3Y1M 1Y4M 隔世遺伝 Skipping a generation

シャイなアラタはJasonの遺伝だねえとよく言われる。そして、人見知り皆無のタカラを見て、こっちはお母さん似なのねと言われるのだが、私はどうやってもそこまで社交的にはなれない。落ち着いたJasonのご両親の事を考えると、これは紛れもなく私の父の遺伝子だ。

近所の教会Christ churchの子供向け日曜サービスの一環で、バウンシーカッスル（空気を入れたトランポリンのような大型遊具）もあるというので、暇つぶしに行った。もちろん、バウンシーカッスルにまっしぐらなのはタカラで、アラタは躊躇。一緒にいたまなちゃんに「どうしてしないの？」と言われて黙り込むアラタ。大きいお兄ちゃん達やアラタと遊ぶのを諦めたまなちゃんに囲まれてタカラはジャンプジャンプ！

10分程遠巻きに眺めた後、少し試しては私の所に戻って来て、を繰り返したアラタとは対象的に、大きい子供達の時間になり（チビがいては危ないから）お兄ちゃん二人に連れられ戻ってきたタカラは、手を離されると速攻舞い戻りみんな苦笑い・・・。

アラタがやっと慣れてくれてやれやれと思っていると、タカラの姿がない！ライブ演奏が始まり、さっさとカッスルから下りて、バンドがいる舞台へよじ登っていた。親切なみなさんで、演奏が終わるとタカラを抱えてドラムを叩かせてくれた。

その後、教会入り口でサービスの宣伝していた熊（の着包みを着た人）が舞台に出てきて、観客も生演奏で歌いだすと、再びタカラはわき目も振らずに舞台に突進。舞台に上がって熊に触ったり、舞台からニコニコと、音楽に合わせて体を揺らし始めた。

あっけに取られた私。4歳になったばかりのまなちゃんが心配して、舞台に上がってタカラを連れ戻そうとしてくれたが、心配症のアラタが「オリが行っちゃった～～～」とパニクったので、我に返った私は赤面しながらタカラを連れ戻しに行きました。

ふと思い出したのは数週間前に行ったアラタの友達、ニコラスの誕生パーティーの事。ソフトプレイエリアで１時間程遊んでからケーキ食べて、という段取りだったが、なかなか入ろうとしないアラタをJasonが説得しているうちに、タカラはさっさと楽しそうに遊んでいたそうだ。そして、アラタはタカラに釣られるような形で遊び始めたらしい。

アラタは昔から絶対にタカラのような行動は取らないから、年齢によるものでもなく、タカラの持って産まれた気質だ。とってもシャイなアラタを、タカラがリードしてくれることになり、いい影響を与えてくれるならいいが、対照的な二人兄弟を育てるのって実はもっと複雑？じゃなきゃいいけど・・・。

Everybody says shy Arata takes after Jason. And they go on "Takara is like you" because he is sociable. But however hard I try, I wouldn't be so extroverted. Considering rather quiet Jason's parents, Takara's got my dad's sociable gene.

We went to Christ church's Sunday's children services because they put up a bouncy castle inside.Of course it was Takara who ran straight to the castle while Arata was hesitating. Mana asked Arata, "Why do you not want to go?" but Arata kept quiet. Takara was happily jumping surrounded by big boys and Mana, who gave up persuading Arata to play with.

Arata was watching them for good 10 minutes and he started to join them but came back quickly. He kept doing go and come back for a while. In the meantime, Takara came out being led by 2 boys who were holding his hands because it's time for bigger kids and it may be dangerous for little ones to stay on. As soon as they released Takara's hands, he turned swiftly and went back to the castle...

When I started to feel relieved as Arata seemed to at last settle in, I realised Takara was missing! I then turned around found him on the stage. Live music started and Takara apparently abandand the castle and ran up to the stage. The band members were all kind and one of them let him play the drum later.

The bear who was giving out fliers of these services at the town square earlier came on yo stage and we all started to sing along the live music. Takara made up his mind quickly. He ran onto the stage again to touch the bear. Then he turned to us and started to swing with broad smile on his face!

I was shocked. Mana, who just turned 4, was worried and went up to the stage to take Takara down. But when I heard Arata screaming, "Oli has gone!!!!!" panickingly (he says this whenever Takara runs to somewhere from us), I decided to go up to get him, feeling a bit embarrassed....

