3Y5M 1Y8M タカラの英語 Takara's English

タカラはやはり同時期のアラタに比べて英語の発語が多い。音楽が好きだから音で覚えるのだと思うが、単語ではなく文章が言える。今の所一番長い文章は「Don't do that, please! （ドンドゥーザップリース　＝　それ止めて！）」

そしてアラタがトイレに座るのをみているから、自分も座りたがる。アラタがトイレに行く前に歌う鼻歌「トーィレ、トーィレ～」を真似して言いながら、トイレに座って、本当におしっこが出てくるからすごい。二番目は早くオムツが外れるかな？

Compared to Arata at the same age, Takara speaks more English. Not only words, but he is good at saying sentences. The longest sentence he can say is "Don't do that please!" Probably he picks it up as if he learns songs. He is good at singing.

And because Takara is so familiar with the scene that Arata goes to the toilet, he also copies it. He even copies Arata's humming when he goes to toilet and sang, "Toooilet! Toooilet!" then sits on the toilete seat, and actually pees! He can do it quite often. Probably it's early for the second child to complete potty training?

3Y5M 1Y8M まくまく Cocoon

アラタカラはお風呂から出てくるとまくまくする。Ｊａｓｏｎがタオルを腰に巻くマネをアラタが小さい時に始めたのが最初。最近ではタカラも「まくまく！」、巻いてくれと頼む。英語が上手になってきたアラタは「コクーン（みの虫）」と言うことが多いが、確かに、みの虫ね。

Aratakara always want us to put a bath towel around their body after coming out of bath. Arata started copying Jason, who puts a towel around his waist, when he was small. Now Takara likes it as well and he demands, "Maku Maku!! (= wrap, wrap)". Arata used to call it the same but he's started to describe this as "cocoon!"

3Y5M 1Y8M アパァ！ Apa!

Big Apple のソフトプレイエリアでラビアのバースデーパーティーがあった。ラビアのご家族は、中国新疆自治区ウルムチ近郊出身のウイグル人で、ママのハリアとご主人は現在大学で勉強をしている。そして、ハリアには、私が勤務を増やした5月から週2回程、ベビーシッターをお願いしている。

ハリアは礼儀正しく頭の切れるしっかりものだし、同じアジア人としての親近感、安心感があるので、アラタカラの面倒を見てもらえる事になって本当によかった。もともとアディバを通じて知り合ったが、彼女の話すウズベキ語とウイグル語が、間にキルギスタンがあるにもかかわらず通じるという事に驚いた。中央アジアは文化的にも人種的にも多種多様で興味深いなあ。

アラタカラはハリアにすっかりなついて、ラビアと遊べることも楽しみにしている。（ラビアも「私はベビーシッターしているのよ」と友達に言っているらしい。）そして、タカラは既にウイグル語を習得。ラビアがママを呼んでいるのを聞いて覚えたのだろう、ハリアを「アパ（＝ママ）」と呼ぶ。ハリアが大好きなタカラは、藪から棒に「アパァ！」と言い出す事もあり、そのたびに「今日は来ないよ。」この間はハリアが、「タカラにキスを迫られたわ、それも、口によ～」と言っていた。タカラの最高の愛情表現よ。

そして、ハリアも必然的に日本語を少しずつ覚える様で、まずは、タカラが繰り返す「飛行機」を覚えたと言っていたし、今日は「ココバーバってどういう意味？」と聞かれた。「食べ物がほしい時に言うんだけど、それはタカラ語で、せっかく覚えたのに申し訳ないけど、日本人には通じないからね～」と言ったら大笑い。

We went to the soft play area of Big Apple for Ravia's birthday party. Ravia is Uyghur and her family are from near Urumqi, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. Her mother, Hurriya, she and her husband are studying at university, babysits Aratakara for 2 days a week, since I changed my working days to nearly full time in May.

