Month: July 2014

Sunday Waking & the Spectacular Joys

/ melibelleintokyo / Leave a comment

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If you’re going to be woken by an enchanting, loud three & a half year old any Sunday morning, let it be

to her rosy speech hollering down two flights. Let those words melt you in their sweet lilt, the loudest partial whisper ever, “Mom! Can I use the ssss-prray!!

We just love Kariin’s current sssssp…eech. A whole slew of words that start with “s” are sss…paced out so that she can finish the s before moving on. Otherwise, her dear friend, Smith’s name is…Fif. Yes, Fif. Fif. It is hilarious. Part of me is absolutely content letting her rock these sounds when other parts of her language are so well-developed. I mean, the girl’s bilingual. She regularly uses words like “version”, “although”, “characters”, “absolutely” (with terrific emphasis on the word), “hardly”, “consequence”, “communicate”, “decision”, “massive”, I could go on. So it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we let her go on with “Fif”, “fay” (for spray), or “feshal” (can you guess?) except that our totally casual, amateur speech therapy also proves hilarious and yes, useful.

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She can almost tackle and land any of these s words if she says the S, then pauses, and WHISPERS the rest. S…mith (in a very, could-be-creepy, a little bit fast and powerful whisper), S…pray, S…ports. Those endings are spoken with zealous command. She is working at it. I just wish she’d use the word, “S…panish” all the time. Wait, the best is sparkle. It comes out “farkle”. “Can I have another farkle, please”? Or, “Mommy, her shirt is so farkly!”

See, in Japanese, each letter, if you will, is attached to a vowel sound. It is not “sushi” like we think of it, but “soo” (one letter) with “she” (one letter). The adopted word, “spoon”, is written and pronounced “soopoon” in Japanese, because there are no single consonant/no vowel letters, if you get my “doerifuto” (drift).

Oh, excellent book to enjoy: SPOON, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Scott Magoon (also a super fun name to read aloud). I should go through our bookshelves for my comedic titles, thanks to K’s “soo..peech”.

I should teach her the word “sporadic” next. Could be a hoot. Could be Fectacular or s…pectacular. Could be that she’ll “fred” her winds and take to the s…ky.

Love & farkely whispers,

 

Melissa

 

Squish or Sunburn

/ melibelleintokyo / 2 Comments

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In earnest hopes of building a caterpillar habitat, I have come to the sobering “aha” that I have probably sunburned or cooked the little guys in their glass terrarium. I just peeked at their sunny home on our balcony and now I’m on route to pick up my kids from preschool. We shall have to check the status of our little horned-butt caterpillars. They didn’t look so fresh or alive.

This is not a great development. The plan was three fold:
1. Save the GARDENIAS.
2. Don’t be a murderess, but exemplify love to all living creatures.
3. Grow our literacy and understanding of biology as we track their growth and activity.

This was day one, folks!
Here is all we’ve got:
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Oh, did I tell you that just before placing our guys in their habitat, my daughter discovered a glump of green, horned gunk in the folds of my rather makeshift caterpillar transfer bag. I had inadvertently squished the largest of our would-be tenants.

Yeah, maybe the caterpillar apartment complex should be called “Le Death Trap” . Or “Isn’t Science Wonderful?” Or maybe we should write “Jump” on the glass walls.

Some time has elapsed. Let’s catch you up. Immediately after coming in from our school walk home, K went outside to check the next our gardenia devourers. “Mom!” her voice peeled from the balcony. “Their little bodies aren’t moving.” Oh, sadness. We had such high high hopes. She had expected some would become husband and wife. She wanted babies and butterflies and a thriving community of c-pillars named Hello Kitty and Poop.

“This is the last day we will see them”, she concluded. “We won’t see their bodies after this.” Well. Some roads may be paved with good intentions. Unfortunately for the c-pillars, their roads are under construction and this gal is the one directing traffic.

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Working on receiving the family’s blessings for us to move the terrarium inside for new tenants, though I’ve already been told that is gross and I am ridiculous. I bet people laughed at that woman who lived and worked with apes, too. I’m trying to do something for science, but I don’t necessarily want squished mush on the floors or escapees, either.

I’ll keep you in the loop.

Love and terrarium hugs,
M