Last night, Yumi, for the first time in days, turned on the TV for some adult programming (the News).  She was amazed to hear Makoto say, 「みたい」 (mitai I want to see).

But I, ever the vigilant papa, noticed a prominent scowlhad crumpled Makoto’s face while mommy cheered.  He wasn’t just saying 「みたい」 but 「ない」 too.  Makoto was negating a sentence on the fly!

We corrected him: みたくない mitakunai I don’t want to see.

みたい mitai I want to see.
みたくない mitakunai I don’t want to see.