Play room and cafe

We went with Sarah, Tyler and Baby Noah, to a cafe and playroom on Saturday. We ate and then the boys played for an hour in a sort of a scaled down version of a Monkey's Playroom. In fact we had to wait nearly 2 hours just to get in, so by the time we finally sat down and ate, both boys were tired. Kellan had slept a little in the car so he was holding up pretty well, but Jolon had been up since 6:00 and he didn't get into the playroom until nearly 2:00. He did great though until just before we left. I could see how tired he was in his eyes and was already picking up the bags for the swift exit. But when I turned around he had Kellan in his arms and was walking towards the ball pit where he didn't just drop Kellan in, he actually swung him back and tossed him! The whole room went silent. I knew Kellan wasn't hurt (just scared!) but I had to leave him for a minute while I picked up Jolon and set him down on the bench without saying a word. He was compliant, didn't say a word either, just looked repentant and sat there until I told him he could get up. Kellan was fine. Poor Jolon had just about reached a point of exhaustion. I think the idea of tossing Kellan into the ball pit came into his head and before he knew what was happening, he was doing it. He looked as surprised as Kellan did.

(Sort of) Self-portraits by Jan and Jolon

Jolon drew this picture of himself and wrote his own name. He also wanted Jan to draw a picture of himself but every time Jan went to draw, Jolon corrected him and told him what to draw and where to put it. ("No, first you draw a circle. No, not that way....like this. Next you draw the eyes......and draw a beard here.." etc.)

Climbing

One of Kellan's favorite things to do is climb up onto chairs and tables. Once he gets up there he usually proceeds to stand up and then grin and raise both arms in the air. He somehow manages to look proud and a little sheepish at the same time as he knows he's doing something he shouldn't be.

Swimming pool opens tomorrow!

The pool at hoikuen opens tomorrow, July 1st, and Jolon is super excited. Today he came home talking nonstop about how they practiced getting dressed for the pool today. They talked about where to hang their pool bags, where to put their clothes after they change into swimsuits, where to hang their towels, when to put on their swim caps, how to do the warm-up exercises, etc. Last week I bought him a new set of swim trunks and when he tried the whole outfit on, we couldn't get him to change back into his clothes. Finally persuaded him not to sleep in his swim gear by telling him his head might explode under the tight swim cap.

Brushing teeth

Jolon got a dental check-up at school last week and a good report of no cavities. (no lice either, but that was a different check on another day). He's getting better and better at brushing his teeth by himself, although we never seem to be able to brush the standard 3 minutes...lucky if we can for a minute. Kellan, who loves to copy Jolon of course, is fascinated with toothbrushes, and although it's hard to actually get a brush into his mouth, he happily walks around holding one for awhile every morning. (I have about 6 that they both share because we couldn't keep track of only 2). In fact, all we have to do is say "toothbrush," and Kellan runs for the bathroom, clapping his hands until one of us gets there and hands him a brush. Nowadays a dry toothbrush is not enough. He even wants to hold the toothpaste and put it on himself.

Kellan

loves to kiss these days with a great, big smacking noise. So cute. His teachers wrote yesterday that he is very interested in other kids who are crying; enjoys going over and rubbing their heads, whether they like it or not.

Ji Ji is still one of his favorite expressions. Anytime he sees a crayon or even just a picture of a crayon, he'll start saying "ji ji" over and over again. all animals are still "wan wan," but if he sees pictures of a sheep or horse, he'll start making odd, coughing-like noises, trying to copy my "baas" and "neighs." He puts his hands in the air and starts spinning when he hears music. Had a few rough nights last week when he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep, but this week has been better. I talked to his teachers about it, thinking it might be something going on at school...maybe he was really anxious about something. They said it's possible he was replaying something that happened at school in his dreams and that was upsetting him. Children this age are very easily frustrated since there is so much they are physically unable to do and can't communicate very well either. They also blamed it on the weather as it's just become much more humid. The new issue is how to get him to sleep at 8:00. If he's super tired he'll go right to sleep after I nurse him, but if not, he wants to crawl around the bed and get out of the room. We put the cot away last week because he was protesting so much about it. Really hates it. Now we're considering getting it back out and training him to start off in there like we did with Jolon. Not an attractive option. Actually last night wasn't too bad....took about 20 minutes (and lots of crying) once I stopped nursing him to calm him down enough to get him to lie down on the bed and let me rub his back until he fell asleep. I can live with that. We'll see what happens tonight.

Dancing

Click to Play

Stuck inside on a rainy day. Jan got the boys a little cd player for their room, so we decided to play some music and dance. You can see Kellan doing his best to copy Jolon and also see his new trick: biting! This is also proof that he's not a baby anymore---he takes quite a beating from Jolon and keeps on dancing.

eating ice cream

The boys have just woken up from naps. Kellan is eating a sweet bean frozen ice cream and Jolon is enjoying some frozen yogurt.
Click to Play

Park play spring 08

Click to Play

Science Museum

I took the boys to the science museum last weekend. It's very near the house and a good thing to do on a rainy day. We may end up there a lot this month as it's rainy season now. They both had a good time exploring by themselves. Kellan ended up surrounded by a group of school girls.

Hitomi

Hitomi comes to the house every Thursday and eats dinner with us and then usually plays with the boys while we clean up and pack bags. We've been "teaching" her since she was in high school and she's about to graduate from university. The boys adore her. She's a great person and one of our closest Japanese friends.

