Annie

Well,the diva is now 3 years and 5 months old.She is nearly 100cm tall and weighs in at 14.5kg .She has become quite the little girl in the last months and long gone are the days when I chose the clothes for her to wear every morning...we now have battles and she is tough.But usually content if she can wear a dress or something she deems as being pretty and if possible,pink.I am also struggling to improve my hair skills as she like her hair up in bunches or a pony tail most days.She still loves being outside and is in her element now as summer is here so she gets to go to the beach a lot.I managed to find the arm bands(water wings) I brought in England so Kenichi is hoping to teach her to swim this summer.She eats everything except shiitake mushrooms and cucumbers(but she will eat both when they are served up at daycare).Her favourite foods are carrots,especially raw ones which she steals from my vegetable tray,spinach with natto,miso soup and fish.She gets chocolate on Fridays only as otherwise she wouldn't have any teeth left.Her best friends are Akane who started daycare 2 weeks before Annie did when they were both 7 months old,and Maggie the dog.She has a boyfriend,Yuichiro,but they get rather shy when we watch them.He also goes to her daycare.

Language wise,Annie has amazed both of us so much.If you remember,we spent 3 months back in the UK last summer.She picked up English and came back here speaking nothing but English.The sceptics were out in force(and I must admit that I was also sceptical but still,we had a lot of negative feedback) saying that she would soon lose her English and resort back to Japanese so basically to prepare for the worst linguistically.But my baby proved 'em all wrong...a year on and her strongest language,by far, is still English,In fact she speaks nothing but English at home.At daycare she is quiet and speaks Japanese when she needs to and with some of her friends.When I pick her up in the afternoon,she lets rip and doesn't stop chatting until she falls asleep.I have been criticised for letting her speak so much English at home and for letting Kenichi speak English with her but we do things our way and although her Japanese level is lower than that of a local kid her age,she understands every word and once she starts school in 2 and a half years time,I have no doubt in my mind that she will be as good as the rest.Her English vocab has been slipping a little recently and she makes grammatical mistakes but she has a British-English accent to die for and can express herself with ease.She only likes to watch the odd Japanese cartoon or film(Totoro being one) and the rest must be English.Favourites include Charlie and Lola,Hilltop Hospital,Barbar,Maisy(still!) ,Kipper,Spot and the Mr.Men. She loves ,loves,loves reading and we are building up quite a little library here.She will quite happily read to herself and it is amazing how she mimics my story telling and how much she recites from memory.Also shows the importance of reading.She gets 5 odd books a night and of course knows the longer ones and tries to get maximum value.

So,there you go.That's our little girl.