School Photos

In a lot of ways, we find that preschool is like a concierge service for parents. We drop the boys off in the morning, where they run to play with toys and spend the day doing various activities. Someone else helps them clean up their mess, ensures they're fed and clean, and deals with the struggle of putting them down for naps. Although we occasionally feels twinges of guilt for not "working" as hard as we should to handle our children's necessities and spend more time with them, it's an undeniable truth of being a two-parent working family that daycare is a necessity. All that said, the preschool does lots of "little things" that really make having the kids there a pleasure. For example, the preschool periodically invites a hair stylist in to do hair cuts, so we send in a check and the kids come home with their hair coiffed. This is a task that Mommy and Daddy often don't tend to until the boys' hair curls to a length that rivals Cousins Rose's and Jasmine's.

Something else the preschool takes care of for us is pictures. While we take plenty at home with the digital camera, we've never taken the boys to a real photography studio (or even one of the shopping mall drive-thru style photo stores). Given that the boys are the only grandchildren on Daddy's side, we know that good, frame-worthy photographs are a requirement.

So how lucky are we that the preschool brings in a photographer semi-annually to take "real" pictures for us, with the prints received just in time for holiday gifts! (Perhaps one of the nicest things about being young parents of the only grandchildren is that holiday gifts are taken care of for the next 10 years or so. If the kids put their hand print on a t-shirt, *poof* it's a gift for Grandpa. If the children make a drawing, *poof* it's worthy of Grandma's refrigerator. If the children string together some beads on a pipe cleaner, *poof* it's a bracelet for one of their aunts.)

A photo was taken of each boy, with one picture of them together. Both boys look as handsome as ever, with Helios looking a bit more animated while Hesperos has the same half-frozen smile in each shot. What was the photographer making Hesperos look at to elicit such a look? We have no idea.

But what we do know is that you take take each of these pictures, put them in a frame, and then what do you have? That's right...

*poof* Christmas presents for the grandparents and great-grandparents!