Yosh Yosh

At school the kids are taught to do "yosh yosh" to someone who's gotten hurt. "Yosh yosh," basically means rubbing someone's head in a soft way to make them feel better. Usually the last thing a crying kid wants is for the person who hurt him to then come up with a big grin and touch his head. But since the kids in Kellan's class can't really say, "I'm sorry," this is a good way for them to apologize. I was watching Kellan playing in the garden last week and his little friend, Joji, had fallen and was crying. Kellan toddled over and rubbed his head, then looked up at me and smiled. Joji wasn't too impressed, but Mommie was!

Jolon got scratched and the money game

Jolon is a great big brother. He is usually really sweet and soft with Kellan, even sometimes when Kellan hurts him. For instance yesterday, Kellan for no clear reason, started grabbing at Jolon's face and pinching it. The first time, Jolon and I looked at each other with looks of "wow, wonder why he did that." But before we knew it, Kellan had reached out again and pinched Jolon's face really hard. I know it hurt (there were red marks on his face for the next half hour) and I fully expected Jolon to push him or hit him back. But he didn't. That's not to say that if he's in a bad mood, Jolon won't push or shove Kellan without much thought. But he never does it hard enough to really hurt Kellan and usually he's pretty gentle with him.

Yesterday Jolon said, "I have a good idea. Let's throw all of this money on the ground (about 20 coins) and see how many Kellan puts in his mouth........."

Nobody's perfect

Jan and Jolon were in the park Tuesday night playing a game Jan had made up about witches and ghosts.  Jan was the witch.  He'd drawn a circle in the dirt and was standing in it holding a long stick which he told Jolon was used to keep people away.  Jolon got overexcited, grabbed the stick off Jan and began hitting him over the head with it.  Jan got the stick back off of Jolon and asked him what he was doing.  

Jolon:  "I thought you were a real witch." 

Jan:  hmmmmm, well I'm not and you shouldn't hit people, but you made a mistake and that's ok. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes.  Nobody's perfect.  

Jolon:  Yes, they are.

Jan:  Who's perfect?

Jolon:  ..........Me and Ibuki Sensei!

Kellan

Kellan seemed a little sick last night and Jan had trouble getting him to sleep. Instead of putting him in his cot, we put him in our bed. It was after 8 when he first went to sleep and I was planning to be in bed before he woke up for the first time....normally a couple of hours after falling asleep. Suddenly around 9:30 we heard little feet running and both looked up thinking it must be Jolon....but it was Kellan. His eyes were still closed but he'd managed to climb out of bed and come through a long hallway into the kitchen without saying anything or crying. He was fine.

Jolon wedding

Jolon did great and had a good time at Craig's bamboo forest wedding. Several of his friends were there (Alex, Felix, and Tyler) and he got to run up and down the mountain for awhile before the ceremony started. Later he and Kellan went to Mei and Yui's house for dinner, bathtime and bedtime. The report was good. Kellan went to sleep in Nobu's arms, Jolon was the first one out. We picked them up about 11:45 and it was so cute to see the 4 of them all together, fast asleep on little futons.

Kellan latest

Kellan did great (was very quiet) at Craig's wedding ceremony yesterday. The ceremony itself was in a little bamboo forest so it was a bit of a hike to get there. He walked some and mostly got carried. He seemed to enjoy being outside and watching all of the people.

This morning he showed me a cut on his finger and said, "ouchie."

He also points to the faucet in the bathtub and says, "aaacheee," which is hot in baby Japanese.

He likes to go and get my shoes from the genkan and bring them to me.

He's saying "hai," (yes or here you are) a lot these days and starting to bow his head to people, usually when they're bowing their heads at him and saying thank you.

This morning he grabbed the shorts Jolon was trying to put on and WOULD NOT give them back...He was squealing so hard when I tried to take them, that I ended up giving up and convincing Jolon to just put on another pair. A little later, I saw him carefully trying to put the shorts on himself.

Groom's cake

Thanks to a good decorator's icing recipe and advice from Cristie and Mom, the card cake for Craig's wedding party turned out well I think. I used my friend, Jackie's chocolate sponge cake recipe and people said it tasted good too. One of Craig's hobbies is playing poker so as per the Southern tradition of making a groom's cake to honor something about the groom, I made a playing card. 8 is his lucky number.

Italian Restaurant

A new small Italian place opened across the street and we've been saying we're going to go for weeks. Sunday night we finally plucked up the courage to do a nice meal out with the boys. We carried Jolon's yellow high chair over and got one of the tables outside. It looked like a poor decision when the salad came out...neither boys were interested in the greens but the sight of food reminded them that they were hungry. Kellan started wailing and trying to stand up in his chair and Jolon was getting alarmingly more and more bored. I took Kellan for a short walk while Jan tried to come up with another game that could be played at the table. But from when the first pizza arrived until the last pasta came, both boys thoroughly enjoyed the food as well as the atmosphere. Kellan insisted on using a (BIG) fork and Jolon paid the bill all by himself. Food was good and not too expensive. Definitely a successful evening out.

Jolon cooking

Jolon was home sick today with a fever. With medicine, he felt good enough to do several things around the house. We painted some old milk cartons. We played house in his room. We made some almond cookies. He even helped with dinner. Here are a couple pictures of him using a garlic press for the first time. He did a good job cutting the cucumbers as well.

Kellan-bath

Tonight in the bath, I was picking up some little characters (Anpanman, Shokopanman, and Curry Panman) and bending them over to bow at Kellan and then having them say, "Hello, Kellan." He loved it. Pretty soon, he was picking them up himself and turning them over so they bowed, and saying "hi!"

He also said, "Deta," and then looked down and peed. So he told me before he even did it!