Kindergarten

This will be my 26th first day of school. My first one was in 1989. I remember my mom took me a day early. My hair had been fixed, my dress pressed, my backpack full of all my supplies. When we arrived and discovered we came on the wrong day, my mom and I both sat on the front steps of the school and cried. Neither one of us could wait for me to go to kindergarten. I have always thought back on this memory full of admiration for my mom. Most moms got weepy and clingy about things like kindergarten, middle school, prom, moving out - my mom was always overflowing with excitement. If she had any tendency toward weepiness, she never showed it. (Except of course on that day she brought me a day early to kindergarten.)

Now it's my turn. In two days, my son will get dressed, brush his teeth, grab his backpack, and begin one of the most important journeys upon which he will ever embark. 

We've been doing all sorts of things to prepare. Buying school supplies: 

Working on sight words:

And counting down the days:

I am mostly like my mom. I can't wait for him to go to kindergarten. I know he is going to love going to school, carrying his book bag, playing on the playground, eating in the lunchroom, having a classroom job, learning how to read. But a small part of me is like the other moms. I wonder where the time went. It doesn't seem possible that my little baby is not a little baby anymore, and in fact is ready for school!

Tomorrow we go meet his teacher and put his school supplies away. And as the details start getting closer and closer, I find myself wondering how he will do. How will he handle the first time he trips and falls on the playground? Who will his friends in his class be? How will he do in the lunchroom? I'm sure these are all normal, natural things to feel and wonder. And I'm not fretting. Truly. Just wondering. And praying that God will protect and use our boy!