This incident reminded me of another which happened a couple of weeks ago at Nicholas's birthday party. Children first gathered at a soft play area to play and later had a small party at cafe. When Jason arrived at the soft play area with Aratakara, Arata was a bit taken aback. While Jason was trying to persuade him to join other kids, Takara was already up and enjoying it happily. Arata then decided to give it a go seeing Takara was already there.

Arata never behaved like Takara so it's nothing to do with age but personalities. I hope Takara will ease Arata's tense when they go out together and helped Arata a bit. Is Takara going to give Arata a good influence? Or will it be difficult for us to bring up this kind of set of children???

3Y1M 1Y4M スパイダーマン Spiderman

スパイダーマンを映画やテレビで見たこともないのに、最近のアラタのお気に入り。どうも、ナーサリーではやっていて、「ニコラスもジョセフも着ている」らしいのだ。ナーサリに行きたくないアラタ対策として、試しにスパイダーマンのTシャツを買ってみた。めずらしくパッと起きてさっさと着替えて、愚図らずに行った。反抗期とは言え、素直でかわいい。

ところで、アラタのキャラクター物に関する好みはいつも変わっている。アンパンマンよりバイキンマンが好きだったし、「Fimbles」（BBC）では蛙のロキット、「In The Night Garden」（BBC）では、全くメインではない壁の花的存在ハーフーズが出てくると大喜びする。

ただ最近は、いい人、悪い人というコンセプトがわかってきたようで、「バイキンマンって悪い人？」と聞く。悪い人は好きじゃないそうなのだが、「そうよ」と言うのは教育上まずいだろうし、厳密には間違っているので、「バイキンマンはアンパンマンに意地悪をするけど、二人はお友達だし、バイキンマンって面白いよね」と言うぐらいがいいのかな。

He's never seen Spiderman DVD but it's Arata's latest trend. It seems to be popular at his nursery and "Nicholas and Joseph too were in Spiderman shirt" according to Arata. As a new strategy, to make him feel like going to nursery in the morning, I bought a Spiderman T-shirt for him. And it worked! On the following morning, he woke up without much difficulties, got changed and left for nursery happily in the shirt.

Arata's taste over cartoon or TV characters is always a bit unusual. He used to like Baikinman but not Ampamman, or he loves Rockit the frog at "Fimbles" or he gets excited when "Ha-Hu"s, the least main characters, are coming on TV at "In the night garden."

Interestingly, he's started to understand the concept of good and bad. And he sounds he doesn't want to like bad people. He's asked me if Baikinman is a bad man. I couldn't say yes even though in the settings of "Ampamman", Ampamman is a super hero and fights against Baikinman. I think, educationally, I shouldn't label anybody simply 'bad' or 'good'. Anyway, it's not quite right as Baikinman and Ampamman are rivals and friends as well. So I said to him, "Baikinman is often nasty to Ampamman but they are still friends. Baikinman has a good sense of humour, hasn't he?" Arata seemed to agree with me.

3Y1M 1Y4M 反抗期 Terrible 3

『魔の二歳』と一般に称される二歳は過ぎたので、「あら、アラタって結構楽だったのね、ラッキー」と思っていた。ところが最近のアラタに手を焼く事が多く疲労大。いったい何を間違ったのかしらと勘違いしていた。これが第一次反抗期？

夕食時、お皿の色が気に入らない、スプーンはこれじゃない、ママが隣じゃないといやだ、と、自分の思い通りになるまで落ち着かない。朝、ナーサリーに行くのがイヤで、なかなか起きず、着替えもわざとのろのろ。反抗というか、思ったことを貫き通す。

もちろん、アラタの全ての要求は通らない。少し前までは理由をきちんと説明すると納得してくれていたのに、最近は強気で押してくる所が大変なのだ。それでも公平で毅然とした態度で臨まなければならないのはわかっているが、ワーっと怒ってしまう私の口調で、更に反抗される。

タカラに手がかかるようになってきて、つい、アラタに目が行き届かないのかもしれない。怒られる事をわざとしてネガティブな（よくないよね～）アテンションをもらおうとしていると気が付く事もしばしば。食べ物をわざとテーブルから落としたり、ヨーグルトでわざと顔をべたべたにしたり、16ヶ月歳のタカラがやる事もよくマネをしてくれる。

兄弟ができた事によるアテンションシーキング（赤ちゃ返り）なのか、反抗期なのか。もしや、両方まとめてやって来た？

Jasonも疲れ果てて、子供に対してヒステリックになっている。アラタの最近の口癖は「ダディ、好きじゃない！」「ゴーアウエィー（あっち行って）！」を面と向かってだから、最悪。

I was thinking how lucky we were, Arata is such an easy child. Because he has past his 'terrible 2' period without any big problems. But Arata has given us lots of headaches recently. I was wondering what went wrong until I realised they are typical 3 years old behaviours.

