Riding on the second roll of my triple-layered belly.

This week, I got the baby's passport.

I took the baby with me to a dental appointment.

Gold toothIt was to adjust the height of a.

I usually leave the baby with my husband, who works from home, when I go to the dentist,
but I feel bad every single time,
and since they said this appointment would be short, I brought the baby along.

I traveled by car.

When I arrived at the entrance of the building where the dental office is located,
an elderly woman was standing in front of the stairs.

She had her self-standing cane placed to the side and was sending a message to someone on her smartphone.

When our eyes met,
she asked,
"Are you going to use the elevator?"

To tell the truth, I was pushing a huge stroller, the kind that is so typical of America.

"Yes, I am. Why do you ask?"
I asked,
and she replied,
"The elevator isn't working."

Sure enough, there was an 'out of order' sign placed in front of the elevator.

"Isn't there another elevator?"
"There's only one."

Are you kidding me...

After weighing my options,
I decided to take just the contents of the stroller to the dentist.

Let me explain about the 'contents'.
It might not be standard in Japan,
but travel systems are popular in car-centric America, and that's what we have too.

It's a system where you fit a baby seat (car seat) into a stroller designed for toddlers, like a matryoshka doll.
The inside of the matryoshka weighs about 3kg.

In other words, when you add the baby, who is just under 8kg, it comes to 11kg.

I had no choice but to carry that up to the dental office on the third floor.

Living in America requires as much physical strength as it does financial power.
Milk, vacuum cleaners, detergent, opening and closing windows, Costco, and car seats.

This time, I had to go up three flights of stairs, so I needed MAX Power.

I returned the outer shell of the matryoshka to the car,
and re-entered the building with a heavy thud.

As I started climbing the stairs, I saw that elderly woman halfway up, huffing and puffing.
She was with a nurse.

When she noticed me,
she said,
"You're young, aren't you."

It was just like the grand staircase scene from Howl's Moving Castle.
Even her comment from earlier played back in my head in the voice of Akihiro Miwa.

I managed to reach the dentist and had my treatment as planned.

My child was crying because they were sleepy, but they stopped crying when the dentist and the hygienist talked to them.

After that, they quietly observed me from afar while I had my mouth open.

When the treatment was over,
I suggested,
"Would you like to hold the baby?"
and she immediately picked up my child as if she had been waiting for that moment.

Well, to put it simply, the dentist is a Korean lady.

It's a by-appointment-only dental office, so I probably had about an hour slot.
She spent about 10 minutes just holding my child.

She kept saying 'Good baby, good baby' and was clearly impressed.

My child could see me, their mother, and since they weren't shy around strangers yet, they were all smiles.

Riding on the second tier of the auntie's triple chin, my child was intoxicated by the outstanding stability and softness.

I am thin, and having lost even more weight after giving birth, I have almost no soft spots left except for my chest.

Raising a child in a foreign country, it's easy to end up isolating yourself if you're not careful.

I hope you get held by many different people and learn about society.

As expected, my child was sleepy and crying their eyes out again in the car on the way home.

The end.

Have a great day, everyone!