Kokochi

Floating around the house in a bubble bath

Tesla [while taking a bubble bath]: "Next time, mama and daddy can get in the bubbles"

Mama, "You want mama and daddy to get in the bath all together?" [smiling at the thought]

Telsa: "Yeah, and we could float around the house."

[super grin]

Sliding down a rainbow

Tesla:

"Can we go see a rainbow? Can we walk under it? Can I touch it? I want to slide down it ...If you slide down the rainbow, you will hurt your butt. It will hurt because it is pointy. You have to slide were it's not pointy."

Tesla's play

Tesla loves playing/reenacting preschool now. She plays the sensei while Dav and I are the kids. Just today, after we all got home, we played, and this is what we did:

• went to the classroom (her room)
• pretend washed our hands with her tricycle handles
• had snack time (alphabet letters that were fruit and crackers) - we had to say itadakimasu at the beginning, "more please" for seconds, and "gochisosama" at the end
• clean-up time
• pretend bathroom time where we had to stand in line for our turn
• mama went to work and said bye-bye to her baby (Dav) while Dav held onto blankie and pretended to miss me
• Tesla the teacher comforted him
• Then suddenly I was a student again, and we had a Field Trip - Dav and I holding hands, T leading leading us to the living room to pet a pillow, then back

Was fascinating to peek into her day via play. We have our first parent-teacher meeting tomorrow and already have a written letter of all the stuff she's learned and does. The teachers are just amazing to me in all the details they care for- fun play, skills to learn, building confidence & friendships - I can see T blooming. I LOVE T's preschool!!!

Great, that's great mama

I made vege spaghetti tonight, and as I showed Tesla her bowl, she said, "I want my noodles." I replied, "you can eat with mama and daddy." She left the kitchen repeating, "that's great mama, great, great, great."

Smartypants

One of our rules is that if Tesla is eating, she needs to be sitting down at the table. The other morning I caught Tesla munching while walking down the hallway, so I told her she had to sit down. She was passing by the stairs, so sat down on the stair step, and grinned at me smugly so that I knew that she knew she was playing with me. She was sitting right? Isn't that what you said, mama?

So I grinned back and asked, "are you being a smarty-pants?" to which she replied, "no, I have pajamas."

: )

Waka is a girl

Been so long since I've blogged about my kitties, but now that Tesla, Waka, and Katsuo are establishing a comfortable relationship together, I'm bound to mention my cats as I continue to focus on Tesla.

Today, I announced I needed to brush Wakame to which Tesla said, "I do it" and ran to get the brush. She tried indeed, but Waka wouldn't have it. As I brushed her, Tesla started talking about how he does this and that. I explained in English that Waka was a girl, so Tesla should say "she."

Tesla clearly hadn't considered this. In fact, she stuttered saying something along the lines of, "no, he is Waka, Waka is a cat, not a girl. I am a girl!"

I never thought of explaining that animals can be a girl or boy. She has referred to Wanwan (her V.I.P. stuffed doggy) as a boy via "he" and we thought that was a choice. But now I think she assumed all animals were a "he."

It was one of those moments where I could almost see the light bulb go off in her brain. Of course, Waka could be a girl! I am a girl too! Kats is a boy! Indeed, she went running down the hallway to daddy, and I heard bits of their conversation where I heard words about Waka, girl, Telsa, girl, Kats, boy. I think she got it, and was delighted with the discovery.

Tesla's words

Daddy came home from a visit to an old friend, Michael Ray and family (whom we visited in DC when I was pregnant), in Kansas City. He talked to Tesla (who was quite happy to see daddy!) about Michael's daughter who is about 6 months older than Tesla. She then went into a rather incoherent talk about her baby sister's daughter. We're not quite sure where that came from or what she was saying...is she in touch with some future we're not aware of?

Whatever meaning, it's fun to hear her stories!

can we share?

Today, Gran Marie took Tesla to Granny Maria's (Tesla's great-grandmother). They all hang out a lot, and Tesla loves seeing Granny.

For whatever reason, Tesla said to Gran Marie, pointing to Granny, "This is my mom." Gran Marie corrected her, "No, this is my mom. I'm her baby." Tesla retorted, and Gran Marie corrected. After a few back-and-forths, Tesla then asked, "Can we share?"

Is that cute or what?

door hide

"The vacuum goes in the...in the...door hide [closet]!"

And later, "can I open it to drink like a big girl?", referring to her cup with top and straw.

~Tesla

"Prettyful"

Tesla's language is growing leaps and bounds, and it is interesting to see how easily English comes to her, while Japanese definitely lags, understandably since she has much less input since it's just me. She definitely understands a lot, and uses the words that Dav uses too. But her Japanese is based on repetition and focused teaching, while she seems to breathe in English. I'm not worried; just fascinated in the difference, wondering if she even realizes mama uses "another" language.

Anyway, with English, she is starting the stage I've been looking forward to where she begins to expand her vocabulary using "rules" she has learned, but it just happens not to work all the time (highlights idiosyncrasies in the language). I plan to note as much as I can, but today was the first that inspired me to blog: she came up with her wooden doll and said, "prettyful."

Note the little potty in the background? We're working on it!