today, elijah turned 18 months old. he hasn’t learned to sleep through the night yet. i’m writing this post at 10:30pm and he’s already woken up once since 7:30 pm. he called me saying ‘mama~, mama~’. when i went into his bed room, he was just about to open the door (now he sleeps in his bed, not a crib. so he can come out of his room anytime!). he said to me “that way! thay way! (pointing at the rocking chair). SIT DOWN! OPPAI~ (breasts)”. i nursed him and asked him “bed?”. he walked up on the bed and i sang to him and he fell asleep.
elijah has learned all the letters of the alphabet and most of the numbers (1 -9) in nice mixture of japanese and english. he started to say some adjectives and phrases as well.
every night, before he falls asleep, he recites some of the words he knows. it goes like this:
(elijah)”acchi [that], kocchi [this], docchi [which]? dump truck, garbage truck, dump truck, garbage… mail truck, ookii truck. papa. truck, big truck. digger~ (with hand gesture). mama~ dai~ [i love you] (gives me a hug). utau~ utau [sing]. kon kon, OKAY~! [then i sing 'yuki ya konko']. are? are? naine~ [hm? hmm? there isn't...]. atta! [i found it!] panda! sleeping… blanket, blanket (he covers panda with a blanket). sheeee….. wawa [water], hoshii, hoshii [want]. ageru~ [give]. that way, that way… kitchen. bye bye~!”
(me) “do you want me to go? okay, i’ll be in the kitchen. daijyobu [it'll be okay]. i’ll be back and check on you later. (all in japanese)”.
(elijah)”daijyo-bu. bye bye”
(me)”oyasumi [good night].”
(elijah) “o,ya,su~mi”
(me) “shimeruyo [i'll close the door.]”
(ellijah)”shimeruyo, bye bye”
[i close the door]
(elijah) GYA~~~~~~ (crying…)
[i come back to his room]
(elijah) “star~star~…twinkle, OKAY~! (then i sing ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ in english). “tokei [clock], OKAY! (then i sing ‘my grandfather’s clock’ in japanese). kira kira, OKAY! (then i sing ‘twinkle~’ in japanese)”.
a few more songs later, he falls asleep…
C is for Calm down, elijah.
