Product Review: cacahuates japoneses

The name cacahuates japoneses means, in Spanish, "Japanese peanuts". So, when I had these in México as an LDS missionary [1], I thought that these were either a variety of peanut that was developed in Japan or that it was a peanut species that was native to Japan. Not so. They are, in fact, just regular old peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) coated with a soy-flavored shell. They were invented in México by a Japanese man, named Yoshigei Nakatani, in 1945.[2] The name refers to the ethnicity of their inventor, but the snack itself is Mexican.

Playing Catch

Two weeks ago I tried playing catch with Lillian. I sat her down, propped up against the couch (so she couldn't fall backwards) and put my feet on either side of her (so she couldn't tip over sideways). I rolled her the ball and she tried to roll it back (usually unsuccesfully). But she seemed to get the idea. I tried to take a video but by that point she was bored with the game and started playing with my shoelaces. Other times I tried to take a video but Lilli was too distracted by the camera to keep playing. Last week my mother-in-law came up to visit and I was able to enlist her help in getting some videos.

Hand Spiders

I can remember doing hand spiders with babies at church before I even got out of Primary.[1][2] They're amazing things. They work across language and culture barriers. They're safe and fun for children of all ages. They're versatile: children can be tickled by them, try to find them when they hide, smash them if they get within reach, grab them and try to eat them, watch them run around, etc. At first I don't think they realize that it's just my hand, but they still seem to know that I'm somehow responsible for everything the hand spider does. Last week I introduced Lillian to hand spiders.

Walking (With Help)

Babies are actually born with the ability to walk their legs. But they quickly "lose" this ability as they gain weight because their legs aren't strong enough. So when you hold them up all they can do is stand in place, or do squats. However, I say "lose" in quotes because if you hold a baby in water, the buoyancy from the water offsets their weight and they can still walk. As they get older they eventually gain enough muscle to restore their ability to walk outside of the water. Lilli reached that point a while ago (about the same time she could stand up against something without support [1]). I've been slow about capturing it on video, since I'm usually not around when Leann helps her walk. But now I have one.

Making Faces

This Sunday we were listening to Elder Quentin L. Cook's CES Fireside (which can be heard in the background of the video [1]) and eating our dinner. We gave Lillian some mashed potatoes which she took quite a liking too. A while after she was done, she scrunched up her face and started breathing quickly through her nostrils. I did it back to her, which startled her, at first. But then she got excited and started doing it repeatedly. It was hilarious.

Night Wind

One night, a little over a week ago, we had some strong wind that was blowing most of the night. It rattled the windows in the bedroom and woke Lilli up several times. One of the times I got up to calm her down I considered the noise made by the wind and how that can be terrifying for a little child. I wrote down my thoughts in freeform poetry [1] in order to capture their pure, raw essence. The first stanza is about the wind itself while the second is about the child's reaction to it (i.e., the reactions I had as a child or that I can imagine a child having).

Little Puppy

I've mentioned previously that sometimes Lillian puts things (like socks) in her mouth and then lets go with her hands. When she does this, we think she looks like a little puppy.[1] Well, now she's started doing that and going up on all fours [2], which only bolsters the comparison. All we need, now, to make the illusion complete is to teach her to bark.