Fake ID

We were playing with Apple's Siri and Google Now over dinner with Sawa. She thought it was hilarious, and intentionally spoke gibberish, then we would laugh at the voice recognition errors. Our favorite was "Can I get a fake ID kit?" It seems a bit early for that.

Waking up to Hallowe'en

Sawa is usually hard to raise in the morning. This morning, like she'd just been plugged in, she sat upright, ran off the bed, and  asked "Is it Hallowe'en? I don't hear any ghosts outside... Maybe it isn't Hallowe'en...."

Everyone goes to California

Sawa loved the elephants at the Toronto zoo. She was very unhappy when they left for a sanctuary in California. We explained that that is where Grampa and Jill live, and they'd be happy there. We are pretty sure she thinks they live in the same house. On our last visit to the zoo, when animals retreated from public space Sawa would ask questions like "Did the giraffes go to California too?"

Learning to read

Sawa is learning to read. We were pleased about that. Then, this morning, she asked for the shoes that were hidden in the box labelled "shoes" high up on the shelf. "It says shoes!" she told us.

A toddler's life in verbs

Sawa spoke more English than Japanese until September, when she enrolled at Ikebata Nursery School. Now she speaks mostly in Japanese, but understands a lot of English. She has also taken a fancy to "Si c'était vrais?", a wonderful translation of the nativity story "Can it be true?" by Hill and Barrett, and now calls whales baleine.

At first Sawa learned mostly Japanese nouns. But now she's picking up verbs incredibly quickly, as well as the occasional adjective. This is both annoying and impressive, because I've been struggling to add verbs to my Japanese for a long time.

Here's a reasonably comprehensive list of Japanese verbs Sawa uses.

Akeru - to open
Aru - to have
Aruku - to walk
Asobu - to play
Butsukeru - to collide
Deru - to go out
Hashiru - to run
Iku - to go
Iru - to be
Iu - to say
Kaeru - to return
Kasu - to lend/share
Katazukeru - to put away
Kowareru - to break
Kuru - to come
Matsu - to wait
Miru - to look
Nageru - to throw
Naku - to cry
Nakusu - to put away/lose
Neru - to sleep
Nomu - to drink
Noru - to ride
Nugu - to remove
Ochiru - to fall
Okiru - to wake up
Oriru - to descend
Owaru - to end
Shimeru - to close
Suru - to do
Suwaru - to sit
Taberu - to eat
Tatsu - to stand
Tobu - to fly
Toru - to get
Yameru - to stop

We never got around to posting our previous vocabulary list, but here it is, last updated approximately August 17, which is when we could no longer maintain a complete vocabulary list - it was growing too quickly.  Sorry for the strange formatting.

