Words with B

Richie loves to say the words starting with B. He points to the ball and says "Ba". He chases the pigeons in the park and says "Baa" meaning bird. When we go out on the cycle, he shouts "Ba,ba,baaaaa" which means Bus.
When I am reading, he goes "Ba", which means book. When going to the nursery, he waves to dada and says Ba,ba. When he sees the yellow fruit which the monkeys eat, he says "Ba" meaning banana. When we ask him, what does the sheep say, and he goes "Baaaa,Baaaa"!!

Saying the letter O,T,P, I

Richie's latest in the series is saying the letters O, T , I and P. Where ever we go, whether it is shopping mall, tourist spot, TV etc, he recognises those letters and shouts out loud. :) He knows Pooh, peas, start with P. When he sees T he starts "grrrooooow , groooowwww" meaning T for tiger. He can also draw O and tries some straight lines to draw T and I.

Richie at 18 months - milestones

Wondering what Richie is upto these days. He is trying to enhance his skills by practicing it more and more everyday. Thatz the thing I like about kids. They never give up. We as adults tend to give up soon, if we feel we cannot do a thing. That is the best lesson I learnt from Richie. "Mama, don't give up, keep trying".
Here is Richie at 18 months.Maybe I am missing a few. Will add it up as I remember them.

• walks well and sometimes runs too　- Started at 15.5 months
• learnt to say No and yes.
• shows strong likes and dislikes
• going to japanese nursery school and learns a lot of new stuff everyday and japanese words.
• points to things in the alphabet chart when called out.
• recognises and says few letters in the alphabet chart.
• makes 2-3 words sentences (which we cannot understand ).
• talks to himself while playing.
• plays on his own.
• dumps an object in imitation, such as throwing garbage away
• does some abstract drawings.
  
• says dada, mama and looks at us while saying.
• tries to imitate the dog sound "waaaaaaah, aaaaaaaaah" and smiles.
• trying to eat with spoon and drink from cup
• laughs spontaneously if we start laughing.
• starts a conversation between 2 animals.
• tries to talk on the phone.
• can match a lot of shapes, triangle, heart, square, star etc.
• plays with push and pull toys
• likes to drive his car – groom, grooooooooom
• loves to shop, puts the things he likes in the basket.
• can build towers out of blocks and makes trains.
• loves to play pee-ka-boo and so-big
• imitates action songs.
• solves puzzles.
  
• loves to listen to story books.
• co-operates while dressing up by putting his hands in the t-shirt.

Wearing his socks and shoes

Wondering whether Richie is already wearing his socks and shoes!! Yes, he does try and I help him a little. He calls shoes "shees". If dada or I are wearing shoes, he will run to get his too. He knows that it is time for an outing when we wear it.

Today being a Saturday, we decided to go to the park. Richie was very excited and dressed up in no time. He does not like to waste any more time at home. "Straight to the park mama", he says. And after reaching the park, you know what kids do. They hardly remember that their parents are around. They are happy playing around.

Candle meditation

From the time Richie was 4-5 months old, we used to lit candles and pray. He used to like it and become happy. Now when we say the word candle, he takes the candle stand and indicates that he wants to light candles. You have to see the look in his eyes when he sees the bright candles. He sits with us, hands folded and all and prays. After the prayers are over, he knows what needs to be done.. Phewwwwwwwww and the candles are blown off.

Playing at the fountain

It is summer time in Japan and the temperatures are soaring. I guess many parts in the world are experiencing hot summer this year. The heat is unbearable, though sometimes, the rain gods do shower their praise.

Richie has started pool in his nursery and we heard from the teacher that he enjoys playing in the water. Now in a nearby park, we have a fountain where children have fun. Richie used to love seeing the fountain when he was small.

Last Saturday we thought of taking Richie to play out there. So decked up in his swimwear, Richie was all set to play. He got his cups and was filling water and bathing himself. He had fun and was not ready to come back, even when we threatened to live him and go. ;)We had a hard time convincing him. Even when we were changing his wet clothes, he ran towards the fountain again, half naked and dada had to chase him. he he he.. kids are like that.

Baking my first cake

Richie makes a lot of fuss when it comes to eating food. So I am always on the lookout for new recipes or learning to prepare some new food stuff. Recently, I have started making Japanese style miso soup and vegetables.

My latest experiment was to bake a homemade cake. The cakes which we buy are sometimes too sweet and Richie tastes little and says a BIG NO. It was Sunday and a good day for starting new stuff. I had all the ingredients ready and off I went to the internet to search for a recipe for a sponge cake. Having found one, which suits my needs I got the mixture ready. Richie was eager to see what Mama was doing and I explained to him just like the TV shows. :) He was waiting for the cake to be done.
In the evening, I took some heart shape cutters and cut off lovely heart shaped cake pieces for him which he ate with relish.

