The Start of a New School Year - for EVERYONE

It just so happens that we start the school year early, here in Colorado. While Eastern states wait until after Labor Day, we like to get our chilluns back in the trenches in the middle of August.

So when Monday of this week rolled around, we went school shopping and bought three sets of school supplies. On Tuesday, we took the twins up to meet their new kindergarten teacher. On Wednesday, we took Caitlin to her new middle school (Which she loves!).

She's so BIG!

And only slightly terrified.

At the end of the day, we even picked her back up again. We're good parents that way.

And took the twins up for an assessment at their new elementary school, while Caitlin was being educated. On Thursday, Caitlin rode her bike to school on her own.

And on Friday...

I'm in love.*

With kindergarten.

When you make the cut-off date for kindergarten by three whole days, chances are really good that you're going to be the youngest and shortest kids in the class. That's OK, though, because they've got each other. As a matter of fact, they weren't even separated, as I had thought they would be. Maybe it's because they aren't identical?

Caitlin came with us to see the twins off, since middle school (I'm still not over the concept yet.) doesn't start until later in the morning. It was pretty exciting to have us come full circle with Caitlin here, as the big sister, dropping off the twins on their very first day. When we dropped her off in kindergarten, we had no idea what was in store for us the very next year.

Logan blinked or made weird faces all through my shots. Sigh.

Lining up to go inside, Logan turned back to me and told me he loved me in the one piece of sign language he knows. Yeah, that's mah boy.

No, I didn't cry, but I do admit to a heart clenching moment when he did this. Verklempt. So sweet!

After they walked inside, we dropped Caitlin off at school

Apparently Fridays are "Crazy Hat Day". At least, that's what she said.

and ran away for a triumphant celebratory breakfast with our friend, B.

All.

By.

Ourselves.

And it was good.

I was reminded by a friend that I also needed to pick them up and that I didn't just get to leave them at school until another 6 years had passed. Since I figured that was probably true and that the phone calls would get annoying before the day was out we went to go pick them up by the end of the school day. Six whole hours later.

Six years from now, I'm going to be amazed just how small they are right here, in this shot.

Those ones! Over there! THEY DID THIS TO ME! Logan points out the Parental Units in a very accusatory way.

Daddy gets First Hugs, whilst Mommy photographs The Moment.

After Eric snagged all of the initial hugs, Logan ran over to me with intent eyes and gave me big hugs and squeezes and kisses. He's pretty darned cute, so I let him. Emma did too, but I can't shoot and hug and kiss all at the same time. I know, I need more arms.

Cominagetcha!**

Both of them were in a great mood and started telling us about their day while I tried to get a few more cute kindergartener pictures in.

Emma.

Logan.

Yeah, I'm in love with Friday. And with all of these school age children!

Wow! We survived! Um...now what do I do with all of this free time? Guess I'll have to write about it. On Monday. Or Tuesday, since Monday the twins don't have school, but they do on Tuesday! Squeeee!



* Yes, I'm a child of the 80's and here's the music video, because I know it's now stuck in your head, too.




** Just in case you need a second song to get the first song out of your head.

I Love You...You Make Me Crazy

There are so many things to remember that I am fast forgetting, I wanted to jot them down before they fade.

It's always amazing just how fast the kids grow up, isn't it? How quickly their language changes from baby talk and morphs into that of "real people".*

Aminals = animals
Yogan = Logan (Actually, any word that starts with "L", Logan pronounces as a Yuh. Yehgs = legs.)
Muse-kick = music
Lightning The Queen = Lightning McQueen
Chockit = chocolate
Peppah-oh-nee = pepperoni

They sleep in the same room, share toys (mostly), food, and laughter. Occasionally you can find one has crawled into bed with the other, clutching their blankies and fast asleep. Other times you'll be woken up by Logan wailing that Emma has stolen his blanket and you'll see she must've grabbed it and rolled over on it. Probably not on purpose, either.

Emma can stay up later than Logan without melting down and then sleeps like a log. Logan starts whining and is willing to tell you he's ready for bed at 6pm, but will wake up in the middle of the night hollering about one thing or the other. Is it nightmares? Is he just a light sleeper? Who knows! He's the first one to wake up in the morning, demanding food and clothing. He's ready to go to school at the drop of a hat. Emma will wait for you to choose her clothes for her, but won't act like you've asked her to fight off demons if you ask her to put on her socks. Unlike some people. [Insert hairy eyeball here.]


Logan whines more than Emma, but she's more likely to throw herself on the floor when melting down. He has worn a corner off of his blanket because that's his special sniffin' spot, but she holds it in the middle and sort of plucks at the raised fabric dots. She won't leave it at home when they leave for preschool, while he will. She likes milk, peanut butter and jam, while he won't eat nuts at all or drink milk that isn't in cereal or has chocolate mixed in. She speaks much more clearly than he does, but he'll correct you and say things like "Actually...[explanation]."

They both use ridiculous high pitched voices when playing together with their toys. It cracks me up every single time.

Logan will share food or toys with Emma at the drop of a hat. Emma will only share with Logan if she is done with something. Emma will snuggle you more readily than Logan will, he has to constantly remain in motion or the world comes to a firey end. They love to sneak into Caitlin's room and play with her things which drives Caitlin to distraction and me up a wall. I hate the sound of them fighting and when Caitlin** screams, "Logan!" in That Voice, I want to murder them all. They all love one another and hate one another. They play well together until they suddenly and ubruptly don't. I love the sound of laughing screams and chasing games until, suddenly, someone crashes or smashes another and all the laughter ends and the screeching begins. Then, it sounds like I live in the Monkey section at the zoo.

Emma is crazy about her baby cousin Maddie and cousin Natasha, while Logan goes nuts over cousins Axl, Max, and Daniel. If we ever get all of them in one room at the same time, I suspect the twins might explode from sheer delight.