.	Word	Pronounciation	Language	Meaning	Frequency @2012-05-08	Frequency @2012-08-17
.	all done	awdun	English	I've finished eating (or occasionally other actions)		Common
.	apple	appo	English	apple, but likely also other things too		Occasional
.	baby	baby	English	babies, line-drawings with round heads, teddy bears, her favourite teddy bear		Common
.	ball	ball	English	ball, anything round or spherical		Common
.	berries	bish	English	berries, especially blueberries or strawberries		Common
.	boat	boat	English	boat		New
.	Bonobo	bonobo	English	her stuffed monkey		New
.	boo	boo	English	boob, breast		Common
.	boots	boots	English	boots		New
.	bottle	bottle	English	bottle		New
.	bubble	bubble	English	bubble		New
.	bumgoo	bum goo	English	sudocrem zinc ointment		Common
.	bye-bye	bye-bye	English	Good-bye	Common	Common
.	doggie	doggie	English	dog		Occasional
.	don't touch	dontouch	English	don't touch (presumably from daycare)		Common
.	down	down (drawn-out, mimicking daycare scolding)	English	get down, but also simply being up on something		Common
.	Eden	Eden	English	Eden (classmate)		Occasional
.	Emma	Emma	English	Emma (classmate)		Common
.	Emma	Emma	English	book (maybe because Emma read her books)		Common
.	fish	fish	English	fish, One fish two fish by Dr Zeuss		Common
.	Grampa	ampa, bum-bum	English	Grandfather		Occasional
.	grunt	uhm (with clenched fists)	English	pooping, the book "Everybody poops" by Gomi Taro		Common
.	hi	hi	English	hello	Common	Occasional
.	I don't know	aidon-no	English	I don't know (where something/someone is)		Common
.	ishe dere?	is she there?	English	is she there? (game of where is mama...)		Rare
.	Jacob	Jacob	English	Father		Rare
.	Jenny	Jenny	English	daycare teacher		New
.	Jill	Jill	English	Aunt Jill		Rare
.	Josh	Josh	English	Cousin Josh		New
.	Keyshawn	Keeshaw	English	Keyshawn (classmate)		Rare
.	Miffy	mimi	English	Miffy the rabbit (Nijntje by Dick Bruna)		Common
.	moon	oon	English	moon		Rare
.	more	Mo	English	more please		Common
.	night-night	Good night	English	good night		New
.	no	no	English	no, but also just an acknowledgement that you asked a question		Very common
.	noodle	noono	English	noodles (any kind)		Occasional
.	nose	nose	English	nose		Occasional
.	oink	oink	English	pig		Rare
.	out	out	English	let's go outside, we're going outside	Common	Common
.	ow	ow	English	ouch		Common
.	peek-a-boo	peek	English	English version of inai-inai-ba		Rare
.	Peter	eta	English	Uncle Peter's photo		Rare
.	poo	poo	English	I pooed (while pulling on pants)		New
.	Pounce	Pow (before meeting mo-mo), Mow (after meeting mo-mo)	English	our cat, cats in general	Common	Common
.	roar!	roar!	English	roar like a bear (teddy bear, or ice-shaving bear)		New
.	shoes	ish	English	shoes or socks		Common
.	Sophie	wowee, dzowee	English	Cousin Sophie		Common
.	thank you	ankyou, thank you	English	thank you, but sometimes please		Common
.	that	dat	English	indicating something		Rare
.	this side	ish-aide	English	this breast next...		New
.	uh-oh	uh-oh	English	something fell	Common	Common
.	up	up	English	lift me up	Common	Common
.	water	wawa	English	drinking water, bath water, lakes, oceans, puddles	Common	Common
.	zoom-zoom	zoom-zoom	English	something moving quickly		Occasional
.	Dada	Dada	English/Japanese	Father, a Gomi Taro book about a child who loses his father in a department store	Occasional	Common
.	Mama	Mama	English/Japanese	Mother	Rare	Common
.	Sidu	Sidu, but increasingly Donna	Eritrean	Sidona (classmate; also black people in general, sadly)		Common
.	atsu	hatsu (with blowing, as though cooling hot food)	Japanese	hot food, hot stove, hot fire, hot bath		Common
.	atta	atta	Japanese	it's there		New
.	Baba	Baba	Japanese	Grandmother		Common
.	boo-boo	boo-boo	Japanese	onomatopoeia: car, bus, truck, train, a Gomi Taro book about a train		Common
.	boon boon	boon-boon	Japanese	onomatopoeia: airplane		Rare
.	chi-chi	chi-chi	Japanese	onomatopoeia: bird		Common
.	chisai	chisai	Japanese	small		Occasional
.	chocho	chocho	Japanese	butterfly		New
.	dozo	dozo	Japanese	please/kindly/by all means (when offering something)		New
.	ha	ha	Japanese	teeth		Occasional
.	Hana	Hana	Japanese	Hana (classmate)		Occasional
.	hebi	ebi	Japanese	snake		Rare
.	inai	inai	Japanese	not there (part of peek-a-boo)		Formerly common
.	ita	ita	Japanese	[person] is [here]		Occasional
.	itai	itai	Japanese	ouch		New
.	Jiji	Jiji	Japanese	Grandfather, but maybe also computer (due to video chat)		Common
.	ke	ke	Japanese	hair		New
.	kingyo	ingyo	Japanese	goldfish, a book about a goldfish that camouflages himself while adventuring		Rare
.	me	meh	Japanese	eye		Occasional
.	Mimi	mimi	Japanese	ears		Rare
.	moo	mo-mo	Japanese	cow		Common
.	Moshi-Moshi	Mo-mo	Japanese	Grampa and Jill's cat		Common
.	nihihi	nihihi	Japanese	horse		Rare
.	nori	noni	Japanese	nori (green algae sheets used as condiment, wrapper)		Occasional
.	o	o	Japanese	tail		Occasional
.	oheso	oheso	Japanese	belly button		New
.	oishii	Oissii	Japanese	delicious (but we aren't sure if she knows the meaning)		Rare
.	oppai	oppai	Japanese	boob/breast		New
.	Sawa	Awa, wawa	Japanese	Sawa		When prompted
.	te	te	Japanese	hand		Occasional
.	wanwan	wawa	Japanese	onomatopoeia: dog, a book about animals	Common	Common
.	Sasha	Sasha	Russian	Sasha (classmate)		Rare
.	tea	tea	English	tea		New

