Some days I watch too much news and read too many news articles in particular those detailing the affects of radiation on food/water in Japan but most days I have enough to worry about without making myself sick worrying about other things- I trust my husband will keep me informed and let me know when I need to know things! Facebook & twitter are also great for this! Perhaps naive to not be on the ball but it was stressing me out too much.
Some days I am astounded that so many read my blog and take the time to comment. In fact, most days I am astounded by this. Thank you to those especially who commented on my “Putting it all out there…” post – each comment helped me in some way.
Some days are bad but recently, most days, are better than they were. I think I am on the improve and that upping my medication dosage was for the best. My patience is so much better and I am less agitated, down and tired.
Some days I wonder whether I should send Noah and Shion to international preschool/kindy from age 2.5 or so instead of waiting to put them in at age 3 or 4 in the regular Japanese kindy. Most days I realize we probably could not afford the English option so I will probably keep Noah home until April 2014 and then enroll both kids in the local kindy- Noah will go as Nenchuu and Shion as Nensho so they would start the same year in different grades.
Some days I am sad that we will probably never get to choose a girls name to name a child as we had some lovely ones on our list but most days I am not sad at all, I feel happy with my family of boys and don`t plan on having any more kids. Never say never though huh?!
Some days I play music from the laptop for the boys, most days I forget and they just have to listen to me for singing and talking. Noah does love Raffi though!
Some days my husband has nomikai`s/drinking parties after work, like tonight, and on those nights I usually don`t worry about cooking and instead Noah & I eat leftovers since Shun doesn`t need dinner even though this usually means Shun doesn`t get a bento one of the days. Most days Shun comes home to eat so I feel I have to cook, even if I don`t really want to. Leftover pasta for Noah & I tonight though with edamame and some tomato/basil bread I picked up on the way home today.
Some days the miitsuketa song from NHK gets stuck in my head ALL DAY. Most days, thankfully, this does not happen unfortunately today is one of the “Some days”… you can get it stuck in your head too here if you want.
I think everyone has some “some days”…so please join in in the comments or on your own blog!
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
Love those days when you don’t have to cook. I have a rule of not cooking ‘proper meals’ on weekends, but the husband still tries to make me drop it whenever he can. What’s wrong with a bit of tuna and cheese on cruskits anyway?
I still try to keep up with the news as much as I can – am a former journo so is an old habit – but it’s certainly not a priority anymore, and I often switch off when it becomes too depressing.
Thanks for hosting the linky!
nice to have the 2 boys together in the same school to look after each other
2014 seems like a far time away.. but as mummies know, time flies by so quickly!! heehee
Glad you’re feeling better, nothing worse than not liking the way you feel or what you’re doing. I hope things continue to go well from here on in.
I love no dinner nights too! We have one tonight as hubby is away on a business trip, we might just have bread rolls!!
…and as for the international school i don’t think they are in reach of the average person. A friend is working in one and even with a discount she still can’t afford to send her daughters there
Ditto the no cooking days. I still do it and I have three kids that all eat (or rather not on the boob) – usually it’s toasted sandwiches, banana milkshake and fruit for dinner. I’m sure if I just added a bowl of rice and some pickles hub would have it too but
Glad the medication uppage is having good results. Yay for having more good days than bad.
xxx
I too am glad that the higher dosage of medicine is working out for you. It makes me a lot happier knowing you are happier
Some days I play music for Leilah too from my computer but most days all the music she hears is from the wiggles DVD’s. Oh and when she cons Grandma into singing incy wincy spider on Skype, lol!!
You know I think you are a really good mum for boys but if you did ever have a little girl in the future you would rock at being her mummy as well!! You just never know what might happen in the future, right?
Thanks everyone!
Working in a kindy right now I totally see a huge (positive!) difference in the kids who started a bit earlier. Not that there is anything wrong going later or even not going at all, but I think that the littler kids actually adjust to kindy more easily than the older ones who have had more time at home. My son went “late” by Chinese standards (he started at about 3 years 4 months) and the adjustment was harder for him. We plan on putting DD in starting in September. She won’t be 2 until December but I think it will be good for her anyhow (and it will definitely be good for DH to get a break from being a SAHD!). Of course it makes a big difference that I get free tuition and the school is a Montessori school. I don’t know how I’d feel about doing traditional Chinese kindergarten. Do the international schools have a half-day option? Or a several days a week option? The half day option at our school is quite a bit cheaper than the full day option. Perhaps you could try it out with Noah around his 2nd birthday if you could swing the tuition.
