so today was the big cattle-call three-year-check for hiro. i had to bring the boshitecho, the paperwork they sent us, and some urine. (hiro's urine if that's not obvious.) as if. sorry, but i'm not toting around pee. besides, what is it for? no one told me. and if it's written down, no one's told me. i figure it's not something they need, actually an invasion of privacy (as if that exists in japan!) and will not be giving them pee. they actually asked for it, and told me that i could provide it later (because i told them he couldn't give them a sample there! ha!) me being hard-headed, i know, but really? i don't think he needs to give one.

i almost didn't go because having small children is a nightmare in that situation. although tomo slept through it all. good thing i nursed him just before. we were early, which is a good thing and ended up being a bad thing. good thing because we could be seen fairly quickly after starting. but a bad thing because for some reason they think i can't speak japanese AT ALL. i think it's because the last time we did one of these things, when hiro was a year-and-a-half, i hadn't filled out the paperwork ahead of time and couldn't read it. so, someone had to help me. and...hiro's a bit slow. not worrying slow, but couldn't do most of the milestones on the list. so...i just answered, not yet. or, i don't know. or, if it was a medical question and i didn't know what it was, i said that i didn't understand. so...anyway, i can speak japanese, just give it a try ladies! but they get all scared and make the lady who can speak a little english to go over the paperwork with me. ugh.

that was fine in the beginning, we were number 4 (which was probably just as well because 4 is a bad luck number in japan but since i'm not japanese, i didn't care) so the lady who could speak english went over the papers with us. she could speak english, but not well. in fact, she started speaking spanish with me and had a 'DUH!' moment with herself, but i just smiled. anyway, she tried to do everything in english with me, when she should have just done it in japanese. i tried speaking japanese with her but i think she was so nervous that she just kept on trying in english. so annoying. finally we got through it. hiro is still behind....

then it was over to the weighing and measuring. no problem. then we saw the doctor. she immediately started looking under hiro's bangs and looking at his head. turns out she was the same pediatrician who saw him when he was a year-and-a-half and she remembered his strawberry mark, which has almost completely faded. she was glad about that. then she told me he was small for his size, but 'balanced' so it wasn't a worry. that's great. then over to the dentist, where hiro passed with flying colors. we didn't even have to go over brushing his teeth (a few poor kids did, so i guess they had cavities.)

then, the crappy part. we had to wait. and so we waited and waited and waited. i wanted to fucking leave. but...they had hiro's boshitecho. crap. i figured out that the reason we had to wait so long (because we were nearly the last to finish, although we were fourth) was because no one could 'talk' to me because i couldn't speak japanese. crap!! i am not happy about it. the woman who finally talked to me, the public nurse for the city, told me that she'd be calling yoshi about the infant home visit (for tomo; and you know, come to think of it, we didn't have one for sasha). i'm gonna have yoshi tell her, or whoever calls, that i can speak japanese just fine and they need to just do it! seize the day! try me, i can speak and understand japanese fairly well. i've lived here for eight fucking years for crying out loud!! gah!

anyway, hiro is fine. just small. and a little behind (i really need to stop neglecting my kids! ;)