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.

Hallowe'en 2013

We worked really hard to make a costume for Sawa. She has a favourite movie about a young witch named Kiki that leaves home at 13 according to tradition, but she doesn't know any spells so she starts a flying delivery service on her broom. We got just the right black dress, hair ribbon, broom, and her grandmother sewed an amazing stuffed version of her tiny black cat named Jiji. But Sawa decided to be an elephant.

She went trick-or-treating at daycare this morning with a lot of princesses and lions.  She came home with a prized hoard, and when I hid half of it, she knew immediately, and has been cross-examining us ever since.  Like last year, it was raining, and we didn't go house-to-house in the evening.

We also carved pumpkins on the weekend in the form of characters from My Neighbour Totoro, another late 1980s Studio Ghibli animation that Sawa can recite. They are melting into goo on the dining table and hatching fruit flies.

If you look very closely, you might notice that Sawa has a fat lower lip.  That's the only indication that she fell Tuesday night as she was getting into bed, and put her teeth through her lower lip. She got the wound glued closed at Sick Kids at one in the morning. We thought briefly that she might make a good zombie, with facial wounds and blood-soaked pyjamas, but she healed too well and the blood came out of everything in the wash.

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.