Africa & Australia

A while ago, I posted here that we were considering splitting the kids into separate bedrooms. Well, we didn't end up doing it, although there are still some days that I think we should.

But, now, we are making the jump and splitting them up...in daycare. Our kids attend a Montessori-type daycare. Now, I'm not an education person, and we primarily chose our daycare on which one had the best vibe while we were there (oh, yes, and that was clean, would work with us on Tanner's medical stuff, and had a great local reputation). The one interesting thing about this daycare is that they blend ages. They have two classrooms for the little kids (age 12 mos - 2.5 years) and four classrooms for the big kids (age 2.5 years - 5 years). Most schools only have one room for each age group - and the kids would have had to have been together. This gives us the unique opportunity to split them before we hit kindergarten.

I always believed I'd be one of those twin parents who would keep their twins together - and go to the school board to fight if they wouldn't let me. I thought it would be better for Tanner's medical condition, but now that he's normal, well that shot that argument all to hell.

Since Morgan has become much better at speaking, she spends a majority of her time telling Tanner what to do "Tanner eat your food", "Tanner no-no", "Tanner don't say that", "Tanner....". You get the picture. And, Tanner, well, his favorite words right now are "NO!". He really seems to resent the constant direction, and I pointed out to Randy that he may never get married as he's been nagged his whole childhood.

We've struggled with this decision, but a a few weeks ago Tanner had the opportunity to spend the whole day at school by himself. The teachers said he was a whole different kid - talking up a storm (he receives speech therapy, so this was a shocker), playing, laughing, dancing. And, Morgan, well, when Tanner isn't around, she desperately misses him ("where's Tanner", "Tanner, where are you?", "what's Tanner doing?"), but she also needs to learn that she can't boss him around all the time.

So, in the next week and a half when the kids are moved up to their new classrooms, Tanner will be moved into Australia (the classrooms are named after the continents) and Morgan will be moved into Africa. The rooms are adjacent to each other, and the kids will be able to see each other during recess (which is three times a day). It'll be intersting to see how they change.