DIY Girl

There are many things that Lilia is capable of, but she can be also be very dependent and lazy and spoiled.  The Japanese have a word for this: amaeru.  In theory and practice, Lilia can crawl to the toilet, grab onto the bar on the wall, and do her business, but she almost always relies on me for transportation.

Yesterday morning she woke up very early.  I heard her calling for me, but I decided to stay put and see what would happen.  I heard her clamber out of bed, crawl to the toilet, and then crawl back to her room.  Then there was some thumping and banging, and then we heard her going downstairs.  Yoshi went to see what she was doing, and then he called me to come look.  She had changed her clothes and was standing against the sink, washing her face!  We were so proud of her.  I wanted to give her a trophy or something.  Sometimes I worry that Lilia will never be able to live independently, but on occasions like this one, I start to believe that it will happen. 

 

Golden Week Report

We are now on the last day of that string of holidays known as Golden Week.  This is the time of year when the highways are clogged with traffic, and every public space is mobbed.  Also, most families have plans to visit relatives or do something fun.  I have been trying to get us through this period without driving too far (gas just went up 25 yen per liter) and without spending too much money.  My husband has had baseball games every day, so we’ve been on our own.

Yesterday, Jio talked me into going to a park an hour from our house.  He told me that the third graders in his class had arranged this outing.  They actually conpsired the week before to get their parents to take them to a science park near here.  We spent six hours in the great outdoors, playing kick ball (also very well organized by the third graders - oh, how smoothly they sorted themselves into teams) and running around, after which I was too exhausted to make dinner. 

Yesterday morning, although it was cloudy, I made sandwiches, loaded all of our gear into the car, and we set out for the park the kids had agreed upon.  Turns out, no one else was there.  It’s a big park, and it was a holiday, but all we saw was a high school kid running laps, and an elderly man on some sort of power walk.  Jio immediately said that he wanted to go home.

I made him play for about two hours.  He skated on his rollerblades, and we hit some balls, and had a picnic, and then we went home.  In the evening, one of the parents called and said that today everyone is going to another park, and that yesterday’s event had been organized by the children without parental approval.

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law believes that someone has stolen her keys.