Hurriya is bright, polite and trustworthy person. As we are the same Asian, I feel comfortable with her and I believe it was the right choice to ask her to babysit my kids. I got to know her through Adiba and I was quite surprise to know that Uzbek and Uyghur are similar languages and they can understand each other with their own language, even though there is another country, Kyrgyztan in between. I often learn that central Asia is very interesting in both creaturely and ethnically.

Aratakara get on well with Hurriya and as she often brings Ravia as well, Aratakara always look forward to playing with her. (According to Hurriya, Ravia tells her friends that she babysits 2 "babies"!) Takara has already picked up some Uyghur. He calls Hurriya, "Apa ( = mother)." He must have picked it up from Ravia. And as he loves her a lot, he often shouts "Apppaaa!" out of blue. We then have to reassure that she is not coming today. Hurriya said to me, "Oli likes kissing me. He tried to kiss even my lips!" Well, that's the best way of showing his affection!

Naturally, Hurriya has also started to pick up some Japanese words. She has learnt "Hikoki ( = air plane)" and when I saw her last time she asked me, "What does 'Koko baba' mean?" I had to say, "Takara says that when he wants something to eat but unfortunately no Japanese can understand it. It's Takara's own language!" We both laughed!

3Y5M 1Y8M 掃除 Hoovering

『じゃあじゃあびりびり』の掃除機の「ぶーいん、ぶいーん」が大好きなタカラは重たい掃除機を居間に持ってきては、一日中「ぶいーん、ぶいーん」と叫びながらお掃除のまね。ここ数日は、「ママ、ぶいーん（＝掃除機の電源入れて）」とせがむタカラ。面倒くさいので、「アラタにやってもらって」と言う私。アラタはコードを引っ張り出して（実はボタンを押すとシューッと格納されるのが好きなのだが）、コンセントに入れて、電源を入れる。ついでだから、本当に掃除機かけてもらうことにしたら、タカラはアラタに「アラタ、ここ！」とゴミのありかを指示して、いいコンビ！大助り。

Takara likes a phrase in one of his Japanese books, "Jaa Jaa Biri Biri." It's a book of pictures and sounds. One of the pages is a hoover and a sound "Bueeen Bueeen" and he likes it. He often drags our heavy hoover to the sitting room and makes a sound of "Bueeen Bueeen."

In the last couple of days, he asks me to switch it on saying, "Mama, Bueeen!" I'm too lazy to get up so I says, "Ask Arata." Arata then pulls out the cord, plugs it in and switches it on. (Actually Arata likes the action that the cord can be pulled back swiftly when pushing a button.) Anyway, since they really switch on the hoover, I ask them to clean the floor. Takara looks for some dirt on the floor and when he finds it, he instructs Arata to hoover the area saying, "Arata, koko (= here)!" They can do a good job!

3Y5M 1Y8M 双子 Twins?

おそろいシャツを着せてチャイナタウンへ点心を食べに行った。チャイニーズのウエイトレスはみんなアラタカラに興味深々で、テーブルの横で二人を見比べながら同僚としばらくしゃべってニコっとして行ってしまう人もいる。「この二人兄弟なのかなあ」「いや、こっちは外人っぽいよねえ」「こっちはかわいいけど・・・」なんて言っていたに違いない。無遠慮に人の事をジロジロ見るチャイニーズ系態度はシンガポールで慣れているけど、久しぶりで面白かった。

その後、Wokingの駅で。リフトが壊れていたのでアラタカラを降ろし、階段を上らせ、私もバギーを引っ張りながら上っていると、駅員さんが助けに来てくれた。そして、「二人は双子？」ばらばらに歩いていたから大きさ（体重はあまり変わらないけど背は違う）が違うのも見た目が違うのもわからなかったかなあ。おそろい着効果かな。まあ、このコメントをしたのもチャイニーズ系の駅員さんでした。

We went to China town to have Dim Sum. Aratakara were in a matching pair of blue shirt. Chinese waitresses serving us looked very interested in them. They stared at them openly. Some of them were even chatting each other at our table for a while looking at Takara, Arata, and Takara and Arata and.... Then they smiled at us and simply left. Of course we didn't know what they were talking about. My guesses are "Do you think they are brothers?", "This one looks more oriental" and "This one is cuter." I'm so used to this kind of attitude by Chinese as I lived in Singapore. But I haven't had this for a while and it was interesting to me as well.

