Well, here\u2019s our first day of school picture\u2026three days late.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let me explain. The twins had a first day of a sort-of preschool last week (also didn\u2019t get a picture). It’s like starter school for three-year-olds. And then on their second day, Jonas pooped. Everybody poops, right?<\/p>\n

Apparently not everybody poops at school. Because I got a phone call that maybe just maybe I should keep him home for two weeks and really \u201cknock out\u201d this potty training thing. Clearly, they don\u2019t know my kid. And clearly they don\u2019t know much about potty training if they think keeping him home to think about what he\u2019s done (or not done) while his sister is at school will do the trick. It would be total anarchy on all fronts.<\/p>\n

After this phone call, we took a day to re-evaluate our lives and came to the conclusion that our mojo was not jiving with this particular place. Oil and water. Sand and swimsuits. Spinach and teeth. It just wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

I had the DTR with the director of the preschool. It wasn\u2019t fun. I hate break-ups. The first serious boyfriend I ever had I broke up with over IM. I know. It probably would have been over text if such a thing had existed back then. I\u2019m not good at confrontation. No matter how upset I am, I somehow end every sentence like a question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really isn\u2019t a good fit for us?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNegative reinforcement in potty training is a bad idea?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do what works for our family?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not going to be running around in underwear in two weeks?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHave a great school year?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

With Charlie it is easier. I am forceful. I am the advocate for his special needs. I am the Wonder Woman to his little civilian self. He needs me. The twins of course need me too\u2026they\u2019re only three. But because I fall into the \u201ctypical\u201d mom role with them I\u2019m always second-guessing myself. With Charlie, it\u2019s a noble life we lead, and war we fight, for fairness and free speech and free play and all the rest. But with the twins, I always catch myself asking, \u201cAm I doing this right? Am I asking too much? Am I creeping up on this problem in the right way?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange to think that I am more comfortable as the special needs mom than the regular mom. It\u2019s strange to think that parenting Charlie might be easier in some ways than parenting the twins.<\/p>\n

Such is life\u2026 our strange life anyway. We keep on trucking through poop and new starts and new school years. I think every mom has a different identity, at least a little bit, with each kid she parents because they all need us in different ways.<\/p>\n

I am advocate.<\/p>\n

I am listener.<\/p>\n

I am disciplinarian.<\/p>\n

I am big old softy.<\/p>\n

I am hugs.<\/p>\n

I am time outs.<\/p>\n

I am arms and legs.<\/p>\n

I am soft lap.<\/p>\n

I am circus clown.<\/p>\n

I am lecturer.<\/p>\n

I am master chef.<\/p>\n

I am ice cream for dinner.<\/p>\n

I am the woman God made me to be for each one of my babies and I\u2019m still learning\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, here\u2019s our first day of school picture\u2026three days late. Let me explain. The twins had a first day of a sort-of preschool last week (also didn\u2019t get a picture). It’s like starter school for three-year-olds. And then on their second day, Jonas pooped. Everybody poops, right? Apparently not everybody poops at school. Because I got a phone call that maybe just maybe I should keep him home for two weeks and really \u201cknock out\u201d …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11,26],"tags":[367,365,28,97,366,46,48,209,55,136,16,63,54,17,100,163,58,15,29],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/mombacktoschool.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ca5p-UT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3527"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3555,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions\/3555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}