Skip to main content

Moseying Through the Neighborhood

Kenzo was so jealous last week when Osamu got to stay home with mama and he had to go to school.

Today the tables were turned. Osamu was off to kindergarten and Kenzo got to stay home since Saturday was open house and school was off.

The boy had big plans. He's been looking forward to this day for a week. Eri told him that he was gonna go to the supermarket with her, which was exciting enough for him, but there was more. Mama had to stop by another store called Birthday to pick up some clothing items for the boys, and Kenzo knows they also have toys there. He was gonna use his hard-earned money to buy a new toy for himself, on his own, without Osamu bugging him, with mama present to witness his independent move.

Poor Kenzo only had the morning with mama, though. It's the first month of the school year so the kindergarten kids go home before lunch. Last week when Osamu was home he got most of the day with mama all to himself since the first graders get out at 13:30 and Kenzo doesn't arrive home until close to 14:00 because he and Hidekazu take their time moseying through the neighborhood.

Kenzo was not aware of the disparity, however, so all was fine. It was just me that lamented quietly on his behalf.

Eri and Kenzo got back around 11:30, with just five or so minutes to put their stuff down and stick some groceries in the fridge before they had to hop back in the car and go get Mumu-chan at the kindergarten bus stop.

I was in between meetings so I ran downstairs to see what Kenzo procured for himself with his own money. Turns out he paid over 300 yen for a Star Wars themed storm trooper Tomica. He's not really aware of Star Wars as a pop culture thing, and I think even if he did he wouldn't care. He just thought the car was cool.

Seeing his face beam with pride over getting something he wanted using money he actually earned made me very pleased. Now I gotta somehow keep this momentum going. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

lookin tired/feelin good

I can't even read the clock right. Eri: "You're going to soccer, right? Aren't you a bit early?" Me: "Yeah! We usually leave at this time and get there right on time. We gotta go! Let's go guys!" Soccer club starts at 10 a.m. The boys know that when the long hand on the clock gets to the 8 (9:40) it's time to go to the bathroom and get our socks and shoes on and head down to the car. The big hand was on 8. The problem that Eri saw was the short hand. It was 8:40, not 9:40. I'm going nuts. Slowly . Rapidly. An hour later, after I slowly enjoyed my coffee and disposed of the last beetle (yes, all four beetles have now gone back to the earth) and cleaned his bug box to make room for new bug acquisitions and the boys chilled out on the sofa watching TV, we set off. While the boys played soccer I headed across the parking lot to grab them some juice boxes for a job well done. This is not standard procedure, but Kenzo made his comeback today after ...
1 comment
Read more

Experiences I Will Never Know About

Eri and I were checking out one of Kenzo's school notebooks tonight. This page has so much going on, and I love all of it. It made me realize something that I can easily forget - he's a person. He has a life separate from mine, lives each day having experiences that I will never know about, and has thoughts and ideas that I can't nor should get in the way of. "Thank you for doing everything," she said. Eri walked with me this morning as I went around the neighborhood and delivered planter box maintenance information and schedules to various folks.  We stopped at the first house and I rang the doorbell and handed the old lady the three-page information sheet I had made and copied and we exchanged greetings and then I realized this is going to take forever if I ring every single person’s doorbell and chit-chat with them. I’ve got 20+ more of these to hand out.  So we started just sticking them in people's mailboxes and made better time. Most folks aren’t home an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hug, Kiss, Comfort, and Joke

I clicked Osamu into his five-point harness child seat and gave him a kiss.  "Have a great day, dude." "Have a good day, papa!" Kenzo does his own child seat seat belt clicking, but he still gets a kiss and a high-five. "Have a good day, papa!" Kisses all around. Eri comes racing down the steps and gets in the car, which I have already started. I stand watch at the foot of the driveway and check for cars and college kids on bicycles racing by and give her the all-clear signal and she's off. Then I race back inside, fix up my coffee, dump the filter and grinds into the trash and since it's Monday take the trash out. Eri takes the boys to the kindergarten bus stop. She'll be back in about twenty minutes. I gotta get ready for work and get my morning walk in. This morning it was misty rain. Not really rain, mostly mist. I took my umbrella with me, but I didn't use it. It doesn't help. The moisture is in the air. It comes at you from all ...
1 comment
Read more