1st Day of Preschool!

Catie must have been nervous or excited about school all night since she woke me up at 4:30 AM with a chirpy “mommy, it’s daytime- WAKE UP!”  This is less annoying at 6 AM, and even less annoying when she hadn’t also been up running around the house at 11:30 PM, but it’s her first day at school, so I got up with her. After a round of Dora, she announced that she wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast. We ate breakfast, bathed/showered, Skyped with my parents, and walked over to school. I was told to come a little early this morning, but Catie & I were EARLY. Like early enough the doors were still locked! I let her play in their small play yard until another mom and her son arrived. I asked the other mom if we should knock and she looked at her watch and told me to wait 3 minutes. Sure enough, the teachers unlocked the doors at exactly 8:30. The Japanese are sticklers for punctuality.

Come on, Mommy- Let's GO! (leaving our apartment)

 

Much happier in front of the school

Other than refusing to put on her indoor shoes after removing her sneakers because she was too excited to play with the trains, she seemed fine. I gave her a hug and a kiss and left. I was the only mom who even went into the classroom, I guess goodbyes are usually said outside to avoid the chaos of shoe taking off and putting on.  

I walked home thinking I’d quickly hang out the wash before running errands for the day. We’re scheduled to have all the SICE students over here for snacks this afternoon, so I need to pick up a few things at the grocery store in addition to the rest of Catie’s school supplies. I was already feeling a little apprehensive and sad about leaving Catie when I opened the washer and found nasty bits of diaper gel all over EVERYTHING! Now I know this isn’t something you eco-conscious, cloth-diapering moms have to deal with, but once it’s happened to you, you generally do not make the same mistake twice. Well, until this morning that is. Catie helped me load the wash and one of us failed to notice the pull-up still in her pajama bottoms. Ugh. This wasn’t some nice little Japanese pull-up either- it was full on Pampers and therefore FULL of powerful water-absorbing gel. I spent the next 30 minutes hand rinsing every item and then washing out the washer itself.  Not my best morning.

After that little disaster, the day improved. The clothes came out clean after round 2 in the washer, I was able to clean the apartment and found a bookbag and a perfect gym/beach bag in the gear closest at E-House, and I was introduced to a fabulous new wonder in the grocery store. As I mentioned earlier, we are having the SICE students over this afternoon. I know they have a full day and will be biking here in the heat, so I figured I’d pick up a few ice cream bars and popsicles rather than a more traditional snack. At the check out line the clerk asked me something, which I thought was “do you want me to bag all the cold things for you?” Normally you bag everything yourself at little packing stations, but since I’d bought a bunch of loose ice cream bars, I thought she was just doing me a favor, so I said “hai” (yes). After I paid, she handed me a little coin stamped with the word “fresh”. I must have looked really confused since she abandoned her checkout line to bring me over to a big blue box near the door that I’d never noticed before. Apparently I said yes to dry ice! She placed my shopping bag full of frozen treats onto a rack in the box, slid the door down, popped in the “fresh” coin, and pushed a button. My bag was filled with small chunks of dry ice! I probably didn’t need it, given that we live 5 minutes from the grocery store, but it was fun to play with when Catie got home from school.

Enough about my morning, now for the important part- did Catie enjoy her first day of preschool??? For the most part, I’m going to say she enjoyed it, though I was a little scared at first. I arrived early to pick her up and was waiting outside with some other families. I could hear the kids singing Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider, so I figured that was good. The principal opened the door and gave a little welcome back from holiday and welcome Catie & Shannon to school speech while the kids were getting their shoes back on. At first I couldn’t see Catie since there were 20 kids at the door, but then I caught a glimpse of her. She saw me and instantly burst into tears! I felt so bad. I couldn’t get in to her and she couldn’t get out. I watched as one of the teachers helped her find and put on her shoes while she bawled.

In the meantime, the principal moved out of the way and 6 kids who had brought back omiyage from their summer vacations lined up on either side of the door bearing big straw trays full of the little packets of food they brought as gifts. Each student was supposed to walk through the line (think military wedding) and get a snack from each of their peers. Catie tried to barrel through the gift line to get to me, so I went in and hugged her and helped her collect all her treats. After we got home, she told me it was nice to get treats from everyone, but at the time she was just DONE.

1st day back from summer vacation swag

After the treat line, most of the kids went in back to play while the parents hung around in the shade chatting. The principal’s husband passed around little cups of basil and cherry tomatoes picked from the kids’ garden to all the parents (we had yummy pasta with fresh basil & tomatoes for lunch!). Catie’s initial freak out subsided quickly and she scampered away to the play house and slide almost as soon as she’d gotten a hug. I spoke with 3 of the teachers and they all said that she’d been enjoying herself, smiling, and laughing until snack time at 11:00 and then she got real quiet until the outburst when she saw me at 11:30. Tomorrow is going to be a longer day, so we’ll see how she does when I don’t arrive until 2:00. They are going to a wading pool, so hopefully she’ll be having so much fun so won’t realize I’m gone.

Catie playing before the school day began. After school, picture this with 20 little kids in red shirts and blue hats running all over the place.

My impressions of the first day were mostly positive. I think Catie is a little young to be at the school, but I knew that going in. There are a few other 3 year olds in the “Bunny” group, but most of the kids are 4 or 5. The other parents seemed friendly and were pretty outgoing, especially compared to what I’ve seen elsewhere in Japan. At least 5 moms introduced themselves to me and I spoke with all of them plus a dad and a grandmother. The dad being the father of Catie’s 5-yr old “big sister” for the month. His English is excellent, which is probably why we got paired up. My feeble attempts to explain why we are in Morioka at morning drop off resulted in ALL of the families knowing who I was and that Andy is a professor at an American college and we are somehow affiliated with Iwate University for the semester by pick up time. I have to wonder if the first 2 moms I spoke with rushed home and called all the parents at the school to tell them about us. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but that’s what it felt like! Catie came home with a letter to all the parents welcoming us to the school as well, but since it didn't give any more explanation than I did, I suspect half the parents are going to think Andy is on sabbatical or teaching at Gandai for the semester! Everything feels very new and different at the moment, but I’m hopeful that going to school will provide Catie with the stability and entertainment that she appears to need. At the very least, it will likely provide Andy & I enough time to maintain our sanity!