classic Misaki

Today Misaki had swimming class at school so when she left this morning she took her pool bag with her. However, when she came back she didn't have her pool bag in her hands. When I asked her where her pool stuff was, she stopped for a second, looked up thoughtfully and then grimaced and said she must've forgotten it. Great, I'm thinking, all that wet stuff sitting overnight is going to get all musty and moldy. Why, oh why, does she do this?

It was a hot day and they were pretty sweaty so I let them sit down with a popsicle to cool down before they did their homework. Once both their popsicles were gone I reminded them to get out their homework and as Misaki opened her bag, she suddenly exclaimed and then giggled. Her pool bag was inside her school bag. She pulled it out with a slightly embarrassed but mostly relieved look on her face. "Oh", she said, "I forgot".

How is it possible that she could forget this in the short ten minutes it takes to leave her classroom and get all the home. Boggles the mind.

and we all breathed a sigh of relief...

Two weeks ago we blew a fuse in our car (how?) and suddenly our stereo wouldn't work. I know it's an easy thing to fix but these small details are the type of thing that we are not good at actually getting around to.

Maybe I should share here that our family loves music. We always have a CD playing in the background when we're at home or in the car. If there's not a CD on then we're singing. All of us. All six of us at one time, singing the same song at the top of our lungs. It's awesome and Chikara and I could not be more thrilled about this. Once I got Chikara his iPod for his birthday, it totally expanded our music library and we were able to introduce the girls to The Barenaked Ladies' If I Had A Million Dollars and the W's The Devil Is Bad and all sorts of other songs that we had totally forgotten about. It's a good job I limited how much money we're able to use at iTunes or we'd be bankrupt by now!

So you can imagine that when our car stereo stopped working it was weird. The silence was weird. We can only sing for so long and sometimes Chikara and I need to talk instead of sing and sometimes the girls fight over which song to sing and who's allowed to sing it, etc. Finally on Monday Chikara had a window of opportunity to take the car and get it fixed. He had a huge smile on his face when he came back. That evening we had been invited to a birthday party for my best friend's son. We piled all the kids in the car at the appropriate time and started off. About two minutes into the drive I realized that we still hadn't turned on the stereo so I hit the button and the radio came on.

From the back seat I heard, said in a half-sigh: Yes.

I feel exactly the same way Emi!

shooting stars

Yesterday on the way home from the mall I had this conversation with Emi:


Emi: Mom, is there really such a thing as nagareboshi (shooting star)?

Me: Yes.

Emi: Really?

Me: Yes.

Emi: When do they come, like Easter or Christmas?

Me: I'm not really sure, I think it's more like during a season like Spring or whatever. (I know, that's a dumb description)

Emi: hmmm.....


(2 minute silence)


Emi: Mom, you know what I would wish for if I saw nagareboshi?

Me: What?

Emi: A skateboard.

Me: Cool.


(five minute silence)


Emi: Mom.

Me: Yeah.

Emi: You know what if I would wish for if I saw another nagareboshi?

Me: What?

Emi: No school!

busy day

Today after the girls came home from school we had three errands to do.

The first was to pick up Misaki's passport from the passport center in downtown Osaka.

The second was to go and visit our friends who just had their second baby this morning. The baby was breach, which they knew beforehand, but their doctor wanted to try a natural birth first instead of going with a C-section and they were happy to go along with it. Their little boy is sooooooooo cute. It almost makes me want to have another one. Almost.

The third was to go over to our other friends house and see if their son could infect Natsuki with chicken pox. Emi, Misaki and Sakura had chicken pox two and a half years ago and although I went back and forth about whether or not this was a good idea, I don't want to be worrying about her getting it once she gets into school. We don't leave for Canada for another month and there's not much going on before that so I figured now is as good a time as any. We'll see if we were successful in two weeks!

We left our house around 3:30pm and we didn't get back home until 9:30pm. That's how long it takes to run those three errands in Osaka, in case you're wondering.


Also... Sakura-isms:

sakana butsuri = sakanatsuri (fishing)
nekk = next as in "Nekk is my turn"

Plus she keeps finishing every sentence with, "because I'm four". Yeah, it's already annoying and she's only been four for a week now!

all she can say

Natsuki's new favorite word: "this"





It's amazing how she can use this word for EVERYTHING. Suddenly we have no idea what she's talking about. Her pronunciation is cute, though, with her little tongue sticking out!



Also, for your viewing pleasure, Natsuki after eating refried beans ALL BY HERSELF!






I am so proud.

all kinds of new revelations

Conversation with Misaki and Emi:


Misaki: I don't want to get married.

Me: OK. (I'm listening but I'm not sure where she's going with this so I'm being neutral)

Misaki: No, I don't want to get married.

