Mayuki Being Cute

Since it’s a while since I posted anything in this blog, I thought I’d post a couple of things about Mayuki being cute. People with no interest in yet another cute baby can simply read something else.

Both incidents happened yesterday, before we went out to do Mayuki’s birthday shopping. This is probably the last time we’ll be able to do the birthday shopping with Mayuki, at least for a few years, and she even went to sleep while we bought her presents, so she hasn’t actually seen them yet.

Anyway, the first cute incident involved a cup of barley tea. Mayuki spilled quite a lot of it on the floor, and Yuriko was cross with her, taking the cup away. Mayuki was just sitting on the floor, looking annoyed herself, so I went to get the floor cloth, and got Mayuki to help me wipe the tea up. She didn’t want to at first, but soon came around. This is our basic policy; she’s only one, so she will make a mess, but she normally helps to clean it up. (Only helps, of course, because at the age of nearly-two she can’t quite clean up properly by herself.) When we’d finished wiping the floor, I said “Now go and give Mummy an “I’m sorry” cuddle,” and Mayuki stood up, went over to Yuriko, and gave her a hug. Yuriko was behind me, sitting on the sofa on the other side of the room, when I said it, and I didn’t look at her, so Mayuki must have understood at least most of the sentence. The only bit she might not have understood is “I’m sorry”, but from the context, I think she did.

The second incident was a lot simpler. Mayuki and I were both drinking, and Mayuki suddenly touched her milk bottle to my glass and said “kanpai!”, the Japanese for “cheers!”. I know we did that while we were visiting Yuriko’s family in Gifu last week, so maybe that’s where she picked it up. Of course, I said “kanpai!” back, and from that point Mayuki was doing “kanpai!” every thirty seconds or so. She hasn’t entirely mastered that particular social skill yet.

Today is my day to look after Mayuki, so maybe I’ll get to see even more cute things. I’m looking forward to it.