Greetings from the land of Why or our daily life with preschoolers. The girls first few weeks of school have been very eventful, but fun. Aside from everyone in our family getting some form of sick, the two notable standouts were: the girls' first fire drill and when Lily was attacked by the class hermit crab. I'll start with the former, the girls went nuts during their first firedrill last week. Although they were well-prepared by their teacher beforehand, they both put their hands over their ears and started screaming and running in circles when the alarm sounded. Miss C got them calmed down. But this weekend, we had endless conversations at home about fires, loud noises and other safety issues. It is a little tricky because we want the girls aware, but not frightened. In the words of Lily "fire alarms are scary!." I think the noise is what really bothered her. She kept telling the story of the very loud fire alarm over and over again.
Lily was still a bit nervous to go back to school the next day. And we had our first tears with dropoff. Mark said it took quite a while for her to calm down. The teachers finally enticed her to join the class by talking about how the class was going to give the two hermit crabs "Hotwheel" and "Jewel" a bath. Unfortunately, during circle time while the crabs were being carefully passed around, Hotwheel reached out with his little claw and pinched Lily hard enough to leave a mark. We got a call at home and the teachers had to file an incident report. Apparently, this is the first time in 4 years the hermit crabs have been naughty. Frankly, I'm impressed the hermit crab has been able to survive 4 years of groping preschoolers without losing his cool. Lily was rather unphased and only cried for a couple of minutes. The claws of our grouchy kitty are much more ferocious. But, the teacher was very traumatized. I guess the crab kind of hung on to her hand for a few seconds and they had to pry it off.
After all this trauma, Lily was still a little bit sad to go to school yesterday. Even though Mark was helping parent, she wouldn't let go of his leg so he could do his work in the classroom. The teacher had to take her for a walk down the hall to calm down. This morning it was my turn to do dropoff. Wouldn't you know that Daddy's girl of our didn't shed a solitary tear saying goodbye to me. She barely looked up to say "Bye, Mom."
I've been enjoying my couple hours off every morning. I've signed up for yoga two days a week. (That would be Ivy League yoga since it is through the university recreation center). Such bliss to be in charge of only myself for a little bit of time each day. This morning, I turned on KFOG streaming radio from San Francisco. It made me homesick for the Bay Area. But then, I felt better about life as I strolled though campus enjoying the beautiful Fall weather and gothic architecture. It is definitively an insulated little world of privilege. But, it is kind of cool to picture Albert Einstein or Woodrow Wilson walking around. Where else do you get a Pulitzer Prize winning author as one of the parents in your children's playgroup?
Here's Elsa looking quite cheeky in her new plaid shirt. Elsa had a couple of rough moments this week, too. "Lambie" (numero uno possession that she sleeps with every night) was missing. We couldn't find him for 24 hours. She told us he was hiding. Mark and I were so freaked out, that we were looking on Ebay for a replacement. We were afraid that she wouldn't be able to sleep without him. She ended up doing ok. In a very Velveteen Rabbit moment, she decided to sleep with her new singing turtle instead. But then, I found him in a box yesterday and she was so excited. It is still not clear to me how he ended up there. But, we're happy he's home.
Here's Lily and Elsa drawing the sunset. Last night at dinner, Lily asked "is that the sunset?" Yep. And she insisted on running outside to draw it with her chalk. How cool is that!
Mark took this picture of the girls reading each other their baby pictures. Looking at photo albums is one of their favorite activities. But, now they know so many of the stories by heart, they can tell them to each other. It was very sweet. And I love to hear them discussing "who is who." Sometimes they are so identical in pictures, they can't tell each other apart. Speaking of which, they are going without nametags now at school. I ended up cutting Lily's hair a little bit shorter than Elsa's, so the teachers are getting good at telling them apart. The kids in the class are still working on it. But, usually, they just ask and the matter is resolved easily.