Lazying in bed

Today is a Sunday. And what do we usually do on a Sunday? Get up late? or go for mass? or just do nothing.

For the past one and half year, the moment I was awake in the morning, I used to get out of bed quickly and used to start my daily chores. The first thing being getting the milk ready for baby (as he would cry/scream loudly) as he would wake my husband up who loves to enjoy his lovely weekend sleep after having late nights. In all, for a mom, no weekends, no Sundays.

But today was different. I woke up and saw my little boy was awake too. My hubby was up too... hubby wakes up before me these days. Richie was in a good mood, thrilled that mom was around. I hugged him and we played in bed, with me feeling lazy to move even an inch. Richie too did not scream to have his morning milk. He was happy just having mom for company. I certainly felt relaxed and rejuvenated after a good relaxing time.

Moon moon shine away

Yesterday when we were coming back home from the nursery, Richie noticed the moon. It was shining brightly and we could see it all along the way. I jokingly said to Richie, "Richie, look, the moon is following us". He was happy having the moon for company.

We reached home and I was cooking. Richie came to me to see what was cooking. He inspects my cooking many a times to know what is in store for him.;) Now the balcony is adjacent to the kitchen door and you can see the highway below. Richie loves to stand at the door and see the vehicles passing by and the traffic signal changing. When he looked out he said "Moon". When I saw in his direction, yes indeed, the moon was smiling back at him. Richie indicated with his hand that he wants to go out. We went in the balcony and Richie was thrilled to see that the moon visits our home too. Seeing the moon, I was inspired too and I made my own song to make the day memorable for Richie. Here is the song,

Moon moon shine away,
in the sky so dark and grey.
We are children of today(new generation),
Moon moon shine away.

Interaction with teachers - Richie at the Nursery

Richie has adapted to the nursery well and has loads of fun. He also loves his teacher which we can see when he interacts with them.

There is this incident which happened some days back and is still fresh in my mind.I picked up Richie from the nursery and was putting him in his stroller. He was not ready to sit in the stroller and was crying loudly. Usually he is well behaved and has no problems whatsoever.　Just then his class teacher was also leaving for home. We said hello and she asked me any problems. When she understood, she said to Richie in Japanese, "Richie-kun suwatte.." meaning, "Richie sit down". Without another thought Richie sat in the stroller. Her words were like magic.

The teacher was also going in the same direction so we walked together. When it was time to bid bye-bye, Richie started crying again. I literally had to drag him home that day. He came home, ate and slept. I realised Richie was too tired that day. He could throw tantrums with mom but not when his teachers were around. He did not want to spoil his reputation. :)

New friends - Richie at the Nursery

When Richie reaches his classroom, all his friends gather round him and they shout "yeh,yeh" loudly, moving their hands in the air. All his classmates are Japanese, with the exception of him, but where does it bother the kids? They are happy to have a friend. He adores them and they too in turn do the same.

Sensei (means teacher in Japanese) says that they play together, but it seems sometimes Richie shouts at them if he likes some toys and someone tries to take it away. Possessive, isn't he?

First Day First Show - Richie at the nursery

I am creating a category called "Richie's nursery adventures". Here we will be posting what all Richie does at the nursery. I guess, one day when he grows up, he will read these posts and feel good that he had been doing so many things when he was small.

Richie's first day at nursery started on the 1st February 2010 when I joined back work. It was a small private nursery, but we paying more than double the fees and that too without food. We could not get the regular government nurseries as they were all full to the capacity. The government nurseries in Japan have good facilities, but new admissions start only in April. It meant that we had to wait for 2 more months. It seemed like a long time.

Richie was very tired on the first day of his nursery. Away from mama, among new people, he cried bitterly. He didn't have his food properly. And being my first day away from him, I couldn't bear to see him separated from me.

But all is well that ends well. When I came back, Richie came to me crying expressing "Mama, where were you for such a long time?". We hugged and came home and had a lot of loving time together.

I love painting

We have bought Richie some "magic" coloring books. They are special in a way that when you use a paintbrush dipped in water, the color shows automatically i.e it already has built-in colors. Some days back, we thought it is time that we can introduce Richie to new ways of drawing/painting. He already scribbles using his crayons. We first demonstrated how to dip the brush in water and paint on the book. Seeing the colors, Richie got excited and wanted to do it himself. We gave him the paintbrush and he set out to show his creativity. In no time, he was painting the horse, cow, dog, cat and trying to imitate their sounds.

