Totally Different Experience

Kenzo was up early today working on some projects, one of which was drawings for Eri and me. He clearly felt terrible about his behavior yesterday and this seemed to be his way of showing us he is indeed a good boy. 

Kenzo wrote and illustrated this all by himself. His Japanese hiragana is getting good. English is so hard, though. For anyone. He attempted to write what I call Eri, "Eri-sama". It's a term of endearment that, as often happens, starts as a joke and becomes just the way you do your life. Kenzo used his current understanding of the sounds of the English alphabet and his confidence and I praised the heck out of his writing. His drawing skills, however, need work. That looks nothing like Eri.

I love the way Kenzo wrote my name so much that I'm thinking of changing it to this, complete with backwards "s". I also just love that he knows my name and uses it.

Osamu rode the kindergarten bus on his own today, but Kenzo had the day off due to his big musical debut yesterday. He and mama hit up their favorite places, starting with the library. 

Kenzo bragged to me later that he checked out seven books. I was kinda jealous. I could go for some library time. One of the books he got was The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, so we read that for our bedtime story tonight. The boys and I talked afterward about what happened in the story. The grouchy ladybug had an important interaction with a non-grouchy, kind ladybug and changed his ways. Kenzo told me that it's never okay to be mean even if people are mean to you. To which I gave him a big hug and told him I was proud he understands that.

Eri asked me if there's anything I want from the store. I pretty much always say no. Once in a while I'll ask her to pick up some cheese or something, but I'm generally fine with being the refrigerator vulture. I mostly subsist on the stuff that's about to expire and that keeps me healthy and energetic.

I did have one recent request, though. Medium sized natto beans. Eri always gets the packs with the small beans. The volume is the same, but the beans are just smaller. The medium bean packs cost a little more, but it's worth it. Ten yen I think. Ten yen for a totally different experience. 

So this morning I had my favorite morning treat - medium-sized natto beans with an egg yolk and spicy mustard.