Daycare Talent Show

This past Friday was Gaku's "okiku natta taikai" at daycare. Basically, it's a little talent show so everyone can see how much the kids have changed in the past year. For the smaller classes (Gaku's included), they tell the parents to hide - not be right out front and center. Most of the smaller kids will cry and try to go to their parents if they spot them. We'd been telling Gaku all week that Mommy, Daddy and Baba would be there. I wasn't worried that he would cry if he found us. In the fall at the sports festival, there was a point when the moms go out and are supposed to do a kind of small dance/exercise routine with the kids. Some of Gaku's classmates let out a cry and came running to their moms. Gaku came running, gave me one hug, and immediately escaped to run off and do what he wanted, which involved half doing the routine and half just running. So I wasn't worried if he spotted us or not. As soon as he walked in the hall, Gaku scanned the crowd for us and found us immediately. He was super happy and called out "Daddy", "Mommy", and "Baba" as he spotted each of us. Then he went and sat nicely with the one teacher. But every so often he would get up and wave at us. Also he was wearing one of his character t-shirts - Zenmai Samurai. So he kept getting up and showing other people in the audience his Zenmai Samurai t-shirt and singing part of the Zenmai Samurai song for them. This year he was really good about doing the routines they had practiced. It was a lot of fun to watch!



The video is of part of Gaku's class during the talent show. They're going on a walk and each time the music stops they yell for the wolf and put on another item of clothing. You can hear Gaku's voice yelling "okami-san"; he's the loudest, maybe the only one in his class actually yelling it out. When the wolf comes out they're supposed to hide from it. Then they all sit down while they do the next part. Except Gaku runs out to the teacher and then you can see him hitting the girl next to him after he sits down. He doesn't do the sitting and waiting very well. But he's much better about sitting and watching than last year.

(I've just discovered the video file is slightly too big to upload, so I'm working on an alternative...)

Long time... February blues?

Well, I haven't updated this for almost a month now. I've been a bit unmotivated to do much of anything this past month, other than just hang out and cuddle with Hana. I'm feeling like I have a bit more energy now.

Yesterday, I took Gaku to daycare in the morning. When I walked in with Hana, the head of the daycare came over to hold her for me while I got Gaku's stuff straightened up and put away. She started walking into the office with Hana and Gaku started to get really upset. He wasn't jealous that the teacher was holding Hana. He was upset because he felt that she was taking Hana away. He was saying "dame" (meaning "no") in the same way that he does to the women in the bath who tease him about taking Hana home. He is very protective (possessive) of her. She is HIS sister.

Hana is getting to be more fun. She "talks" and smiles a lot now. She already has really good head control. But Tak says she's still not as much fun as Gaku. Of course she's not; Gaku is almost three and he is so cool lately. It's a lot of fun to reason with him and try to figure out what's going on in his head. He loves to read longer stories with more words lately. And he really loves to rough-house with his daddy.