Thursday, April 15, 2010

Story Time is Politically Correct

Every Wednesday, Ela and I go to story time at a library near our house. It's good for us in several ways. 1) It gets us both out of the house. 2) It gets me exercise, since we walk there. 3) It allows Ela to meet people her size. 4) It reinforces for Ela that books really are fun (not that she really needs it, but it doesn't hurt). 5) It teaches me, or reteaches me, the fun little rhymes and songs that people use with their babies. I have a pretty good memory, but most of what we sang as kids is gone from my head now. When I hear it in story time, it comes back pretty quickly, but I need that jump start to get to it. I'm growing a pretty good list of hand games and songs that Ela likes.
Once in awhile, though, I hear a song and I think "I know this" but discover it's been changed in the almost thirty (yikes!) years since I was young enough to appreciate it. Sometimes, it's an improvement. This was the case for "Ten Little Indians." It's a pretty basic counting song. When I was little, we held up our fingers and sang "one little two little three little indians" and so on up to ten. The library story time doesn't count indians. Most days, they count bubbles. At the end of the song, "Ten little bubbles go pop pop pop!" and we all clap our hands. This makes a little more sense than counting indians, in my opinion. In the other version, which can be sung in either Spanish or English, we sing "two little hands and ten little fingers" first, and then we count the fingers, which makes even more sense. Also, it gives kids a chance to practice a little bit of Spanish, and I'm always for encouraging multi-lingualism.
However, there are other songs that should have been left alone, and one of those is Little Bunny Foo Foo. I'll be honest, I can't remember all the words to this song as we sang it back in the day, but I do remember, quite clearly, that it involved scooping up some imaginary creature and boping it on the head. That part was fun. It was a story song about a bunny wandering around and being naughty. Occasionally the good fairy would come by and tell him to cut out the naughtiness. The song had a moral, too. The bunny eventually got turned into a goon for boping things on the head because hitting is wrong, right? And we all said that cheesy phrase, "Hare today, goon tomorrow." Not anymore. Now, the story is that Little Bunny Foo Foo wanders through the forest to play. No naughty behavior at all. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, the good fairy stops by and tells the Bunny to hurry up, so he wanders a bit faster. Finally, his mother calls him home, and off he goes.
I'm totally annoyed by this adjustment. For one thing, it's not nearly as fun. Sure, the kids get to walk, hop and run in place, but it just doesn't seem nearly as cool as the fun boping motion we used to have. I don't know why. May be that's just my perception because I like the old one better. The bigger issue, though, is that the story doesn't make sense any more. Also, I don't really know what was wrong with the old version. Sure, the kids used to practice that naughty behavior (and enjoy it) but 1) how naughty was it really? and 2) they were taught that this was wrong as they were listening. I can't figure out why it was changed, and I think it was changed for the worse. May be someone reading this will disagree and explain it to me.
My mom works at a church that has a preschool, and she assures me that Little Bunny Foo Foo is still sung in the old way there, so that makes me feel better, but I still feel a little irked every time we sing it at story time. I'll have to look up the old words and teach it to Ela the right way when she's old enough to enjoy it. In the mean time, we enjoy the other songs and games at story time. It's a good break in the middle of our week, and always educational!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Easter

I posted about the cherry blossoms, and then I lost all desire to blog for a week. I think part of the reason I was so lazy was I went to North Carolina to visit family, and I was out of my routine. It’s hard to get motivated when I’m on vacation.


But Easter was very nice. We got up and went to the 10:30 service at our church. It was super packed, so we couldn’t even all sit together, but it was a good service. Minjee was kind enough to take Ela out when she ran out of church steam, and they played with the Easter Bunny. Apparently, Ela thinks the Easter Bunny is pretty awesome. I’m guessing this is due to the fact he looks like a really big dog (from her perspective).





Once we got home, we put together a yummy lunch consisting of ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, pasta salad, and the traditional lamb cake. My cousins came over and we all smooshed into our dining area and had a very nice meal.






Dad had to leave after lunch, and that kind of set us all of on our own directions. Minjee and her boyfriend went out to do some sightseeing, and Mom went into full cleaning mode. I packed up my bags for my trip to North Carolina, and Zack mowed the lawn, so it was a productive day. We traded off on baby duty so we could all accomplish our goals.

Late in the evening by our usual standards, we went out for Korean dinner. Then Ela passed out and Minjee took over baby duty again and we got in one last game of Rock Band with my cousins, who were preparing to move. (We miss them already!) So we had a good time all day with family and friends.





The next day I headed to North Carolina for the week, and now I’m back and Zack’s heading out, so we’re still keeping pretty busy. I’ll try to keep things updated.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Hanami in DC

One of the things I am going to miss about Japan is the cherry blossoms in the spring. They are just beautiful. There are parks filled with the cherry trees, and when they bloom it’s like having warm snow in seventy degree weather. I will miss seeing them all, and I will miss the lovely Hanami (Flower Viewing) picnics that take place there every year.
Luckily, we moved to a place that has cherry blossoms, so this year we decided to have a Hanami party just like we would have in Japan. Mom, Dad, my sister Minjee and her boyfriend Tristan came up for Easter, and on Saturday we got together a nice little crowd for our picnic.
I spent the morning making rice and onigiri (rice balls). Mom and Minjee made sushi. We also put together some raw vegetables and edamame and fruit and packed it all up to go to eat under a blossoming tree with a few cousins.
Our original plan was to have the picnic actually down at the tidal basin where the most trees are. Thankfully, we decided that it would be a long way to go with all our food, so we went to a park nearer to our house where we knew there were cherry trees. Unfortunately, only one was still in bloom, but it was enough.


Our cousins brought mochi (sweet rice paste) and the food was all delicious. We had a good time chatting.

Ela decided that it was a good day for a walk. At first, she only wanted to walk on the sidewalk, and she took off around the park without the slightest concern for whether anyone was following. Then she set to work learning to walk on the uneven terrain of the grass. This is still a work in progress,but she got to the point where she didn’t need a finger for moral support.

After our picnic, we sent the blankets and food home with our cousins and headed out on a very ambitious walk to the tidal basin to see a few more blossoms. We quickly discovered just how good it was that we didn’t try to picnic there. It was super crowded. All the same the flowers were beautiful.


It wasn’t quite Japan, but it felt great to be out and see the flowers. We were exhausted by the time we made it home, but it was worth it.