3 posts tagged “mitsuki”

Last night, I was at the dinner table with Mitsuki, going over some math problems. There’s a focus on mathematics in the First Grade, we discovered. To support this, we’re been giving her extra math problems after she completes her homework. We make up these one-minute math tests (20 addition or subtraction problems), as well as some word problems (“James saw Star Wars three times. Then, he saw Up twice. Finally, he saw Madagascar 5 times. How many times did he go to the movies?”).

I gave her a visual-pattern question:

Complete the pattern.
 
square triangle square square triangle square triangle triangle square triangle square {blank} triangle square triangle {blank}
 
Hint: Break up the shapes into groups of four

Well, she didn’t get it at first. We looked at the hint together. Then I divided the shapes into groups of four:
 
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
square triangle square {blank}
triangle square triangle {blank}
 
As I said them aloud, she said, “Wait, I’ve heard this before.” She was remembering the bilateral move in aerobics wherein the exercise – such as a jab or tilt of the head – alternates sides, in the pattern of single single double (or, left right left left, right left right right).
 
Then, it clicked. “Oh!” she said and grabbed for the pencil and filled in the blanks.
 
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
 
It was quite gratifying to see that a) she could get her arms around this new type of problem, b) she recalled the musical/dance pattern and could related it to the math problem, and c) she (hopefully) walked away with a new technique for finding patterns.
 
Then, the kicker. What I was waiting for. Before she could move onto the next thing, I said, “Wait, I want to show you something” and I wrote R above the squares and L above the triangles. “This is also a drumming pattern,” and I played it for her.
 
RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL
 
Half surprised, I watched her take it slow and tap it on the dinner table. It was easy for her.
 
“That,” I concluded, “is called a paradiddle.”
 
“A para-diddle?” she repeated and laughed.
 
I’d been waiting years to teach her that, and it took all but 5 minutes for her to get it.

So I chopped back my mullet a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t a terrible case of mulletisis, but still it was enough to be issued a warning by the CDC.

How did I let it get that way? How did I crash at this intersection of bad taste and personal grooming?

Quite easily. When you’re busy trying to raise a three-year-old… when you have to do the day-care commute before and after work (each jaunt taking one hour door-to-door)… when you have to work a full job-type job… and you chronically add your brand of disorganization, tardiness, distractibility, and inefficiency to everything… and you’ve stopped caring about things very important to you 10 years ago… it’s a veritable snap.

You get busy, you lose track of time, and before you know it, you’re arriving at work, hair messy in an un-cool way, shirt un-ironed, face/hand lotion smeared across your mouth like the final shot of God-knows-what-movie-you’re-watching, and your fly halfway undone.

This is all quite shameful for a person who, in his youth, made a declaration: “When I become a parent, I’m not going to let myself go. I’m going to keep up with fashion, with music, with everything of the time, so my kids won’t be embarrassed for me.” Well, my little girl may not be old enough to care about cultural morality now, but I’m working my way to be expelled from the Garden of Fashionable Decency.

In all fairness, it’s not Mitsuki’s fault. Many parents have their act together, aren’t rushing around like chickens, and are able to carve out enough time to make themselves and their kids look clean and combed and fashionable, with a little spare change and little spare time to boot. How they do it, I haven’t a clue. Stress and sloppiness always put too much spin on the ball, and oh how I screw it all up.

But back to the mullet. Another cause to this crashing effect is my continuing folly of cutting my own hair. This might not be so bad (it’s cheap, it doesn’t require an appointment), but what I’m trying for is the ultimate in hair fashion – the Japanese crazy-cool-messy-idol look. This is something that simply cannot be done by yourself with two mirrors and a pair of utility scissors. There is a reason why Japanese young people pay 15000 yen for this. But try, I do. (Or try I did, since I don’t have enough hair to do this anymore.)

So my attempts at this are always a little off. And whatever results, though not atrocious (there’s nothing a lot of gel won’t make nice), is always sort of malformed. And when it grows out, it sure doesn’t get any better. There’s just more malfeasance.

Well, anyway, there’s a solution here, and it’s just to be better organized so I have the time to dedicate to the daily routine, or grooming and maintenance, or keeping up with current culture. And maybe I should scale back my ambition towards Japanese hairstyles.

There will soon come a day when Mitsuki doesn’t want to stand next to dear old Dad at the big old mall. But I’ve got to work to push that date out as far as possible. 

March 3rd is Girl's Day in Japan, and Mitsuki celebrated it here with her Hina-ningyo (Hina doll collection).

Mitsuki's Obaa-chama and Ojii-chama sent her this fantastic Hina-ningyo after she was born. The whole collection came in no less than 5 large boxes. How these delicate figurines made it overseas is a testament to careful packing. And I do mean careful. Each figure - and there are a total of 15 - was well protected. The head was bound by: one, a small square of paper to cover the face; two, a larger square of paper to serve as a hood; and three, one strip of paper to tie it all together. Two to five figures would go in each box and each person was careful immobilized by large, carefully bunched-up pieces of butcher paper. A set of gloves and two feather dusters came with the set, for the oils of your fingers is said to damage the dolls.

And of course, each figure has its own accesories (in themselves detailed) that represents each person's function - a gold ladle for tea; drums of different sizes; a flute; bows, arrows and a katana; brooms and dusters. The hardest of all accesories to install are the hats - each has a taught elastic band and it's difficult to set it carefully over the very real, slick and shiny hair.

Unpacking and packing up is a process. I had to take pictures, drawn diagrams and write notes of how the contents of each box is configured. Not to mention how the smaller boxes themselves are configured within the 5 containing boxes. But inbetween, when the whole collection is up, it's quite a sight.

For details of what each doll means, read this great PingMag article, complete with pictures. (The #2 comment at the bottom is me.)

Here are my Flickr photos.

Happy Girl's Day, Mitsuki-chan!