we are big schoolboys now!

We were fairly well prepared for the boys' first week of preschool. We'd read some stories about school. We visited the week before. I also made up a picture schedule and posted it for them. We have a lot going on all of a sudden, and having a visual image of what is happening in the week seems to help the boys make sense of it all. Time is such confusing this at this age -they're leaving the days of everything-in-the-moment behind, but don't have it even close to all figured out yet. Now, O says "the days go around and around, and the weeks happen again and again!"





We've spent every last moment we can enjoying the parks. (The weather since then has turned cold and wet.)



Grandma and I took the boy out for a last-night-before-school iced cream cone. I think this will make a fine end-of-summer tradition.




Then Grandma watched the boys while J and I attended the All-Parent Meeting, where we discussed such important issues as "What do I do if my little boy doesn't wipe himself yet?" (It wasn't me asking that question, but I didn't blame her for asking either) We also got a very good impression of the wise and warm woman who will be their teacher for the next year.

The next day, J and the boys rode the bus to school. N was very cuddly on the bus, and requested that J hold his hand as he walked into the room, but then they hung up their backpacks and barely looked back.

I picked them up in the car on the way home from work. I was able to watch a bit through the one-way mirror, and the kids were all sitting neatly on the rug in a semicircle with their backpacks already on. The room was totally picked up, and the whole school had an atmosphere of nurture and calm. The kids were dismissed one by one, and the boys were very happy to see me. Miss Karen told me they'd had a fantastic day.



O*liver was very excited to have his picture taken, but his brother was not.

They were beyond exhausted, but on the way home, O told me that when he grows up, he will be a teacher. At dinner, N told a story and sang a song from school. They are very excited to go back, and tell people that "we are big schoolboys now!"