Its Raining Its Pouring

Taka loves the books Chicka Chicka ABC and Chicka Chicka 123. We only started reading Chicka Chicka 123 about 2 weeks ago and Taka is already pretending to read it by himself. We made this coconut tree and I can often find Taka by it, playing with the letters, and singing the chant. He also wanted to make our Christmas tree into an alphabet tree.

Takafumi loves to wear his rain boots and jumps in puddles. He also loves to carry around his umbrella even when there are no rain clouds to be seen. A while back, his dad fixed his umbrella with a needle and thread, and now whenever Taka sees a needle and thread he asks about fixing his umbrella.

He also loves to sing "Its Raining Its Pouring." He also loves to sing and splash to "Splish Splash I was taking a bath" while washing up in the bathtub.

Taka talk to Santa!

A few days before Christmas, Taka started telling me "Taka wants to talk to Santa". I bought a Santa suit, but could not find a person to play Santa, so decided to go with "Daddy Santa". Taka was super excited, and then wanted to wear Santa`s suit. I really have not talked so much about Santa, I just had Taka watch a Blues Clues holiday DVD and Dora`s Christmas. I guess from that, Taka really wanted to meet Santa.

Recently, I have been quite bothered by Taka because he will not let me get a word in with his father, he wants me only to talk to him. If I try to talk to his dad (or anyone else in fact) he screams at the top of his lungs. Then I of course do the same after unsucessful ignoring...then he says "Taka talk", I say go ahead, and he has nothing to say, so he just says "excuse me". I am trying to teach him properly, but ugh is it frustrating!

Also, in the car when his dad or I beep the horn at ignorant, dangerous driving moves of drivers, Taka always spits and says "go away car". (We have been reading the book "Go Away Big Green Monster.")

Whenever Taka sees garbage on the ground, he picks it up and throws it away. When he was a baby, I thought that I would just do that so he was a little environmentally concious, but it really seems like it has become a part of him. Interesting to watch the personality develop.

Taka often wants to "Talk to the man" or "Talk to the woman" if he thinks he needs to help. He is trying to be a little 3 year old grown-up!

A cat`s language

Why do little boys (and girls) but ezpecially boys love to chase cats? Yesterday, a friend, his 1.7 years old son and I went to put gas in my car (as my husband had always done here it here in Japan, I was afraid to ruin my husband`s gas tank by putting the wrong gas in or something). When we arrived home, his dad was looking at the car manual in order to explain something to me, I let the son out of his car seat. There was a curious cat that came to check out what was going on (and maybe score some food). A chase ensued. All the way to the neighboring temple and into the woods where I asked the boy to say goodbye to the kitty. The boy had squeeled with joy throughout his little pursuit. Why does chasing cats give such joy to little boys?

Most all of the trouble my son got into up to about the age of 2.5 had its origins in cat chasing. He went through a period of kicking the cats, screaming with delight as they scrambled away, and pursued them to the depths of their despair. Now he is into bigger and better things like turning on excavators and other machines and unknown to me, letting them idle for days. As for his current attitude towards the cats, he often makes efforts to pet and hug them, but they want nothing to do with the little imp. During imaginative play Taka mimics the tender preening the cats lives seem to revolve around. As a young girl, I remember my brother and cousins always torturing cats.

I am lead to believe that cats speak a special language--something like "come chase me little boy, meow."

That brings me to another childhood memory--one of me being chased by mean old geese in the yard. The chickens, especially the roosters, catching onto my fear of being chased enjoyed to take pursuit too, but one goose imparticular rerevolved its life around torturing me. For a time, I could not walk from the house to the shed or vice versa without hightailing it into full speed ahead. Have you ever been nipped by a goose beak? It hurts! Maybe I should have learned the langauge of the gander--honk--or just begged dad for a goose dinner!

Now that I am strolling down memory lane, I realize that animals were an important aspect of my childhood. I think my son really wants his own cat or dog, but considering the fact that he innocently almost commits goldfish homicide nearly everyday recently...I think I will wait a bit longer into his maturity before I even consider a bigger animal responsibility.

