Hula Hooping: ur doonit rong

OK, I admit, I do NOT know how to Hula Hoop. In the first video, we are trying to hula hoop with the new hoop, based mostly on WiiFit hula hooping. After the problems, I did a little research and we gave it a second shot (the second video).

What's white and you eat it every day?

Miku and I were reading a "colors" book, learning the words for colors and thinking about other examples of things that are such-and-such color. For example, for things that are purple, she came up with "shirt" and "colored pencils." But the best one was for white. We had snow and carpets and shirts and your eyeball and all that stuff but I hinted to her "it's something you eat every day" and she immediately replied with "MARSHMALLOWS!!"

Rub your belly and pat your head

Time for the parents to step up

Last night Miku informed us that she had a few new rules for us:

• We need to keep the house cleaner
  
• If we take something, we have to put it back when we are finished
  
• If the window is open and she says that she is cold, I have to close it immediately
  

This was all delivered in the bath. I didn't get in in time to hear Yuzuru's list, but it was seven points, I believe.

The best part of it was the tone she delivered it in. She sounded just like a teacher, with this really cute emphasis at the end.

Our house does get pretty messy, especially during the week. She doesn't like it because we don't let her friends play inside when its messy. I would clean more on weekends but she always wants to go play outside immediately, so we go outside. Yuzuru is working on her dissertation still and I'd rather she work on that while we're not distracting her. I suggested that a mutual rule for me and Miku is to get up, get dressed, eat, vacuum, and put out the laundry before we do anything else.

Wonders of a 5 year old: take 2

So this morning, the first day after Miku turned 5, I come downstairs as Yuzuru is prepping breakfast and Miku is getting dressed. Miku didn't seem to be in a grouchy mood at all and I reminded her to keep getting dressed (she'd stalled out in the process). I walked into the other room and as I sat down, I caught a glimpse of her sticking her tongue out at Yuzuru, and then she turned and stuck her tongue out at me.

Of course, she was a little bit surprised to find me watching her and the switch on her face showed that she knew she was wrong. I immediately remembered the time Mom caught me flipping Dad off when he'd had me carry those big metal tubs from the garage in Cataldo back to the rental property sheds. I didn't beat Miku like I got beat for that, but she did get in pretty big trouble.

She couldn't explain why she did it, so Yuzuru and I explained to her that she was already in trouble for it, but if she didn't know why she did it, she'd be in more trouble. Lately she's had trouble explaining herself when she does something bad or boneheaded and we're trying to get her to think before acting (a character flaw her father still struggles with regularly).

She understood and explained that she was angry that we'd put her new globe up on a shelf, slightly out of reach. We hadn't done it on purpose; Yuzuru had just moved the globe off the coffee table. So we explained to Miku the importance of using words rather than secretly being angry or sticking out our tongue.

It was strange, though, to see that kind of behavior from her. I'd never seen anything like it at all. The only thing even close also happened recently, at the park.

Miku and Hina were swinging on the swings (only 2 seats on the set) before deciding to harvest acorns nearby. A few minutes later and a brother/sister team came running over for the swings. The brother is maybe 6 or 7 and the sister was probably 3, maybe 4. As soon as Miku saw them running, she got up and dashed to the swings and got on them before the little girl could.

As you would expect, I didn't take kindly to that. I made her give it back and tried to get her to apologize but she wouldn't, at least not audibly. So we had to go home, in big trouble. I think the hardest part for her was the associated embarrassment of having Hina there too. We had to walk by the swings on the way home and I gave her another chance to apologize, which she took, which improved her disciplinary status.

Kids don't stay little forever.

The wonders of a 5 year old: take 1

So we had a great birthday for Miku yesterday (pics coming soon, I SWEAR). We went out for sushi (her pick, of course), then came home and opened presents and had cake. She got an AquaBeads set (pictured here).

It was close to bathtime as she was helping me (or was I helping her) put the little bags of beads into the star shaped case, so Yuzuru asked her if she wanted to go get in the bath with her. Miku, politely but very fact-of-the-matter replied with "Momma, if you were working on your dissertation and I asked you to get in the bath, would you like it very much?"

I did eventually stop laughing, but it took some time.

A Lion in my Entryway

Some recent photos

After looking at Emma and Tiggs's pictures, Miku and I took a few of our own.

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plpdmocjhkf9-=f=-09fhnfkh b98io='=uhe-f=][[hhhby7dyegvdgw

When I grow up I want to be...

Miku and I were practicing letters today and I noticed that Miku's "L" and "R" pronunciation isn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a huge stickler for it, but it's important to pay attention in a bilingual environment. For example, she says "L" without touching her tongue to the roof of her mouth, which reduces the overall strength of the sound.

But the bigger problem was "R". If you say it slow, that letter almost has two syllables "ah-err". Only problem is that Miku doesn't really have the second part and it sounds kind of like "ahh(r)". To encourage her, I really emphasized the two parts and said (now you say it with me): AAHHH-ERRRRR.

She cocks her head and looks and me and responds with "pirate"?

Yuzuru about fell off the couch.

1, 2, 3....

Miku has been able to count to ten for a while now and while she's got a sense of the 'teens, she hasn't quite pinned them down yet. "12" is a tricky one, apparently, as she tends to skip it, sometimes going to 13 but occasionally even jumping to 17. We've gone to 20 and through the 20s a couple times, but the other night we went all the way to (insert Mr Evil music) one million!

We counted all the way to 100 to start with. She caught on to the pattern of the 20s-90s (forty-ONE, forty-TWO, etc), then after 1-hundred, we went quickly through the 101s, 110s, etc. She started to grasp the pattern of the 10s and their relation to the basic 1-9 numbers. When we got to 199, I pointed out that the last time we had 99, we went to ONE hundred, so this time.... Her eyes light up and she smiles and says TWO HUNDRED! And so on and so forth up to 1000, then the 10-thousand, 100-thousand, but then 1 million, 10 million, 100 million, etc.

We probably talked about number patterns for at least 15 minutes, I'd say. Quite fun, actually.

As an aside, did you hear about George Bush's response to the Iraq War casualty briefing a couple years ago? It was reported that a suicide bomber had killed 3 Brazilian. The president's faced blanched and he clearly looked to be in shock. His advisors and aides weren't quite sure what to make of that response so they just stood fast for a few moments until he began to compose himself. As he took a deep breath, he looked up at Rumsfeld and asked "How many is a brazillion again?"