Go, go Yugo!

Wow, it's been so long since Yugo's first TV appearance. But don't worry, he's stayed very busy in our unseasonably warm New York weather. Halloween has come and gone and Yugo still does not eat many sweets besides cookies, but it's hard to be sweeter than this:

Foxy Yugo

So Yugo was on TV and how! We showed up at the CMoM for the morning broadcast of Good Day New York on Fox 5 to promote liberal messages of inclusive diversity and global corporate transparency but instead Yugo was a star for a few minutes. You can see one clip here.
But his big scene is not on the website, so here are some pictures:

Yugo from yesterday and today

Even if the papers publish nothing, here is Yugo at the CMoM exhibit putting screws in holes and in his new class, his first class, cleaning up the art table with the teacher.

Look for Yugo in the News

Hi all, if you're still watching and checking, and we hope you are, look for Yugo in the local news or newspapers. He participated in a recent media event for the Children's Museum of Manhattan's opening of the PlayWorks exhibit. He also began to take a class at the CMOM with some other rambunctious young toddlers. Stay tuned for updates.

Of course every time the CBS 2 news camera came into the room, Yugo left, but he might be caught in the background, running away from his fifteen minutes of fame. (Smart move, Yugo. It may be best to save them for later, when you rule the world... for 15 minutes.)

Yugo has been invited back for Monday morning to appear on the "Good Day New York" of Fox 5. So if you are awake from 6:30 to 8:30 on Monday morning (I'm sorry) you might see us. You might see us sleeping in the corner.

[For all the computer literate out there, you can check the Google "News" link for Children's Museum of Manhattan, or PlayWorks. So far, only the Christian Science Monitor has published an article, with no Yugo in sight.]

Grandparents in New York, June 2006

Train arrive, sixteen coaches long... Well that long black train, took my baby and gone...

A Virginia MPP (mega-pic post)

Yugo Love. We all need some.

Yugo slides on baking plastic.
Cool water + cool swim trunks = Yugo rules the wading pool!
Yugo hangs prominently.

On the canal boat cruise near the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
This picture taken seconds before Yugo drenches his mama with a bucket of water.
Who isn't tempted to step in those flowers?
Brave Yugo. Through the sprinkler.
Yugo hopes for rain with his rain stick.

'Nuff said.

A Yuglossary

Yugo understands a lot of things said in English and Japanese, mostly about being ready to eat. He can also make questions himself (eg. " Cookie?") For a current understanding of Yugo's language, see the constantly expanding universe of words he uses below:

Touch - The first word he used repeatedly and understandably.

Cuck, Cucku - 1. Truck, sometimes bus, sometimes car, but mostly reserved for all trucks
2. "Cucku" can also mean trash. When the question "cucku?" gets a positive response, it means Yugo can throw away whatever he is holding (NB - make sure he is not holding your jewelry or your glasses before saying yes...)

Ch-ch - Train, as in Choo-choo, wooh, wooh.

Fsssh - Fish, any fish, including non-fish like whales and dolphins, often used at aquariums and at the beach.

Boru, Bol - Ball, also balloon with a slight difference in intonation

Cookie - Cookie. He picked that word up fast. And uses it often.

Apple - Apple, or in fact any other type of fruit, including bananas. Apple may be a generic term.

Ower - Flower

Push - Used for buttons, light switches.

Zis - "This" Used when Yugo points to something he wants. He also uses the question "Zis is?" to find out what something is and, usually, whether he can put it into his mouth.

Yosh - Japanese expression (meaning "good"?) Yugo uses when climbing stairs or chairs, especially when he has reached a final, precarious position.

Sankyou - Thank you.

Jiji and Baba - Grandpa and Grandma. Yugo sometimes gets these right.

Some tricky ones to interpret:

Papa - "Papa" often means Papa and designates Yugo's dad, but sometimes Yugo points to his mom when saying papa, or uses it when playing peekaboo

Mama - "Mama" usually means mom, but is also used when pointing to Papa, or to Yugo's nose or to someone else's nose.

Yugo, the writer, the return

Wow, two months since Yugo's strong, rising trajectory was last charted on these pages. The energy and activity off his young existence is only one explanation, another is that now Yugo has taken charge of much of the writing of his life. This is clearly evidenced from is growing vocabulary, his one-nap-a-day, his counting and his running through the playground with water balloons and sticks. But wait, there's more!

Yugo goes to the zoo

Yugo spent a Wednesday in the Bronx, pointing and saying "Woooow" at all the sights and sounds at the Zoo. While he learned that it is best to stay out of the camels' cage, Yugo saved his greatest excitement for the Monkey House, just like the rest of us. And his own climbing is much improved!

Yugo helps make coffee.

Back in the U.S.S.A.

Since returning to New York, Yugo has been a busy traveller and a very active boy. He rode to New Paltz to help his Papa teach classes and just returned from a whirlwind tour of Virginia, complete with train whistles and excited pointing.

A few glimpses...

Here he is in New Paltz, New York:
"I rule the playground and the heavens shall bow before me!"


With his new friend Mathilde, whose books he is still enjoying.

And here Yugo tours the Whitney Biennial with the sudden urge to roll on the floor.

Diary of Yugo's Travel in Japan

皆様、

ご無沙汰しておりました。そろそろ優悟の日本の話をしなければ・・・・でもちょっと待って、最近日本からの電話が多くて。
では、始めましょう。

Hello Everybody!
I am sorry that I disappeared for a while, because I've just come back from my first trip to Japan and I needed time to recover from jet lag.
Wait....! I have had a lot of phone calls from my groupy in Japan.
All right, let's start!

まずママのお家近所を案内しましょう。
日本に着いてからお天気が悪く雨ばかりせっかく桜をみたかったのに。
まだ咲いているかな？散らないで今優悟が行くから。

This is the neighborhood of my grandparents' house. Since I arrived in Japan, unfortunately it had been raining and very chilly, which was unusal. In the airplane to Japan, my mother kept telling me how beautiful cherry blossoms were and how much she was expecting for cherry blossoms.
Let's check a shrin nearby to see if cherry blossoms are still there!

あ～間に合った。
まだまだ美しい。優悟は木に咲く桜より、地面一面の桜の花びらに心惹かれました。
優悟の初めての桜です。

Oh~good, it was not too late yet.
How beautiful they were! But I was more fascinated with the petals in the ground.

では今度は家の中にどうぞ。
外は雨・・・優悟のつぎなるチャレンジは？

Next I would like to show you around the house, but I am very busy, and I have to do something instead. Follow me, please.

８０歳になるおじいちゃまとお習字。
優悟の筆の運びに感心し、優悟に心奪われたおじいちゃま。

Yes, I have to practice calligraphy with my 80-year old grandpa.
(When Yugo arraived at the grandparents' house, he just ran into the grandpa's room and grabbed brashes even befor saying hello to Grandpa. Grandpa believes that Yugo is super and brilliant boy.)

日本で髪を切りました

Yeah, I cut my hair. Please tell me how I look.
優悟は初めて、それも日本で散髪屋に行きました。
どうですか？ママは切ってとても後悔していました。
ママが切ると決めたのに・・・・僕はどっちでもいい。アンパンマンのボールを散髪屋さんにもらったのでそれだけで満足・満足。

Come to My Secret Garden.

ママの家です・・・・いえいえ姫路城

The Himeji Castle, otherwise called "Shirasagijo" (White Heron Castle), is situated in Himeji City of Hyogo prefecture about 50 km west of Osaka. It is about 370 years since Himeji Castle was constructed in its present shape. This is the only excellent castle which architecturally represents Japanese culture and, at the same time, has handed down its original design at the time of construction.