My youngest child, Kun-chan,
recently celebrated his 9th birthday.
The youngest of three siblings,
she’s been adorable like a grandchild since birth.
No matter what she does, I’ll say “She’s so cute!”
whether she’s sleeping or crying.
I can’t even count how many times I’ve said “cute” in the past nine years.
(Probably 20 times a day on a slow day, haha.)
The request for the birthday party was,
” I want a crepe party !”, so
on the last day of last week’s three-day weekend, I made crepes from the morning.
I baked nearly 30 crepes and prepared fillings of both savory and sweet, such as
lettuce, cucumber, sausages, ham, cheese,
whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and red bean paste. We celebrated while eating them together for lunch 🎂 (Making the crepes was hard work, but all that was left to do was to put out the fillings, so I realized that crepes are surprisingly easy to make for lunch!)
At our family’s birthday party,
everyone writes a letter
as a gift 💌 Nik-kun wrote a four-panel comic strip with a congratulatory message, and Hak-kun drew a picture of San from “Princess Mononoke,” which Kun-chan is currently obsessed with
, at the end of his letter . Kun-chan looked so happy when he received it ♡
By the way, everyone wrote me letters for my birthday too! ↓
For the birthday party, I prepared two performances to
celebrate and thank Kun-chan, who always takes the initiative to perform . (Usually, the program is filled with Kun-chan’s performances without me having to do anything, but when Kun-chan is the star…it’s Mom’s turn! 🥳)
One thing I do is read picture books aloud .
A few days ago, I stopped by the library on my way home from work and
searched for “birthday,” and I was shocked to find over 100 results 😂
From the picture books I found,
I chose “Donkuma-san’s Birthday” ♪
The gentle illustrations and story by Kozo Kakimoto are wonderful ♡ When I read to them, Nik-kun and Hak-kun are
actually the ones who listen the most attentively ðŸ¤
The other one was a quiz about the three siblings ♪
The night before, I looked for ideas while rereading Kun-chan’s three-year parenting diary.
Reading the parenting diary,
it really seemed like it was tough every day…🥲
I wanted to give my past self a word of encouragement, saying, “You did a great job!!”
Although it seemed tough, there were also lots of entries like “They’re so cute” and “It was fun,” and I remembered those precious days, realizing that it was fun despite the difficulties.
Now, here’s a sample of the quiz!
â‘ When Kun-chan was in his mother’s womb, Nik-kun often called out, “Baby!” At that time, which part of his mother’s body was he calling out to?
　A. Belly B. Mouth C. Hands
â‘¡ When Kun-chan was 2 months old, he received baptism at church (water was poured on his forehead). When the water was poured on him, did Kun-chan cry or not?
　A. Yes, he cried B. No, he didn’t cry
â‘¢ At what age did Hak-kun learn to put together the Japanese map puzzle (the kind where the prefectures are separated) that we have at home?
　A. 3 years old B. 5 years old C. 7 years old　
â‘£ When Nikkun was in the third grade, there was a nationwide school closure due to the coronavirus. When Nikkun returned to elementary school after the closure, he came home with a sword he had made from Demon Slayer, which was popular at the time. Approximately how many centimeters long was that sword?
　A. 3 cm B. 10 cm C. 30 cm