As we walked toward the bus stop, I asked you how was your day. With twinkling eyes and a beautiful smile, you said it was such a fun day today at daycare.
And I smiled back, thankful that you enjoyed your day with friends.
But you suddenly said, that somehow, it was slightly less fun.
Concerned, I asked you why.
Hugging my arm tightly, and looking up at me with those round, expressive eyes, you said, “it would have been more fun if I were with you”.
You melt my heart baby.
For an hour my 5-year-long wish came true – to be a teacher at your daycare.
Your daycare has this program on introducing parents’ work to senior class. I inquired about it and so principal took the chance to ask if I could present something about my mother country. Told her I agree with her idea but that aside from that, I will also teach them some songs and introduce them to STEM.
IT-WAS-DIFFICULT to simplify engineering to kindergarten level. But at least your class was squealing and giggling during our experiment when we mixed the vinegar and baking soda and CO2 bubbles formed. The food colouring we added made it more fun.
You were also beside yourself with giddiness by the mere fact that I am your class’ teacher for the afternoon. You wanted to hug and cuddle me. I am touched to see how proud you are of me. Thank you.
But I am so much more proud of you because you confidently got in front and taught your friends the song “Under the spreading chestnut tree”.
Keep it up, baby. 🙂
PS
Our effort bore fruit. The principal, teachers, my beloved mentor at office, parents all said we did a great job/ we were “subarishii”. That we took the challenge of being the first ever to do this Hello Work activity in the entire daycare history; despite me being a none-Japanese speaker. Thank you Lord, for the inspiration.
”Twas full moon.
You insisted on being traditional and wanted to wear your yukata. And because I was worried your sleeves would pose a hazard, I decided not to hold a sparkler but hold the igniter instead, to light up your sparklers and then keep watch. It was good to see you ecstatic about our hanabi.
Apart from our shared dislike with peach, I learned recently that you have some traits that seemed to be a mirror of mine.
I bought you some new leggings and you pointed out that somebody-chan at daycare have a blouse with the same print as your leggings. I used to remember what somebody (at the office) wore at which day.
Then today, when you were playing with a branch and you called it えだ, I asked you what is it in English. You tilted your head sideways and said, “it starts with a “b””. This had me laughing right out loud because that’s what I do when I forget words. I often remember what letter it starts with, what letter it ends with, and how many letters are there on that word but I-could-not-remember the actual word. How weird is that?!?
You are my daughter alright.
Today’s sky was just so beautiful I was dazzled as I was walking hurriedly from the office to pick up Yui.
The photos I took from my iPhone just couldn’t quite capture the beauty.
Below are unedited, yes.
When I picked you up this evening at daycare, there was only you and a younger boy left in your teachers’ care. That’s quite an improvement since the whole week, I was late in picking you up and you were the only one left. But I digress.
We were getting ready to leave and about to go down the ground floor when the Mom of the younger boy came; carrying her second born on her right arm, and holding daycare bags on the other arm. I recognised she was loaded and I commiserated since I perfectly know the feeling. However, the idea of helping her absolutely did not cross my mind.
When you saw her shuffling nearer, you ran to the door and opened the door for her so she can pick up her other kid.
Ah, I-am-so-proud of you our little one.