Preschool Updates and More!

So here we are in the playroom. Just another day in the Bunch house, wearing crazy stuff on our heads. (It's a plastic trash can, in case you were wondering.) 

 UNLESS you're a three year old. 

Because then, it's your RATATOUILLE chef hat! 

 They are hilarious, these little people who inhabit my home and call me 'mom.' They go through phases of 'favorite movies' and Ratatouille has remained a strong contender, waxing and waning in its status, but never completely extinct. 

But it never fails, when Ratatouille comes on, so does anything resembling a chef hat.  "Look at me, mommy! I Ratatouille!" Or in Colton's case, "I Rasatouille." (We've tried very, very hard to always correct Colton's speech to prevent him any further challenges than his cleft palate already present, but there are a few things I just can't bring myself to correct.) They are Colton. 'Rasatouille' is one of them and 'HowHowpter' is the other.  (That's helicopter, if you couldn't get that.) 

Pretty soon, we'll be upgrading to something larger, however, as our boys' heads are darn near close to the same size as their dad's.  

In further news, there's been some changes 'round here. The cleanliness of my car being the greatest of them. I was forced to clean it out inside a few weeks ago in order to carpool a bunch of my friends around without total embarrassment and decided it would be a turning point for me. I vowed to promptly remove receipts, trash, kids' underwear, tupperware, kitchen utensils, etc. before they pile up and overwhelm me. 

So, to further motivate me, Brian offered to wash the 'Burb' so she'd be extra pretty on the outside too. Well, pretty much no one does anything by themselves in this house anymore, so before the bucket was full of suds, he had three bathing suit clad helpers by his side.  Isn't he lucky?  Aren't I lucky? 

 I love the concentration here. 

 But in true Ethan Fashion, when he'd had enough, he'd had enough.

He was content to sit in the garage and watch. 

(With his new airplane. )

Now on to Preschool. You've been dying for an update on how THAT has been going, haven't you? I think it's safe to say our kids are FINALLY getting used to it, to the point that the tantrums anxiety and/or tears at drop off have darn near ceased entirely.

I was able to talk with their teacher about 2 weeks ago on the phone to kind of 'catch up' since I don't get to drop off or pick up my little preschoolers. It was absolutely fascinating to hear her talk of their behavior/interactions with and without each other.

Here's the short version:

Hunter is A-okay! She sort of always knows where the boys are in the class, but rarely plays with them. She plays with other little girls in the class and loves to participate in just about anything. (Our own observations confirm this because she can recite, with details, exactly what they did at school that day including who sat by whom, who did what, who used the potty, who kept his shoes on (or off) and can sing every song perfectly,  etc.) She really is LOVING her school and her teachers.

Colton is doing well and is loving school also! Interestingly, he will not participate in dance/song moves or actions if he is standing near Hunter OR Ethan. However if his teacher moves him (or the siblings) he participates! Isn't that interesting? As much as he loves school, he still shouts at the top of his lungs, "YOU CAME BACK!" as soon as he sees Grammy at pick up time. It's awfully sweet.

Ethan has the had the hardest time adjusting. They typically meet on the playground as soon as their backpacks are put away. Well, Ethan MUCH prefers to have his shoes off if he is playing outside. He gets hot and I think he likes the feel of sand or whatever, beneath his feet. Well this desire to take his shoes off has caused some problems and some fairly lengthy tantrums. His teachers are working with him (while choosing their battles) to determine places and times at school when it's okay to take off his shoes. Brian and I took the kids to get some new shoes that same night and in a stroke of pure luck, we found shoes that have almost not been removed in the week since they got them! No joke.

These little Spider Man 'Light em up'  bad boys have been a blessing in disguise. Ethan in particular, wants to wear them just about all day long.

To include bed time. 

With his jammies. 

His FOOTIE jammies, no less. 

He insists on wearing them to bed (and who the heck am I to argue?) And as such, so does Colton. 

These two crack me up. As soon as they fall asleep, I go in and take their shoes off and bring them back downstairs. Inevitably, one of them wakes up in the middle of the night and sits upright in a near panic, exclaiming, "Mommy! Where's my shoes?" I quietly tell them I brought them downstairs and they fortunately go back to sleep. So since the shoes came to be, the tantrums have subsided and drop off has become almost effortless.  :) Whew!

The kids also do not eat together while at school. This happened by accident the first day, but is intentional now. It's so good for them to socialize with other kids and I just love that their teachers recognize their independent selves.  :) 

On a rather comical note, last week, Brian began getting the kids ready for school. Because he doesn't usually have to go in to work until 8, I prepare lunches and clothing for him the night before and then he gets the kids ready, fed and dressed in the morning. Like always, I set their clothes out, in neat piles, left to right in birth order. Everything from socks to shoes, to underwear to shirts and shorts. Well on this particular day, Brian decided (making a good point) that Ethan should wear the black shorts instead of Colton in case he peed in his pants. That way it would be less noticeable.  (Smart thinking, right?) Well, in doing so, he got himself a little mixed up. 

See exhibit A below: 

Nothing unusual here? 

Then how about Exhibit B below?

Or Exhibit C.

He had switched their shirts in addition to their shorts and somehow failed to notice that Colton was wearing Ethan's birthday shirt and Ethan was wearing Colton's.  Talk about trying to confuse their preschool teacher! The funnier thing is that my mom didn't notice either until their teacher pointed it out! But no one switched their shirts for them! So they wore the wrong shirts for the day which bothered Hunter to no end. Oh good times. 

{On a side note, no one has peed their pants at school yet. In case you were wondering!} 

We also had to get new backpacks because Colton's handle broke on his old one after that spill he took on the sidewalk on the very first day of school!

Oddly, though given their choice of backpacks, to include Cars, Toy Story, Mario, Thomas the Train, etc. they declined them all in favor of $4 backpacks with flames! Can't beat that! A savings of about $8 PER kid! Which brings me to point out that Hunter, sweet girly Hunter, also wanted a flame backpack. WTH? So I did what any good mom would do and hot glued some glittery ribbon to hers, in the letter H. Well as soon as the boys saw that hers had an 'H' on it, they wanted letters on theirs too. And who am I to turn down those boys? 

So here they are...our NEW backpacks! 

 And their first official Preschool Paintings! 

And there you have it. Lots going on in the Bunch Casa. 

I'll leave you with this video of the kids playing cooperatively in the living room...They are so hilarious. I could not figure out how to make it smaller so you don't really get the good view of the cooperation at hand, but it's still funny I guess. :)