Priority line (thank goodness for small favors). After getting through immigration, then getting our bags and getting through customs, we were ushered onto a shuttle to the hotel. The Japanese Consulate in Seattle, the Nippon Travel Agency, and representatives from JET and CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) were all extremely helpful when it came to helping us get the right paperwork ready and arranging everything, it all would've been much more difficult without them.

Life in quarantine is pretty boring, but we've got a schedule figured out and we haven't gone crazy yet. The kids do school work in the morning, we exercise, call family, watch music videos, and then in the afternoon/evenings we play video games or watch TV. Braden has been doing online orientations and classes in the morning while I help the kids with their school work, and it helps the time go by.

The room we've got is nice, and very spacious (by Japanese standards). Probably the most unpleasant thing we've had to put up with is the food...

We aren't getting hotel room service. Instead, CLAIR has arranged for meals to be brought to all the JETS three times a day. The meals are typical convenience store style bentos. They aren't completely awful, and honestly I think that Japanese convenience store food is better than your average American convenience store meal, but the meals they bring us are cold, and there is not a microwave in the room to heat the food up. So yeah, stuff like cold fish and rice with cold cooked vegetables gets REALLY old after a couple days. There is a small store in an upstairs lounge that was set up especially for the JETS in quarantine and we can buy small pastries and instant ramen there to supplement the meals they bring us, but the kids complain a lot about being hungry (unlike us adults, they haven't quite honed the skill of eating something when you're hungry even if it's not that tasty). Good thing they like instant ramen.

But it's only for a few more days! On Monday we'll be boarding another plane, this one bound for Naha, Okinawa. We already have an apartment picked out and should be able to move in that day. The good people working at the Urasoe City Hall have arranged to take us to the Real Estate Agent's office as soon as we get off the plane to sign the necessary paperwork. We're very excited and can't wait to show you all pictures of our new home!

Here's some pics of the kids eating so you don't feel TOO sorry for them. But we're all very excited to get out of here and eat fresh food again. 

Check back in next week for my next installment. Goodnight!

3 Year Old Health Check in Japan

My little girl turned three this month (goodbye terrible twos, hello terrible threes!) and that meant that it was time for another trip to the local health office for a well-child visit. Here in Nagoya, as far as I can tell, it is required to bring your child to the municipal health office for their 3 month, 18 month, and 3 year well-child appointments.

It's generally expected for all people in Japan, children and adults, to get a health check done once a year. My husband had one done recently at his office (most offices and schools hold mandatory health checks once a year for their employees or students). His blood pressure was high and so he was required to take a couple hours off to go to a meeting about how to manage one's blood pressure through a healthy diet and exercise. I've been asked by friends if I've had MY yearly health check done yet (I haven't), but I just tell them I'm not accustomed to going to the doctor unless I'm sick. In America it's just too expensive to visit the doctor unless you have a problem or are at risk for something :P.

Anywho, so I put Taran in his trusty baby carrier, buckled Clara into her bike seat, and off we went. It went fairly smoothly, even though it was 1 pm in the afternoon (Clara's nap time). We biked to the North Ward Office (Basically the branch of City Hall that serves North Nagoya) and took the elevator up to the Public Health Office. The office was full of feisty three year olds and their moms, a couple dads were there too, and since it was, as I said, prime nap time, not all the children were happy to be there. We got a number, and then I handed over the paperwork I had received in the mail a couple weeks ago. It was all in Japanese, but I got the gist of it, and was able to fill out the health surveys with only a little help from my husband (he's way better at Japanese than me, but I'm getting better :P). I then got a cup for Clara to pee in. I was surprised that they expected three year olds to pee in a cup, and was even more surprised at the number of moms who came out of the bathroom with those little cups full. As for me, I couldn't even get Clara into the bathroom stall, let alone get her to pee in that cup... But the staff said it was okay if I couldn't get a sample. They said if I wanted a sample done (I don't), I could get her to pee in a cup at home and bring it in at a later date (no thanks..). Once that was done we waited for our turn in the waiting area. It was a pretty big room so Clara was able to run around a bit with the other kids, so waiting wasn't so bad.