Saying prayers before meal

We usually have our dinner together with Richie sitting in his high chair. Sometimes, Richie feels too hungry so we feed earlier. We have cultivated a habit of saying our prayers before and after meals. Richie has observed us and he too folds his hands when we start the prayers (mind you, without we telling him).

The other day, he had finished his food and was watching TV. We started our prayers and guess what Richie did. He left the TV and came to us and folded his hands and went back after the prayers were over.

Celebrating Richie's 1st Birthday

We celebrated Richie's 1st birthday with pomp. We had a lot of activities for him:
-Party Celebration at home
-Photo session at Alice studio
-Shinagawa Aquarium trip
- Richie enjoyed the dolphin and seal show. Also the walk under the ocean floor with big fishes going above you.
-bought a special gold plated coin marking the date of his first birthday.

Using the tissue with style

Some days back, we had gone shopping in the mall and got a bit late. It was dinner time so we thought of eating at one of the restaurants in the food court. We ordered "unagi no kaba-yaki" (steaming rice with grilled eel+sweet sauce on top of it). Unagi(eel) is a delicacy eaten in Japan specially in summers to survive the hot and humid summers. It is said to be highly nutritious with vitamin A, B1, B2, D and E. Japanese people have special foods based for different seasons. Like Sanma fish (Pacific saury) represents autumn in Japanese cuisine. Sanma is most commonly served salted and grilled. Will give some more information about Japan in the next post.

Now our dear Richie eats Japanese food at the nursery everyday. He has started liking it, so we all enjoy eating out together whenever we can. When the food was brought, Richie was already sitting on his baby chair ready to eat. We started feeding him with the chopsticks. While eating, Richie realized his lips were feeling a bit sticky. What should he do.... He dexterously took the tissue from the table and put it to his lips and wiped in style and kept it back on the table without crumpling it. Hmmm.. Isn't that a bit too much for a 16 month year old?

Good habits die hard

Kids start learning and imitating whatever they see. They will minutely observe you and then start doing it themselves. We might not even realize that we have been doing it. One fine day, you suddenly notice yourself and say, yeah we saw our girl doing it, are we imitating her?

Here is an incident of what Richie did when he was 15.5 months old. While we were having lunch one day, Richie started coughing. What we saw was wonderful!! While coughing he held his hand to his mouth. We were quite amazed. When he looked at us, he smiled. We had not taught him that explicitly. But he had seen us doing it. Guess, good habits really die hard.. We can see it in our children and we may see it for generations to come.

Richie and Dada's Day

It was Richie and dada's day. It was a Sunday. I had a project release, hence I had to be office. Richie hasn't stayed much without me at home for a long interval of time. I had come back home in 2 hours or so even when I used to run errands. Hence I was a bit concerned how the things will be.

But to tell you the truth, both the guys had a gala time. Dad told me that they had a man-to-man talk, with Richie sitting on the table and dad on his chair with their eyes meeting each other. They also played a lot with flash-cards with dada hiding them and Richie retrieving them when dada called out the name.

When I cam back from office, Richie came running to the door and gave me a big warm hug and lots of kisses. Then we had a nice chat and played together. Actually he was not ready to leave me and sat hugging me. Definitely he missed me, but he did not trouble dada by crying and asking for me. Dada said he behaved well and was a happy boy. He listened to whatever dad was telling him. I am so proud of my little boy.
I love you my boy!!

Drinking from the cup

Richie started drinking milk from the cup since May 2010. He was 15.5 months old then. If he sees us drinking water or juice from the glass, he immediately points and indicates that he too wants the same.

As kids always do, initially he used to spill all over (even with a bib) and there was extra trouble of changing and washing his clothes. Actually I guess they love to mess things a lil. Must be thinking, Mama should be given trouble sometimes.. ;)Now guess what he does.... Even if we try to help him, he drives us away. He has become jouzu (japanese word for skilled) now and can manage easily.

Chasing Birdie

For Richie, weekends means park-time. Since we are both working now and Richie is in nursery, we make it a point to go to the park over weekends. He eagerly waits to go out with us. Specially, if dada starts dressing up, he gets excited and tries to put his shoes on. He will also keep an eye on dada to see whether he is still there or left without him. One day, while he was watching TV after dressing up (to go to the park),he suddenly realised dada is not around. He went searching for dada and when he found him, he heaved a sigh of relief haaaaaaaa.. literally he did that.. and we could not help laughing.

Now that he has started walking, he is having more fun running around. His favorite past-time is chasing birdies around, specially the pigeons who search for food on the ground and fly away when someone approaches them.

He also loves to sit on the Panda and go on the slide in the form of an elephant. Slide is exciting as the elephant takes him in and lets him out through his long nose. These days he sits on the swing too independently and tries to swing on his own by moving forward and backward.