Me: OK.

Misaki: (almost crying) No, I don't want to get maaaaaaarriiiiiiiiiiiiied.

Me: Why not?

Misaki: Because it hurts.

Me: What hurts? (I'm totally confused)

Misaki: I don't want to get married because then I have to have a baby and that hurts.

Me: You know, you don't have to have a baby if you get married.

Misaki: Really?

Emi: YES YOU DO (in her most incredulous voice)

Me: No, you don't. You don't HAVE to. You can decided if you want to or not.

Misaki: OK. Thanks, Mom!

Emi: That's not true. You HAVE to, you HAVE to. Are you sure? Are you teasing me?

Me: No, I'm not teasing you at all.

Emi: hmmm.... I don't know.


So basically I solved one problem and caused another one all in the same conversation. Magic.

Sakura-speak

Everyday brings surprising things from Sakura's mouth.

Sakura-speak: I want to watch jo-nuts! (This is funnier if you say it out loud)
Translation: I want to watch Jonah (VeggieTales)!

Sakura: What day is it today?
Me: Thursday.
Sakura: You mean "cute" Thursday?

Sakura: Where are my craycils?
Translation: Where are my crayons?


Also, Natsuki's favorite new word is "woah". She says it for anything out of the ordinary.

she's got the basic idea...

I know, I know, you're all waiting for the next installment of "Grammy Comes To Visit" but you'll just have to wait a bit more. I'm getting ready for the dreaded Spring Break. This is just to let you know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Why is it that Spring Break is so much more difficult than any of the other school holidays?


I was talking with Misaki today before she was going outside BY HERSELF.

Misaki: I'm ready to go outside.

Me: okay, remember to stay in front of our house, be nice to other kids and don't talk to people you don't know.

Misaki: (absently) okay...

Me: Do you know why you're not supposed to talk to people you don't know?

Misaki: (suddenly very serious) Yes.

Me: Why?

Misaki: Because they'll try to take me.

Me: Yes. That's right. And what would you do if somebody tried to take you?

Misaki: Uh...... freak out.


I almost fell off my chair laughing! I've never heard Misaki use the words "freak out" before but I think that aptly describes what I would want her to do. I don't have this conversation with the girls a lot because I don't want them to become paranoid when they're outside but every so often I feel it's good for them to have a little reminder. Still I was not prepared for her answer!

Hopefully I'll have more soon...

just to be clear

Once a month we go to Costco and I stock up on some of our favorite foods. Then I try desperately not to eat everything in the first week! We usually buy ground beef, cheese, sour cream, salsa, cream of mushroom soup, torilla shells and then other assorted goodies depending on the season. Once we've got all the things we need then we head over to the bakery section and Chikara and I try to decide between getting pastries or muffins for our breakfasts for the next week. The girls always lobby for the package that has all chocolate muffins but that's a little bit too much for us. Once we bought the package that has only blueberry muffins and there was a great outcry of disbelief from the peanut gallery!

Last week we bought the variety pack of muffins and the next morning when I asked the girls what they wanted for breakfast, I had this conversation with Misaki.

Me: Hey, Misaki, what do you want for breakfast?

Misaki: nuffin...

Me: what?

Misaki: I want nuffin...

Me: Nothing for breakfast?

Misaki: No, a nuffin, I want a nuffin!

Me: Oh! A Mmmuffin?

Misaki: oh... yes, a muffin, please... (giggle!)

Sakura: I want a chocolate nuffin, too!!!

My girlies are so cute.

Also, did you know that they have begun selling magazines at the Costco in Amagasaki? I almost fell over when I saw the rack with all sort of magazines, in English, in the current months' edition even! It was very exciting. I probably won't buy a magazine every month but at least I know where I can get one now. Hee-hee! (I'm giddy with excitement)

Actually Chikara and I were talking yesterday about how much easier it is for me to live in Osaka now than when we moved here almost seven years ago. At that time there was no Costco, we didn't know about FBC or Expat Express and there was no hope of an Ikea. Another thing that has made my life easier is Tsutaya's online DVD rental system. The closest Tsutaya (Japanese version of Blockbuster Video) is at least 30 minutes away so the fact that I can choose videos and have them delivered to my house in one day is awesome.

Seriously, seven years ago we didn't have "nuffin"!

she thinks she's so cute...

Yesterday I was cutting Emi's nails and because I knew that I was going to vacuum after I was done, I was just letting the clippings fall on the floor.

Emi: IT FELL ON THE FLOOR!

Me: Yes, I know, but I'm going to vacuum after this.

Emi: ...

Me: ...

Emi: Are you *that* kind of woman?

Where does she get this stuff?!?