Today was my 5 year old’s first day of Kindergarten. You know cowboys and how sometimes they wear chaps? Well I was part cowgirl this morning, except the chaps had just one leg. And it looked a lot like my 5 year old. He’s been acting like it will be no big deal all summer and then, as I take a sharp right into a parking spot at school, I hear it. A high pitched sound, a cross between Pavarotti doing super soprano  and a bunny rabbit stuck in barbed wire (don’t ask)…he is rubbing his eyes and really sad.  We slowly walk down the sidewalk, the leg with him attached dragging behind me.  After my initial thought of “let’s blow this place and head over to Target”, I gain some sense and tell him Sponge Bob has done all he can for his education, it is time to pull out a red marker at an unexpected time, recite the days of the week to a grown up who may seem distracted and eat soggy pb&j’s. But this time, he’ll be doing it at school.

By the end of the day, I’m a wreck. My bloodshot eyes are aching and I notice how much I look like  Nick Nolte’s mugshot when I’m stressed.  I spend hours reminiscing over  baby stories of my 5 year old ( with my 2 year old who seems disinterested as she  shoves sunflower seeds in the fish tank). I am popping  candy corn like  vitamins, finding the toothpaste glob in his sink kinda sweet, smiling gently at the clothes and Spiderman paraphernalia oozing out of his drawers and off his bed and wait ..is that my new comforter under his bed? With a hole cut out of it the size of his body? I AM GONNA…anyway, where was I?.

So I basically mourned all day, but at 3 pm picked up a smiley, bright eyed and bouncy 5 year old who said “school is great!!!”

Whew! What a relief! Now, hopefully no more changes for awhile. I don’t adjust well.

My 2nd grader then joins us and as I kiss the top of his head..he steps back. “Mom…kissing me in public is kinda girly.” Oh yeah…right. I’ll be in the car, with my candy corn.