We've Arrived

It's happened! We've arrived at this elementary school, and my firstborn son has entered Kindergarten.In a sense, it's as if there's been this whole march of crowds of people that have been walking on this journey of formal education. It's this road that I have watched others walk down, but I have been no more than an observer. These people have all *known*, they could wink at one another and say yes, my kid is in this cycle of life, too, we have passed the potty-training and preschool years, we have passed the days of here & there schedules, we have passed the days when staying up late didn't have much consequence.I feel like Enn and I walked up to these hundreds of people walking on this Road of Education, and watched & waited for an opening, and then we stepped in, and now we are walking along, we have waved goodbye to the former days of weekday morning playdates and as a mother, I can now say I truly have a Big Kid. I have a child in elementary school. I am not some new mommy trying to figure out what stroller to buy for the first time. Five years have passed since I felt crazy about nursing and was tearing my hair out over his lack of weight gain and his nearly "failure to thrive" situation. He was just so tiny, but mostly, not growing, and then before I knew it, he was the chubbiest, roundest baby I'd ever seen.  He was intense and he had glowing little dark eyes. And we made new mommy/baby friends, and then we lost some mommy/baby friends. It seemed so painful & hard at the time. But the months & years have come & gone, preschool is over for him, and here he is, confidently taking on kindergarten like he owns the place.  He literally walked into the classroom in one of his first visits and tried to "fix" the class calendar because he was certain that Mrs. B had done it wrong.That's my boy!