Begin 2014!

Here are some scratch notes on the kids.

Leina the copycat

• This drives Mirei crazy.  Whenever Mirei is trying to talk, Leina starts talking as well, even though it's about nothing.  She's keep going as long as Mirei's going.  Leina's very animated and determined.
• Good manners - Arigatou, Gomen ne, "How are you?"
• Bad manner - "booboo-head!"
• Still does a lot of "yes, yes yes" without really hearing the question.  Sometimes she listens after the fact and will revise her answer.
• Does things and then says "i just wanted to try" or "I just wanted to look".  For example, "Mitai dake"  She seems very aware about what she's saying and doing.
• Likes to use scissors
• Loves to dance - tries to do it whenever she hears music, and tries to turn on music when she wants to dance
• Likes to jump off of things
• For the past year, hates getting in the car seat.  Always wants to sit on Taisei's booster seat.
• When she's with mama, she always asks "Papa は?  Taisei は?  Mirei は?"
• When she's with papa, she always says "Mama go" which is a direct translation for "Mama 行く"
• When she's asked how old she is, it's always the same answer "Oppai ni sai."
• She's a candy fiend - always on the prowl.  When she goes quiet, she's either looking for it, or has already found it.
• Discovered pizza, grilled cheese sandwich.  At least this is more variety than white rice and sugary foods.
• She's in the "mine" stage.  It's normally "Leina の! Leina の!"

Mirei

• She's our smarty pant.  She's got both the Japanese alphabet (Hiragana) and the English alphabet alphabet down.  She not only can recognize, but can write some of both.
• Peacemaker, and defender of the other kids and dog (from parents, mostly).  Once when we were mad at Taisei about something, she went in the bathroom with him and barricaded the door with everything she could find so that we couldn't get it.  She used the stool, heater, etc. and vehemently denied our entry.
• She's gets very rebellious stage now - definitely tries to do the opposite of what we want.  Often, this can be outrageously bad - breaking things, screaming, etc.
• To be funny, she often will purposely do outrageous things.  This is somewhat related to the previous bullet.  
• She very interested in makeup.  Even noticed Taisei's teacher has braces and declared that she wants some too.  Loves manicure, wants to do lipstick and eye shadow.  We let her color only her toenails for the time being.
• She's still the most cuddly out of the three - that's her love language, apparently.
• She likes having Taisei read books to her.
• She's very quick about finding things, eg in Where's Waldo books.  She can actually compete with Taisei and his friends on the game "Spot It"
• She's also our most empathetic kid.  She will randomly ask about and pray for Grandma Lin, who passed away last year, and our neighbor's cat, Cosmo.  She's genuinely concerned and wants them to come back again soon.  The dog park near our house is next to the cemetary.  One of our friends, Bunny, was killed in a car accident and buried there.  Mirei also often asks about Bunny when we pass near there.

Taisei

• He feels like everything should be fair with his siblings.  "How come they don't have to do homework?  How come they get to play?"
• He's in a more sensitive and emotional stage lately.  Especially when he feels he was dealt with unjustly, he will break out in sobs - something he never did when he was younger.
• His Japanese writing is starting to really look good now.
• His teacher rated him all 5s (out of 5) on his class behavior, which is a first for him!  Mrs. Benevento said "he is a model student in our class."
• He's getting into music.  He likes Katy Perry's "Roar", One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful"
• He's started fixing his hair and putting gel and things like that.  Still picky about what he wears.  Won't do jeans still.
• Getting better at skiing
• Turns out to be very good at basketball.  He was one of the top 3 players on his Jr Jazz team this year.  Good defense and dribbler.  Shooting isn't bad - his best shot was one from just inside the arc during a game.
• He also learned to throw a nice spiral with the football.  We watched a YouTube video and that's all it took.  He can put some juice on his because he has the footwork learned from baseball.
• His piano is really coming along.  He can now sight read single notes quite well.  Has a little trouble when timing is tricky.
• He's started to sing out loud particularly in primary.  He can now carry a tune and sing on key, so apparently this will self develop. :)

The kids now play very well together, often playing make believe.  Taisei enjoys taking a break from his work to play with his sisters.

All three kids still LOVE natto.  That's the one meal they want if they don't like what's for dinner.  The backup would be rice with rou song.

Weekly schedule:

• Mon - Taisei school, Mirei dance, Mirei/Leina Japanese playgroup, Taisei piano lesson
• Tues - Taisei school, Mirei preschool
• Wed - Taisei school, Taisei Japanese school, Taisei basketball practice
• Thur - Taisei school, Mirei preschool, Mirei Japanese school
• Fri - Taisei school, Taisei skiing
• Sat - Taisei basketball game
• Sun - Church 11-5

Hiro has grown to trust the kids more.  On the way to school, Hiro now will sit on the rear bench between Taisei and Mirei.