Well Noah doesn`t qualify for Japanese kindy until he is 3 so he would start at 3 and 4 months because the school year starts in April.
I do know what you mean having been a preschool teacher but I doubt we could afford an international school option unless I was working at the school- so I could only do it once both boys were eligible to start. Most international preschools take kids from 2.5- at least around here so still a way off either way. They do have 3 day a week programs usually!
The reason I am thinking of keeping him home until 4 & 4 months is so that Shion will start at same time at 3 & 3 months and by then I hope they would of developed an English speaking relationship with each other- I think if I put Noah in the year earlier then the boys would be quicker to switch to Japanese at home which I am trying to avoid.
I would love to send Noah to montessori but the montessori school near here is all Japanese. So not sure it would be worth it- I am going to look into it though.
We are doing rhythmic class from next month though once a week. I will continue to take him to things like that if I can!
I think Montessori, even in Japanese, would totally be worth it. Our school has an all-Chinese option (which is a lot cheaper than the all English) and the only place where I see it is not quite as strong is language. I think the Montessori method was not really developed with Asian languages in mind so a lot of the materials that were developed later for China and Japan and other countries are not quite as well hashed out as all of the phonetic/phonogram (stuff like the moveable alphabet) is for English. But the rest is still great!
I understand what you mean about wanting your kids to communicate in English with each other, although I don’t think it will happen for our kids unless we move to America (at which point I’d probably hope they’d stick to Chinese, hah). I would keep an open mind about sending Noah when he is eligible for public kindy though, and still letting Shion wait another year. I know that with our DS, by the time he was 3 he was SO ready just to have a different environment, he was really getting bored with DH and I (but we’re not really creative with what we do with him and China is not a great place for extracurricular stuff). I also felt that with discipline we were just hitting brick walls. He didn’t listen to us at all but suddenly he went to kindergarten and started learning all these good habits and the order imposed by that environment started rubbing off on him. These days I also feel like it is good for him to have a little world away from his sister, it helps a lot with sibling rivalry that kindergarten is the big kid thing that he gets to do.
Anyhow, just some thoughts on the whole to go to school or not thing. I totally feel you on the cost issues. Don’t even get me started on what we’re going to do for actual primary school because there’s no way we’ll be able to afford it!
Glad you are feeling better -bit by bit, day by day!
I finally got around to doing my own somedays, thanks for the idea!!
Thank you Sarah! Will head off to read in a sec!
Aaah, international school would be great, right! If only money grew on trees
Haha, I quite like “mitsuketta” so would be happy to have that song in my head. Recently K likes to sing the theme songs from iCarly and “100% yuuki” from 忍たま乱太郎 the ninja cartoon so they get stuck in my head alot.
I love reading your some days…. just did my first some days post too,.
Thanks for joining in T! Was nice to read yoru Some days. I don`t mind the Mitsuketta song- better than some others. Glad it is not the eigo de asobo song at least. hahaha
Hmm, we’re wondering what to do with Jonathan if we come. He’ll be about 2.5 years old. We’re leaning to a Japanese kindy for the experience and learning he’ll get. Can they go at 2.5 yrs to an international one?!
Alyce, he will be able to go to regular Japanese kindy the April after he turns three so based on what you saying that would be April 2013…that would be when Noah starts also if I was to put him in from Nensho {first year}- private kindy`s have a three year program. If you wanted a public kindy they usually only have 2 years, at least around here, so he would start April 2014 after he was 4. Some international preschools have programs from age 2- maybe 3 days a week, usually from age 3 they would accept 5 days a week- hours vary depending on the place I guess.
For kindy you enroll the October before in most places- basically there is day that forms are handed out and collected- this is what I have been told. I do not actually know how it works exactly though.
There is also daycare and if you are working also you would be elligble to apply for one. Your would need to find a place for both kids then I guess. In recent year daycare spots are like gold dust- lots of full time working parents but not enough places to take kids.