First up was the dentist. Clara screamed while he looked in her mouth, but he said that her teeth looked fine and she was free (I was a little worried about her teeth because even though she brushes everyday she doesn't let me help her, but it turns out they were ok, phew!). I had the option of getting a flouride treatment done but I had forgotten to bring the payment with me (it was about 800 yen), so we had to skip it for now (I can always take her in at a later date for that if I want). Up next was the developmental specialist. She showed Clara some books and pictures, asked for her name (which she did in English when I told her we only speak English at home), to which Clara replied, "No!" (typical three year old...) and then asked her age, also met with an emphatic "No!". The specialist just chuckled and when I said it was her nap time she said she understood, and asked if she knows her name and age and can say it at home (she can). She said everything seemed fine and we were off again, this time to the examination room. They asked me to strip her down to her underwear, which made Clara think it was bath time (unfortunately, no...) and once she saw the doctor she recognized that he was a doctor and started bawling. He checked her heart, looked in her mouth while she screamed, and then said she looked fine and told her bye bye. Once she heard bye bye she knew it was over and happily said bye bye through her little tears, and then we were off to our final destination, the nutritionist. By the way, all of these professionals were in the same area, but in separate rooms. The nutritionist asked me if she regularly gets protein and calcium in her diet (she does) and noted that I had written on her survey her reluctance to eat vegetables. She said that it was normal at that age for kids to be a bit picky but encouraged me to try harder to incorporate veggies into her food. Nothing like a health check to make one feel like a bad parent, eh?

After all was said and done I took Clara for an ice cream cone which she happily and sleepily ate (she seriously almost nodded off mid lick. It was funny to watch).

So that's what a health check is like for a three year old. Clara did well, I thought, aside from a couple short screaming episodes, but they were over quickly, and the staff seemed pretty used to it.

Clara is getting to be such a big girl now, and next month she's starting preschool! I'm going to write about that in my next post. Until then!

Visit to the US Consulate in Osaka and more

Sorry for the long wait (Again). I can't believe Taran is over four months old now. He's a big, healthy boy, and he loves to smile and roll over. His big sister Clara is a sweetheart who loves to give him hugs and kisses (though mommy often has to remind her to be more gentle since her hugs can be a bit, well, enthusiastic).

When Taran was about two months old we decided to make an appointment at the consulate to apply for his passport, report of birth abroad, and social security number. The consulate website was very organized and told us basically everything we needed to know and had all the links to the applications on one page for easy access. We printed and filled out the three applications, and then checked the list of necessary ID's, documents, etc. that we needed to bring. We brought our passports, the three applications (passport, report of birth, social security number) with copies of each, a certified copy of our marriage certificate that we had brought with us from the US, along with a copy (if you're not married but want dad's name on the birth certificate the consulate asks you to bring some kind of proof of relationship, like emails or something), a certified copy of the birth certificate (which Braden requested from the local ward office, I think it cost him a couple hundred yen), and a translation of the birth certificate. The consulate website had a simple English template you could fill out with information from the birth certificate. It didn't need to be done professionally and didn't require much Japanese skill at all, since it basically required information you would already know, like the birth date, time, place, parent's names, etc. The website also said to bring a large envelope (the specific type and dimensions are on the site) which we actually forgot. The staff at the consulate seemed used to that oversight though, because they just asked Braden to go to a convenience store next door to buy it and come back. Security seemed used to it to. Braden said that when he approached security to leave the building they were like, "Going to buy an envelope?" They let Braden leave and come back in without waiting in line and we got the envelope to the secretary without much trouble.

But let me back up a little. So our appointment was in the morning, and I was reluctant to wake up super early to catch the shinkansen (Both Clara and I are not morning people) so I booked a hotel near the consulate for the night before. So the day before the appointment we took the shinkansen to Osaka and checked into our hotel. (We live in Nagoya, and although there is a US consulate here, it is very small and no longer provides citizenship services. Darn it all.) The next morning we checked out and walked about ten minutes to the consulate. We waited in a short line in front of the building and had our ID's checked and left our water bottles in a little bin they had by the door (apparently the same no liquid rule when going through airport security applies to the consulate as well). After that we entered the building and had our bags and electronics checked (including cell phones) and walked through a metal detector. Then we showed our IDs again and got badges and were directed to take the elevator up a few flights.