I remember the pond in the backwoods of our house--it was always full of ducks--their quack quacking filling the air. I do not remember all of the duck species names, but I remember my dad always promising to get me a green-headed mallard (the male). My dad never did come through on that promise, and I still do this day would like to have a green-mallard duck. I wonder if my husband would object to me digging a pond next to the house. It seems the Japanese can do just about anything to their property without fear of an homeowner`s association knocking on their door. Hmm, where did I put Taka`s spade?

I also remember the rabbits licking the salt blocks and happily nibbling the fresh picked grass I passed their way. (I was not one for grass back then, ate it once years later, upon being held down and forced by of my sister`s friend. However, I prefer meat.) Unfortunately years later I would come to love rabbit stew. Oh no, I have come to love duck roast too, I wonder if it was in the destiny of myself and in the fate of my wanted green-headed mallard.

I tried alligator once too while on a trip to Florida. Just tasted like less tender chicken. Oh my, I really do have a lot of memories related to animals, but now I have ventured to the eating of animals. Once on my way home after leaving a small American Navy base near Changwon, Korea I saw a cat being dipped into a pot of boiling water and then having its fur pulled from its body. Now if that won`t leave scars. Not on the cat, on me--psychologically! Poor cat`s fate.

Animal rights activist might have an issue with my next memory of experience, but I also tried dog soup when I was in Korea. It is not like they pull the dogs off the street for dinner. These dogs are especially breed for eating. No different than raising cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, fish and other living creatures for human consumption. I think it is more about the humane slaughter of these animals for consumption, just like the halal method of slaughtering animals. Temple Grandin is pretty much the advocate, no not only an advocate she creates the machines and teaches the slaughterhouses how to be more humane. ..I imagine that to the cows she is somewhat of a Goddess. Anyway, back to the dog story. I went with my hostfather to a small restaurant with the intention of trying dog meat. Unfortunately, while waiting I could hear wimpering of some dogs nearby. I do not know if those were the dogs raised for the purpose or just random neighborhood dogs, but it did not help my guilt at the time. We went in, and as my hostfather and the other teachers stared at me as if waiting to see me vomit or something, I ate the dog soup. It tasted like pork. I would not have know the difference if I had not know what I was eating.

Another tangent. The season of Thanksgiving. I remember the headless turkey still running around on nerve impulse after losing its head (ax).

Going back to the pets issue. When I was about 10 years old, I had a guinea pig. I loved my guinea pig, but I killed it. That afternoon I let my guinea pig out of its cage so it could run around and eat its fill of grass. I forgot him. Overnight. The next morning I ran to rescue the guinea pig and to my relief he was still alive. The next day however, I found him stone cold dead in his cage. Whenever Taka is holding the goldfish in his hand declaring "look mommy, fishie!" I do so cringe! I think pets our important in childhood, but right now I doubt my ability to train my child in proper love and care of a pet, protect the life of the animal, and keep my sanity.

As a child, I went through stages of wanting(besides always wanting the green-headed mallard duck): a chinchilla, ferret, llama and other exotic animals.

I do think that cats, other pets and animals are an important part of childhood. Animals seem to speak the same language as children.

Other Tangents

I just finished the well-needed motivational read for surviving multicultural mothering and realizing that I am not alone is this vast, solemn sea. The book is called "Call me Okaasan Adventures in Multicultural Mothering" by Suzanne Kamata with 20 women writers from around the world.

You can find it on Amazon. Also, take a look at Suzanne`s website: www.suzannekamata.com

Reading this book, relaxed me and calmed my many fears about mothering a bi-cultural child. It also helped me form a determination to ignore the ignorance and negativity that surrounds this issue, and focus on listening to my mothering instincts.

Now on to the topic of Taka and his playing with the Japanese and English language. Yesterday, again when I said the word "Bobby" his recall directly repeated his recent "booby" joke. In another incident in the car while talking about his friend who was moving to another city and I mentioned that Taka lived in the city of "Ono" he played with this too. He started saying "oh, no Ono" several times. He really has a sophistication for language. He even added theEnglish emotional tone to "Oh, no" and the flat Japanese intonation to "Ono". Again, biased, but he really is amazing. (He also plays a lot with the Japanese pronunciation of English words. Because of the structure of the Japanese language, they often had an extra "o" or "u" to the end of the word. For example, Taka says "Cheese" and "chizu" or "ice cream" and "iesu creemu" "apple" and "apuru". He always extra enucifies the ending that Japanese use. "Mommy says juice and daddy says jusu" or such things.