Sawa counts!

Who knew? Either she's learning to count at daycare, or she's possessed by a demon that likes to count and giggle.

Sawa goes to the movies

Sawa loves cell-phone videos.  She never tires of videos of herself playing with Sophie-Clare or with her cousins. We recently introduced Sawa to nature videos.  She loves them too, and it's a great way to keep her still while I blow-dry her hair.

We were briefly terrorized by constant demands for Zou-san (Mr Elephant).  Then I found she loves snakes and sharks.  Apparently these fears are learned.

Sawa enjoys choosing the next video from the thumbnail images.  Recently we did snakes and birds. She chooses very quickly and according to mysterious criteria. (These images were all chosen by Sawa from the BBC animal video archive.)

The documentary Babies by French director Thomas Balmès had her in a trance and she's been demanding it ever since. The BBC Neanderthal video that featured cave floors, not so much.  Sometimes she laughs, including at a charmed snake that kept lunging for its handler's knee, and at a colony of hopping puffins on the Farne Islands. Sometimes we have arguments, like when she insisted that seals are dogs, and that black vultures are elephants.  She wins, of course.

Hallowe'en

Last year Sawa was delighted to be a mouse, and went door-to-door.  This year she was a very reluctant lion, and went to bed hungry.  She hated the hood and wore it only briefly at the daycare where they did trick-or-treating.  After daycare we went out for dinner to leave time for meeting our neighbours.  But Sawa was feeling out of sorts, so we left the pizzeria the way the Americans left Vietnam, padded home through the cold rains from Hurricane Sandy, and put Sawa to bed. Then we carved a pumpkin, which she enjoyed tonight.

A dress for Sawa

Jacob's cousin Vera is to marry Edward this weekend in Ottawa.  Sawa was getting a bit big for the lovely dress that her grandmother Keiko made, so Keiko bought her a new one. When we got to choosing the dress, we had a little trouble, and so we ended up with two.  More photos here.

Poo stew

He did it!

We often weigh Sawa before her bath.  Yesterday she weighed 12.6 kg.  It looked like she was finally starting to put on weight after almost 11 months of bouncing around between 12.0 and 12.4 kg.  Today she weighed 12.9 kg.  We should have known something was wrong.

I came armed with a towel to pluck her from the tub where Ayako was playing with her after cleaning her dirty feet, skinned knees, grimy hands and soup-covered face and hair.  But I had to ask, "Whose huge poo is that floating in the tub?"  "Not mine," said Ayako, a bit too smoothly.  "Nothing that size could possibly come from Sawa - it's the size of her arm!" She ignored me.  "She must have just done it," Ayako replied, as though it were physically possible for an 18 month old toddler to drop a log that would do a metamucil-eating lumberjack proud.  As Ayako drained the tub and threw the larger pieces into the toilet, I weighed Sawa again.  12.7 kg.  Only 200 g?!  It looked solid, not foamy, and I'm sure it weighed more.  Perhaps they were both guilty....

Whoever was to blame, one thing was clear: Ayako was now winning the Eau de Toilette Championship with a score of 2-1.  I feel that this should be 2-1.5, since my turn happened to be when I was parenting alone, and I had to clean tub, child, and self single-handedly, like a solo circumnavigator in an Antarctic gale.

