We are at one of those times of year when our family is smack dab in the midst of schedule chaos. Logan is playing off-season baseball, John just finished midterms, I am up to my eyebrows in report cards, parent conferences, and first trimester (of school, not pregnancy 😉 paperwork. Honestly, I don’t think I could handle anymore schedule complications. But last week we got news that means there will be a big change for the twins.
A little backstory:
Over the summer, I had some extra free time and so I researched a bunch of programs for low income families. While John is in school, my teaching job pretty much support the family, and as you know teachers are notoriously underpaid. Unfortunately, it turns out that we are not low income, just under the average income. Which means we didn’t qualify for any of those free childcare programs. That’s fine with me, because I know that those are out there for families who really really need it and we don’t really really need it.
Well, last week one of the day care centers called and said that they had exhausted their waiting list of low income families and were able to bring in a few families (like ours) that are just above the allowable income ceiling.
We had to gather all of our documents on very short notice: birth certificates, shot records, tax returns, signed verification forms from our employers… The girls had to get a physical and see the dentist. I got behind at work from 3 days of leaving early and arriving late to get everything taken care of. But with a LOT of help from John I managed to get all the paperwork in on time.
The big change for the twins
Last week the twins officially started preschool. They have a classroom, a teacher, and real school schedule. Everything happened so fast, it wasn’t until the day before they were to start that it sunk in for me: My babies are growing up and starting preschool. Yikes!
They adjusted without much of an issue. They even found a girl at the school they know from their Sunday School class. However, Mommy may have shed a tear or two on her way to work that first morning of school.
This new school is not only a big change for the twins, it’s also an adjustment for John and I. Johnny is still going to our home daycare provider, whose hours are a lot more flexible than the preschool’s are. We drop the girls off at preschool, then take Johnny to see Miss Pili. At the end of the day we pick up the girls first and then Johnny. The preschool and the home daycare are on opposite sides of town. I don’t want to complain about the drive though, since it’s not like we live in a very large town. I mean, if you call it “town”, you know it can’t be that big of a place! And this new opportunity will be great for the girls.
I picked them both up one day and Emily’s shirt was heavily dotted with purple paint. I asked what she had painted that day at school and she said cheerily, “I painted a paper… And ME!” Ha.
They’re already busy making new messes and finding new friends.