Family Outing

Yesterday we went on a little family outing. Indeed, you could say that we went shopping, although we didn’t actually buy very much.

For the first stop, we did make purchases. We went to the outlet shop at a local bread factory. Yuriko buys most of our bread there these days, because the bread is quite nice, and very reasonably priced. This was the first time I or Mayuki had been, but Mayuki slept through the experience; she just does not understand what is important to her mother. Yuriko was actually a little disappointed, because most of the bread had already been sold when we got there. She normally goes a couple of hours earlier, and on a weekday, which I suspect makes a big difference, but we were able to get enough bread for the week. One nice thing about getting the bread there is that they give you free bread with every purchase, and it’s a different kind every week, maybe every day. That means that we get a chance to try a wide range, and thus broaden our horizons.

From there, we walked to Tokyo. It’s just over the river, so it isn’t very far, and the walk across the river bridge is fairly pleasant. On the other side, we stopped for lunch, at a Chinese restaurant. One notable feature is that the restaurant is directly under the railway bridge, so every couple of minutes the whole place shook as a train went by overhead. This did not seem to bother Mayuki in the slightest; she sat and played by herself for almost the whole meal.

Mayuki has recently got a lot better at sitting up. Yesterday, when she sat up by herself for at least fifteen minutes without any intervention, was the best yet. She can lean forward to study her feet, and then sit back up straight, all without falling over. Possibly as a result, she does not like being put down on her back anymore, and immediately cries. Put her down sitting up, however, and she’s a lot happier. This is an important bit of information for me, since I will be looking after her today.

She’s also got a high chair now; it arrived last week. She really likes sitting in it, and we put her in it and bring it up to the table at meal times, so that she can be with us as a family. Of course, she doesn’t eat at the same time as us yet; it’ll be a little while before she can feed herself, but probably only a little while.

Anyway, back to yesterday. After lunch, we went to the big shopping centre so that Yuriko could use the nursing room to feed Mayuki. I slipped off to a bookshop while that was going on, and they came to find me afterwards. Finally, we went for a drink at Starbucks. Unsurprisingly, it was quite busy, so we had to walk round a few times before finding somewhere to sit, and during that process Mayuki became thoroughly bored and fell asleep on my shoulder. She didn’t wake up again until we were on the train home.

Mayuki was good all afternoon, and she seems to be thoroughly used to trains and buses, so it looks like short trips with baby are a perfectly practical thing to plan. We’re looking forward to them.