Sawa learns reproductive physiology of the hen

Grandpa Etches, who is an authority, visited today and taught Sawa that eggs come from inside hens.  The hen is in two pieces, attached by velcro, and the egg is fuzzy and sticks out the sides.  Today's children are the scientists of tomorrow.

Sawa talk

Words Sawa knows:

Uh-oh
Bye
Hi
Up
Out (going outside)
Wha-wha (this increasingly means dog, but can also mean giraffe, cat, monkey, bird, etc.; Japanese dogs say wan-wan)
Pow (means Pounce, our cat)
Dada (not too often)
Mama (less often still)

ASL signs Sawa knows:

More (but this means "give me" to Sawa)
Book
Breast
Shoes (maybe...)

Gestures Sawa uses:

Pick me up (arms raised)
Over there (pointing)
Get me out of my high-chair (removes high chair tray)
Let's leave the house (brings us her shoes)

The good, the bad and the ugly

We’ve been asked about labour and the early weeks. Now that the early weeks are ending, here’s a little bit of enumerated and unvarnished history. The bad stuff first:

1. We both had the worst colds ever the week she was born. 
2. We spent much of labour in a crappy triage room because they were busy when we arrived. By the time we got a room, Ayako was desperate for an epidural (which was provided very quickly and without complication, and Ayako slept through transition).
3. Ayako had extensive 2nd degree tearing, a bunch of stitches, and then slow (but steady and uncomplicated) healing.
4. Ayako had two catheters: one with the epidural and the second because of the swelling from the tears.
5. The catheters caused a bladder infection.
6. Antibiotics for the bladder infection caused a yeast infection in her breasts. 
7. An initial bad latch caused blisters and pain, as did the yeast infection. Nursing was painful for the first 5 weeks. Sawa lost a bit more weight at first than normal, but then took off like a bamboo shoot and is now a happy fatso. We learned that lactation consultants are far more interested in infant weight gain than in mothers’ pain.
8. Ayako did well and was usually in good spirits, but was sore and exhausted much of the time. Early on she had weird dreams and a bit of sleep walking. She once thought the baby was vanishing into her dresser drawer like a Cheshire cat.
9. Both of us had grumpy moments and failed to be sympathetic at times. But these were moments, not the norm.
10. When I went back to work I camped in the living room in an attempt to get enough sleep to function. Sawa was sleeping with Ayako and I really wasn't needed during the night. But I became sore sleeping there, and felt a bit detached from Ayako and Sawa.

Now the good stuff:

1. Sawa is healthy and strong and pretty darned cute. She's growing like a weed and racing up the percentiles on growth charts.
2. She seems unusually well-baked for a newborn. No jaundice, no crying, no spit-up, lots of quiet alertness, lots of social smiles, lots of strength and head control.
3. To the extent that she has personality, she seems delightful. Through our biased eyes, she has a good sense of humour and play. She’s calm except when hungry, and when hungry is very determined. She’s been amazingly social during the past week.
4. Ayako's mother came two weeks before Sawa was born, and cooked all meals, did all laundry and cleaning, and bought all groceries. She then flew to Japan with us, and the care continues. We’ve never eaten so well (except when we visit her in Japan, and I suppose Ayako grew up this way). Keiko is the best cook I have ever met. I tried so hard to help at first, but she's so much faster than me that things were always done before I'd get to them. It is far too easy to get used to this care! 
5. I took two weeks off, then worked for four, and am now in Japan for a month (radiation permitting). This will be my first Spring in Japan. We’ll all be here for cherry blossom season!
6. We inherited a complete set of everything baby from friends with great taste. We've barely bought anything and have everything. It's an odd and slightly guilty feeling, but wonderful. We could not have afforded to be so well-equipped, and wouldn’t have known what to get.

The good list is shorter, but we couldn't be happier. We have no idea what we did to get such a nice kid. [knock on wood...]

