Mickey Mice

Sapporo / July 4, 2006 / Tuesday / 5:3O p.m.

Theo is at home in Tsukuba as I am writing this blog entry in Sapporo, the main city in the island prefecture of Hokkaido. Since Sunday, I brought our lab's Tunisian JICA trainees to this city for a visit to Hokkaido University as well as for some sightseeing. As I am writing this, they went with the Bosnian JICA trainees to some historical village somewhere in the countryside. I opted to stay in the hotel since I was not too interested in their destination. Besides, I am nursing a cough and a cold which I hope would disappear before the week's end. We will return to Tsukuba tomorrow.

In my last entry, I mentioned about Theo's slight fever. That fever actually became worse, reaching up to 40 degrees C on Sunday night before subsiding for a few hours, then climbing back again to 40 degrees C on Monday evening before completely disappearing by Tuesday morning. In other words, it had two phases with a brief respite in between.


Theo's fever was 39 deg C when this photo was taken.

These two phases happened without Theo taking any medicine because we went to the doctor only on Tuesday afternoon. It was amazing, however, how quickly he recovered from whatever microbe infected him. When the doctor met him, his temperature was already normal; nonetheless, he was prescribed medicines for cough and cold which were just starting to appear. It is the same cough and cold that have found their way to Mommy D and me.

It was probably inevitable. We always kiss and hug our little Theo, so whatever microbe he's harboring, it'll surely end up in our system. It's a price to pay for parenthood, and we're not complaining.

By this time, it seems that all of a sudden, Theo has grown up. He doesn't want to be carried for a long time anymore and prefers to run around. He is certainly exerting his independence; he wants to feed and undress himself and goes where he wants to go. We have to be careful, however, when he attempts to run because he will almost certainly fall after some time.

He absolutely loves music, particularly those with fast beats. He would bob his head up and down and sway his body to the beat. It seems that his brain is wired for music. When he was still in Mommy D's womb, we would often let him listen to classical music for hours on end. If this is the effect of that, we do not know.

He has also grown much fonder of Mickey Mouse. The night before I left for Sapporo, we watched a Mickey Mouse DVD together and it was quite unbelievable that his attention span lasted for almost an hour in front of the TV. Can 18-month-old toddlers have that long an attention span? Probably not. He just loves Mickey Mouse too much, that's why.


Mickey Mouse and his lookalike

Tsukuba / July 9, 2006 / Sunday / 1:30 p.m.

By Wednesday evening, I was back in Tsukuba, and by then, Theo was completely well. However, Mommy D and I were still nursing ourselves back to health after coping with cough, cold and lethargy. By weekend, we were all fine. The photo below was taken yesterday at one of the play areas at the mall where we took Theo.



Tomorrow will be Theo's first experience at a day care center; it will only be for one day. Mommy D's tasks list has gone overboard recently and she just needs a full day to catch her breath. We also see it as a chance for Theo to meet toddlers his age and to learn how to interact with his peers. In November, we hope to enroll him in the university's day care facility so that Mommy D can also work. We want to prepare him slowly for being away from his parents for longer periods of time.

The older Theo grows, the more adorable he becomes. He can kiss us longer and hug us harder when we ask him to. And you should see him when he prances and jokes around...