A week in the life of Samantha and Amelia

October 10, 2014 by
I’m already beginning to think I’ve over-scheduled the girls this fall with too many classes and places to be. I feel like a stressed-out soccer mom– and the girls aren’t even old enough for soccer yet!
On Mondays, we have Story Time at the library. Our first story time was an epic fail. The girls lasted about ten minutes before getting restless, trying to eat crayons, and climbing all over the fake hay bails set up in the library as benches. 
Fortunately, the story time presenter was herself a mother of twins and commented that the girls were doing extraordinarily well for their first story time! Good thing it’s free, so I don’t feel bad skipping it some weeks if I don’t feel like stressing myself out by taking the girls. 
On Tuesdays, we have gymnastics class in the morning. Love, love, love that class. In the afternoon, we usually have a playdate with a bunch of neighborhood friends at the park.
On Wednesdays, we have our Montessori Spanish class. The girls’ teacher, Maestra Carmen, speaks Spanish the entire class (even to the parents, most of whom don’t speak any Spanish at all), and we all sing Spanish songs/read stories in Spanish as well. Since it’s only for a few hours a week, I’m not sure how much Spanish the girls will actually get out of it, but it’s been a good way for me to brush up on my Spanish skills at least. 
I am surprised by how much the girls understand, even though everything is in a different language, including books. The girls are still pretty confused when they say “Dog!” as they point to a dog in their books, only to have me point to it and say, “Perro!” but other than that, they seem to understand all the directions just fine. Maestra Carmen is super sweet and is great at communicating with gestures. Samantha and Amelia adore her rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus” in Spanish– bonus!
I don’t know whether to love or to be creeped out by the fact that the school has a private Facebook page for parents on which they post pictures of our kids in the classes…

Montessori-style snack time has been a learning experience for the girls. Maestra Carmen has all the kids wash up and sit at the table. Then, they are expected to wait patiently while she walks around the table handing out placemats, utensils, paper towels, cups and finally, the snacks, which the kids serve themselves. There’s only a few toddlers, but it feels like it takes an eternity! Even I start getting antsy with the whole procedure after a few minutes, so it’s no wonder the girls get fidgety.

The family-style snack procedure is apparently supposed to teach toddlers waiting skills, but I honestly think it’s a bit much for S and A to handle at this point. They’ve done pretty well, only trying to get up from the table approximately 49 times during the whole process.

See that circle drawn on the placemat? That’s where the cup is supposed to be kept at all times. As you can imagine, Samantha ignores that rule completely. 
Last week during class, one of S and A’s classmates followed the girls around everywhere, helping them with their activities, giving them hugs, and helping wipe up messes. It was super cute– until she coughed DIRECTLY IN SAMANTHA’S FACE. This wasn’t a dry cough, either– it was a wet, hacking cough,  the kind that makes you cringe in revulsion. 
The mother (who was standing in the corner tending to her newborn) seemed oblivious, but I was horrified, and grabbed Samantha to wash her face and hands. After that incident, I noticed the little girl was coughing A LOT. ALL OVER EVERYTHING. I really wanted to approach the mom or our teacher about it, but didn’t want to be that crazy/rude/germaphobic mom. I totally wish I had. I AM that crazy/rude/germaphobic mom and I’m totally ok with that. 
Sure enough, three days later, Samantha came down with a cold and passed it onto her sister a day later. 
I realize that kids get sick and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but this little girl clearly shouldn’t have been in class that day. I was so upset about it that I was seriously having nightmares in which I confronted the mother in class and ranted and raved at her like a maniac. Dealing with sick twins is NOT fun. 
Anyway,  my frustration had reached a boiling point and I finally decided to write an email to the school’s director and our teacher about the situation, asking if they could review their standards regarding keeping sick kids at home with the other parents in our class. They were very apologetic, sent an email out to all the parents as well as brought it up during class and made sure to get us into a make-up class for the girls as soon as they are feeling better. So at least that was something.
 I still want to have a little chat with the mom of the little coughing girl though . Or at the very least, make her trade places with me for a week and take care of my miserable, coughing twins. I am really, really trying to be gracious. I know I need to get over it. I realize that the very fact I have put S and A in so many activities increases their chances of catching something from other kids. But when S and A are this miserable, it’s hard not to take my frustration out on some poor mom with a newborn and toddler in tow. 
The worst part about the girls getting sick was that Baby Noah was scheduled to come down over the weekend and the girls had been so excited to see him. We have his birth announcement on our fridge and the girls constantly point to him, saying, “Baby! Baby!” 
Sadly, I had to leave the girls behind and visited Noah solo. He’s gotten so big, I barely recognized him!
S and A miss you, little one! And you too, Cooper!

(Rant Over). Anyway, back to the girls’ classes. Thursday, we usually run errands and then it’s off to Tunes n Tales class. S and A love dancing and singing to music at home, so I figured a music class would be right up their alley. Their first class was an EPIC fail– they were crying most of the time, clinging to me, and  refusing to dance or so much as clap their hands. On a brighter note, Samantha played the role of the baby on the bus who cries, “WAH WAH WAH!” perfectly during “The Wheels on the Bus.”

Our first class was so bad and I was so completely caught off guard by the girls’ total lack of enthusiasm, that I almost cancelled the entire series. Thankfully, subsequent classes have proved to be a little bit better. There are certain songs and activities the girls really enjoy– especially those involving playing musical instruments, playing with puppets, shaking maracas, and singing while flapping the giant parachute up and down.

The teacher, Miss Vivian, is a total pro. She truly enjoys the kids and I honestly have no idea how she can be THAT enthusiastic about “Three little monkeys jumping on the bed” every single time.

Mysteriously, there are still certain songs and activities that set the girls off into crying fits every time. They absolutely LOATHE the Simon Says song (I must admit, the version we sing is pretty obnoxious). They also hate the part where all the kids hold onto a rope and we chug-chug throughout the classroom like a train, complete with train sounds playing and Miss Vivian blowing her super shrill whistle. My theory is that the girls just have good taste in music and thus get fussy during the lame/obnoxious songs. Because they’re geniuses like that 🙂

I decided to cancel swim class since we have a lot of other activities going on, so Fridays are our mellow days. We meet up with Maliyah and Allie or other friends, or just play around the neighborhood.
That’s our typical week, except for this one since I didn’t take the girls to any of their usual classes or playdates (see hacking cough girl, above). 
Even though the girls have been sick, it’s been nice just to lounge around the neighborhood with them and to not have to rush off anywhere at a specific time. 
Moms of older kids in school– I have serious respect for the time you spend shuttling your kids to the ends of the earth. I’m sure that will be me before I know it. For now, despite the six hours of preparation time and fifteen camels worth of gear it takes to go anywhere, I’m enjoying learning with the girls wherever we go. Just not when there’s sick children nearby. Yes, I’m still bitter. 
Lots of love, 
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