Taka tends to seek my help in the Japanese language when he can not express himself. Yesterday, he wanted his Uncle to stop holding him in a grip hold, but he did not know the words so he shouted "Mommy tasukete" or help me! His Uncle let him go, but I worry about his over dependence on my assistance when he gets himself into trouble.

He is an very active boy, who does get himself into problematic situations--often! Previously, many of this problems have caused by his love to follow, torment and most recently love my sister-in-laws cats. When he was 1, while chasing a cat, he ran ahead of me and fell into the cement mostly empty ravine behind the house. He smacked his head hard, so I took him to the Dr. just to make sure everything was alright. Of course, at the Dr. it was my fault causing my paranoia towards raising a clever, rambuctious child in quiet, conservative Japan. How much guilt would I have to endure throughout my son`s childhood?

Yesterday, as I was going to the toilet, Taka went to the mechanics next door. By the time I went to check on him, he had vanished to another hidden place that I could not discover. After an unsuccesful search, I tried to enlist the help of his uncle. His uncle did not understand me, so I was stuck with a lonely search. It did not last long though, cause I soon heard Taka`s cries. Then from a distant, I saw him holding his sweater and shirt and crying. I scanned for blood and broken limb, but luckily upon reaching him, it was just a bunch of prickly bears from the plants he had cut through in order to ride a digger. It was also a bit of shame and fright, loss of pride. With a hug, holding and gentle telling of his story, he was fine.

In a flashback, when he was about 1 years old, besides falling into the ravine, another day he fell into a carelessly placed cactus plant leaving him with two eye and hand/arm fulls of thorns. I could not get the thorns out, finally later in the day, it took me, his dad and his uncle to hold him down and pull out the thorns.

Taka is going to have so many stories to tell in this future!

Bye Bye tai!

As Taka tends to spend most of his waking hours with me, he acts and sounds like me too. Of course, he has his own personality, but I can see and hear "me" within his personality. Unfortunately, children seem to be excellent sponges of weak points! I know I yell at him too much! (Working on resolving that issue!) He also makes up the silliest songs a habit picked up from me.

Recently, he likes to say "wait for me". He often used "wait, mommy. I`ll be right back, will you wait for me?" (sometimes I am impatient, so he is making sure that I will wait. Children teach us so much, don`t they!)

In the morning, when Taka does not want to go to school, he tells me, "Taka worried." Seems like everyday he thinks of a new excuse. But once he goes to school, when he goes and comes back...he seems to have a sense of pride of "working" all day long. (I tell him that his play is very important work, and that I want to hear every detail about what he did all day long.)

The other night, when I was going to quickly go to the store, Taka wanted to come. He felt panic because he thought I was going to leave without him so he screamed "Bye Bye tai" Bye Bye tai" (the tai is what you add to a verb in order to make the `I want` form) He was trying to say I want to go bye bye. The things he comes up with when he feels anxiety and stress are so funny. His main goal is just to communicate his idea, but he goes all out. He is usually comfortable talking with me, cause I tend to easily understand him, but his dad and people in the community do not so he is stressed. (Especially if I am with him, then people in the community go berserk with confusion in how to communicate with him...umm he is growing up in Japan....I suppose you should speak Japanese to him...umm)

Another anxiety/stress thing...still sometimes when he requests to have more of something and I say no, but he really wants it....he will in a panic, revert to the sign language for "more", pounding his fingers into his palm shouting more, more, more, more.

Tangents

I know I should have started this blog a long time ago, but life circumstances did not allow motivation for that to happen. As I have a "easily lost on a tangent" tendency in my personality, I might lose the average reader a few times, just bare with me! I probably will bring up past issues to help clarify the progression to the "here and now".

Working.
For a couple of months now Taka has focused on pretending to be different workers. He always wants to help and feel important. He always asks "where`s daddy?" "Is he at work?" In hopes of Taka one day(in the far future, he is not yet even 3 years old!) easily choosing what he wants to do with his future, I try to use various different titles of all the different professions out there.

