Throwback Thursday Part 2

During our second month as parents, we got to bring our children home from the hospital.  I remember the process of leaving almost as vividly as each detail of the day Mia and Ava were born.  Mate rushed to Rainbows from work and we began loading cart after cart with all the belongings we amassed after 52 days of hospital living. Each trip from our room, through the hospital, to the parking garage took longer than the last, but, finally, we walked out of those doors with two tiny baby girls.  The first month at home was filled with follow-up appointments and the beginning of our Help Me Grow journey (more about that, here). I am thinking about that quite a bit today because I just returned from Mia and Ava's first parent-teacher conference.  Early on, we were very unsure about how their development would be affected by their prematurity. To go from inviting early intervention specialists into our home to hearing that they are reading at an emerging 2nd grade level is overwhelming. There was so much worry in the beginning about their breathing, their weight, their height, their growth, their eyes, their hearts, their brains, their future. While there is still so much for them to learn and know and become, I feel like I can breathe a giant sigh of relief. 

Their first moments at home

By the way, while our girls have a handle on this whole reading thing, they haven't quite figured out how to contain their giggles at school. Apparently, someone will do something silly, Ava will copy it and then Mia will start laughing.  Once Ava and Mia start laughing, the whole class starts laughing and the teachers have a bit of a hard time settling everyone back down.  Contagious giggles may not be the worst thing in the world, but I can only imagine how frustrating that can be for their teachers.  Can we blame a lack of self-control on prematurity???