Yujin.

Today we go see our friends. Baby Beau comes too! "B-Beau, bus. I in it. Ride a bus."

Yujin=friends

We take the bus to the JR (Japan Rail) station. This train is different than the other train we always take. Mama Roo finds a train car with two floors. Out the window is everyone's feet. "I see it. Feet. More feet. Own seat. I sitting."

A lady comes by to check our tickets. "Tickets?" We flash our Pasmo, it doesn't work in this train car. Sad, these seats are comfy. 

Filing into the regular part of the train, the people already sitting stare at us. Yes, we are Americans, we don't know all the rules. Sorry. Mama wants to take a photo. I don't.

Mama keeps telling me I'm going to make a new friend today. Baby Sally will be there for dinner with us tonight. "B-Beau? Friends?" I'm already friends with Baby Beau. "More friends?" Two minutes in the door and we are friends enough to take off our pants. Baby Beau, Sally, and I have no pants. Now, it's party.

"Baby Hallys, baby Hallys." I can't get the 's' in the right spot. Mama says I miss my friend Hallie back home. I do. Baby Sally is nice. I show her and Beau how to climb things. The babies follow me around. They don't talk. Beau tackles me. I get away while whining. Mama asks if I want a brother like Beau. No comment. I nurse two of Sally's baby dolls. I eat lots of steak, potatoes, and salad. This place is nice.  

"Dinner, yummy. I all done. New diaper, please. I do it. I lay here. Pee pee from uretha. Baby wipes for vulva. All done. Ready to go. Pants on. I do it. Help, please. Shoes on. I buckle it. I did it! Mama, up please. Car! I in there. Ready to go."

Off house. Don Quixote.

Today is the day we go shopping. Not grocery shopping, though I like that too. No, today we go shopping for some fun things.

Off house and Don Quixote are stores in Yokosuka. We pass them if we walk or take the shuttle to base.

I wake up and I sense Mama Roo is in a hurry. "Up, please. Hugs. Kisses." When she tries to put me down, I lock my arms around her legs. "Leg hugs." She can see I am still tired. She sees the elephant blanket and ties me to her shoulder like we live in the Andes Mountains or something. Don't tell her, but I like it. Twenty minutes later I don't resist pants, a shirt, and some shoes because getting dressed means the elevator buttons are coming soon. 

"Push button. Button 1. One for paygown. One for bus. One for walking. I push it." We are off and out of the building. Friends come with us. I don't talk to them because they are new. After walking all day, or so it seems, we arrive at a warehouse stacked from floor to ceiling with shelves of junk. Literally, floor to ceiling. Don Quixote. This is it. Seemingly normal.

Then, we go inside. "Oh, dear," Mama says. I stay quiet.

Fireworks are in the first aisle, so you don't miss them. Next are the fake eyelashes, maybe in case you blow your face off with the fireworks. Maybe I thought wrong. Maybe this store is actually well thought out. Then I come to the swimsuits sharing an aisle with umbrellas, followed by an aisle of men's dress shoes. Nope, just random. I was right the first time.

Across from the dress shoes are placenta face masks. Yep, placenta. I can barely say that, but Mama Roo insists I try. Now, she is laughing. "Pacenta. Pacenta?" I'm not stuttering. Mama is crying.

If you need other beauty remedies, they are found very close. Diet pants in sizes Mama Roo can only fit her arm into and leg spats which come in packages that make it hard to tell what they are exactly are in this aisle. They make her laugh harder. We can't find anything useful, but we sure got a belly workout. Maybe just looking at these diet pants is all you need.

With nothing new in our possession, we leave the store. It's only a short walk to Off House. Kind of like Goodwill, Off House offers quite the assortment of used items. We didn't even browse the whole store, but we saw all kinds of things. Mama wanted to thumb through some clothes. Like we need more of those. It is so hot in here. I get out of the backpack, so Mama doesn't sweat to death. Look! Necklaces! Mama says to bring one with us. I know she is trying to distract me while she takes her time, but I'm ok with that. "Green necklace. Pretty. I put it on. I do it. Look. Mama, mama pretty necklace. Ooooo."

We get two things. I'll put on a fashion show later. Time to go home. We meet Daddy there. There are some restaurants we can walk to. Mama says we are going out tonight. I go in the backpack with Daddy Bear. "I up high. Stretch. I ready. Ready to go. Daddy go."