He likes to mimic traffic directors (guards) but tends to go into the street with this one. (Maybe we can choose a less dangerous profession??) He also pretends (sounds included) to be a combine, forklift,tractor, bascically any kind of driver. He often says "Taka is Uncle Ted" or "Taka is Mr. Maeda" (the nearby farmer whose farm we visit just about every day. He also aften says "Taka working!" or "Taka`s busy!" He also pretends to be the mechanic next door when he drives the car or when he fixes his "moped" (his little inside bike). He also likes to pound nails, but now mommy not forgetting the fishtank episode plans "board and nail creation time" where we make something together. (When mommy gets her butt in gear, we plan to make a wooden garbage holder together.)

Music

Taka loves music. Whenever he watches the Wiggles Itsy Bitsy Spider scene, he does not focus on the actions to the song, but instead pretends to play piano like Jeff. He does this all the time wherever we go, he has some kind of natural musical instinct. (The same goes for dancing.) Which is kind of funny because when he was in my womb whenever I was in a store and loud (usually rap) music came on he would go wild...I bet you he was dancing!) He makes up songs to the rhythms of songs. His favorite songs right now are "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Old Mcdonald had a farm". He is always requesting that mommy sing (or mommy not to sing so he can sing). He loves the months of the year and days of the week song. Now I am looking for some good number songs to sing with him. He seems to be developing a very analytical personality. (perfectionist like daddy, yet disorganized like the both of his parents?)

DVDs and Books
Most of TAka`s langauge in English is from me, DVDs and books. Taka seems to like academic material and has an intense curiousity. (poor mom, how do I keep my sanity about grabby fingers not so much accepted in Japan as the child gets older and Taka`s natural curiosity about creativity, future aspirations...etc?) He gains so much cultural/social understanding from books and DVDs.
He has a problem with biting, so I bought a Karen Katz book called "No biting" and he loves it! Hopefully it will quell his biting habit. (I had bought the book also by Karen katz "Excuse Me" and it worked wonders for Taka`s manners.
In terms of DVDs he learns so much......and makes connections to the real world.

As Taka develops and matures, his emotional processing becomes apparent. A couple of months ago while going to bed he asked "Mommy? Mik-chan sick? Miki-chan died. Taka sick, Taka die? Then a couple of weeks ago again while going to sleep he asked "mommy, Miki-chan died, Taka`s fault?". I have to be careful with my wording of explanation or Taka is worried all the time whenever any of us get sick. I tried to explain that Miki`s heart, lungs and body did not work correctly and that us being sick was different, we would get better. I have to buy a book on the issue as I think Taka learns better through books than through my explanations.
On the topic of "Miki" Taka has been playing with language concerning his sister`s name, the neighboring city called "Miki" and Mickey Mouse.

Requesting Japanese books
Recently Taka wants me to read Japanese books (and is always asking me how to say things in Japanese so that he can communicate better). Up until now, I had kept a "this book is in daddy`s language so mommy can not read it" stance. But now Taka realized that I can read Japanese (at least picture books) and wants me to read in Japanese. I have not completely decided on a plan of action to address this yet, but when I read with Taka in English, if his dad is around, I try to get his dad to go over the same vocabulary in Japanese. His dad is not always a willing participant but when he does Takafumi is super excited.

I have a lot of multicultural mothering issues too, but will post them later. I just wanted to end with a recommendation of a book. The book is called Call Me Okaasan Adventures in Multicultural Mothering by Suzanne Kamata with 20 women writers from around the world.

Learning!

Takafumi has taken a great interest in "learning". He wants to be able to read and write. He is always requesting that I take his hand and write words. We do some pre-writing workbooks together. He also pretends to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?"
Whenever his dad and I are reading or working he comes and asks us "benkyou?" or "what are you doing mommy? Are you reading?". He says he is going to work if he goes to houikuen. He is requesting a lot these days to watch "Anpanman", his favorite character is Baikin man (the villain) and he always mimics baikinman`s voice and behaviour. The problem with this is, the other children do not understand what he is doing and take the voice he is using as a threat. He has gotten into actual fights because of this. Because it invokes anger in so many children (especially boys) I have asked Taka if it is okay that we only do Baikin man impressions at home.

I melted it!