At dinner, he has to swap the plates if he doesn't like the colour of one I prepare, or he has to go to fetch the spoon he wants for this particular meal, or he has to sit next to me but not opposite. In the morning, he tries to take as much time as possible to delay because he doesn't want to go to nursery. Well, these kind of things go on and on 24 hours a day....

Of course, not all his desires are achieved. But up until recently, we could talk him in if we explain him things logically. He's getting more tough and resists us. I know I always have to be calm, fair and firm. But often I just shout at him at the top of my voice and Arata talks back as if it was me telling him off.

Probably he is seeking our attention by doing bad things. (Negative attention is not good I know.) Or he often copies what Takara does. Dropping food from dinner table or putting yogurt all over his face etc. Does he behave like a baby again?

I don't know his behaviours are simple attention seeking, or his "terrible 3" behaviours. Probably bits of both?

Jason has been more stressed than I thought. He hysterically tells off children from time to time and he has looked really exhausted. Arata has started to say, "I don't like Daddy!" or "Go away!" It's not good to hear that even though we know it's not his real feeling and temporary and he is just a child.

3Y1M 1Y4M 自分の時間 Time for myself

仕事が一段落したので、休暇を取り、ブックキーピング（簿記）の試験を受けることにした。子供がナーサリーに行っている間に集中して勉強する。しばらく持てなかった「自分のための時間。」厳しかった仕事を終えた自分への贅沢なご褒美という、うっとりした響き。

ま、試験日の一週間前からやればいいやという甘い見込みが元々の原因だが、やはり子供がいると予定通りにはいかない。試験範囲を網羅するにはその全ての時間が必要だったのだが、こういう時に限って子供って病気になる。今日は一日缶詰だという試験前日にはアラタは嘔吐＆熱のためナーサリーはお休み。試験当日にはタカラにも移っていて二人ともお休み。数日前から副鼻腔炎で体調を崩していたJasonも熱でふらふらしているのに。

とりあえず試験は受けたが、終了直後から私も発熱。そして久しぶりの激しい偏頭痛と48時間戦った（＝吐きまくり）。典型的な「週末偏頭痛」だ。先月末まで続いた仕事のストレスから開放される前に、試験勉強に突入する事でストレスが継続。試験終了と共に全てから開放されて発病。Jasonの具合が悪いのに子供の面倒をお願いしなければならないストレスも相当なものだった。

偏頭痛の間、目をつぶると簿記のバランスシートが頭にフラッシュバックする。それが丸2日間、絶対にスイッチオフできず、そのたびに痛みが増幅して吐き気を催していた。熱は数日下がらず、加えて、激しい喉痛で食欲も無し。一時は冷蔵庫の食料も尽きたラムニー家だが、頼りにならないアウディはとっくに鉄屑屋に売ってしまっていたから、医者に行く手段も、第一、気力も体力もない。悲惨な一週間でした。

バレンタインはそんな訳で、最高にアンロマンチックだったのだが、タカラがナーサリーでマミィへのバレンタインカードを作った。糊でいろいろな素材を貼るところを1才児がやったのだと思うが、なかなか素敵。（この写真を撮った数日後には製作者本人によりびりびりに破かれてしまいました。）そして、ナーサリーの入り口には、チャイニーズニューイヤーに因んで、アラタのクラスの子供達で作ったドラゴンが置かれていて、子供達が描いた自画像も貼ってある。これはアラタの作品。

As the project I was in at work finished, I decided to take a week off from work to take a book-keeping exam. Aratakara still go to nursery and I can concentrate on my study. It's my reward for over 3 months hard work. But it didn't go as I planned. The main reason is I thought I only need a week to prepare for the exam. But what I learnt was if you have small children, nothing goes as you planned. I needed every single minute of my time without children to go through the subjects which the exam covers. But the day before the exam, Arata got sick and had a temperature. He stayed home. On the exam day, Takara had the same symptoms and both of them didn't go to nursery. Of course, it's really difficult to study while kids are around and I was so stressed. Jason had also been unwell with sinuses and had a temperature as well.

