Zeroing in on a new school.

Noah usually sleeps until 9:00 am every morning and he does sleep through the night, so I haven't had many complaints. But this past week Noah has been waking up at 7:00 am to 7:30 am every morning. This is much too early for this night owl. And on Tuesday Noah decided to wake up at 5:30 am. Yup, it was total pitch darkness when he woke up. I stayed awake with Noah until 7:00 am and by that time , I figured I watched him for an hour and a half so I woke up Noboru and asked him to watch him for a while because I was exhausted. He woke up and took him downstairs and watched him until Noah fell back asleep. I woke up at 10:30 am because my schedule was all thrown off by waking up at 5:30 am. Noboru was outside in the front yard tilling the dirt and plucking the odd rock out of the soil. We are about to start planting grass. He worked so hard on the front yard that I was really impressed.

I made lunch and we all ate and our plan was staying home basically and doing yard work, while I cleaned up the inside. But we wanted to go check out a few schools for Branden. We checked out the Catholic one first! We went inside and we asked if they have any openings and yes they do. The school was very clean. Actually school was just finished and we got to check out the uniforms. I liked the uniform and Noboru didn't, lol. All the sensei's were cleaning and wiping down the stairs and banisters and windows etc. I never saw such a thorough cleaning by sensei's like that before. So it was super clean. The secretary was nice albeit a bit taken a back that a foreigner was there, yk you can always tell that shocked look. Geeze, talk about giving me an utter complex, lol! She called the president of the school (she was in the building) and she came and sat with us. And Noboru told her, we just moved to the area and were contemplating hoikuen or yochien. Branden had gone to a yochien before yada yada yada! And she brought out her brochure. Spoke about entrance fees (50,000 yen hmm it is cheaper then the old yochien, our old school was 90,000 yen entrance fee), she spoke in lengthy detail to Noboru about bento's. I only understood bits and pieces but he told me the jist of it in the car. Seems I can make his lunch every day or I can make it 3 days a week and he can have the school lunch 2 days a week. Our choice.

Then she pulled out a scrapbook type of thing with pictures for all the things, like undokai and Christmas recitals and everything in between. She had pictures of the summer uniform and the gym uniform and the winter uniform. Field trips they take the kids on. She gave us a tour of the school and we took the literature and left.

We then went to the other yochien that Noboru's coworkers family sends their kids. Remember anti- hoikuen mom? LOL. We checked out the school. And it sucked! We didn't even go inside. The school looked a billion years old. First thing Noboru said was "the fence is too short" and he was right, the fence was so short any child predator could just grab a kid outta the school yard! This thought scared the shit out of us, since we're parents! Also it was right near a river and with a short fence, who's to say a kid couldn't wander outta the yard and drown or fall into the river? The river was just behind the school. It looked dirty and grungy! The yard looked blech! And they had really long sun bleached curtains that were sun faded. This alone made me wonder, if the entire place was filthy or what. And as a mom we all know our children are our treasures! Would I feel comfortable sending my son there? Ummmm, not really. Noboru never being one to mince words said "this place is *worse* then the hoikuen", I said honestly, yes it is!

So, we have to decide soon, but we sorta are 95% sure right now that we will be sending him to the Catholic yochien.

After that we went to the baby bunny and got Noah some baby senbai's and got Branden a Thomas plate and cup.Came back home and Noboru got started on the front yard work again and I prepared dinner. I made steaks and cheesy, butter baked potatoes and salad.