in my last post i said that i wished hiro could talk. while that is true, that doesn't mean we communicate. it's just that i don't always understand what he wants. i tried doing 'baby signs' with him, basically sign language, and he only seemed to pick up one: hungry. he's been doing that one for a while now. recently he's been doing 'bye-bye' correctly, it's so cute. on tuesday night, however, he surprised me with the sign for sleepy. we went to bed late that night and as we were sitting on the futon he put his hands up to his head and made the sign. it was so cute.

he knows 'gochisousama deshita', which is what japanese people say at the end of a meal. i'm not sure if he picked it up from me or from daycare, but it's so cute. he puts his little hands together and says, 'dadadadaaDA!' and even if he's not saying the words exactly, he's got the intonation just right. he's also added 'itadakimasu', which is what japanese people say at the beginning of a meal, also with his hands together (he doesn't 'say' it, though.)

he is using signs i don't know, though. ones he's made up, perhaps. yesterday after playing with the rocks in the garden, he pushed his two index fingers together. i don't know what that was supposed to mean, unless it was to express how he was playing with the rocks. he also pointed with his finger at the table (pushing down on the top), but i had no idea what he meant. poor baby.

he's not growing like a weed, but he is growing out of some of his clothes. i think he might actually be moving into 18-month-old sizes here pretty soon. i don't think we have very much of that at the moment! i must admit that even if he's not growing out of everything every two weeks, that makes me happy because i think we've gotten a lot of use out of his clothes and saved us some money! LOL

he likes to feed himself, and actually manages to get some spoonfuls of food into his mouth. for about a month he has to hold a spoon during a meal, even if he's not using it for eating. usually he taps/bangs it against the plate or table, but that makes him very happy. if he could, he would happily wield some chopsticks as well, but i am very strict about that! i could see him shoving it into his eye or up his nose and we don't want that.

the only 'negative' that i can think of is his need to be with me all. the. time. i cannot even take a bath by myself (when yoshi is home and can watch hiro) without hiro crying and screaming. even if he sees i'm in the bath he cries and cries until i get out. it's usually worse when he's sleepy, but even during the day he freaks out if i go to the toilet or kitchen, just for a minute. when i make dinner he zooms around and around the table with his katakata, driving me nuts with the noise and getting underfoot. the only thing i can attribute it to is daycare. i only took him once a week, and as he probably has no sense of time, it was totally random to him, and he never knew if i was going to leave him alone and not come back for a while. poor little guy. now that i've finished my job and won't be leaving him anywhere any time soon, i hope that he breaks out of it and doesn't need to know where i am at all times (right next to him!)

well, that's about it. any questions. LOL