Brendan-isms

Brendan is currently 3 years, 7 months and 7 days old. This means that conversations with him tend to be rather interesting. He can be so funny to talk to-he is always saying "I have a great idea...." or just coming up with some wild connections between things, places, people, etc.

Today, while walking to the park, we heard a dog barking. I am working on animals/animal sounds with Kieran (you should here his "garrrr" for lion-too cute!) and when I heard the bark, tried to get Kieran to tell me that puppy says "woof-woof."

Brendan however interrupted and declared "That dog speaks Japanese. It is different than English dogs." I then asked him how an American, English speaking dog sounds. He responded with a "woof-woof." I asked him how a Japanese speaking dog sounds. He responded with another "woof-woof", but sure enough, make it sound just a tiny bit different.

We talked a few minute more about the dogs, and the fact that they apparently speak different languages...he's pretty convinced of this. And...he does not mean responding to commands in different languages, as would be obvious to most of us (he's unaware of this aspect of having a dog-as ours lives in the States)-he believes that Japanese dogs "speak" differently than American (English) dogs do when barking.

Brendan has become really aware of the differences in language that surround us everyday. He has become accustomed to saying "thank you" in Japanese when/where appropriate, and although he knows how to say "good morning" in Japanese, he rarely uses this one. He is aware that Japanese writing is Kanji, and is pretty proficient in counting. He is apprehensive already about his lack of communication abilities with people who speak only Japanese-much like I was when I lived in Germany, although I was older than Brendan is now.


With our upcoming move, I have debated again searching for a full Japanese preschool for Brendan. The school year here in Japan starts in April, so I have to think and make a decision soon. Right now, he is attending the part-day program at the CDC and really liking it-every day, at pick-up time, he tells me he wants to "stay for even longer." While it's not an academic program like he attended before, he is learning new things. They have kid friendly microscopes in his classroom...he was excited because he got to look at a bug under the microscope. He asked me if maybe we could get one and get cards for it-I was really excited as I was telling him that the "cards" are called slides. Perhaps I have a future scientist in my hands? That thought absolutely thrills me-I truly hope both boys love science/discovering things as much as I do. Even if they never want to pursue science-related things as a career, I sure hope they at least enjoy it. You can be sure that we will be making playdough models of cells long before they study it in school!

And as not to leave baby brother out...he's doing great! He is really trying to pick up new words...we've just about got him saying "woof-woof" for puppy. He has a little stuffed puppy from Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian that he's become attached to-he wants it out of his crib in the morning to carry it around for a bit, and tucks it under his arm to sleep at night. :)