First Week of Pre-School and Other Ruminations

So the boys began their first full week of preschool at Grant Wood, right up the street last week. i had been really concerned that going every day (but only for 2.5 hours) would be too much for them.  Curt and I both got to walk them to school the first day (and then I walked dad to his bus and went for a long run - hoorah!) which was really nice and the boys really didn't seem too upset about us going at all. There are 19 kids in their class and today Aidan told me he thought it was "too many kids" (though they had 18 in their class at Creative Child. Their teacher is Mrs. Jenna with Ms. Hobby and Ms. Danyay (sp?) as helpers.

Gotta get t hose shoes off for some picnicking! (BGA)

To try and make the weekend before school special, we did a nice picnic in the park once day for lunch and took them for their first Dairy Queen cones the night before school began. There was a family who showed up with their kids in PJs and the dad said they had let them do it once and the kids refused to come to DQ unless they wore PJs now. too funny. Hopefully the boys will remember some of those memories eating outside and just taking some time to enjoy each others' company before the madness of the year begins.

Family picnic, what could be better?!(ABG)

The school had a kickoff event where you could come and meet the teachers and see the classroom the week before school began for the kids. I think that was really good even though seeing all of the other children at the elementary school was WAY overwhelming for the boys. Anyway, the first thing they are supposed to do is wash hands, then put up their packs and then sign in. On the first day I was sort of like, "huh, they don't know how to write their names yet. Are kids this age SUPPOSED to be able to write their names???" There were some parents actively holding their kids pens to get it to look like their names, and at least one little girl whose mom was coaching her, but she knew how to do it on her own. Our just scribbled pretty much. I will say this, signing in has made Brady want to practice writing his name, which is good because none of the boys had shown much interest in practicing with writing letters prior to this.  The other thing about school is in the first half hour they provide breakfast. Now, since our kids have breakfast a full hour before we are supposed to have them at school, I figured they may or may not partake in this. Let's just say, Gavin has had two breakfasts every day for the entire school week)and every day since). :) It IS his favorite meal. Aidan and Brady have done some free-play during that time, but by day 3 they too are eating two breakfasts a day. Ridiculous.

While I was sad they would be gone every morning, I didn't tear up like i thought I would. Maybe it was a freedom I am recognizing is necessary since there is no Tess to expect 3 days a week. :) The two and a half hours flies by every morning, but it is always so fun to have lunch with them and all three of them have to physically restrain themselves from running to me when they see me come in the door. That's pretty awesome. 

They are able to choose activities/centers they would like to do by putting a little card with a monster picture (how appropriate :)) on it in the slot for each center. When the slots are full, they have to wait until there is space for them. Having lived as multiples, I think they are probably more used to this idea of taking turns than a lot of the other kids there and they are seeming to relish the routines. Brady doesn't seem to dislike school like he did last year at Creative Child, nor does Aidan. Gavin has said a few times he doesn't want to go to school, but he has yet to be clingy when I leave and he always talks about the things he did and the kids he played with with energy and happiness, so hopefully he's just saying he doesn't want to go because he just has so much fun being home with me. :)

They definitely have an ethnically diverse class with a few white kids and a few asian kids and predominantly black kids. They have just begun learning some of the names of the children in their class. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to connect with those other parents and have some opportunities for playdates for them to make some new friends. Since that is something that has ALWAYS been incredibly difficult for me, it is even harder when I worry "what if their kids are punks? what if the parent(s) are boring/crazy/absent/don't bother to stay? what if it goes so badly i never want to see the parent again, but my kids fall in love with those friends???" A situation fraught with danger for me. bleh.

Some funny stuff lately - Today I played hide-and-seek with the boys for nearly 45 minutes. At first they were only hiding all in the same place. Then, Brady decided he wanted to count and I would hide with the others. This meant Aidan and Gavin ONLY would hide where I was. The funniest part about it was the first time Brady counted, all three of us hid in the closet in the master bedroom. When Brady finally came to open the door (which Aidan and Gavin were whispering and giggling the whole time, he HAD to know we were in there) I kind of screamed when he opened the door and i SWEAR i think he nearly had a heart attack, it shocked him so much to find us in the dark. HILARIOUS. The cute things the boys were doing 1) Aidan kept having creative places he wanted to hide (the tub, closets, under covers, etc) but said I HAD to hide with him. 2) Brady kind of "got" that you aren't all supposed to hide together so when it was his turn to count, he would tell us all where to hide. But we never would. :) 3) Gavin just didn't want to be alone when we were hiding, and he was a VERY meticulous finder. Opening every door and creeping through every room.

