Looking For School..It`s TOUGH

The past few weeks I have been actively trying to search for a school for both Gabe & Lucas. I want them to be in the same school so that it`s easier for me to drop off & pick up. And yes, Lucas is young at barely 18months, but i need to start my Japanese Language class and also selfishly have some ME time. But not if i can`t find a great school. You see, the thing is most do not want to accept Gabe. I am trying to understand from their viewpoint:

1) If any teacher falls ill or takes leave, there will not be enough teachers to handly so many students, plus one who has special needs
2) The school policy just says they can@t accept Special Needs students
3) The teachers are not equipped with special skills required to handle Special needs

But as a mother who loves her son so very much and wants him to have the very same exposure and experiences of other kids, i can`t seem to fully understand. If only they could see past his Down Syndrome label and take a good look at him. Which pasrt of GAbe looks disabled as in he can`t walk or talk or feed or dress himself? He can, if only they could really look at him and give him a chance. Which kid would know how to do those things without being taught?? Some are just slower than others.

So yes, I`m abit sad and disheartened though i prepared myself for this. Anyway, not all schools rejected him. Just that there are some major cons that seem to bother me greatly, but at the moment it doesn`t look like i have awide variety to choose from. Here are the schools we looked at and the outcomes.

Bilinga International in Deenchofu (high class area)
They can`t accept Special Needs student. End of story.
The school is great with a stand alone building in a great neighborhood and has it`s own large compound..dream haven for kids.

Tamagawa International
Stand alone house next to a convenience store. Lovely quiet neighborhood. Lovely teachers. Lucas quite loved it. Unfortunately, the owner does not want to accept Gabe as they may not have enough teacher capacity.

Hello Kids
I sat in the class for 1 hour and the teachers were great, the students seemed to enjoy it, and were really smart. Small building but that seesm to be the case for alot of neighborhood schools in Tokyo. Price is a tad bit pricey, but still OK. Gabe & Lucas would probably be in the same class for the first year or so. I have a friend whose daughter is there and she loves this school. Thing is,t he parking is terrible. All of the nearby coin parkings are ALWAYS FULL. I can@t park at the side of the road, and anywhere nearby is off limits due to the narrow roads and busy traffic. So it`s the main problem i have, oterwise i`d enrol them in this school immediately. And Lucas had fun that day in class too. I`m still thinking hard about this school coz i honestly like the teachers alot. And there is a park nearby for them to play.

Three Stars Intl
So near our place just 3mins by car. Perfect...only thing is they don`t accept GAbe. So, not so perfect after all. And Lucas needs to be at least 2 yrs old.

Pan Mie Intl
Very near our place too, but drove past, saw it was in an apartment block on the ground level, so so tiny! Not impressed, never bothered to make an appointment, but now am rethinking.

Cambridge Intl
Convenient parking area, but the school is located on the 3rd floor with NO LIFT. I climbed it and wonder how on earth are they going to bring kids up & down everytime they go outside to play. I can alreay imagine how hard it`ll be for Gabe to climb it and even for Lucas I`m so afraid he`ll trip and fall! Nope, no way.

And there are actually a few other good schools international nearby, but the thing is, these are more formal types of school with hefty prices, like costing JPY 1.5mil per pax. I don@t think we`re at the stage of going for these cause we are still unsure of the kiddos paths. Gabe may very well go to a Japanese elementry school, so there`s no point in even thinking about it, and Lucas well, he`s young and we just want him to learn and sing and dance n be happy until we decide which path he takes be it fully International or maybe Chinese education.

So yeah there`s that, and I`m still searching. I know in the end something good and meant for us will turn up, I`ll just have to wait & pray hard that it`ll be the right one.

Oh You Fickle Heart

Oookaayy, you all know Lucas is highly attached to 2 things....His pacifier and bolster. He thinks and asks for these 2 things every time and especially in the evenings he HAS to have these. Want him to be quiet? Give him the pacifier. Wanna see him smell and hug something like it`s so precious and wonderfully smelling? Yup, his bolster.

And the thing is, in Japan it is quite impossible to find a bolster, let alone a small one, with a cow like cover. So if we ever lost it, i think that would be the ultimate tragedy..or so i thought.

A few weeks ago, yes TRAGEDY happened. In that i mean, we were leaving a park from our playdate that afternoon and i was pushing Lucas in the stroller. It was drizzling, so i was going pretty fast but i clearly remembered bending to adjust the stroller`s cover and saw the bolster. Then, few minutes later we crossed the traffic lights and took the lift down to the subway station. Then, after passing throough the gate, i realised his bolster was MISSING. You betcha i panicked. ALOT.

