Friday, June 29, 2012

Does He Understand?

Hikaru is slowly building up his Japanese vocabulary (His English is limited to "hello" and "yeah" right now). For a kid that seems to have just so much to say, he's been rather slow in getting to it. This is not to say that Hikaru is in anyway stupid, just he's obviously a toddler who works on his own time schedule, no matter what Beloved or Daddy might want.

After all, after a year and a bit of waiting, he took his first step and said his first word on the same day.

But being still more or less pre-vocal in one language and extremely limited in the other (If it's not yummy, a frog, a ball, or where he wants to go, forget it), there's always the question of... does this kid actually understand?

Does he get what Daddy is attempting to tell him? Not that I'm expounding philosophy to my toddler, unless it's the eternal question of "Why aren't you sleeping in YOUR futon instead of on Daddy's back?!", mind you; but things like "Sit down in your chair" or "Say 'thank you'". Even other, more complicated ideas, "I love you" or "Go bug Mommy for food, not try to steal Daddy's breakfast again".

It's a bit of a mystery.

Of course, there are clues... Lately talking of toothbrushes in either language produces a distinct lack of toddler as he runs off to hide somewhere. A command to "Get your brother! Tickle him!" had a minor brother tickle scuffle on the tatami this morning as Hikaru attempted to tickle Makoto awake.

And of course saying "I love you" does get me a hug, so maybe I am being a bit overly sensitive.

Or maybe the very careful blank look Hikaru turns on me when I say "No, this isn't Hikaru's, this is Daddy's food" is just him being smarter than his father in terms of getting more snacks.

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