"I wanna see the Moon, Daddy!"

Man, Cow, Bunnies? Cheese or Mochi?

So, I'm sure you're all familiar with the classic bedtime story "Goodnight Moon"(Available in English and Japanese). Well, our little girl became so enamored with the moon, that her nightly routine was to look out our bedroom window and say Goodnight to it before going to bed.  Then, later that night she might wake up in a panic, and wouldn't go to sleep until she saw the moon again!

So, it became Daddy's duty to take her to see the Moon.

Oftentimes, it would be somewhere around, oh, I dunno... 3 am.  Mommy has work in a few hours, and is not in the mood.

She would be in full hysterics: Screaming "Where's Moon?  Where's Moon!" through her tears, with snot streaming down her face.

See, the moon could be seen out our eastern facing bedroom window early in the night.  Through the night, the moon would pass overhead, and to the west.  If she woke up early, it was trivial to take her to a western window, and point the moon out to her.  This would be enough to satisfy her and put her back to sleep.

But, if she woke up later, then the moon had moved farther to the west, and was now on the other side of the building next to us. This means we have to outside and find it.

Yay...

So, still quite inconsolable, I have to put on some warmer clothes, usually just a jacket. Then, I carry her downstairs (she's still crying and has a runny nose, by the way), put on my sandals and step out into the chill of the still too early morning.

As we are walking to the sidewalk, she's still whimpering "Where's Moon, Daddy?! Where's Moon?!"
"We're going to go find it for you" I tell her.

Luckily, we live pretty close to the corner, so it's less than a minute before we can see it, The Moon.

"YAAY!  Look Daddy!  The Moon!  The Moon! Hi Moon!" she cheers, as she waves to the moon up in the sky.
"Yup, there it is! Moon says 'Hi' to you. You can go to sleep now, right?" I plead.

"Let's push the button, Daddy!"

The crosswalks at the next corner make a BE-BOOP! sound when you press them.  The button isn't too hard to press, and she loves hearing the sound when we go to the park.

"I wanna push the button, Daddy!"
"Of course you do. OK, let's go push the button."

It's just a short walk to the next corner, and the whole time we are walking there, she's either in my arms, or up on my shoulders. The whole time, saying, "Hi Moon! I missed you, Moon!"

We get to the corner. "OK, Here you go, time to push the button." BE-BOOP! it chimes.
"OK, you got to push your button, let's go home now." I beg.
"Daaaaddyy, we have to cross the street! We pushed the button!" She reasons.

Ugh, my disciplining has come back to haunt me. I've trained her that she only gets to press the button if we are crossing the street. Otherwise, she'd press every button, even when we were'n heading in that direction.

Good job listening and following directions, kid.

"Allright, let's go." We cross the street.  Since we are already here on the other side, let's now just do a lap around the intersection.  BE-BOOP!  BE-BOOP!

BE BOOP!

Now that I've gotten my late night exercise, it's time to head home. Usually by this time, she's saying good night and waving good bye to the moon as we walk back, and is starting to pass out in my arms.  Luckily by now, her nose has cleared up, and my shoulder is safe.

By the time we get home, she's in dream land again.  My wife and I still argue if she's dreaming of eating cheese with the man on the moon, or making mochi with the bunnies on the moon.

My vote's for the cheese, but I get overruled when we go to Japan.

I put her down in her bed, and am glad that the night wasn't overcast.  I've since learned to put an image of the moon on my phone, so she can see that when the moon has it's own blanket on.

As I crawl back into bed and get ready to go back to sleep myself, my wife scolds me for having ice-cubes for toes.

Gaijin Daddy just can't win.