ms conni

Endings and Beginnings

Despite a rough start, the girls ended another summer swim season with Ms. Conni on a high note. There were a few weeks in the middle of the season that were pretty rough, with the girls going from loving their lessons to flat-out throwing a fit over going and refusing to get in the pool for a few harrowing weeks, to the last two months of being back to normal! I don’t understand what goes through their little minds sometimes, but when they decide they don’t want to do something, they don’t do it. Stubborn and independent are definitely two of their defining characteristics.

The last day of this summer session was another Safety Day where the kids came fully dressed with shoes on to simulate swimming in the water with the extra weight. Damion, Samantha and Amelia all handled it surprisingly well, considering it looked uncomfortable!

The girls’ favorite part of swim was “diving.” At one point, Ms. Conni brought out a hula hoop and told them to dive pencil-style, feet first through the hoop, just to keep them from doing belly flops! Without the hula hoop or reminding them to jump with their feet in the water first, the girls always fell back on belly flopping! Despite all the cringing parents on the sidelines, the girls never seemed to mind “diving” this way. A new Olympic sport in the making, perhaps?

At the end of their last lesson, Ms. Conni unleashed the fun animal floaties the kids had been salivating over and let the kids play.

Amelia and her giraffe.

This lobster was clearly MADE for the twins.

Daddy joined us for the last lesson of the summer. Meredith was quite entertained!

Yeehaw!

With an ending, came a beginning. Samantha and Amelia started at their Montessori preschool two mornings a week in the middle of July and will go three mornings a week through the fall. We wanted to start in the summer while there were less kids at the school and so they could adapt with more one-on-one attention before the fall session. It was all fun and games picking out their backpacks, water bottles and reading Daniel Tiger Goes to Preschool and The Kissing Hand over and over the week before preschool… until it was actually time to bite the bullet and go!

The big day! Samantha wasn’t sure what to expect.

Amelia was more excited about the prospect of school than Samantha.

For the first few weeks, I had Jake do drop-off since I didn’t think I could handle it, while I did pick-up. As anticipated, the girls cried and clung to Daddy the first day (Samantha every time… Amelia didn’t seem to mind after the first week), but by the time Jake reached his car, the teachers said they had stopped crying when they asked if the girls would like to build “cakes” in the sandbox (they obviously knew the way to Samantha and Amelia’s hearts!)

The next drop-off was more of the same, with the crying getting progressively less and the girls forgetting about Daddy to play “Elsa and Anna” with one of the other girls as soon as he hit the parking lot. When Jake had court hearings in the morning, I would do drop-off and pick-up, during which they were decidedly more cranky than they were with Daddy.

While the teachers reported the girls were occupied and having fun at school, they were very clingy every time I picked them up. It’s like they had held their emotions in all morning and let it out in a torrent of crabbiness! On a more positive note, my mornings with Meredith were very peaceful! Meredith loves going to pick up the girls and all the kids and teachers usually rush over to say hello to her and squeeze her fat baby legs sticking out of the Ergo… she absolutely revels in all the attention, that spoiled baby!

The girls’ teachers, Ms. Becky and Ms. Shah, as well as the director, Ms. Debbie, were all positive, nurturing and reassuring (and did a great job not seeming annoyed by me calling or asking a million questions). It was also helpful to know friends who have sent their kids here and to see some familiar faces from around the community. Still, the first few weeks of the transition were really difficult for the girls and rough on us as parents too. I wanted the girls to be really excited about preschool, and it was sad to see the girls get all worked up about going, even before we got in the car.

It’s hard to see your first-born babies struggle and wonder if you’re doing the right thing. Eliminating variables was hard for us too, since we have no prior experience with preschool– was it just their personalities? The school? Not bonding with the teachers? Just normal for little ones going to preschool for the first time? There was a lot of anxiety and second-guessing on my part the first few weeks, which I’m sure the girls could sense and which probably didn’t help the situation.

Fortunately, this past week and a half, the girls have been on the up-swing. They haven’t cried at drop-off and have been excited to tell me all about their snacks, the Olympic torch and fish crafts they made, and some of the other kids in class (I keep hearing about their friend, Melania, and one of the boys who keeps annoying Amelia– Evan?!)

Not sure why Amelia looks like a zombie here, but she sure had fun telling me all about the “bagel bear” they made for snack one day.

Every week so far, the kids have “cooked” in class. On the day they made pizzas, Samantha and Amelia were bursting to tell me all about it when I picked them up, before remembering that they should pretend NOT to like preschool and quickly switched gears into crankiness again.

All the kids take turns being the Helper of the Day with various jobs, and Samantha and Amelia have been assigned to bring and set up the snack for their classmates twice so far, which they have been excited about doing (anything where they get to be in charge is right up their alley!)

Samantha and Amelia are at the very beginning of this little photo slideshow one of the teachers posted. The little preschoolers are so cute!

Their favorite thing to do at pick-up is to say goodbye to each individual fish and bird in the foyer as well as insist upon scribbling their own names on the sign-out sheet. Hopefully, the verdict on preschool will be a positive one on all sides. To be continued!

