Konnichiwa

Happy New Year

Rather belated, but happy new year!

Not sure who is reading this blog any more though - this blog has been stagnant for the longest time.  Many things happened last year which I will update the blog on some time later.  Kai started English class at Berlitz, Kai started kindergarten, Kai started golf, both Kai and Taiga started swimming class.

As I blogged earlier, last year was a crazy year.  There were months where I was very free at work, but had to behave myself in the office (i.e. no blogging) as redundancies were everywhere.  My colleagues have been asked to leave.  Of the 3 of us who started together and did our orientation together, I am the only one left.  The other 2 were asked to leave.  Because of the terminations, the maternity leaves and natural attrition, I was incredibly busy at work for about 6 months.  At the peak of of it, I seemed to be working non-stop, even on weekends, which kind of resulted in my losing all sense of what day of the week I was in.  For those 6 months, Tomo held fort at home and I did not cook a single meal.

To make things worse, my daycare forbade me to use the stroller to bring Taiga to the daycare.  They said he is old enough to walk.  He is, but he does not like walking in the mornings.  So for the last 5 months, I have been been carrying Taiga to daycare.  16 kg, 20 mins.  Up a steep hill.  And that is not to mention 2 bath towels, 2 daycare bags (with various towels, fork/spoon set etc.), my handbag and my document bag that I also have to carry.  And when we walk home, throw in another 2 bath towels (Kai's) and Kai's various daycare and kindergarten bags (at least, 4, depending on the day).  And am I expected to run after 2 active boys as we cross the various roads in our residential estate?  I am pissed with the principal.

So what are the plans for this year?  Now that Kai is 5 and Taiga 3, I think the pain of the last few years is easing.  For the last few years, we were just about living day to day.  With the kids easier to manage and Kai to start primary school next year, I think we can start scheduling our lives a little.  Some ideas/resolutions for this year:

1. put the kids into bed by 10.30pm - they used to sleep at midnight or after.  We tried this after coming back from Singapore and so far so good.  
2. stop going out so much, stay home more and do activities with the kids at home - when the kids were younger, they needed lots of entertainment and with our small house constantly messy, we used to get out of the house all the time previously.
3. cook more at home (preferably, with an organic slant) - we did get organic last year.  I think we can achieve this more this year with a supermarket opening on our side of the station.  It has made a huge difference already since it opened, so much more convenient for me to grab some stuff on the way home.  And this supermarket carries quite a range of organic veges, so that helps
4. make the kids room more functional - since we will be doing more activities at home and want to de-clutter our living room, this is a step to be taken.  We just bought them ergonomic desks/chairs from Germany which will be delivered in April.  We are thinking of buying double-decker beds for the kids because from experience in the last 5 years, no one bothers to fold up/put aside the futons - at all!  Hopefully, when this is all put together, we can finally get the kids to sleep on their own and I can get my bed all to myself again!! Oh, the luxury.
5. invite friends over more often - it will be nice to have company over. Esp since I now know quite a few people who stay in my area (from daycare).  Even the kids like it too the few times we had people over the last few years. They get so excited (and even did an impromptu "magic" show last Spring) and would not let the guests leave till they finished their never-ending show.  And it will force us to keep our house clean and de-cluttered.

So the thrust of it all is that this will be the year where we try to get some normality back to our lives.  

(I will blog abt Singapore as soon as I can.  The photos will take some time.)

Kindergarten

The daycare that Kai and Taiga go to, they are not just a daycare for babies and toddlers.  They have another unit which does after-school care for kindergarteners and primary school kids too.

A couple of weeks back, they invited some of us whose kids may start kindergarten next year to meet with mums who already have kids in the kindergarten.  These kids use the after-school care service.  Surprisingly, the meeting was purely between mums (and dads) and the daycare did not push their services for the older kids.

