Yesterday, there was an athletic meeting for Taka`s Ringo No Ki Daycare that he attends. A while back he had made a fan for the meeting and when he saw the fan he would say "undo kai" or so I thought. I am not sure if he heard and older child say this, was mistaken or playing with words, but last night he kept calling the undo kai the "unko kai" which basically means the "poop meeting". He sometimes plays with words and sounds between Japanese and English.
Flashbacks:
1. When he was just acquiring a few words he realized that the English word "car" and the sound "cah" and the Japanese word for mosquito "ka" all sounded simular so he would say all three quickly and laugh to himself.
2. One time he also realized that he could play with the sounds of the English word "bye bye" and the Japanese word "ba ba (his aunt)"so when his Aunt would leave for work he would go to the window and laugh and say "bye bye ba ba" "bye bye bab ba" repeatedly.
3. One time on a walk we stopped to talke to an elderly neighbor lady. Taka was trying to ring her bell on her bike (which he always did) this time when she said "cheen cheen" for the sound of the bike Taka got a very confused look on his face. I think he was trying to figure out why the grandma was talking about a penis "chin chin".
Starting back in September Taka started saying "daddy says...." and "mommy says....". Sometimes he makes mistakes and puts the English word in for daddy says but usually does not do the opposite for me. I wonder why? Now when he sees written Japanese he says "Japanese" and when I ask him to go get me a book, he usually brings back and English book. His dad does not like to read to him, so he only brings a simple machines book in Japanese to his dad. He is in the stage of pretending to be able to read.
A few days back Taka ate a persimmon "mmm, yummy" and now when he sees a persimmon he says "Taka eat persimmon.!"
I asked Taka his favorite color and he said "purple". Recently because of the Blues Clues DVD Shapes and colors...he always says "magenta", for some reason he likes that color. Sometimes he gets Magenta, pink and purple confused.
Recently he likes to use emotion words. When he is laughing at something funny he says "Taka happy" or "Taka funny" and when he is angry he says "Taka angry. Emma took toy. Taka bit Emma. Taka angry." He also uses "Taka hungry" and "Taka thirsty" "Taka drink the water." After seeing Elmo become scared because of a fire, he says "Taka scared" when he hears a siren.
He has been saying "fire engine" "ambulance" "airplane" "hikouki" since coming back from the states in July. He was saying "kyuukyuu sha" before we went to the states. His English and Japanese usuage skyrocketed after the trip to the US. Now that he can talk, he brings up quite a few memories from his trip to the states. When we go over bumps on the street to warn you to stop, he says "Uncle Ted bumpy too." Once he said "mama, Taka airplane to aunty`s." Last night he said "Uncle Nels" for the first time. "Uncle Nels drive lawnmower". It is interesting to see the associations he is developing and they usually recall the language/vocabulary that the event occurred in, but if they happened in Japan and he heard both English and Japanese while the event was happening...which (or both) word will come out when the memory is retrieved. (He said "Uncle Nels" when looking at a picture of a book with what looked like a lawnmower on the cover.)
Before we went to the states, he had a stressful life for quite a long time because of me being pregnant and sick and the death of the baby in February. Then in April his grandma was admitted to the hospital until her death while we were in the states on July 17th. Since we have come back from the states, Taka often says "baby died" "baby up in the sky". Once day when he was not feeling well and could not sleep he asked me "Mama? miki chan sick, miki chan died. Taka sick. Taka die? Just a few days ago he requested to play with his grandma. "Taka play with this grandma." He is only 2.7 months, but he has a lot of processing going on about the recent deaths surrounding him. (Our elderly neighbor whom we spent a lot of time talking to also passed away shortly after grandma, and when we pass her house he asks about her too.)
Currently Taka`s vocabulary is much more advanced in English which leads to a lot of frustrations when interacting in the strict "you must be like everyone else Japanese society". He does not see his dad enough to improve his Japanese enough. I am debating if I should send him more to Japanese preschool so that he will not stick out as much as a "sore thumb" as he already does just because of his looks and speaking English. He is clever and quick to pick up language but seems like he needs more exposure to his peers. I will watch closely for a while and then make a decision.
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