When we came back to Woking, the lift at the station was out of order. I let Aratakara walk up the stairs and I was dragging the buggy up. One of the station staff came to help me. I think it's because he couldn't see the difference of Aratakara's heights or looking, he just commented, "Are they twins?" It must be their shirt but it was interesting to know that this person was also Chinese!

3Y5M 1Y8M ハンドペィンティング Hand painting

タカラ、ヨーグルトを食べていたはずなのに、ふと気が付いたら窓にヨーグルトアートが・・・。

I thought Takara was eating yoghurt quietly. Nice hand painting on a window pane.

3Y5M 1Y8M わんわん！ Doggy!

最近子犬を飼い始めたカティがアラタカラと子犬を遊ばせたいと言うのでブライトンまで行った。子犬は、母親から離れた後の数ヶ月の間に子供と交わる事で人間に対して優しく育つそうで、そのお相手にアラタカラが選ばれたのだ。

ゼベディは、大宮で昔飼っていた2代目コロを彷彿させる白＆黒の犬。それにしても、最近の子犬のしつけと英国での赤ちゃんの育て方のトレンドに共通点が多くて、笑ってしまった。まあ、ゼベディはもうトイレトレーニングしているから、その点は犬の方が楽でいいけど。

予想通り、タカラはあまり怖がらずに「わんわん！」と言いながらちょっかい出していた。ゼベディのおもちゃをくわえてみたり、ドッグフードを食べそうになったりもしたが、床に転がるドッグフードの粒を探して「ここ！」と教えてあげたり、「ノーモア（もうないよ）」と話しかけたり。中腰のタカラの写真は、ゼベディと視線を同じ高さに合わせて、嬉しそうに観察している様子。

アラタが積極的だったのは最初の数分だけ。何日も前から「わんわん見に行く！アラタ触る！」と楽しみにしていた割には、動く子犬を目の前にしてすっかり動揺。ものすごい悲鳴を上げながらJasonや私にしがみついて来るから大変。まあ、こういう予測できない動きをする子供との接触が大切らしいが。ランチはパノラミックに海を見渡せるパブで。南欧の海岸沿いのよう。

カティのブログはここ。

We went to Brighton to see Kati. She's recently acquired a puppy and she asked to come over to let Aratakara play with him. She told me that in the first few months of puppy's life, it's very important to socialise with children to develop a good relationship with human beings.

Zebedee is a cute puppy with black and white patches on his coat. He reminds me of our family dog, 2nd Koro. It's quite interesting that lots of trend of how to bring up puppies are similar to what we do to babies, especially the trend of in this country! Well, Zebedee has already started his toilet training and I envy Kati.

As we expected, Takara was quite brave and he played with Zebedee quite well. Takara put his toys into his own mohth, and he was going to eat his food, as well, but he pointed a grain of dog food to Zebedee saying, "Koko (= here)" or told him, "No more (food)" when Takara learnt no more food would be given to him for that meal. In the photo that Takara is squatting, he is observing Zebedee with joy. He looked amazed with every movement of Zebedee.

Arata was very keen only in the first couple of minutes. He had been saying, "I'm going to see a puppy, I'm going to touch it!" for a couple of days. But after he saw a real little puppy moving around, he started to feel frightened. Arata kept screaming whenever Zebedee coming to him. Probably this is exactly puppy needs to experience in his early stage?

We went to a pub overlooking 180 degree panoramic view of sea! Beautiful. It was as if we were in Southern Europe holiday resort.

This is Kati's weblog.