I sat the exam anyway. But as soon as it finished, I also developed a temperature and I had a most terrible migraine for a long time. It didn't go for 48 hours and I kept getting sick. It was a typical 'weekend migraine'. Immidiately after the project at work, I started exam preparation. This kept my strain going on until the exam finished. When everything was at last over, I was released from the tension and migraine started. It was also a huge stress for me to ask Jason to look after Aratakara when he was unwell.

While I had migraine, whenever I closed my eyes, the balance sheet of book-keeping kept flashing back to my brain. And I couldn't switch it off at all. Whenever I saw it (in my brain), the pain worsened and I felt more sick. My temperature didn't drop for a couple of days, either. I've also had a terrible sore throat since and I lost an appetite because I couldn't swallow much food. We at one stage even had nothing in the fridge. We couldn't either going shopping or going to see doctors because our unreliable Audi had been sold to a scrap yard a while ago. Anyway, we didn't have any strength to go out. It was a quite terrible week.

Valentine's day this year was very unromantic like this. But Takara made a Valentine's card to mummy at nursery. I think he only put these colourful pieces of different small materials on a hart shaped red paper but it was very good! (Unfortunately, the card was torn up by the person who made it a day after this photo was taken.) At the entrance of the nursery, there is a big dragon for Chinese New Year. It was made by the children in Arata's class. And some self portrait paintings are also at the door. This is Arata's.

3Y1M 1Y4M 最近のタカラ Takara's latest developments

朝から晩まで食べているタカラは10.5Kg程になり、アラタとの差は縮まるばかり。おなかがぽっこり出ていて、ズボンもオムツもやけに下の方で留まっているから、ビール腹の中年のようでもある。

ナーサリーの影響で、（「アンパンマン！」に続き）得意な言葉は「No, No!」アラタもこの時期そうだった。ただ、アラタが物の名前を少しずつ言い始めたのと違って、タカラは名詞より動詞や副詞が多い。頭を傾げて「ねんねん」、手が「べたべた」、スプーンが「おっこっちゃった。」テーブルに上って「ゲッダウン（下りろ）」と注意される経験から、今では、テーブルに上ると自分から「ゲッダウンだね」と言う。そして、おもちゃを「こわしちゃった」とわざわざ報告に来たりもする。音を真似するのが好きで、「ハロー、アータ（アラタ）」のような長めの言葉も、ちょっと聞いたら言ってみたり。

もちろん、べらべら意味不明語を喋り捲っているのもこの時期の子供らしくてかわいい。その中で、家族全員に通じる「タカラ語」がある。「ペックン」だ。何かが欲しいという意味で、指さしながら「ペックン」と言う。おっぱいが欲しい時は「ペックンママ。」最近はアラタまでが「ペックン」を使う・・・。

比較的早い9ヵ月半で歩き出したタカラだが、やはりこれは運動神経に起因するのかな。最近は前回りをしたり、お鍋の上に立ってポーズしたりするよ。

（ビデオクリップをタカラのページにUpしました。）

Takara keeps eating all day long. He now weighs about 10.5Kg. He is catching up to Arata! As a result, Takara's tummy is protruding and his nappy or trousers can only hang at a very low position. It's a bit like the beer belly of a middle aged man!

Because he goes to nursery, his most frequent used word is "No, no." (Apart from his favourite "Ampamman!", a name of Japanese cartoon character). When Arata was at his age, he also used "No" a lot. Apart from that, Arata started with object names but, interestingly, Takara uses more verbs or adverbs than nouns. He says, "Beta beta - (My hands are) sticky" or "Okkocchatta - (I) dropped (my spoon)." When he is tired, he says "Nen nen (Japanese baby word for sleep), putting his head on its side. When he breaks a toy, he comes to me to report it by saying, "Kowashichatta - (I've) broken (it)" As Takara is very good at copying sounds, he sometimes makes us surprised by copying what I said, like, "Hello Arata."

Of course, as a child of this stage, most of the time he keeps talking nonsense, which we don't understand. But one of his baby words now has its perfect definition among our family members (only!). It's Takara's "Pekkun!". He says this when he wants to get something. He points at an abject and says "Pekkun!" If he wants my breasts, it's going to be "Pekkun mama." Even Arata jokingly uses this word now.....

As a baby who started to walk at 9.5 months, Takara's physical ability has been developing very well. He can now roll forwards or carefully stands on an upside down pot.

(Please have a look at video clips in his site.)