We got off the elevator and entered a small office area with a counter and customer windows. There was a big sign directing people to window three but there was no one on the other side. We waited a few minutes before we started noticing people getting helped a few windows down so we got in line behind them and asked if we were in the right window. We were. (They really should've covered up the other sign. It was a tad confusing.) The secretary was Japanese (actually all the staff and security up to this point seemed Japanese. The security guards didn't speak English very well. The secretary did well enough, though it was a bit hard to understand her through the glass...). She asked for our paperwork and we handed it all over. There was one part of the application of report of birth abroad that we had not filled out completely (it wanted to know all the states we had ever lived in and what months, but I honestly couldn't remember what months I had moved in or out in some instances). The secretary said we had to put something there, so I made as good a guess as I could and finished the application. There was also a section that asked about previous marriages and included a field that said: "If you have never been married, write 'none'", or something to that affect. Well, seeing as how I am currently married (and thus I can't really say I've never been married) I decided that 'no' wasn't the right answer and left that field blank, but then the secretary said that it was referring to marriages before my current one, and told me to write 'none'. A little confusing, but oh well. Then she asked for our envelope, which we had forgotten, but like I wrote above, that was resolved quickly. Lastly, we had to pay. At first I was worried that they wouldn't accept a credit card and I had forgotten to bring cash with us, but as it turned out credit cards were okay. There was a list of prices on the wall, and online too, I think, and at first we thought it would amount to almost $300 for everything (the social security application is free, but the sign said that a report of birth was about $200 and it was another $100 or so for passport) but in the end we were only charged about $200. Maybe they waive the passport fee if you're also getting a report of birth? I actually don't know. I should've asked.

So after that we had to wait. Clara, unfortunately, had a cold. She had a bad runny nose, a slight fever, and was REALLY cranky. We tried as hard as we could to comfort her and entertain her but it was really hard. There was even a bin of toys in the room but Clara didn't want to play with them since there were a couple other kids playing with them and she was feeling shy. After about a half hour of waiting (which feels a lot longer when you've got a cranky toddler. Taran, thankfully, was asleep in his baby carrier) we were called over to another window where an American asked us to raise our right hand and we swore that everything we had written was true (Okay, so technically I guessed on some of the months we moved from one state to another when I was younger, but don't tell on me, k? Haha). The woman who witnessed our oath then checked our papers one last time, looked at Taran to make sure he wasn't a doll and we weren't trying to create a false identity for some future mischief, (At least I think that's what she was doing when she looked at him XD), then she said everything looked good and we should receive Taran's documents in the mail in a few weeks.

By the time we were leaving Clara was crying in earnest and I really wanted to get out of there. As we were getting into the elevator another mom in the office who was getting her kids' passports renewed stopped me and told us that we were doing a great job and that it gets easier. I thought it was a really nice gesture on her part and it really cheered me up after a stressful morning.

So we left the embassy and were getting ready to go to the station to take the shinkansen home when a fellow American walks out, complaining and cursing about his difficulties in renewing something or other, and then he gestured at the long line of Japanese people waiting to get into the consulate to apply for visas and loudly told us that he hoped America would stop letting f***ing immigrants in. I almost pointed out to him that the five of us standing there (the four in my family and him) were currently immigrants in another country, but decided it wasn't worth it. He walked with us a ways to the station, complaining all the while, before finally bidding us farewell to stop at a convenience store. I wasn't sad to see him go. I, for one, think it's great to live in a world where people are able to travel and visit, or even live, in other countries relatively easily (compared to, you know, the days when going to another country meant risking your life on the open seas and probably never seeing your homeland again). I really love Japan, and I love my home country too, and the people that are in both places. It seems like a lot of people these days have a very 'us vs them' attitude when it comes to immigration, and while I do consider myself an American, I consider myself a human being first and foremost. Anywho, sorry for the short political blurb...

We got all of Taran's documents, as promised, with the passport and report of birth coming first and the Social Security card coming a little later. The report of birth form sure is fancy, I gotta say. They reaaally don't wanna make it easy to forge one of those things. Just looking at it is like looking at one of those "Magic Eye" stereogram images that look 3-D if you stare at them long enough.

Well, I'm gonna finish this up for now, since Clara just woke up from her nap. I only have free time on those lucky days when she and Taran nap at the same time, but most of the time I end up taking a nap too! Oh well :P.