Thanksgiving... the time of year when all number of strange creatures emerge from the woods and onto lawns, covering the fading green grass and taking over lush green space. Luckily for us, we had professionals on the job this Thanksgiving, and while there was no actual raking done or anything like that, those nasty leaves sure did get an earful from Mika and Kiyomi, the greatest leaf hunters of all time! 
Cousin Mika came to stay with us this Thanksgiving (oh ya, her parents and grandparents came too), but really
for Kiyomi, it was all about Mika. The girls met for the first time, and Kiyomi got to spend time with uncle Martin and aunty Miyo too. The house was full, and we all loved it. We ate well, laughed a lot and many, many, many… m
any pictures were taken. The weather was phenomenal - warm and sunny everyday. Excursions to Mer Bleu Bog, the Experimental Farm and the Farmers' Market were interspersed with a never ending stream of games, dances, and general merriment coming from the girls.Kiyomi and Mika got along famously (or at least as well as a 3 year old and a 1 year old can expect to get along). Mika tried to teach Kiyomi a few new things, and treated us all to wonderful performances from Beauty and the Beast (complete with princess dress and full musical score). Alas, we didn’t think to video tape one of these fabulous performances for posterity.
Kiyomi did show a wee bit of possesiveness. Not over us, of course, but over KT the cat. Anytime poor
Mika tried to get near the cat, Kiyomi would barge in, stand in front, and pretty much plant herself, arms reaching out to the poor cat, and grunts espcading from her that had the unmistakeably tone of “mine”, even if the word sounded nothing like “mine”. Needless to say, KT was none too impressed.
Kenji and Aya (Kohji’s brother and sister-in-law) took charge of Thanksgiving dinner itself and put on a fabulous spread with a scrumptions… and ENORMOUS … turkey. Aya’s family also came for dinner, so there was a huge spread for 12 adults, 2 kids and a rather traumatized Nicolai the cat, who was likely much relieved when the Tasmanian devils known as "the nieces" left.
Other developments since my last post was a return trip to the International Adoption Clinic at CHEO, where all tests came back perfectly fine. Although we weren’t expecting otherwise, it was nonetheless a relief to have a clean bill of health confirmed.
The latest craze in the house is stair sitting. For incomprehensible reasons (to us anyway), Kiyomi loves just sitting on the steps. She only needs to go up a couple steps, and she’ll turn around and plonk herself down, and sit there happily for quite some time. She sometimes seems to be singing to herself, but it’s hard to tell if it’s song or babble.Her babbling seems to get more and more elaborate everyday. No discernable words yet, but her babble has a great deal of expression and intonation to it. We have no idea what she’s saying, but it is obviously vital information and we’ve become convinced that she’s trying to communicate the solution for global warning, and occasionally rolls her eyes at us cause despite her best efforst, we just don’t seem to get it. Her comprehension seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, however. She can do all the regular toddler things like point to body parts, point to the giant giraff in our family room, nod and shake her head in response to some questions, which amazes us given that she’s only been exposed to English for 4 months.
No way I’d be learning Mandarin that fast, that’s for sure!She's also taking more and more to utensils, although we're not at the stage where she insists on feeding herself all the time. However, every meal seems to involve multiple utensils, and mutiple projectile-like food items. The cat has been very, very happy lately.
We’ve also had a few “bad mommy” moments. A couple weeks ago, she took a tumble at playgroup. When I scooped her up, she was in the middle of the ‘silent-building scream’, so I whisked her into the kitchen where she promptly bled all over her dress, my hand and the paper towel that I g
rabbed in a panic. Somehow she had hit her mouth, but with the crying, the blood and the drool, I couldn’t see where the injury was. Three days later (yes, you read that right, 3 whole days), I noticed a gash on her tongue that was exactly the shape and size of her 4 front teeth. We didn’t worry about it too much, as she didn’t seem to be having any trouble eating or drinking, but man, did I shutter everytime she stuck out her tongue.The cure (or conversely the continuation of) these bad mommy moments seems to be Toy Story II. Not sure why, but she seems to love the scene where Buster the dog comes charging into the room (you’re all forgiven for not knowing this scene, as no reasonable person should be expected to have watched it a dozen times). She stares enraptured at the screen, barking her little heart out. Not sure if she thinks Buster is talking to her, but she’s happy.
On that note, I’ll call it a night, and put her to bed (Kohji’s been entertaining her as I write this, and I can here definite fatigue in his voice). The parting shot for tonight needs no explanation or introduction, it speaks for itself. Good night from Ottawa.
