Wisnu sometimes refuses to be called Wisnu. In a day, he might claim himself to be not Wisnu but : Wardhana, rabbit, robot, crayon, bus, captain.He likes to be called Wardhana (his last name) sometimes, because he considers Wisnu is a predicate like the words : Ibu- aji - or Ade (little brother). The way he understands the words like Ibu or aji is that Ibu has a name. He often says:
" ibu-- kenny. Aji--sanjaya. ade--akira. wisnu --wardhana"
We still can not figure out how to explain this. As parents, we are still in the dark about this.
To wisnu, rabbit is very special-- it can jump fast, it likes carrot--like him (Wisnu will eat any food if we mention there is carrot inside). Beside that there is a Japanese kid song which goes "panda, usagi (rabbit), koala" which he loves to sing as he puts both hands on top of his head.Robot to Wisnu is a very powerful creature as he watches the movies on TV how robust a robot walks, sounds and fights. Wisnu would open the kitchen drawers and look for boxes of food and pu those boxes in his hands, feet and on head to imagine that he resembles robot. He will walk around the house with those boxes and make bizarre sounds.
Wisnu learned the word crayon as he watches Baby Einsten DVD : Learning about the shapes. In that DVD, crayon can sing, dance and draw different kinds of shapes such as circle, triangle, square. He seems to be amazed to find out that in the real world he can really draw those shapes using a tool called crayon. Perhaps to his understanding, crayon exists in two worlds : movie and real world, therefore it's really super.
Bus? Anyone who knows Wisnu will no longer question why he likes bus. Since we arrived in Yokohama, his favorite word is "bus". Our guess is that he says "bus" to express his excitement of riding a bus . However, in other occasions when he actually means to say "cool" but do not have the vocab or understand the meaning of the word "cool" , he'll use the word"bus" instead. He has many collections of bus toys but the last one survived only the big HATO BUS as the others had come into tiny pieces as the result of his object of experiments. Wisnu wants to be called bus sometimes because maybe bus is very big and strong and has the potensials to make the passengers happy --at least in his imagination.
Captain is the word he uses for any hero he saw on TV. His favorite one is "Ichi chou mang" (japanese kid -like superman)--the hero which can make funny but super body movement on one piece of Tatami --which he sees on NHK TV station every saturday morning. Wisnu is more interested in the more-human-like hero compared to Ultraman or other anime. To him, a captain wears a kind of gown therefore he'll cover his head with Akira's blanket to get the feel of being a super hero.From daily conversations, these are some samples how he uses these different personalities to defend his arguments or to give orders to us
Dialog 1
Ibu : Wisnu! Here is your breakfast! Let's eat together with aji and ibu
Wisnu : No! I am not Wisnu. This is robot.
Ibu : ??? Ok, Robot, let's eat
Wisnu : (approaching the table) itadakimas...
Aji : ????
Dialog 2
Aji : Let's change your diaper, Wisnu.
Wisnu : No. This is bus.
Aji : ???
Ibu : (whispering to aji) Call him bus
Aji : oh, Ok. Bus, let's change your diaper.
Wisnu : oh ya (smiling and running to the toilet)
Dialog 3
Ibu : Wisnu, you can drink the apple juice if you want, but do not play with it.
Wisnu : (pouring the juice into the glass and mix it with tissue)
Ibu : Wisnu, we still can drink the juice. If you want to play with the water, you can play in the bath tub.
Wisnu : no
Ibu : (looking at wisnu in the eyes and preparing for some more stronger expression)
Wisnu : This is NOT wisnu. It's crayon.
Ibu : ??? Wisnu or Crayon or anybody else do not play with the juice. Play with the water in the bath tub, not here. Now, you want to walk to the bathroom or I'll carry you there ?
Wisnu : (not responding)
Ibu : Wisnu.... (with the the warning tone )
Wisnu : This is crayon.
Ibu : yes, crayon. Stop playing with the juice.
Wisnu : (running to the bathroom )
Now, if we talk to him but he does not respond, usually we'll ask him "who's is this? wisnu or robot" and he'll let us now what to call among those identities.
