umm, ha ha, (shamefaced)

Well I am here. Not much time to use the computer lately. His royal highness is trying to kill me, I think. He's having sleeping problems and because of his not sleeping he is super cranky not to mention me! Then there's the whole sleep deprivation thing going on for me, too. He has been going to sleep really late at night, or going to sleep early-ish (meaning before 10:00) but waking up 2 or 3 times a night because of bad dreams? or something. Given that I finally fall asleep after 10, and wake up 2 or 3 times at night, get up at 5:00, I was a little out of it this week. So I did some research on the net (thankfully I have mostly free afternoons at work)about kids sleeping. I found a book on Amazon that I'm thinking about ordering about how to get kids to sleep with out crying and one more by the same author about how to get kids to do what you want them to without nagging or yelling etc. I'm interested in what she has to say. I'm not really into hitting for discipline and I would really like to know some other ways to 'manage' the little guy.(Although tonight I have to admit to giving him a little slap on his butt because the little bugger bit me while I was trying to get him into the bath-grrr!) When I read some of her advice, though, I liked what she had to say, but I don't know how possible it all is. Like she says that the optimal time to put kids to bed is between 6:00 and 7:30. I think that Hiroki is tired then, he is always lying down and playing around that time. (and extremely grumpy)Then it's like he wakes up and he's a happy boy again, but impossible to put to sleep. So I think that that probably is a good time frame for him BUT I don't even get hom from work until 6:30 on Mon & Tues, after 8:00 on Weds and home at 5:30 on Thurs and Fri but I go out to teach on Fri night until after 9:00. So I don't know about that. Especially since we have to eat and take a bath before he can go to bed. But I'm thinking of trying to move up his bedtime little by little. All I know is he is going to bed too late now!!
What else is going on here...I've been busy at school because of elementary school visits and kindergarten visits, which I like a lot, and people coming to watch classes which I don"t like but whatever.
And I'm reading a book (or skimming I guess) a book about food, named SuperFoods. There's a lot of food we need to eat every day in order to be healthy, holy crap! I eat school lunches when I'm at school because they are supposed to be nutritionally balanced, but some days I think they aren't really done well. I think there are some days when they need more vegetables. The worst part is that they all have to be high calorie because they are made for kids and they are all active and need to eat a lot. Then there's the milk , which I mostly don't drink, it's 3.6% fat. Most people in Japan drink this type of milk. My friend always says it's like drinking cream. The worst school lunch is agepan , which means fried bread. Yuck. Basically the bread is like doughnuts, only harder. We usually get 2 of these, along with something that doesn't suit it, (like stew or soup or stir fry) and always fruit cocktail with sweet grape jello and sweetened yogurt. The whole lunch makes me unhappy- my mouth usually hurts at the end of it. It would be a great snack, though.
Besides that, not much else. The news is full of people murdering children, some their own. One of the articles I read lately was about a couple in their 20s who left their 2 month old son in the car while they went to play pachinko , which I guess is equivalent to bingo in Canada. Assholes. They left him there for 5 hours and when one of them finally got off their ass to check on him, they found him dead from the heat. Poor little guy.
Anyway, it is getting late and I should probably sleep when I can!
xoxo to you all