Clumpo

We have a bedtime ritual of getting the boys to calm down, lie down, and go to sleep. I typically read some Harry Potter for the sake of Leo while Yuki and Joji lie with us. When the boys are exhausted they get silly and energetic. Leo kindof-sortof understands that he needs to lie down,…

From learning Japanese myself, I know that it is possible to cement the wrong thing into your mind. This has most frequently occurred in my case when learning two similar words on the same day. I still struggle with “kyouryuu” and “kyuuryou”, “salary payment” and “dinosaur”, respectively. With the boys, Leo still struggles with questions…

We’ve never spanked the boys. I know for a fact that I’ve wanted to. With Leo, most of the punishment was tickling him until he would submit. I think the results were the same, but without teaching him that hitting is acceptable. I read someone’s take on spanking and it has stuck with me for…

I worry for Joji. He hasn’t gotten the attention that Leo has gotten from us. He gets attention from Leo, which means that he learns fighting, stubbornness, and arguments – all of the major topics that older brothers are quite willing to pass down to younger brothers. Our time is now split between the boys,…

I wish I wrote more for Joji. Second child syndrome, am I right? His language skills are far lower than Leo’s at a comparable age, and now he’s 2 years and 8 months old and just starting to reach the point where he is stringing 3-4 words together to tell us what he wants, but…

Leo’s been shifting away from English content and towards Japanese content, mainly out of convenience. He enjoyed Doraemon, but has shifted to old Disney cartoons and ranger shows. Yuki plays them from Amazon Prime and casts them to the TV, which is much faster than our other method of firing up a media box behind…

Leo has had several emotional freakouts compounded by him being tired but to be perfectly honest, nearly all of his irrational behavior stems from him being tired. His most recent freakouts were regarding chairs and a snowman. We had some friends who came from America leave Japan because the husband got better job prospects back…

Compared to Leo, Joji’s language ability is far behind. I’ve been reassured that this is typical of a second child, but it still is something that had me very worried. Leo was just a little chatterbox, and going back in these blog posts it is possible to see that he started talking early. Every kid…

Joji has reached the point in his life where he is cute. He’s crossed the threshold of being human, and is no longer a meat cabbage. He smiles, he wiggles… he’s cute. Going back through the motions with a second child reminds you of all of the things that you had forgotten. All of the…

Leo joined a “kindergarten” (this is the best translation for this, but it’s basically a 3-grade school for kids 3-6ish) and we have now regained a bit of free time while he’s there from 9am to usually about 2pm, but now Yuki’s gotten involved in the PTA, and I’ve gotten involved in some father’s group.…