New Friends

These are just a few random photos over the summer. Aren't the girls darling????

The past few weeks with pre-school have had their ups and downs. Juliet still screams every time that I drop her off, but quickly recovers. (Teacher Mollie texts me when Juliet stops crying, which is usually before I reach the car).

Sophia has had a hard time with transitions during the day. Teacher Laurie tells me that she gets upset when her friend, Veda, leaves at 12:30, and again when Sophia has to go into the Chameleons room at the end of the day on Thursdays (Sophia is a Platypus).

I had the brilliant idea to get Sophia a darling little stuffed animal deer for her transition to the Chameleons. So far, it is has worked.

Sophia talks about her new friend, Veda, a lot. They both go to school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of their games is to hide rocks in the playground one day, and then go on a treasure hunt to find them the next day. Sophia talks about Veda's special little animal friend that is similar to Bunny Bun. However, Sophia also told me that Veda sometimes tells her that she needs some alone time; and Sophia has said that she likes to follow Veda around. This got me a little worried about whether Sophia's friendship with Veda was entirely mutual.

My fears were all laid to rest today. Sophia has been sick with croup (yuck!) this week and has not been to school. Today, however, we dropped Juliet off for school in the morning. That's when we saw Veda's mom. Sophia said, "Mommy, mommy, mommy! That Veda's mommy!" I said, "Hi, Veda's mommy." Veda's mommy said that Veda had been so sad Sophia had not been at school on Tuesday. Veda's mom said that she was considering extending Veda's day so that she and Sophia could spend more time together!

As for Juliet, she loves her teacher, and says her name often. Drop offs are still rough, but hopefully they will get better. I am sure that there will be more pre-school stories as we continue on this new adventure.

Calvin and Sophia

Adam has been reading "Calvin and Hobbes" at night with Sophia. As everyone knows, Calvin does some crazy things. Last night, they read about how Calvin locked the babysitter out of the house.

Flash forward to this afternoon. My neighbor (Mya) and her kids were over, and we were all playing nicely in the background. Suddenly, the three oldest (Jude, Chloe and Sophia) ran to the front yard. We hear a door slam. Then, dead silence. Mya and I waited a minute or two. Then I went to the front yard to find them. They were not there. I tried the front door. Locked. I went to the back door. Locked.

Luckily, Mya and I are both good-natured, but we were mad. We rang the doorbell, yelled through the window, promised treats, and then made threats, but no one would open the door. Finally, Mya must have threatened the right thing and Jude (7) came down stairs and unlocked the door.

The kids thought it was hilarious. They were hiding in the closet upstairs. Mya and I made the kids sit on the patio furniture. The kids had TWO moms reprimanding them. Sophia told me, "Mommy, nothing bad happened. There wasn't a fire in the house or anything." Oy Vey!

A Lot of "Firsts" Today

We had a lot of "firsts" today. Sophia and Juliet started pre-school this morning. Until now, we have had a nanny coming to our house to watch our girls while I worked two or three days per week. We have been so lucky that we had two great nannies this past year. But, nanny Katie moved to Seattle, and nanny Megan went back to school this fall. So, we decided to have the girls start preschool this fall.

They are attending Fraser school two days per week. Fraser is a pre-school that specializes in putting regularly developing kids with kids with special needs, particularly autism. It is a great program for my kids because they receive the benefits of some of the special services for the kids with special needs, such as music therapy, high teacher-child ratios, and awesome indoor and outdoor "large muscle" playgrounds. Plus, a lot of the neighborhood kids go there as well.

Even though we knew Fraser was a great program, I was still nervous about sending the girls off into the world. But, I should not have been worried. They did great! We started-off doing just a 1/2 day.

Sophia was a bit nervous when she walked into her room, but quickly put her backpack down and sat at a table and started drawing. I kissed her goodbye, and she was fine. I, however, was choking back tears and could hardly say goodbye.

Next, we went to Juliet's room where they were heading outside. I walked outside with the teachers and kids. Juliet loves playing outside, so this was fortunate. As expected, when I was telling Juliet goodbye, she was hysterical. It was so hard to leave. Teacher Mollie said that I should call her room in an hour to see how Juliet was doing. I did call, and Juliet was doing great!

When I went to Fraser to pick-up Juliet after lunch, they were playing in the indoor playground. At first, I could not find Juliet. Finally, I looked inside the play structure and there she was having the time of her life. She told me over and over, "Weee!!!! Weeee!!!!" I asked if she wanted to come out, and she shook her head no. I started to walk to get her backpack and things and then she started calling for me and finally did come out. Mollie said Juliet had a terrific day!

We then picked-up Sophia. Sophia had just finished eating and was reading a book with the teacher. She ran to me and gave me a hug. We grabbed her backpack, and as we were leaving a few little girls waived and said, "Bye, Sophia!" It was so sweet. I got very little information from Sophia about her day, but she said that she "loves" preschool. Yay!

Sophia and her "my little pony" backpack ready for her first day of school.


Juliet and her "hello kitty" backpack. But, she was more interested in taking the camera from me.

Then, this afternoon, the girls got haircuts. Neither one likes getting their hair washed and Juliet still absolutely refuses to let me do anything with hair. Thus, we keep their hair as simple as possible. Sophia got a nice chin-length bob. Juliet got her first haircut! Juliet's hair had grown into a curly mullet that covered her eyes. It was time for the first haircut. She handled it great! She loved eating her sucker and watching cartoons. The same hair dresser that cut Sophia's first hair cut (Delores) also gave Juliet her first hairdo.

"No big deal. Just getting my haircut."

"Look at my pretty eyes without my hair in my face!"

"So pretty."