Jiji finally lost his first tooth! He's nearly 7 yrs. and 5 mos. old, and he is one of the biggest kids in his class. His baby teeth were looking smaller and smaller, and spreading out. One bottom tooth had become very askew, and stayed that way for a couple of weeks. On Wednesday he was eating some apple in his school lunch, and thought there was an apple seed in his mouth. He found it and it was his tooth! Then he got some blood on his hand, and went to wash his hand, and lost the tooth in the sink. So he came home and asked us for some money, since the tooth fairy wouldn't ever know he had lost his tooth. Then big brother told him point blank that the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny too are all Mommy and Daddy. Mommy and Daddy lied when they said it was someone else. We had been skirting around this issue for some time. He would say, "I don't understand. Magic isn't real, but Santa Claus does magic, and Santa Claus is real..." I would say, "Well, some people think Santa Claus is not real, either..." Reply, "Well, I know Santa Claus is real." "Oh, okay... but some people think he's not real." Etc... at least he didn't seem to mind finding out the truth.
Anyway, since he knew for sure that the money was coming from us, now, he spent the rest of the day reminding me periodically, "Mommy... money?", until I finally gave him a 500 yen coin. He was happy with that and went to put it in his Doraemon piggy bank, where it sits with a few 1 yen coins and 10 yen coins (he doesn't get an allowance yet, and we hardly ever give him money).
So the big question was: "Mommy, but why did you say that you saw the Easter Bunny?" Er, well, I always say I saw the Easter Bunny once, but what I really saw (or think I saw... it was so long ago) was a small gray bunny hopping around the back of the family student housing dormitory, in the middle of the night Sat/Sun. on Easter weekend, at the university in Germany I was attending for a few months when I was 19. The only thing weird about this story is: why would a bunny have been hopping around in the middle of the night? I guess that is why I always say it was the Easter Bunny. It is certainly appropriate that it was near the family student housing dormitory, anway.
Son no. 2 now talks with a bit of a lisp, and now we call him by a new nickname, "dunda-bora" (it means toothless in Punjabi).
Son no. 1 is going to have his graduation ceremony soon, for finishing his baseball team! He's in 6th grade, the season is over, and his team is just for elementary school kids. He will have to read out a 3 page speech that he has written in Japanese. Actually, I was surprised at how well he can make sentences now. It must have been the Kumon. I don't think they practice writing actual sentences much in school. We are so relieved that baseball is finally finishing, because it has been just work, work, work, 3 weekdays and BOTH weekend days every week, with no weekends off (except one for Obon in mid-August) from April to November, for the last 2 1/2 years. And around here, that pretty much destroys any chance of doing anything at the weekend, ever, except having dinner together or (in winter) skiing! It has been great for him and fun for all of us, but now we're really looking forward to doing some other things on the weekends (of course now winter is starting, but anyway... soon!).