So we were given a spreadsheet comparing about 6 or 7 kindergartens in our area.  Apparently, our daycare has an unwritten understanding with one of the kindergartens.  Apparently, that is a very popular kindergarten, but if enrolled in this daycare, the kid would probably get a place in that kindergarten.  This is amongst other "privileges".  It also turns out that this particular kindergarten is the most expensive kindergarten in that list.  Enrollment would set us back by more than JPY200,000 (USD2,000) and monthly fees including transportation would be roughly JPY40,000 (USD 400) per month.  And that is just for the hours of 9am to 12 pm (or something like that).  We still have to pay the daycare for after kindergarten hours (which will be more than USD 300 per month).  And then more extra charges (roughly USD 100 per month) if we want the daycare to look after Kai on Saturdays too till 3.30pm.  So excluding the registration fees, it would add up to USD 800 a month.

For Kai, we are now paying less than half of that, for the same coverage.  So it is unlikely that we will get Kai to start kindergarten next year - he will probably do just 2 years of kindergarten. 

However, our of curiosity, we decided to drive by the kindergarten and take a look.  We had already seen from the photos that this kindergarten has a real, live pony!!!  When we drove by, we could not see much as for security reasons, they had high-walled the place.  But the grounds were big indeed, much bigger than my kindergarten!  And we could see a space-shuttle, as pictured below.  This was in 1 of the many playgrounds.

The wall surrounding the kindergarten was impressive too.  (A little over-the-top for a kindergarten?)  They had replicas of famous art pieces on the walls.  Pictures below.

 

Toilet Training

Kai is almost fully toilet-trained now!  At least in his waking hours.  We still put the diapers on for nights and long car drives where there is a possibility that he may fall asleep, but that is about it.

He initially showed an interest in being toilet-trained when he was about 1.5 yrs old.  The daycare caught on it and started introducing the toilet to him.  He was making good progress in the daycare.  At home, it was a totally different story.  I was just too damned lazy to run into the toilet with him every time he wanted to pee/poop and so highly encouraged him to just do it in his diapers!    (Can I just say I was having an uncomfortable pregnancy then and it was winter - the toilet was cold!!??)   After Taiga was born, the daycare just dropped their toilet training efforts with him.  I think the daycare just assumed that Kai would be affected by the birth and would stop wanting to be toilet trained.  I did not feel that Kai actually regressed himself as he did not seem quite affected by the birth.  But since whether or not he was toilet trained obviously did not bother me, I did not bug the daycare on this.

Then  at around the time Kai turned 3 this year, it just automatically  happened.   He was good about wanting to go to the toilet for each pee/poop, and hardly soiled his diapers anymore.  So I went out and bought him more cotton briefs.  This latest development is great for the budget - no more spending on diapers.  Now, I can hardly wait for Taiga to be toilet trained!  :-)

But because he sometimes has diapers on (like soon after having woken up), he will before releasing himself, pull open his pants and check whether he is wearing briefs or diapers!  If diaper, he will ask us whether it is OK to proceed to pee! 

And because he is old enough now, I don't even have to follow him into the toilet.  He knows how to go on his own, pull down his pants, mount himself, flush and put on his pants.  Ah, easy for me.  I just tag along when it is poop to make sure he is properly cleaned up.

Couple of days ago, when he had to go pee, he insisted that Taiga had to follow him in.   I went in with them.  Kai gave a blow-by blow account  to Taiga.  "Taiga, this is how you should pee .......". Haha!  Big brother Kai!

Kids are Amazing

Tomo forgot to pack Kai's towels in this morning when he dropped Kai off at daycare, so I brought it in on my way to work. 

The moment I entered the room, all his friends started saying excitedly "Kai no mama".

How do they know who I am?  Especially since for more than a year already (since Taiga was born), I no longer drop him off or pick him up and so his friends hardly ever get to see me.  Those kids are darn amazing.  How they know who I am sure beats me.

And if you asked me to name them?  I don't know a single name! 

(I knew some before when I used to do the drop-off/pick-up but there was a mass exodus of the kids I know to the public daycare nearby when it started business more than a year ago.)