There are 3 plastic cases on the hallway in my house. In those boxes, there are about 15 larvae (= young insects) of stag beetles (=Kuwagata-mushi). My husband & my son are watching them so happily. I don't know why they love beetles so much. My daughter, who copies everything her brother does, also like watching beetles. I feel left out... but I'm not interested in beetles at all! I can understand how cool a beetle is, but a larva, which has a soft tube-shaped body... Ew!

During our GW trip, we visited a museum of beetles. One guy, who named himself "Dr. Beetle", was giving a lecture to visitors. We were listening to his lecture for about an hour and a half, which was so much longer than we had expected.
He showed a lot of beetles to us and let us touch them. My son, daughter & husband really enjoyed touching. Dr. Beetle encouraged us to rub our cheek against beetle's body, and we did so. The surface of the beetle was softer & smoother than I had imagined.

At the end of the lecture, Dr. Beetle said, "I'm gonna give you guys a little bit tricky task. I'll give you your diploma in Beetle-entomology (Beetlogy?) only if you can complete your task. Do you wanna try it?" "Yes!" all of the children there answered in a loud voice...

To be continued...

Whenever my daughter, who is three years old, does something good to others, she says, "Say "thank you" to me!" And we do so, then she smiles and says, "My pleasure!"

Apparently, she just wants to say "My pleasure!" to others. I guess she is enjoying conversation or communication with others by saying so.

When she was a baby, she cried & cried, and sometimes smiled (like an angel... What a doting parent I am!). She didn't talk at all, but she just heard us talking to each other. Maybe, she was just waiting for the chance to use a lot of words & expressions she'd learned from our conversation.

Babies cry, because they have to let the adults around them to know that they need some help, like "Give me some milk!" or "My butt is really uncomfortable. I wanna have my diaper changed!"
Babies can't survive without someone's help, SO they cry for help. They know instinctively the importance of communication. It's a part of survival instincts. The important thing about communication is to convey your feelings to others. That's why they start speaking and talking to others naturally.

It is often said that children have special language ability. Some people argue that babies & infants have phonetically-good ears. That might be ture, but I think it it essential that they have intense feelings that they really want someone to understand themselves well. That kind of 'passion' improves their speaking ability.

She seems to have a lot of fun while talking to others. She feels so happy that she can make herself understood and she can understand others. That kind of 'pleasure' encourages her to speak much more.

"Thank you." "My pleasure." The response expresses her feelings literally.

During GW, I went on a trip to Shikoku with my family. The hotel we stayed had some hot springs & a heated swimming pool. Since my son told me that he really wanted to swim in the pool (actually, he CAN'T swim, but he did say so), we went to the dressing room.

We didin't bring our bathing suits at all. But fortunately, visitors could rent bathing suits for free. So I started to look for good ones, but...
What I chose was a black-and-blue bathing suit. A super high-leg bathing suit? Of course NOT! It was a knee-length suit, which made me look like a scuba diver. A snorkel and flippers might go with this suit.

Just then, a proverb suddenly occurred to me: Leave your sense of shame at home, id est, you don't have to care about how you look because your acquaintances are not around here. "Come to think about it, I don't have any relative in Shikoku, acutally." I thought.

Forgetting that I was wearing this unbelievably uncool bathing suit, I had a great time swimming & playing with my children. They really enjoyed it. I was so happy to see their smiles.
When we were sitting on the poolside, my son said to me, "You look so CUTE, Mom! Today I'm so glad! Because I can see you wearing this PRETTY bathing suit. You know what? Some guy might try to hit on you, like "Hey, good-lookin', do you wanna go get a cup of coffee?" "
I was really, really surprised but it seemed that he really meant it. I hugged him and said, "Now I love you even more, honey!"

Raising children sometimes pays off like this. That's why I can't stop being a mother, I guess.