We pass a new vending machine they installed in our building. There is only one item in each slot. That doesn't seem effective. What do I know? I am not even two. We pass this fire hydrant on the way out every time. It looks like a cartoon. I'm not sure if it is, in fact what we think it is, but there is no other conclusion we have come to.

We get to this restaurant first. They display the plastic food replicas in the window before you enter, thank the Lord. The food looks like dog food from a can. Mama says we can't even go in. "Next. I walking. Dinner? I hungry."

Next restaurant doesn't display their fake food. We go in anyway. Big mistake.

This little bell that they give you can't help the disaster we have in front of us. We eat it because we don't want to be rude. Mama is sure it is chicken liver or liver of some sort. I barely look up because I am loving these noodles in BBQ sauce. It doesn't sound that bad, but Mama gags on the only bite she tries of them. If you are wondering what's right behind the liver, yes, that is scrambled egg over the top of rice smothered in BBQ sauce. Gross.

Our stomachs are gargling before we even make it out the front door. Good shopping, bad food. You win some, you lose some. We go home wash our mouths out.

Kesho.

Today, well most days, I help Mama with makeup.

Kesho=makeup

"Kami, would you like to come help Mama with makeup?" 
Running down the hall I shout after her, "Makeup! Mama's makeup. Kami's makeup. Up on counter. Help up, please. I open it."

"Mama's blush, Kami's blush. Open, please. Open! Comb, here. Black brush, here. Green ascara, here. Pink and white, here." I hand Mama Roo what she needs, pretty much in order. She always uses everything in the same order. I have this on lock-down. In between directions to find what Mama needs, I put my own makeup on. I'm catching on very quickly. 

We finish with our makeup and Mama is done with her hair. I am not dressed, so my hair isn't done. This is my bedhead hair. "All done. Down, please. Camera pictures. Smile. Boo boo boo. I looking. I see it. Mama kisses. Kami kisses. Pants, please. Pants on."

Soon, I am dressed. We leave for the park. I know the way there. "Orge sidechalk. Watch out. Doggie poo poo. I see it. Hold hand, cars and road. Paygown paygown! I go fast." I stop for a picture. Then I hide.

Japanese girls taught me how to do the slide. One sits at the top, one goes down with me, and one catches me at the bottom. Today, I will attempt it on my own. Climbing is the easy part. I always smile at the top.

Each time down, I land stunned on my pockets. I only come flying off the red tube slide twice, before I decide I'm done. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll try the easier slope of the metal one.

Even on the metal slide, I fly off the slide and the ground a few times. Mama Roo didn't do me ANY favors by choosing these fleece rocket speed pants. Note to self, start insisting on picking all my own clothes or at least my pants. Temper tantrums with terrible twos are coming early in our house if this can't be corrected. I'll smile and appear excited for now. 

I have had my fill of bottom bruising for today. "Kids! I see them. Watch me. I go there. You wait. Be right back." These kids are playing nicely alone. Of course they must be having fun, so I will join them.

Quickly, they shoo me away. They are making soup in the dirt. It looks good! "I hungry. Table, snack. Cheese and crackers. Apple too? I sit on chair. Time to go. I walking home. Bye bye kids. Boys? Girls? Bye slide."

Saiko no kuraima.

Today is the day a conquer the chain ladder on the playground. 

Saiko no kuraima= Best climber

I have always been a good climber. Mama taught me how to climb stairs when I was 10 months old. She thought it would be best if I accomplished stairs while crawling was my primary mode of travel so it would be more natural to crawl up them then to walk up them. I took to the stair climbing challenge quickly. In just a few weeks, Mama saw that I was comfortable enough to summit them without much supervision. Little did she know, that was just the beginning. Now, I am always climbing.

Slides are the one of the first things I climb when I get to the playground. "I climbing. Slide. Red slide. Pay cow! I climb, please." I say this when we pass this playground or if I think we might come to one soon. Usually, the slide is clear of children when I scale the slippery surface. There are sometimes children waiting to come down. Usually, they wait for me. Sometimes they come down and plow into me. I have yet to be affected too much by their additional force, it just adds another element to my climb. On average, kids or no kids, I spend one minute trying to climb the slide every time we arrive at a playground.

