3 months old

Kaki Gori (Snow cones)

Using it at school all day, Kellan's Japanese is pretty good. He and Jolon both have very strong Hiroshima accents (think lots of "ya'lls," "you betchas," "fixin tos," and "yes maams.") One English word that he does use at school and has apparently taught his whole class is his favorite color, blue, or "bloon," as Kellan pronounces it. Thanks to Kellan most of the kids use the English word, "blue" rather than the Japanese word "aoi." Testament I guess to how often he insists on having the blue block, the blue car, or bragging about his blue shirt. Anyway, when they were in their new small groups last week, they spent some time discussing what the new group name should be. It was no surprise that Kellan's group decided on: Blue Kaki Gori han (the blue snow cones)! I'm not sure if it was connected to the group name or just a day when they made some food while playing house, but Kellan came home with something looking like a real snow cone. The kanji his teachers drew on the cup is the symbol for ice, which is also the symbol on the flags beside any festival stall selling snow cones.

Jolon and Esme

He loves holding her and in the last few pics, he'd actually changed her diaper and dressed her all by himself.

another scrape

Poor Kellan has so many cuts, mosquito bites, and scratches at the moment. Seems as soon as one heals, two more pop up. The latest one worthy of a picture was two weeks ago and I can't even remember what happened to his nose, but whatever it was, he kept picking at it and we were afraid that he wouldn't sleep well, so Jan bandaged it up. And Kellan, when you're reading this one day....I love you very much.....please don't hate me for posting these pictures.

esme talking and singing to daddy

Click to Play

this one is for the grandparents. everyone else is allowed to switch it off after 30 seconds.

cold season has arrived

First Esme came down with a high fever (103) on Friday afternoon. The fever was down by the next morning and she was never lethargic, in fact she nursed well. Sat. afternoon Jolon started running a fever and throwing up. Jan and I have had terrible headaches, which Jolon is complaining of as well. Sunday morning and Jolon still can't keep anything down, fever coming and going. But Esme's fever is gone and she seems to be fine. Still waiting to see if Jolon just a has a regular virus or if this is the dreaded flu. Meanwhile Kellan is EXTREMELY ENERGETIC and is happily running the show around here.

Making art before 7:00 a.m.

Kellan woke up early and on his way to the toilet, got creative with some shoes from the genkan (foyer).

Kellan's Onichan Party

Click to Play

When Esme was about 2 weeks old, Joy took Jolon to a Carp baseball game for Felix's birthday.  We decided to take the chance to give Kellan a lot of attention and threw him an Onichan (big brother) party.  He mentions kuruma (car) a few times and towards the end he starts talking about his neck, but we never figured out what he was trying to say.

Fashion Police

I mentioned the term this morning to the boys. Their ears pricked up at the mention of police, but I'm afraid the subsequent conversation about fashion may have been lost on them.

esme waking up

the boys enjoyed this

Kellan latest

We are still having trouble with Kellan going to the toilet when he's supposed to. At the villa we kinda gave up and started putting a diaper on him in the evenings, just so our fellow guests wouldn't have to witness the puddle, the wet pants on the floor, the naked 2 year old running through the kitchen possibly trailing pee on his feet and then hear the whole, "oh Kellan, you did shi shi again? Really? We just went to the toilet 30 minutes ago and you said you didn't have to go," conversation. At home, we're getting better at taking him regularly to the toilet and usually he will pee, especially if I race him to the toilet and tell him that I have to go really badly...then he loves to beat me and keep me waiting. But mornings is the real problem, when he's sleepy and really does not want to be forced to go sit on the toilet. We're usually running around with breakfast etc. and don't have the time to convince him to go, and so out of laziness and/or as a reaction to Esme, he's been pooing in his diaper or sometimes even his pants if I've managed to get his diaper off first thing in an attempt to get him to go. Mari Sensei says it's likely that he's still adjusting to Esme. So we're trying to be patient with him.

As of last week he's also started stuttering. Ke-Ke-Can I have some? or Jya-Jya-Jolon and Ke-Ke-Kellan. It started a few days ago, the weekend after we got back from the villa. About the same time, we noticed that his English had gotten better, just from being in an all English environment for a week. I've read that it's a normal stage that a lot of toddlers go through as their vocabulary increases. His teacher said not to worry, that 3 other kids in his class were stuttering too. That was reassuring because to listen to him talking these days is kinda funny and kinda pitiful at the same time.