Takafumi has always been a great planner and calculator. In his mind, he calculates how much free time he will have when mom is busy (drying off after a shower, going to the toilet) and then does the things that he has wanted to try for the longest time. This time, after a bath, he ran to the refridgerator as fast as he can, dropped one egg and cracked the other in the bowl. (He watches the LeapFrog Letter factory video and he loves one scene where before exiting the E room, the professor cracks an egg.) Recently he wants to crack eggs all the time! So when I came to find him after drying off (he was too quiet) he said "look mommy, Taka cracked it, but oh no, I melted this one." He is so expressive and funny!

Big Socks!

Taka took down two of the stockings, put them on and shouted "Look mommy! Big Socks!". He often adds real real to adjectives and verbs these days. (Sometimes I run into the convenience store and say "I`ll be real, real quick!") Now whenever we go somewhere he asks "Taka real, real quick?" He is watching Blues Clues in this picture. Right now he watches mostly 1. Go Diego Go, 2. Dora the Explorer 3. Wonderpets 4. The Wiggles 5. Barney. He is not really interested in Elmo so much anymore. Whatever he watches, he wants to learn. He has a very strong natural curiosity to learn. He loves when he can improve his vocabulary and knowledge. He is really good at generalizing now. He makes some pretty intelligent observations and connections. I am learning from him everyday!
I would say the biggest struggle for me as a mom is the cultural aspect. My values that I am naturally teaching him through just being me are not really acceptable in the Japanese culture. He is always being scolded for being to loud and rough. He is gradually maturing, but I struggle with allowing him to be himself and the expectations of how a mom should raise a child in Japan.

End of the Year party

On December 9th, there was an End of the Year party hosted by the Kasai International Society. Paula, from Mexico made a Pinata and presented the way cultural aspects. Taka is familiar with Pinatas because I always make them for his B-day and Halloween Parties. He loves Paula, and gets shy when I tell him he can use the few spanish words he knows from watching Go Diego Go! He always points out that Paula speaks the same language as Diego and Dora. I plan to buy a program so we can start having fun learning Spanish too.
Right now, Taka is kind of in a stage where he prefers to learn Japanese. It seems because he feels he has good enough communication with me, but not with his dad and the outside community. He seems to have natural communication talent (genetics, always carried in a baby sling, and baby sign language history at play here?)
He was watching DVDs in English for a long time, but now his interest has kind of faded. I did start (in a scaffolding approach) start a Taka school upstairs. I was going to start homeschooling, but it is not for Taka and I, so I decided just to read to him and teach him how to read. No pressure, just fun. When I first wake him up, I state the day, date and weather. I give him a kiss, ask him how he slept and then start reading books (he usually snuggles in my lap). Sometimes he will request books. For example, if he hears a strong wind (this scares him) he asks what it is and when I respond with " it is the wind", he requests the book "The Wind Blew" by Pat Hutchinson. One of his favorite books right now is Froggy Gets Dressed. He loves to read books and learn new vocabulary. His grammar is improving too. He tends to use English grammar for English and Japanese grammar for Japanese now. (Before he always used Japanese grammar for both languages.
We sing both the months of the year song and days of the week song with flashcards. We do color and number flashcards and sometimes manipulatives (if I have the patience because he usually just likes to dump things out and throw them). He often requests to read the sight word readers that I have. His favorite is Go, Go. (We also do flashcards and play some games with sight word flashcards.
He knows his upper and lower case alphabet thanks to The Leap Frog Alphabet Factory and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! When we made a paper Christmas tree, he wanted to had the alphabet just like we did when we made a coconut tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
He can write the letter T which starts his name, and when he sees an A,T or a K he says "just like in Takakumi". A while ago he said Takafumi, but now he says "Takakumi".


Here is Taka with Paula, a social studies teacher from Mexico. Taka loves when we take Paula home sometimes when visiting another friend. When Taka was a little younger he was kind of timid of foreigners, often crying upon meeting foreign men. When he was about 2 years old, he started to become embarrassed when he would meet foreigners. Now at 2 years and 8 months, he is rather comfortable with foreigners.

Taka loves to pose for the camera and take pictures. He is actually getting good at taking pictures, he still misses the heads and mostly captures the most intimate parts. Funny! It kind of lets me understand from his point of view...that is what he sees all day!

