The Twins First Day of Preschool

So I was trying to get caught up with organizing all my pictures from last year in the hopes that I could keep up with blogging a little better this year (I'm still working on September...I think the odds are stacked against me).  I was debating whether to try to catch up or just start fresh, but when I realized that I left off right before the twins first day of preschool I decided I had to do at least a little bit of catch up.

So here it is, the twin's first day of preschool:

As I mentioned in my other two posts, we had three different start dates for school this year and the poor twins were last.  Once Hannah left, every single day they asked if it was time for them to go to preschool yet.  When the waiting was finally over, they were pretty dang excited.  The older girls were pretty excited for them too.

For the record, I must say that I did not encourage them to wear the same thing that day.  I do my best to not be matchy-matchy with them.  But my mom had gotten them a bunch of different outfits and they both really wanted to wear this one for their first day.  I figured it was their first day and they had the right to wear whatever they wanted, even if that meant they would match.

They certainly didn't seem to mind.

Addison went to school at 8:00 and the twins had to wait a whole nother hour before their school started.  To complicate things a bit, Hannah starts Kindergarten 15 minutes after the twins start preschool.  Fortunately my mom was there so she took care of getting Hannah to school that day so I could get pictures of the twin's classroom.

We headed out a little early to get said pictures.

 They hung up their backpacks on the backpack hooks just outside the classroom door.

When the girls went into the classroom, Miss Renee (by Maya) and Miss Abrea (by Lilly) greeted them, and told them to find the bus with their name on it and put it up on the door.

I have to interject here, the way Lilly's pants are happens ALL THE TIME!  I have no idea how.  I haven't figured if she pulls them up or one just hikes up somehow.  It seriously cracks me up though.  I love it!

At the open house they were pretty excited when they saw these all-things-a-preschooler-could-possibly-want bins.

They grabbed a pencil and got right to work on their first worksheet.  

And after that I felt a lot like I did dropping off Hannah at her first day of Kindergarten.   Like they were just fine and wondering why the heck I was still there.  So I finally left and took this picture on my way out.

They have been loving preschool ever since.

Kids Really Do Come Different

 

Having two kids the exact same age has taught me that kids really do just come different.  I think any parent with more than one child probably knows this, but when the kids are at the exact same stage developmentally, it really is exaggerated. 

For example (and I could list a million), Lilly is a night owl and Maya is a morning person.  It's funny, more than once at night, coming from the twins bedroom I'll hear Lilly say (in a very perky, playful voice) "Maya, are you awake?"  To which a groggy, sleep-filled voice responds, "Lilly, I'm tired! Go to sleep!"  Don't get me wrong, Maya has taken part in her share of after-bedtime exploits....this in particular comes to mind...but for the most part, Maya is asleep well before Lilly.

As you can imagine, Maya also wakes up before Lilly.  Poor Addison is very aware of this.  Lately Maya has been going into Addison's room probably 15-20 minutes before I wake them up in the morning to ask her sister if it's time to get up, if they can play, or if Addison can help her with some problem she's having (such as no more toilet paper on the roll).  Addison, being the saint-of-a-child that she is always helps her sister when needed, or gently sends her back to bed.  But 15-20 minutes before a wake up call is that awful time when you just can't really get back into a deep sleep, especially if you've gotten out of bed.  On a regular basis lately, when I come to get the older girls up, I'm met with a groan from Addison with an exclamation of, "Why Maya, Why???"  Poor kid.  I am going to have a talk with Maya about not walking her sisters up before it's light outside.

Usually Naps are no exception to the late-to-fall-asleep and early-to-get-up pattern that the twins fall into, but this day was an exception.



Hannah woke up well before I expected the twins to wake up, and asked if she could play with her play-doh that she got for Christmas.  Now, my husband is a ceramic artist.  I try to encourage 3D play whenever possible.  But I have to say, I am SICK of this play-doh.   Part of the problem is that the table where they play with it (and really the only place to play with it in the house) is in this awkward place that is mostly on hardwood floor, but partially on carpet.  Which means play-doh ALWAYS gets on the carpet, and is seriously a huge pain in the rear-end to clean up.  Especially when I'm feeling like this. 

But, like I said, I didn't expect the twins to be up for a while, and Hannah isn't too bad about keeping it clean, so I said yes.  Unfortunately, as soon as she had actually pulled everything out and started playing, I saw a hesitant Lilly peeking through the railing on the stairs.  I couldn't tell Hannah she had to clean it up now.  She had just barely gotten it out.  So I accepted the fact that I would have to do some serious clean up and told Lilly she could play too...wondering why on earth she woke up before Maya.

I also figured I had better take some pictures because I really wasn't sure that the play-doh would ever come out again.








In the end it wasn't so bad.  And I realized just how genius the idea of getting the twins brooms for their birthday was.  By the time Maya came up, the play-doh was put away, but when I told them to grab the brooms and sweep up the mess, even she was excited to join in.  The play-doh may see another day after all. 

And as I later pondered the discrepancy in the sleep-wake pattern on this particular day, I realized that, most likely, the reason Lilly was so hesitant to come up stairs was that she hadn't fallen asleep at all, but rather saw her sister quietly exit her bedroom, and moments later, followed suit.