Their faces keep changing, morphing into Who They Will Be from Who They Were.

Logan

Day 1

6 Months

Year 1

Year 2

2.5 Years

Year 3

Year 4

Today

Emma

Day 1

6 Months

Year 1

Year 2

2.5 Years

Year 3

Year 4

Today

Some day, very soon, they'll be starting kindergarten and I'll be left wondering where my babies have gone. While we still refer to them as "the babies", they really aren't, but "the toddlers" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, nor does it sound quite right. I guess we'll just have to start calling the twins plus Caitlin "the kids".

Frankly, I think I'll continue referring to them as "the babies" until I just can't anymore. 



* I'll add more words as I run across them. These are all of the ones I can think of at the moment.
** I will have a post about Caitlin, too. Never fear.

The Beginning of a New Era

On Friday, August 12th we found out a single piece of information that would change the course of our family's future.

The twins will meet the cutoff for kindergarten next year by three days.

Suddenly, we leaped into overdrive getting them set up in a half day preschool program that would run five days a week. Eric called up several different local schools and we went and visited about four of them. By the time we hit the last school on our list, a Montessori, we knew we had struck gold.

• They had not one, but two openings. This is key when you have twins, you see.
• School started on Monday, August 15th.
• The twins loved the school.
• During our visit, one of the teachers sat down with the twins and started an I-Spy game of letters and toy fruits and veggies, while we talked to the administrator.

Eric promised that we'd get back to them once we had a chance to think it over. I thought it over on the trip to the car. "Call her back as soon as we get home! They're closing in 5 minutes! It's Friday!" And so he called the administrator right back and told her that we'd bring them in first thing on Monday morning.

The same day we dropped Caitlin off at school for her very first day as a Fifth Grader.

Who's ready for school? I asked as I shot the above photo. As you can see, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

 Emma is ready!

Logan is ready! And very excited about his new Lightning McQueen t-shirt.

Caitlin was ready to take on the world as a senior in elementary school.

I feel a little bad, we sort of short changed her at drop off. We whisked in with her bags of supplies and walked her to her line. After hugs and kisses goodbye, we took off, rather than wait for the grades to walk inside.

I think she was pretty OK with it, though, since she wasn't paying any attention to us at all. She was too busy greeting all of those other kids who would soon roam the halls with her.

Then we drove off, with the twins, to their very first day of preschool.

Oh the excitement!

 Emma at check-in, snuggles with her blanket.

Logan can hardly wait to run off to his classroom and play with all the new toys!

The additional benefit of this preschool was the fact that they were able to put Emma and Logan into different classrooms. This would be the very first time they had ever been separated for any real length of time. All day, every day, 5 days a week for three hours*: solo. They would finally have a chance to make friends and see what life is like solo.

They never for a moment showed fear or insecurity. They didn't even say goodbye when we brought them to the play area to leave them. Instead, they raced off and left us standing on the sidelines.

We marched over, demanded kisses and made them say goodbye to us sad sacks!

 Buh-bye! Don't let the door hit you in the back on your way out, mom!

Who are you again? You know I'm busy playin', right?

So we left them. All alone. Together.

And ran away giggling into the early morning light.

 Preschool acquired! 

Freeeeeeedommmmm!

Later, they looked like this after school:

Emma was exhausted after all that learnin' and stuff.

Logan was still pumped from all the educatin'.

Caitlin was psyched.

* The list of things I want to get done in those three hours is just beginning to unfurl in my head! Weeding! Photography! Painting the house! Decorating! Writing! Decluttering! Grocery shopping without short people! OMG! Squeee!

12.5 Months

What a difference two weeks makes!

While my sleep is still broken by hungry people in the middle of the night (Emma points accusingly at Logan.), it seems to be getting a little better. I know that developmental changes often result in broken sleep and here at Chez Hatchet, we've been working on some developmental doozies.

We've had some seriously crabby behavior recently because someone is teething. Well, actually two "someones", but one of them is cutting his first tooth!

"I getting toofs! I show you dem: gimme you fingah."

Yes, well past the time other babies have a mouth full of ivory, Logan is finally cutting his very first tooth (Bottom middle, left side.). And it has made him CRAAAAA-BY! It's amazing the amount of crabbiness that can come from such a small person. Of course, it's not helped any when the crabbiness is amplified by his younger sister who is also cutting more teeth (Top middle pair.). They are enjoying chewing on hard crunchy things like crackers, or their fingers, depending on the relief any particular item provides.

The next big change? Emma has decided that she now prefers walking to crawling and walks all over the place.

"Daddy, you so crazy!"

She went pretty quickly from six steps together to full on, up and down the hallway, freestyle, mini-zombie walking. She likes to carry stuff around with her, too. Books, bottles of lotion, shoes; doesn't matter what.

"I am sporting a fine hat, dontchu think?"

Logan, not to be left behind for very long at all, has finally figured out the walking process and has been stringing 6 to 8 steps together without falling. He seems to make it a little farther across the room each day without dropping and crawling, but his crawl is still his preferred locomotion style. It shouldn't surprise you that with his crawl being as fast as it is, it makes it very difficult to get good pictures of him now. As soon as I break out the camera, he lunges for me.

Well, the camera, I suppose. I'm not willing to let go of it to really find out!

Snuggle restraint engaged for photo.

Years from now, when we're all sitting around looking at baby books (Which I haven't produced yet, thanks for asking!), I'm certain the question of why there are so many more pictures of Emma than there are of Logan will be asked. This will be my answer:

Blurry blue-eyed boy.

While she is often in constant motion, at least it's not in a threatening toward-the-camera, sort of way.

Uh oh.

Mostly.