Category Archives: baby’s stuff

Life with a grade schooler: on purse and spectacles

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You told me how in your 生活 (livelihood) class you learned about allowances/小遣い. You’ve been wanting to have your wallet since then, as if having a wallet is a prerequisite to having an allowance. I gave you a wallet a couple of years back, but you were still too young to appreciate the value of keeping a wallet hence even after a “massive search”, it’s nowhere to be found now. (That was a Cath Kidston by the way. Since Cath in Japan has gone bankrupt in April owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, that would have made that purse very special indeed.)

But since I wanted to also get you started on managing your own money and saving, we bought you a new purse today.

To jumpstart your “money management”, I put inside your wallet a 1000 yen bill and a few coins and, later when I got it as a change, a 500-yen coin. You were so happy with the 1000yen gift you kept thanking me again and again for it, using the different Japanese words and expressions in saying thank you. I appreciate that you have a thankful heart.

So from now you’ll be managing your train fares, vending machine purchases, and snacks purchases with a 700 yen weekly allowance. I suggested ways for you to save (say, take the walk up the hill instead of using the elevator to save 52yen plus get some exercise) so that you can buy something you like. With permission from me. This prompted a sassy question:

Till when will I be asking your permission on what to buy? Till I get old?

Oh dear. That will be another day’s lesson.

And! Today, we also had your eyes checked because you’ve been squinting around for weeks now. Doctor confirmed you need some lens. Those beautiful eyes would have to be behind a frame from now.

life with a grade schooler: the pen case

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This evening, for the nth time, you cleaned your pencil case. And I got curious why you were very determined in making it clean whereas last year, there seemed to have been a competition in your class on who’s got the dirtiest pen case.

And then you dropped the bombshell. Apparently all your classmates have new pencil cases. Instead of asking me for a new one though, you cleaned your old one.

I didn’t buy you a new one in this school year because your pen case was still not broken. Just dirty. I didn’t tell you this. Baut baby, you just gave me yet another reason to be proud of you.

life with a grade schooler: Anger reared from your head

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You’ve been fervently packing your dolls this evening. Tomorrow’s a school holiday so you’ll be spending most of your time at your after-school school. Which means you can bring anything you want. And hence you’ve been packing your dolls so you could play with your new friend.

Then you told me how a boy was teasing your new friend and was making fun of her name. You then told me how anger reared from inside your head. And that you scolded the boy for his bad behaviour. Yes, he was older than you, but it didn’t deter you from giving him a piece of your mind.

So proud of you, my little warrior. I can only pray you’ll always be safe.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Life with a primary schooler

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We haven’t had your entrance ceremony to elementary school yet. But today is your first day with your after-school school. And since we selected a hopefully-good school that could nurture your abilities and talents and expand your horizon, I thought it fitting to have our yearly tradition albeit with the book’s cover, not its first page.

We pray we did select you a good school.

Do great, our little big one.

things to be thankful for today

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  • Friends and family who made me feel very special and who are generous to share their time and blessings
  • I’m working on a ve~~~ery challenging task
  • Our Client now, with whom I’ve worked with five years back, openly told me he was very happy to see my name among those in the top of the TO
  • The one year old baby I’ve been trying to get chummy with seems to have already warmed up to me. When I arrived at daycare and after Yui hugged me & pressed her cheeks against mine, little boy toddled towards me and (to my big surprise) also pressed his cheek against mine. I made him laugh too.
  • The author of a Japanese-English book I once wrote a month ago finally replied to my email and acknowledged that my comment was right. 😍