Asim has a beard, and Taka is not crying. He finally got used to beards!

Taka is a complete flirt!

Picture for previous Post

This is Taka actually sitting still (thanks to the thought of getting some candy) and where he got in trouble for laughing.

October, 19th 2010

On Sunday, Takafumi attended his undokai (athletic meeting) for the morning daycare he goes to twice a week. Recently he does not want to attend the daycare stating "Taka sick, Taka sleeping all day. Ringo no Ki no, Taka sleeping (snoring sounds included)." Nonetheless he went and participated in the Undokai.

So I would like to point out two cultural issues that I noticed. The first was something I really did not like because of my belief that children are creating their identities and should be allowed to express themselves as long as it does not hurt anyone else. All the children were sitting down on the benches watching while the father`s were participating in a game. One of the father`s did something that Takafumi thought was funny, so he laughed out loud. The teacher scolded him for laughing, and showed him how to clap instead. I understand that in Japan, you must be like everybody else in order to survive, and basically you have to throw away your own ability to think in order to survive here.....but one can not even laugh? I am sure the Japanese teachers would not agree with me, but I was proud when Takafumi again laughed outloud when he saw his own dad do something that Taka thought was funny. Go Taka! LoL!

Another culture issue to address about the Undokai. The daycare Taka attends is slightly religious based. Their our short prayers and some religious songs I believe. The main 2 owners have quite a bit of expeirence working at a Lutheran International School, and all the staff really have great talent. They are definately Japanese in their strict adherance to rules and 1 way to do things, but use many techniques/styles that resemble the Western way of educational thinking. The one point that amuses me most is their use of bribery. I think the only reason Taka was sitting still during all the waiting time at the undokai is because he was expecting to get candy. He always says "Taka eat the candy at Ringo no Ki." I too sometimes rarely use bribery, but try not to because I know it will bite me in the butt all too soon. (Taka already says "Let me see." if he asks for something and I say I do not have money. If I do not let him see, he goes into my purse to see for himself. He caught on to how money works really quickly.)

Speaking of bribery, let`s turn to the issue of potty training. I know several people who have done this and have seen this advice in books. What? You will get candy if you poop in the toilet. You will get a bike if you poop in the toilet. I do not think the Japanese use this technique. I think they just do it as a matter of fact. When you go poop in the toilet it feels better than the hoozy, squeezy, stinky poop in your diaper chafing your butt. I went with the matter of fact method in toilet training and it worked for us. I can only imagine how using bribery would have backfired for me in the toilet training process.

Now on to a new topic. This does not have as much to do with TAka`s bilingual/cultural upbringing as it has to do with my Japanese language and cultural learning/experiences. I do believe what happens to me/and my reactions greatly effects/affects Taka, so I will include some of my memoriable experiences. (First let me say, that I am greatly trying to become literate in Japanese not only for myself, but so that I never have to rely on Taka to translate/interpret for me. That is not his job. ) So on to the most recent JAPAN experience.

I took Taka to a Sports Center in order to go swimming. I forgot that we had to wear swimming caps and to take off my necklace. As we entered the pool, a lady staff came out to tell me of the rules. She gave a detailed explanation using normal Japanese all of which I understood, and started to turn to go buy the swimcaps. As I did that she throws in the cross the hands in the x (or no position) and says "no" (something you might do to a toddler or a person with a cognitive disability). So my question is...why did you bother to give the detailed explanation if you just assumed that I was not going to understand it and in order to help me you had to throw in the Insulting "no". Ugh! Spreading awareness of difference takes so much patience. I really wanted to throw a tantrum like a child since she felt she had to treat me like a child. Living in a foreign country makes you understand the plight of all foreigners living in a foreign country.

More adventures in Japan and raising a bilingual child (and self) next time....

October, 18th 2010

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.

