Well so much for cute little toddlers at home.  The boys are officially students, now.  Katie and I stayed home from work this morning, and with Malin’s help we packed the boys off to the school to begin their institutionalization.  As we mentioned when we wrote about Anamaria, we found a preschool co-op to put the boys into.  At the time we were enrolling in one down in Mountlake Terrace, but just a short while later a couple of openings cropped up in the Mill Creek coop, which is barely 2 miles from our house.  Which is convenient because I’ve always heard that once kids start walking, you can expect them to be able to walk about as far as their age in miles, and since the boys are now 2, they should be able to walk to school if I’m too tired or otherwise ill-disposed to drive them.

It turns out that this is the same coop that Andrea was referring to when she commented on our blog a few months ago that we should look into co-ops.  So let me get this part out of the way – Yes, Andrea, you were right, and thank you for the suggestion.  There, I’m done.  I hate telling women that they’re right – you never live it down.  She’s going to be unbearable the next time I see her at the school.  Thank God Malin will normally be taking the boys…

So today we packed up the boys and went off to the school.  We arrived about 15 minutes early, which is fine because they have a large Anthrax area where the kids can play before class begins.  I can’t remember what it’s actually called, maybe Narthex?  I don’t know.  It’s the lobby to the building (church) where the preschool is held, and everytime I try and remember what it’s called all I can think of is Anthrax, which is probably wrong.  Teacher Gayle was there, and a short while later some of the other children arrived.  First was the beautiful (and fearless) Bella, with her mother, Gigi, in tow.  A few minutes later Angelica arrived with Ashton, followed by another Ashton and his Mother and another family member in tow.  And finally Andrea arrived to document the big FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.  This meant that we had a adult-child ratio of 10-5, which seems pretty reasonable to us.  The school year begins with a “Slow Start”, which means only half of the children on the first day, and the other half on the next day, and everyone the following week.  Normally there’ll be 16 kids and 8 adults running around, so what seemed chaotic today won’t hold a candle to what it’ll be like soon.  God help us.  Well, Malin, anyway.  I’ll be at work.

On my first day of school, I freaked out when I couldn’t find Mrs. Weidlich, and panicked and started balling, and some friendly adult COMPLETELY IGNORED MY EMOTIONAL DEVASTATION AND MIND NUMBING TERROR and instead stopped to take a photo, which then became the front page of the local newspaper the next day.  My parents have ever-so-helpfully retained several copies of this image, for which I plan on getting even with them when they’re in a nursing home.

Our boys did much better.  They loved driving the cars, and playing at the sensory table, and the play doh, and their art project, and later running around outside.  Their clothes were wet and covered with paint and dirt, which sounds successful to me.  Dex even has some paint in his ear, so he got extra credit.  They were a little too tired to partake in some of the later activities, and Nicky absolutely passed out when we got home, but all told I think they liked it, and it’ll add some excitement and variety to the week.  Here’re some photos of the momentous occasion.  You can watch the slideshow here, or click on the photos to go and look at them in Picasa.