So i went to the information counter but they didn`t see it,then i traced back my steps to the traffic lights....NOPE, no bolster in sight. Asked the police if anyone retuurned it, NOPE..nothing...TRAGEDY...so there was nothing left to do, it was truly gone. And yes, Lucas got a good scolding for losing it. Sigh...anyway off we went to pick Gabe and went home. And yup, he went looking for his bloster which he now calls `bao`. So what did i do? I threw him the matching pillow in a form of a cow...that was used by Gabe when he was younger. I expected some big drama meltdown....guess what..no drama, he took it, analysed it, then went on to SMELL it and there and then decided he had a new found best friend. I tell you, the way he smelled it and hugged it and then smiled was pure sweeter than what he did with bao....

Amazing...kids, fickle minded creatures they are..and so i think Lucas will probably be a player next time...old gf gone? No problem, new girlfriend come.

I`ll leave you with pics of his old fave and new fave...

We.Are.Back

The blog has been dead for like months..sorry about that. We`ve been kinda busy with the migration back to SIngapore for 2 whole months to escape winter here. ANd now, we have settled down back in Tokyo again, i think i can start to blog again...if i find the energy to.

We had a super duper time in Singapore, though maybe Grandma has some objections to using Super Duper since she developed a series of migraines while we were there???

Photos of Lucas` birthday photos will be up soon, once i get my hands on them from the lazy, slow motion Fat Yi Yi.

2 months....and Lucas has grown so much, he is walking so steadily now. Gabe, sigh a series of new problems, which i will touch on in coming posts.

As usual, the 2 rascals are fighting everyday, over everything and nothing. But they do seem happier seeing their huge stash of toys to play.

Gabe has gone back to school, so it`s just Lucas & I, struggling to get through the half day. The rascal is too naughty and is now always asking me to bring him out, by pulling my hands and leading me to the door, where he will sit down and point to his shoes. If I am so silly as to not bring him, he will just cry and whine n whine and lie on the floor to protest...Cute huh..

But the weather has been delicious past few days, so i did bring him to our nearby park for some cycling and sunshine. And here he is in Full Sunshine Glory

If you look at Picture #7, you notice him staring at the group of kids playing in the sandbox..yes, tons of fun, for them but it`s a total headache with all the sand. And he was actually staring at them for a long time, i could see that he wanted to go play, but i dragged him away before he actually made the move of going into the sandbox and then we will be having one of those mom-drags-screaming-kid-away scenario.

We`re happy here in Tokyo, spring is around the corner and so are the Sakuras.

Till next post, see ya!

Jump, Gabriel, Jump

Little Gabriel, well, still walks like a blind bat. But now, he is able to walk up stairs and down, though you need to help him by holding his hands coz his knees are still not quite strong to do it on his own.

And for sometime, Terry has been teaching him to jump...and yup it`s quite a funnt sight, but well he does sorta get it in a clumsy funny way....enjoy

Too Much!

November has not been very kind to us at all. It`s the kind of month you wanna forget.

Lucas has been so so hard to manage both awake and asleep, and it`s all because of his teething. Few months back since he was 5 months old, i kept checking every now and then whether he had any teeth coming out. Nope, none. Then wham...November starts and the boy is in great pain and drooling like a fountain.

He had not 1 but 4 teeth coming out that i could see. Poor boy no wonder he was so miserable. At nights he would toss and turn n wake so often, i was totally exhausted. And the inevitable happened, Yup, i got sick. And it`s no joke when i get sick coz mine lasts for a month. Yup, another miserable person. Then Gabe got it n subsequently Lucas too....So, we were all miserable.

And then, to top it off, Lucas was going thru a major milestone..walking...he could already stand firmly so i was just waiting for his to take his first step. And now, as of today, the boy can walk like up to 8 steps. So proud of him..yes of coz this part is the good stuff....but then again, they say once babies walk, TROUBLE looms ahead.

So as of end November, my baby can walk, clap hands, say papapapap, wave bye bye, `love` his pooh bear when u ask him too, and knows how to search for stuffs eg phone, pooh bear, bolster when u ask him to.

And here he is, walking...

Okinawa OCtober 2014

Beautiful Okinawa has been on my list of to-go-beaches for sometime. I love the beach. And yes Okinawa is beautiful..truly..but we went perhaps too late in the year to enjoy a full-on dosage of sunshine. Hence, the beach water was a tad bit too chilly to swim, so we only dipped. Lucas was really hesitant at first, but i insisted we stay in the waters abit and about 15minutes later, he got his hands into the waters and started splashing...and yup, he loved it...Gabe was clinging onto Daddy for dear life.

We only stayed at the beach for like 40minutes and decided it was just too chilly, went to the hotel`s pool which was also damned chilly...sigh...next time I`m going in July. We stayed at Marriot, which was nice, my only wish was that it was located right on the beach, not a shuttle bus ride away. The room was huge and beautiful, with a fantastic view of the sea..oh how i miss it. Most of our meals were spent outside except for breakfast.

The boys were mainly well behaved, Gabe was like super happy mostly. And we went to the famous aquarium too and Gabe loved looking at all the fishes. Even Lucas was curious.

I think overall it was a good trip, next round we`ll go to the smaller islands where the waters are even clearer...