Summer Vacation in the USA 2010

Taka and I went to the USA from May 25th until July 21st of 2010. We first stayed with my sister Dawn in StevensPoint, WI, with her husband Ted and their two boys Henry (6) and Richard (4) until about the end of June. For 1 week Taka`s character changed, he did not know how to communicate with his cousins and other playmeates so he took to just watching and clingy to me for support. In about a week he learned the basics (manners, conversation starters, as well as ways to initiate play) of playing with English speaking children in Wisconsin. He develped a jealousy based relationship with his 4 year old cousin, as Taka wanted to be independent and Richard wanted to play the older brother role for once! Taka cried a lot in frustration when he could not communicate his desires and needs. He mostly needed to play with Richards electrical excavator, and usually bit, hit or kicked Richard instead of trying to use words (which were not yet in his developmental nor speaking vocabulary) like "let me play" or " can I play with it?" (Now at 2.7 years he can do that, well most of the time if he is well fed and well rested....tired and hungry is another story!) (Also, now Taka always is asking me what he can say in Japanese in certain situations, and listens (and repeats) my words like they are from God.)

Taka woke up now, so more reflection on his language development while in the states later....

Background Explanation

My name is Vicki and I am a 30-something mother married to a Japanese 50-something man and raising my 2 years and almost 7 month year old son here in the remote countryside of Japan. Of course, my goal for my son is to be bilingual with Japanese and English both his mother\father tongues(and if he choses so multi-lingual). I wanted to start this blog long before, but life circumstances and a bit of lazyness did not allow this to happen. To start I would like to put up a little background, so those who chose to follow this bilingual journey will know where it all started.

I first came to Japan in October of 2005 as a Japanese government teacher training scholarship recipient to research about learning disabilities in Japan. (I spoke no Japanese until coming to Japan. The program finished in March of 2007, I went home for a month and then came back to marry my now husband. We were married in the beginning of May and 1 month later I was pregnant with our first child, my son.

I knew before I was pregnant that if I was going to have children, I would natually teach them English. I hope also that my son will be interested in learning spanish and Chinese too in the future as I see that as a wonderful gift for his future prospects in life.

While I was pregnant I read story books aloud as well as books that I was reading, along with playing music to the womb via ear phones on my belly. During that time, my son would always move a lot when he heard music anywhere we were (he especially liked the rap music that played in random stores). His dad was practicing a piano song to play for a school ensemble and my son would always get excited in the womb when dad played piano. He still loves to move and groove to music to this day and is always begging to play piano with his dad.

Since my son was born, as I am pretty much the only English speaker around him, I have gone about each day in a running commentary of what I am doing, seeing, feeling, etc. Now that he can talk, I do not run my mouth as much, but still try to enhance is vocabulary. I guess I kind of talk to him like an adult. Especially now at about 2 and a half years old, because I am amazed at how big of words he can use. He seems to like sophistated sounding words like "Octagon" "mechanic" "thermometer" "electrician" and such.

When words started to form, he would usually use the English nouns and the Japanese grammar structure. For example he would say "hot da" for "it is hot". He started out saying hot, but then went to "ha sui" for the Japanese "atsui" then "ha tsui" and finally would only say atsui, but around the age of 2 years and 3 months he started to use both.

Around the age of 2 years and 5 months he started saying "daddy says .... and mommy says... I will look in my records in order to record in more detail his bilingual development.

As I am really stuck in the countryside and there are not really any English speaking children close by, I rely on myself and DVDs along with trips to the states for his English input. When Taka was 1 year and 3 months, I became pregnant and completely sick where I could not get up, so was kind of forced to have him watch DVDs all day....but through that his English developed greatly. He started out watching Elmo`s World from which he not only learned English but social skills. From Elmo he learned 3 word sentences like "open the door" and "close the door".
I believe that Japanese children begin to speak earlier than their American counterparts. (Many monolingual Japanese children start speaking 2-3 words at 1 and half years and fully speaking by 2 years whereas it seems American children tend to be about a half to 1 year behind that. I have no scientific evidence of that, just what I have observed. I think my son is late compared to Japanese children, but for a bilingual child a little early in his speaking ability. I wonder if it is because of the Japanese influence.

In October of 2008 when Taka was 6 months old, I took him to the states for 3 months. In May of 2010, when he was 2 years and 2 months I took him to the states again for 2 months. He was able to play with his cousins and interact with his grandparents. I will dedicate the next post to his most recent stay in the USA.

Right now, Taka is mostly watching "Blues Clues", "Elmos World", " Barney", "Go Diego Go", "Dora The Explorer", and "The Wiggles" for his English support. I will dedicate a future entry to record his learning from DVDs.