Zach awry in Japan

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17 December 2008 Like Brother, Like Sister

It’s impossible to imagine Zoe playing with a doll. A few nights ago she went to bed clutching a train book, and she often watches raptly out our window, and when a train goes by, she’ll scream “TRAIN!” and gesticulate wildly, ’cause she just has to share the excitement.

In fact, out of the dozen or so recognizeable words that she can utter, a full quarter of those are taken up by train-specific words. There’s the onomatopoeia kan kan, which is the sound of a railroad crossing, there’s the general word for train, and, this kills me, somewhere she picked up the word for “steam locomotive.” Yes, out of the 12 words that her little brain figured it most important to master first, one of those is devoted specifically to steam locomotives, as separate and distinct entites from regular electric trains.

Of course, the first word that she mastered was “bye bye.” It was the same with Genbo. The word accompanied by the wave. I see it as a poignant reminder that our relationship will be full of goodbyes. First I’ll say goodbye to the baby, as she grows into a little girl. This is already happening. Then I’ll say goodbye to the sweet girl as she becomes a woman, and she’ll leave home (I’m not Japanese, so I intend to kick my kids as far out of the nest as possible). And then, finally, another permanent goodbye at the end. My end, godwilling, but either way.

(And this was just supposed to be a post about trains.)