life with mia

.....mia one year ago - feb 2006

how can i describe life with mia?.....fun, intense, never boring, unexpected, unpredictable, energetic, loud, exuberant, entertaining, silly, humorous, exhausting, and emotional are a few words that come to mind. She is frighteningly smart, has a memory like a steel trap (unless it is something that you want her to remember), loves to perform, loves to make people laugh, loves to be the center of attention, strong willed, stubborn as all-get-out, sweet, soft, beautiful, and a miracle.

and I wonder how life must be for her living in japan with a caucasian family, going to japanese kindergarten with other japanese children, but those children speak japanese as their primary language, having two teenage sisters that are blonde, and who get to do everything she wishes that she could do but isn't "big" enough to do yet, and a baby sister on the way who will probably be blonde also, having the mom who never understands what is going on at school, and then there is noah.......noah is overwhelming for those of us who are 3x his height, but what of mia who is only a few centimeters taller than him? good thing she has so much of her own vivacity and strength. he came into her perfect little world where everyone was wrapped around her finger and she was always the center of attention, and turned everything upside down. mia is still on the path to recovery from that trauma.

today we all went to mia's "happyokai" (school program), which was on a saturday so that dads could attend. mia has been worried for nearly a month that we wouldn't figure out when the happyokai was, and so wouldn't show up. fortunately that didn't happen. what did predictably happen, is that we caused quite a scene by being ourselves - caucasian family with two teenagers, two japanese children, and a pregnancy.....nothing this strange has ever happened to her school before. the program was darling of course, as only japan can be. she and her classmates performed some musical numbers, accompanying their teacher who was playing the piano with tambourines, bells, castanets, etc. then they sang some songs, and finished up with an adorable play based on the book "doozo no isu" (the please chair). the children assisted in making the scenery and props and made their own costumes. they have been working on it for the last month. mia was a donkey, a very cute donkey (but a donkey?). i asked her who decided which animal each child would be, and she said that they each got to choose for themselves. i noticed that the most popular girls in class were also donkeys. can't imagine that happening in the u.s. it was very fun, and could have been funner if noah had been more cooperative, but he is getting easier by the week, so no complaints.

performing in the play

singing at the end of the play

mia is in the center back, enjoying herself. she was in her element at the happyokai....performing for an audience, what could be better?

Comments

[Lexi]

I wish they had more chairs for us to sit on...