The ugly:

Wow. This morning Sawa was in a carrier and had a quick series of large, explosive poos. She just went up a diaper size, so they’re slightly loose fitting. In the carrier there is pressure on the bottom and front, reducing the available storage volume. There was a little side leakage, but most of the explosion vented up the back. Way, way up the back. That was my first experience of Total Diaper Failure. I remain alive because she’s breastfed, and the ejected material was pretty friendly. Friendly enough for me to leave washing her outfit to Ayako when she woke from a nap. I don’t want her to feel left out of the parenting experience.

For better or for worse

View Larger Map

We had tickets to travel to Japan on Sunday, March 13. On Friday, there was a large earthquake and tsunami near Sendai, about 300km North of Tokyo. On Saturday, Narita International Airport and the trains were running, and we decided to board our flight. As we were leaving, news of problems at nuclear reactors in the Sendai area broke. After we landed, this news has only become more alarming. The map above shows Kagawa Train station, which is a five minute walk from our house (which google can’t seem to map).

For now, we are fine and enjoying the company of family, all of whom are well. There has been a bit of panic hoarding by shoppers, so we had to check several stores before finding diapers (including some awesome ones with Anpan Man on them). There are scheduled electricity black-outs, and most gas stations only sell 20 litres at a time, with long queues at the pump. The beautiful bird in the garden eating grubs doesn’t seem to care about any of it.

If there is a radiation risk in this area in the coming days or weeks, we will have to do our best to leave promptly, but for now, we’ll enjoy Spring blossoms, family feasts and the luxury of Japanese bathing. Our feasts are being constrained, however, by the hoarding. We can buy fresh meat, fish and vegetables, but milk, eggs, bread, tofu and natto are sold out. Cup Noodle is also sold out, but this affects us less.

Another man’s poison

Female colleague: So how’s your baby?

Jacob: Oh, she’s doing very well. She’s not a wailer, has no health problems, and is gaining weight quickly.

Colleague: Sounds like me!

Lessons from George W Bush

The impressive thing about George W Bush, you may say the only impressive thing, is that he lowered expectations so much that anything better than catastrophe was celebrated as success. Ayako and I were very much from the Managed Expectations school during pregnancy. Unrealistically high expectations could only lead to disappointment, or so we thought. Little did we know of the powers of babies to woo their parents into labouring on their behalf. Great expectations, it turns out, would not have led to disappointment at all.

Sawa is one week old!

Sawa’s first week was pretty standard for Mum and baby. Ayako was in considerable pain and having trouble peeing. Sawa was a bit dopey and hard to rouse at first, and then frequently irate at the breast because colostrum, of which there was lots, didn’t flow fast enough for her liking. These problems resolved fairly quickly, but even at their worst, we were a bit surprised by how little we resented our efforts to bring her into the world. She’s a charmer. More photos illustrating her charmingness are here.

Sawa Kitta Etches

Sawa Kitta Etches, a.k.a. 橘田咲和 (Etches), was born Thursday, January 27 at 02:19, weighing 3415g, and measuring 52.5cm. Sawa and Ayako were both calm, happy and healthy. Ayako says more dazed than calm. More photos from the hospital are here.

If you want to understand the meaning of her name, the short story is that Sa means blossom and Wa means harmony, or peace, or Japanese style.  Kitta means mandarin orange-rice paddy. Kitta is Ayako’s surname, and Sawa’s middle name in Canada. Her legal name is Japan is the way it’s written above. We wish it were simpler too!

If you want extra details, and animations on how to write it properly, here are the links:

Kitta = 橘田
Sawa = 咲和

Once you follow the links, you’ll need to click on the Chinese characters (called kanji in Japanese) next to the correct reading of those characters, since there are multiple readings for most combinations of characters. I’m afraid that the cost of layered meanings and beauty is complexity. If you see crazy symbols, you may be missing the required fonts.

The washing of the socks

We’re blessed to have friends with little girls who have just outgrown their newborn clothes. Ayako looks like she’s about to explode, so we’re washing the newborn stuff, including this army of socks. Our child will have many feet, apparently.

Spooky demon baby

Yesterday we had what was probably our last ultrasound to see how it was growing and to coo over its obvious cuteness.

Jacob: “Whoa! Spooky demon baby...”
Ayako: ...
Sonographer: “No, cute baby!”
Jacob & Ayako: ...

Cuter scans are to be found here.