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.