Child - childer - childish....

No - that isn't correct English! (just in case a student who is reading this thinks that it is...).


But it's how I sense Okaasan is gently sliding ...backwards into childhood. Little Kazuko Okamoto of Kawagoe, whose Daddy is a haulier, whose mum works hard with all these kids and the housework....she has a friend who may be Korean at school, she likes running with her siblings in the long reeds near the river, she eats pancakes at the street stall on her way home from school, waits up late for Daddy to bring a crab home from work....


Most of the time the adult Kazuko is...just about...here and with us. She can make comments about the latest news on TV and knows the names of the baseball team star pitcher.


But sometimes?
Young Kazuko sneaks out.


Since coming back from Australia I've noticed that Okaasan is sucking her thumb when she sleeps, and her giggles are often so childish - specially in relation to something the cats do...or some silly wordplay joke.


I made scones again recently. I left one on the kitchen table for Okaasan. In the middle of the afternoon I went into the kitchen to find her sitting at the table holding the scone a little guiltily.
"Can I eat this?"
"Yes of course! Please! You can eat anything on the table or in the fridge!"
"Oh good. Giggle, giggle...um, I've started eating it already!! Look!" and she waved the scone at me....sure enough the bottom was looking a little nibbled.


I felt I was looking at an 8 year old! Not an 81 year old!
Cute.
Strange.


I reckon we will get to the stage where she thinks Yujiro IS her father.
Yujiro is important in her life, her father was too. I can see this two morphing into one in Okaasan's mind one day....it should make for some interesting home life.


;-))