Emily (L) and Madeleine (R)
Miss Madeleine
Miss EmilyToday was Emily and Madeleine's first day of formal preschool (their mother has not stopped tap dancing for joy). While we are veterans of Mother's Day Out, or "Miss Deena School" as we call it, this was our first day of being in a room where moms don't volunteer and the expectations are a bit more structured. We will have three of those days each week - goody!!
The day was monumental for several reasons, one of the more significant being that both girls' clothing actually matched and, yes, I ironed! Usually my standards are that: 1. they are not naked and 2. the clothing stopping our nudity is clean....beyond that, the girls pick out what they would like to wear for the day and I couldn't care less if tops match bottoms, etc.
The three-year-olds class is aptly named "Little Monkeys", so I made the girls monkey pins to wear on the first day (my future success in the jewelry business is highly unlikely). The girls wore their pins for a test-run on Sunday and within 10 minutes one of the ears on Madeleine's monkey had broken off. We decided the ears were too much bother and modified both monkeys to be earless. Grandma and Grandpa sent monkey pajamas and our young ladies were thrilled to be monkeys at night as well.
And now to my "Parenting Moment of the Day". We took the pictures of the girls before breakfast as there was a much higher probability their clothing would be clean at that point (I ironed, I want proof!). Till left for work and the girls and I went into the house to eat breakfast, etc. That is when I saw the monkey pins (on which I spent a shameful amount of time - shameful in that my skills are so lacking) on the table. We had forgotten to put them on for the pictures. So, I put them on the girls after breakfast and asked if we could go back outside to take a couple more pictures. I was told to say "please". I said "please". I was told the girls were too busy watching T.T. (T.V. for the rest of the world, but whatever) - I knew there was a reason I had kept T.V. at an arm's length up to this point. I mentioned that it would be really fast, they had already seen this episode of Little Einsteins and that I had worked really hard on the pins. Nope! So, in a fit of maturity and emotional health, I told the girls I was mad and I would never ever make them another pin! Judge all you want - when they are older I will tell them I was in labor for 23 hours, it took three attempts for the epidural to work and while most women have several years to regroup between deliveries I had a whopping nine minutes! The more emotionally mature parties relented and we went outside and quickly took pictures with their monkey pins on...however the smiles are not as genuine as the girls are merely saying "cheese" instead of laughing at their father's antics while their mother takes pictures, as in their individual pictures. At least the oldest toddler in the group was pacified.
I had told the girls that if they missed Mommy when they were at school they could just touch their monkey pins and know I was thinking about them. Emily asked if this worked if they missed Daddy too and Madeleine told her "yes". I also told them that all the mommies would come back, just like at "Miss Deena School". During dinner tonight Emily informed us that one little boy cried and he didn't have a monkey pin and "maybe he didn't go to Miss Deena School" so he didn't know mommies come back, "but he was happy on the playground."
Preschool was a huge success in the opinion of Madeleine and Emily and Madeleine informed me in the car on the way home, with a note of awe in her voice, that "the girls go in one bathroom and the boys go in a different bathroom!" How about that?
