Music class

Michael: "Music class at school is kinda slow. In kindergarten we learned what music is. In first grade we learned about notes. This year we're learning about rests. In third grade we're going to learn about time."

Conversation with my daughter (in car)

HEIDI -- Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy? Candy.

(Pause for effect). Daddy! Candy!

Dad glances at rear view mirror.

DAD -- Somebody here like candy?

HEIDI -- Candy! Candy. Candy. Candy. Candy.

Preschool -- first day, last day

September 2006

August 2008

What she said...

twinkle (American flag outside daycare has stars on it)

tang (means "hot" in Chinese; car seat arm is warm)

water (in sports container wedged between the two car seats)

twinkle (star stickers pasted to tricycle)

ding (bell on tricycle)

hua (means "flower" in Chinese; seedpods hanging from maple tree)

no (time to go inside for dinner)

ding-dong (doorbell)

ping-guo (means "apple" in Chinese; a Zingo game piece has a picture of an apple of it)

twinkle (a sheet of star stickers on the table)

tang (lima beans are warm)

dou-dou (means "beans" in Chinese)

water, ge-ge (Brother spilled soup on his pants)

la (food is spicy)

maiyi (means "ant" in Chinese)

no (I don't want any sweet potato)

Mama

no, no, no, no. no! (finger in nostril)

water (daddy, give me your water glass)

hua (Mom has flower designs on her dress)

mei-le (means "none" in Chinese; lima beans are gone)

down (wants to sit on one of the big people chairs)

mei-le (no soup left in Ge-ge's bowl)

hua (means "draw" in Chinese; wants me to give her a pen)

whoa (throws pen and paper on floor)

Big question

Recently, Mike has started asking me about death. At four, he's old enough to have registered certain facts about nature and to draw inferences. He raised the topic one afternoon while we -- just me and him -- were at the supermarket.

I'd just finished bagging some broccoli. As we moved out of the veggie section and into the kimchi aisle (this was at Lotte), we passed an elderly, decrepit lady. Shortly afterwards, Mike asked me if people could be 200 years old.

"Not really," I told him. "That would pretty old. Some people are 100, though."

He thought about this. "Can people die?" he asked.

"Ah, well, yes," I told him. "People can die."

"How?"

"When people get very old, their bodies are all tired out." Just then I remembered that we could use some bean sprouts, so I pushed the cart back into the veggies section.

"Have you seen anyone die?" he asked, while I struggled with a plastic bag.

I thought about my grandmother, who died last spring, about half a year after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although I wasn't there at the moment of her death, I had visited her a few weeks before. I certainly felt I had been witness to her dying.

"No, not really," I told Mike. And then we headed off in search of tomatoes.

***

Sunday, on our way to his Chinese class, he had further questions. "How old do you have to be to die?" he asked from the back seat.

"Well, usually people are very old. A hundred, say."

"You said a hundred, not one hundred. A hundred is bigger than one hundred," he began to reason. "That means it could be one hundred and fifty four million thousand."

"Hmm…"

"How do people die?" he again wanted to know.

"When people are very old, they become worn out. Their bodies are tired and they don't have energy any more." I had to brake abruptly, as a car in front of me stopped to make a turn. "Also, if there's a bad accident..."

"Like if a car drives across you?"

"Right. That's why we have to be careful around cars."

Mike told me a story he heard in school, about some guy who could lift Jeeps. The Jeep, he said, went on top of this person but he didn't even have to go to the hospital. I said he must have been pretty tough and that maybe he exercised a lot.

"Daddy, when are you going to die?"

"Ah. hopefully not for a long time!" I said. We passed a building under construction and some cranes, and went over a speed bump.

"When I am a hundred years old, I am going to have a lot of energy, and I won't be tired," Mike told me.

"Great!" I said. "So you should eat your vegetables!"

Ying Hua (樱花)

Signs that spring is here

1. Buds, red and sticky-looking, on the maple trees.

2. The pear trees along the interstate are starting to bloom.

3. This morning, while finishing up some work on the computer, I heard sounds from the laundry room. Puzzled (did Y. throw a load of laundry in before heading out his morning?) I got up. They were coming from the dryer exhaust duct. Something was in there -- most likely a bird seeking to nest. The same thing happened last year, around this time of the month.

4. Ants.