About nine months ago, less than a month after we moved back in Cebu after almost two years in the US, Jeff and I decided to enroll the twins in a local day care center.
The decision was brought about by the realization that the twins need to interact with other children. Them being built-in playmates was not enough.
I also had vested interest: I wanted them to speak Bisaya more often.
Their first day of school was a disaster.
They kicked and cried and would not want to sit down on the chairs the teacher saved for them.
They both laid down on the floor.
We are talking of a public day care center in a small village called San Vicente in the northern Cebu town of Liloan. It’s not a posh playroom meant for rich children.
Three times a week, I would try as hard as I can to bring them to school. On other days, Ate Joy took that responsibility. Still on other days, Jeff would guide them to our suki tricycle and bring them to school.
At 6:30 in the morning, Ate Joy gives them a shower. They get dressed and by 6:50, the twins will be knocking on our door to say “Good morning parents!” Jeff would then usher them downstairs where he would cook breakfast for them. Antoinette is his assistant while Nicholas would be seated by the learning corner “reading” a book if he’s not too busy experimenting on the next greatest discovery known to man since Nicolaus Copernicus pushed the idea, using a heliocentric model, that the sun is the center of the universe.
Breakfast is devoured by 7:30 and they’re ready for school by 7:45. The school is only five to 10 minutes away from our house so we have plenty of time to get there before the prayer and national anthem starts at 8:00 in the morning.
It has been nine months since we’ve followed this routine and I’m happy to report that 95% of the time, except in cases when they woke up on the wrong side of the bed, Nick and Toni are well behaved and participative in class.
That was a loooong nine months and today, they will be in their school uniforms – Nick in blue and Toni in pink – for their class picture and moving up ceremony rehearsal.
This is not college graduation, I know.
But still I’m a teary-eyed stage mother who’s proud and happy to see her twins complete their first school year.
It’s not the world’s biggest academic achievement.
But it certainly is a Casa Ruffolo’s milestone in the fields of patience and endurance.
When you have twin toddlers, this means a lot.
So congratulations to me, to Jeff, to Ate Joy, to the drivers Efren and Temiong, to my Mommy who had to babysit at some point, and even to Jeff Jr. who in his baby mind managed to survive his siblings’ first school year.
The next school year is another story.
Expect more tears from yours truly.
