Who's Who? The Big Switcheroo!

Harry, on the first day of school with...

Malcolm (just to confuse things, Malcolm is wearing red, which is Harry's favorite color).  When they were babies and toddlers, I would dress Harry in red and Malcolm in blue to help US tell them apart.

OK, they've done it.  Already.  I got a call from Harry's teacher on Day 8 of first grade, 15 minutes after school began.  "I'd like to tell you about an incident that happened this morning."  My first comment was, "Already?  It's only 9:20am."  Harry and Malcolm, who have different teachers, different classes and different lives this year, went into the bathroom, switched their clothes and each went to the other one's classroom.  They found each other's seats, evidently, by "reading the nametag" on each of the desks.  Of course!  How silly of me to wonder that.

Harry's teacher, upon addressing whom she thought was Harry, in this case Malcolm, immediately spilled the beans and said, "I'm not Harry.  I'm Malcolm.  Harry's in MY classroom."  He apparently began sobbing and was still crying when she called me.  I asked if she needed me to come down and help Malcolm calm down and/or deal with these two as the school clearly now has their hands as full as mine usually are.  She said that it was not necessary and explained that the Asst. Principal happened to be walking by during all of the commotion.

The Asst. Principal as well as each of their teachers talked to both children and explained how this could pose a safety issue.  They didn't really explain this part to me but I assumed it meant something along the lines of "your teacher needs to know where you are at all times" with the caveat "even if you look EXACTLY like your brother and we think each one of you is accounted for properly".

I was shocked, horrified...and AMUSED!  I couldn't believe that they'd figured out this scenario already!  I went so far as to think that one of my older kids put one or the other up to it, but I was not even close!  They came up with it all by themselves.  "We each wanted to see what the other one's classrooms and teachers were like."

Harry and Malcolm are very, very bonded.  I know twins are anyway, but it seems the added dimension of being monozygotic (i.e. identical), looking alike and people CONSTANTLY getting them mixed up (um, me being one of the guilty parties here) makes the bond even stronger.

They have been separated in 1/2-day preschool and reunited for the last hour.  They were also apart in kindergarten but each child went for a different 1/2 of the day and had the same teacher.  This year, well, there was just too much "gone-ness" between them!  When they got home, I sat them down individually (not an easy task.  Did I mention they are BONDED and inseparable?).  I talked to both of them about the safety factor that the school and I had discussed.  I also enlightened them as to the fact that this was indeed lying and lying is NOT tolerated in our house.  They lost TV for the remainder of the day and evening and the school posed no consequences.

I went fairly easy on them as I really didn't think they knew the ramifications of their actions.  Plus, I thought it was pretty darn clever, but I would NEVER tell them that!  Deep breath.  What's next?  I don't want to know.