Favorite movies

A-chan's favorite movies are all Ghibli films. Particularly My Neighbor Totoro, but she likes Kiki's Delivery Service and Whisper of the Heart as well. If you've never seen a ghibli film, you have no idea the wonder and goodness that you are missing! We were introduced to Totoro by A-chan's godparents S & L and were all enchanted right away. Totoro has been a huge obsession for us all every since. Ketu and I are also fans of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle but they are a bit too scary for A-chan right now.

The violin in Whisper of the Heart inspired our girl to buy a toy violin at the toy store the other day. We were pretty sure that she was going to zero in on the trains like usual and she did for a moment. But as we explored the store her eyes and then her fingers lit upon the SWtoys violin. It's bright red and comes with a purple bow and when you run the bow across the appropriate part of the strings it changes the music. It's awesome! That was yesterday. This morning she asked to watch WotH and when it was time for the violin scene ran to get hers to play along. I just couldn't believe it. (Of course, her playing didn't in any way resemble the song on the tv, but still...) Just before the holidays I had dragged out my tiny old violin from the closet to check on it and let her play it a bit, I have to wonder if she remembered that too. When I was three years old I took violin lessons (for a while) and I still have the tiny violin. It would be too cool if she wanted to play it when she is a little older. I don't want to force it on her or anything, though so we'll just have to see if she is interested. She already loves to play both my big and little harps. In fact, I think she gets to play them more often than I do!

The Negative World

My family are the most negative people you can imagine. You cannot say anything that they will respond to in a positive way. I want so much to protect A-chan from them and the cloud that they voluntarily carry over their heads. I don't want her to be forced to look at the world the way that they do, and I'd prefer that she never even get a glimpse of that world. To give examples of what I mean...

My aunt: "I wish people wouldn't use splenda, it messes up your brain. Everybody is hooked on splenda and it makes me so sad." (this was her response to my description of a good diabetic casserole recipe that happened to have splenda in it)

My grandmother: (in response to a supposed-to-be-heartwarming-story about the deer and fawn that lived in our front forest this summer) "I wish your windows were higher up. Deer crash through people's windows and attack them, you know."

My mother: (entertaining my uncle and grandfather by pointing out all of the stuff wrong with our house) "See, all they have to do to fix this spot is cut off this bit of wall, but they just won't do it."

My uncle: "We'd better leave now so that M doesn't die driving over the mountains tonight."

It's scary to realize just how negative they are and know that no matter what I say they will not like it. I feel like I just can't win. Is it wrong for me to not want A-chan exposed much to these people and their negativity?

Accessorizing

So the last time we visited with M, F and E they had fun dressing up in play clothes - fancy shoes and sashes and the like. I thought that A-chan might enjoy doing the same, especially since she's always trying to wear her squeaky shoes in the house (omg the noise) or wear my shoes which are way dangerous.

We went to Target on a mission to find fancy shoes that a) wouldn't be too dangerous on our tile floor and b) weren't disney or barbie. There were a few pairs of shoes that we found, but not far away was the Star Wars aisle. A-chan found a purple light saber. When given the choice between the "pretty shoes" and the "purple light sword", which were the same price, A-chan instantly chose the saber. (good girl! hehe) She then commented on the fact that she already had pretty shoes, pointing to her new squeaky sneakers.

The light saber was played with all afternoon and evening until we took it away at bedtime. Phrases like, "I like star wars" and "purple light saber, A-chan" rang through the house. When it was time to watch our evening bit of video A-chan requested Star Wars (big surprise, lol) which we watched together. She is old enough to start questioning the movie and we've been getting a big hit out of explaining it all to her, though it's all been distilled into toddler-understandable form.

The Negotiator

A-chan eating a sweet bean mochi.

A-chan will ask me to read a book to her. I will say, 'okay, one book'. She goes to her bookshelf and picks out two books, brings them back. She says, 'mata read two books, okay?' I say, 'no, just one book.' We read one book. Then she grabs the second book and says, 'mata read one book, okay?' and so on. If I agree to one more book after that she says, 'mata read three books.' I say, 'that's right.' thinking that she has been counting the ones that we've already read. A-chan then brings me 3 more books from the shelf.

Ten minutes later A-chan comes and asks, "two pretzels?" I think you can imagine how that one goes. It's gotten up to twelve pretzels...

I can imagine what she will be like at 5 and 16. It scares me. We need to practice saying 'no' every day for at least an hour to start preparing. In multiple languages. Maybe two hours a day. Because we're suckers. That's how we got 17 cats, you know. I need sugar now.

Words of the week #6

breakfast all gone, a-chan full up tummy
I put yellow bowl on my head, nice hat
that's impressive
what happened?
I like star wars
Mata, your drawing impressive
I need pretzels, please
I brought you a book, for you
Here you go, Mata, I give you blanket
yes, ma'am ( I have no idea where she learned this! It isn't something I ask her to say or that I say...)
big mama grape, little baby grape
I have pocket! Put in my pocket. (you wouldn't believe the stuff we found the next time we changed her diaper, lol)
Are you happy?
Are you happy again, Mata?
Dada, are you happy?
A-chan happy now!

R2 the hero

This morning there was a huge train crash in our house. And R2 rescued all the people and animals. They were all happy, the end.

No matter what kind of catastrophe A-chan's toys get themselves into, R2 is always there to save the day. I love it!

Today is the second time that A-chan has insisted on going into the coumadin clinic with me. The first time I took her on my own but this time Ketu came along which helped a million! She knows that I'm going to get a finger stick and my finger will hurt and it apparently really upsets her. But maybe it will help her if she sees that I don't mind it at all. Of course once we got in to the clinic she wouldn't let me hold her, oh no, she clung to Ketu like a squirmy, shy monkey.

Downtown, doggies & blue buggy

Today was grocery shopping day. You'd never have guessed that it was winter-time here, the temp was at 60 degrees before noon. After the icky cold yuck that we'd had for a couple of days walking into the sweet balmy sunshine was just too good to pass up. So we all voted for walking around downtown and grabbing a bite of lunch before the grocery shopping. As always there was an amazing mix of people, many of whom enjoyed the novelty of A-chan's shoes and the cuteness of her waving around a folding fan. one fellow remarked as he passed us on the sidewalk that he was glad to know it was the shoes making the squeaks because he'd thought it was ketu's utilikilt at first, lol!

And of course most of the dogs were very interested in her shoes. There was one surveying it's kingdom from a second story window who looked like it was just going to leap out to come and get the squeakies. The window had no screen in and luckily the owner was there to grab it and keep it from jumping out. We felt kind of bad about that, what if the owner hadn't been in the room? But it was so cute to see A-chan wave to the doggie in the window and have the owner help the dog wave back :)

One of the greatest things about grocery shopping for A-chan is the blue buggy. The one that looks like a car and is hideously difficult to steer and has no room underneath for huge diaper boxes, but that has cute little steering wheels that the baby goes gaga over. The last time she accompanied Ketu to the grocery store there wasn't one available so we promised her that she could ride in one today. We'd been hearing about how much she wanted to ride in blue buggy all week! Ketu was a great dad and searched all over the parking lot til he found one for her. Riding around the store she said, "I love blue buggy". Awwww. :)