Double Threes

I have two three-year-old's now.   As of today, my daughter is three.  My son won't be four for another month.   For one month each year my children are the same age.   Kind of exciting.  Sort of terrifying.   Mostly fun.

We celebrated my daughter's birthday in a fairly casual style today.   She got up and Uncle Jonathan stopped in after working out to wish her happy birthday.    At school, my husband and I met her class at eleven o'clock to do the classroom birthday celebration which was very charming and made us both smile.

We were greeted at the door to my daughter's classroom by my daughter herself.   She shyly grabbed our hands and escorted us into the classroom.   Everyone in the class was sitting in a big circle on the floor, very quietly.    We sat down and said hello to the class.    My daughter was asked to select a helper to hand out the birthday snack and she chose Isley, who lives in our neighborhood.

For birthday snack, we're asked to bring in something healthy that is gluten-free and has no nuts due to dietary restrictions in the class.   My husband was going to make gluten-free muffins but there were many ingredients he would have to buy that we might not use again (such as special baking powder) that would just go to waste.   I think my husband was all for it, but I asked if we could try finding something at Whole Foods instead.    What I decided to buy was—get this—vegan white cheddar popcorn.   It was flavored like white cheddar but was completely vegan.   I grabbed some great looking grapes and sent them in in the morning.

The popcorn had already been placed in small paper cups.  My daughter and Isley walked around the classroom handing them out.   This took some time as the popcorn was falling out of the cups and they were very interested in putting it back in, setting the tray down, more falling out, repeat.    With the advice and guidance of the teachers, they handed out the popcorn without help.

Then the birthday song was sung.   In Montessori schools they commonly sing a different song and do a different celebration.   There is a candle in the center of the circle representing the sun and a small globe representing the Earth.   My daughter held the globe and we all sang "The Earth goes 'round the sun, the earth goes 'round the sun, it takes twelve months to go around and then Reese was one."   This is repeated three times, once for each year of her life while the birthday child walks around the candle slowly.

My daughter did a very nice job of not going too quickly and aging herself beyond her three years.   She then helped to blow out the candle and sat back down beside us.   During all of this, the entire class sat calmly and quietly, not interrupting, listening and being patient and not having one single bite of the popcorn.   I am always impressed with our teachers and the education our children are getting.

We had four pictures of Reese to share and told a little story about her birth and the other pictures.   Then we presented a gift to the class from the class wish list.   My husband had selected practical life trays in green and blue and a collection of miniature vegetables and fruits for sorting work.  Then the teacher said, "if your paper cups are still in the shape of a cylinder, we will collect them and use them again later."   Some of the children had been playing with their cups but many of them helped to collect and save the cups.   The concept of sustainability is taught even at the youngest classrooms in our school.

We then thanked the class for sharing in their celebration and headed outside until dismissal a few minutes later.    It was a very nice celebration.   We're looking forward to celebrating with my son in a month when he turns four.

The Big Boy Update:  You're a bad guy.    This bad guy thing is going on and on.   My son is no longer telling people he wants to kill them, but he's telling everyone and everything they're bad guys when he doesn't like something, doesn't get his way, is bothered by something, is mad, etc.   We know he needs to express himself, but we're trying to come up with a way to help him explain how he feels without labeling everyone as bad people.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Three.   Today my daughter is three.   She is a very happy three-year-old.   We had the honor of Mimi and Gramps coming to town to help her celebrate today.   They took us out to lunch at our favorite lunch Japanese/Thai restaurant and then Mimi spent all afternoon with the children.  We had phone calls from many family members wishing my daughter a happy birthday and a special visit from our next-door-neighbors with gifts for my daughter and an early gift for my son's upcoming birthday next month.   It was a great third birthday.