I have been climbing the easy ladder for days now. Also, I can climb the more difficult one, but I don't prefer it. At other playgrounds Mama Roo has seen me scale taller climbing structures/stairs, but never something like this. Today, I conquer what Mama perceives as my biggest climbing challenge yet... the moving CHAIN LADDER! 

At first, I fall a little. Almost every time we visit this playground I attempt this ladder. Usually, I fall a little like you see in the first shot then catch myself and venture back out of the web. "Oopsie. I fall. I climbing." I run back to steal a kiss or a snack from Mama for support. 

Today, on the second try I climb right up! Considering each step carefully, I slowly make my way past the point I always fall. Mama Roo realizes this and is intently watching. As you can imagine, each time I move a foot or a hand the chain wiggles and releases some of the tension I use to provide sure footing. I learn to combat this and figure out how to find my next hold at the same time. Grabbing on creates another tension, so I must shift my weight again.

Mama is on the edge of her seat now. We are both in a concentrated silence. I can feel her prideful stare on my back. It gets easier as I move toward the top. I can grab the rail now! On the platform I am proud. Mama Roo puts down the camera, smiles big, and throws her arms into a gymnast salute."EEEEeeee. I climbing," I squeal with delight. Standing over the slide I decide if my adrenaline is pumping enough for that challenge too. It's not. Instead of the slide, I favor my usual method down, my favorite easy ladder. 

I go up and down many more times. Hold, push, steady, pull. 

Because I accomplish this climb, I am very confident in my climbing abilities today. I attempt two other conquests I have yet to master. I find victory in one but not the other. 

The swings are my second climbing success today! I know, you would think I have been on big girl swings before. I haven't. Mama has this unusual rule that if I can't get up onto something, I'm not big enough to be up there in the first place. She feels especially strongly about this rule at the playground. According to her, the playground is a place for a child to have freedom, not for her to follow me around helping and coaxing me to play a certain way. Mostly, I can see where she is coming from. This rule has obviously served me well. 

So, back to the swings. Watching this girl, I feel like I should give it a go today. These ones are so low. I can wiggle myself up onto them! Surprised, Mama makes her way over to snap some shots of my proud smile. "Wow, Lu, you did it all by yourself!" She is beaming. "Look at you climbing everything today!" I smile big back at her.

I fall off a little and she holds the seat steady so I can boost myself up again. She even gives me some pushes. "Swings. I do maseff. I swing. Weeeee. Weee. All done." 

There is still another climbing feat to attempt. "Animals! I do it. Duck. I climbing duck." Trying my hardest, I figure out how to get my leg onto the structure. I steady myself and know I have to throw my leg over. Mama has told me how before. This isn't my first attempt.

I throw it over too far and land on the ground. "Ooopsieeeee," I cry for a second. Mama makes her way over. She scoops me up when I reach for her. "Hands. Dirty hands." She tells me to brush them on my belly. I obey and wiggle to get down. "Down, please." I am down, but not defeated. 

Back to the old standby. The ladybug is my sure bet. I have been climbing her for weeks now. Ending on a high note is always best! Up, wiggle, bounce, then back down. 

"Yaydybug. Weeeee. I climb it. Animals. I fun."
"Yes, dear you are the best toddler climber I know. You are my big, big girl."
"Big girl. I a girl. Daddy a boy. Mommy a girl. Big girl. All done. Home?"
We start walking toward the orange sidewalk. I don't stop talking all the way home. Remind you of anyone? Mama adds a few "that's right" and "uhuh" in for good measure. 

 "I walking home. Ready? Orge sidechalk, I walking maseff. I fast. Bye pay cow. Bye slide. Weee. Kids. Kids. Boys. Girls. I walking. Hand? Mama's hand? Look, doggie poo poo. Doggie poo poo. No grass. Walk here. Hold hand? More sidechalk. Cars. Two cars. Careful, cars dangeriss. Red car. More cars. Bikes too. Orge sidechalk. Focus and obey. Door, there. I running. Go. No-no, no-no. Yes-yes. Mama help. Button. I push it. People? Wait. No people. Five. Button five. I push it. Here you go. Door open. I close it. No? There. Door. Open it. I inside. Shoes off. I sitting........"