Lots of love,

Swim Lessons with Swim Nazi Season 2

Back in May, we started twice a week swim lessons with Ms. Conni (a.k.a. the Swim Nazi) for the second year. Last year, our lessons were in the afternoon when the twins were incredibly cranky and we were all HANGRY (especially me, since I was pregnant with Meredith at the time). Jake and I both had to be in the pool with the twins at that age and I remember feeling nauseated from the pregnancy and being out in the sweltering afternoon heat, not to mention the fact that the twins (and most of the other kids) cried for a good portion of the lesson until it was playtime at the end.

We had a few rough patches for a few weeks this year, but overall it’s been so much better; mostly, because this year, I can sit back and relax (DRY) instead of swimming with them. The lessons before ours is the one for the young toddlers, which we did last year, and it’s hilarious watching all the moms in the pools with their crying kids… that was me last year!

The girls started off their lessons having a blast the first few weeks.

Tube time to practice kicking.

There was one kid in their class who cried for his mom for several weeks starting on day one. I felt bad for his mom, who also had a baby the same age as Meredith there, but was secretly glad it wasn’t my kid (FORESHADOWING)!

Inexplicably, starting about Week 3 and ending Week 5, the twins had an epic swim lesson meltdown. It all started when Jake joined us for one of the lessons so he could see what he needed to practice in the pool with them. Amelia was fine, but while normally so happy in the pool, Samantha cried for Daddy the entire lesson. Ms. Conni and I laughed it off and blamed it on Jake’s presence. Dun…dun… dun….

Amelia tries to cheer up Samantha.

The next lesson, I was solo again and dealt with the worst public meltdown I have ever personally witnessed. I knew it was going to be a bad morning when, at breakfast, both Samantha and Amelia at reiterated that they didn’t want to go to swim lessons. I brushed it off and the entire way there in the car talked up all the fun toys and floaties they would be able to play with, not to mention the snack they would get at the end. I wasn’t against bribery at that point, either.

Both girls seemed calm at first, but when it was time to get in the pool, they both refused to budge. Ms. Conni is no-nonsense and told me to bring them over and she would take it from there, but from that moment on, the girls declared an all-out war.

Ms. Conni eventually got the girls in the pool, although not much in the way of learning happened as they were kicking and screaming. While she was working with one, she had the other one floating around in the pool in a tube so that she couldn’t escape!

A few minutes in, both girls started screaming that they had to go potty (they are smart!) and even though I knew they didn’t have to go since we had just gone, I had no choice but to take them anyway. They refused to come out of the bathroom and were having complete meltdowns by the pool.

I eventually convinced Samantha to get in and she was all smiles the last few minutes, but Ms. Conni had me keep Amelia out for the rest of the lesson because she was so hysterical.

Of course, the kid who had screamed the first few lessons, was by then, totally fine and happy in the pool. “At least I’m not alone!” said his mom. If nothing else, the experience definitely gave me empathy for others going through this!

During the fiasco, one of the other moms there was helping me with Meredith, thank goodness, and everyone gave me consoling pats on the back, pity all over their faces. One mom even offered me a glass of wine, at one point. It was that bad!

I was so traumatized that the next lesson, Jake had another attorney cover a hearing for him so that he could come with me in case it turned into another debacle. I don’t think he quite believed me when I said it was THE WORST LESSON EVER YOU HAVE NO IDEA, but by the end of this lesson, he knew I hadn’t been exaggerating!

The girls were hysterically adamant about not getting in the pool from the get-go and this time, instead of forcing them, we tried a different tack. Ms. Conni let them play with some toys near the edge of the pool, which they would only do if I sat right next to them. Anytime I moved so much as an inch back toward my chair, they started panicking and crying.

Here I am watching the girls’ “swim” lesson right next to them.

The last ten minutes of the lesson, we coaxed the girls into getting in and sitting on the steps, but they would sob every minute or so. I was torn between not wanting them to be traumatized about swimming, and wanting them to complete their lessons and overcome this bump in the road.

However, I knew that it wasn’t the water they were scared of because they absolutely love swimming with Jake in the pool. As a former UC diving and swim coach, Ms. Conni is firm, but very loving and fun, and the girls never had a problem with her before. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, other than three-year- olds will be three-year-olds. We decided to plow forward.

The next few lessons, Jake was my hero and took them by himself. When I came back, I heard nothing but glowing praise from Ms. Conni and the other moms about Jake, the Super Dad! “Dad of the Year,” Ms. Conni told me after recounting his amazing firm and calm attitude in the face of the screaming twinadoes.

After those first three bad lessons, Samantha was back to normal, and was happy in the pool, but Amelia continued her tantrums for a few lessons with Jake. She kept escaping from the pool and he literally threw her back in about fifteen times during one of the lessons.

On a positive note, Samantha stepped up and was an exemplary sister, trying to comfort and calm Amelia down several times. She would hold her hand and tell her, “I’m right here, sister!” Dying… so cute.

And just like that, by the end of Week 5, they were totally back to normal and having fun! I honestly have no idea what the deal was, but I’m proud of them for sticking with it. Threenagers? I think yes.

Ms. Conni always does a safety day where the kids have to come with their street clothes and shoes on to practice swimming with the added weight in order to simulate accidentally falling into a pool. It looked uncomfortable, but I guess they didn’t mind?! The twins always kill me with their belly flops… ouch!