Teeter-totter with dad - YES! (AGB)

I asked the boys the other day what were their favorite emotions to have. Gavin said his favorite was to be sad and gave me his textbook sad face. Brady then shouted "ANGRY!" and gave what has been his face about 50% of the time these days. When I said in a shocked voice "You LIKE to be sad and angry? Wow. I prefer to be happy or content." Aidan shouts "MOM, I LIKE TO BE HAPPY!" It was so cute. 

They had the Taste of Iowa City last week and we met Curt downtown. At one point, we went by a place with sushi (umm, AWESOME sushi/sashimi BTW) out and a HUGE pile of wasabi on the table. So I said to the boys, "DO NOT touch that. It is VERY spicy and you will NOT like it if you eat it or it gets in your eyes." The people at the table kind of laughed at the situation (i.e. three 3 year olds, and a feeding free-for-all with Wasabi within arms reach - bad combo) As I got the pieces of sushi i was going to try, Brady says "Mom, what emotions would I have if I touched that?" It was SO earnest and sweet and funny at the same time. I knew what he meant and this was one of those times when it is SO HARD to not laugh as an adult, but it's also your natural reaction. The boys also enjoyed getting to pick out what dessert they would have. Brady fell in love with the Whoopie Pies at the sushi place and Aidan and Gavin were happy to have REAL ice cream. There was also an irish band and irish dancers in the Ped Mall. Our three boys were TOTALLY trying to mimic the dancers which was AWESOME. They got lots of giggles from other audience members.

We have also started doing lots of bike rides after dinner. Since Curt and I got our bikes tuned up after 5 years in storage, we ride along the bike path with the boys. it is really fun, even though we have a host of reactions from the boys. Gavin likes to be first when we are riding. So much so, he will stop and CRY if a brother (or one of us) passes him. It is ridiculous. We keep telling him if he wants to be first he has to keep going, but he just wants them to stop and let him get ahead. Let's see where that gets him, huh? Aidan likes being at the back of the pack and going slowly. He and I have had several chilled out talks as we meander about a quarter mile behind his brothers. Brady just wants you to try and "get" him on the bike. All three are ROCKING their balance and seem to have fun with it. We still have a few crashes from time to time (like tonight when a bug flew in Brady's eye, or when Gavin was looking backwards the other night), but very few tears. 

What? Is there something on my face? (B)

Speaking of the DQ visit the night before school, the boys are about up to a grade C in "Eating Ice Cream Cones". Basically, at the State Fair it was an abject failure and Curt and I had to end up "helping" them eat most of their cones (i know, poor us), then by the night before school, even though it was cool enough out for us to all be chilly and the ice cream BARELY melting, they still managed to have much of it melt all the way down one side as Curt and I would coach them (and occasionally demonstrate) where they needed to lick to keep the ice cream for going all over their hands. This past weekend, they reached average (maybe above average, it was pretty hot out so the ice cream was melting much faster than before) at the FunCrest camp/ice cream/bait shop after our trip to the Coralville Reservoir.

Off to our first day of Preschool! (ABG)

After their first week of school, the boys have gotten into doing some art a little bit more. Aidan and Gavin were busy coloring and then cutting their masterpieces down in the basement while Brady took some time to "color" Thomas the Train on the web. I was back and forth between the two spots about 10 times when I am up with Brady and suddenly hear Aidan and Gavin gigging and racing up the stairs. I hear Aidan say "Mom, look how silly we look!" As they come in the room they are holding the scissors, but it still does not occur to me what they have done. Then I see the hunk of hair out of the front of Gavin's head, and the hair all over his shirt. I check out Aidan and in exactly the same spot, he too is missing a chunk of hair, with hair all over HIS shirt. The two are just beside themselves laughing their heads off. I didn't laugh (though I wanted to!), but I just said, "Boys, here is why you do not cut each other's hair: 1) you will get hair all over the house and that is not cool (i HAD just vacuumed that morning) and 2) You will look like a crazy person because your hair will be randomly different lengths. So please don't do this again." I really think they were hoping for a HUGE reaction, but I'm guessing we would have had a few more CostCutters moments if I had. The best part is a few days later Ms. Hobby says, "Gavin, did you get your hair cut?" (probably thinking I'm the crazy person who did that to him) and I say "He did, by his brother." Her eyes were like dinner plates as she realized what it was I was saying. :) Pretty funny.