Okay okay, I know i’m supposed to be giddy with excitement that my kid’s all day drama is now the teacher’s to deal with, and I am. I’m overjoyed. I’m ecstatic that we’ve made it through another summer and into yet another school year. Schedules, tasks, work, lunches, laundry, filled days, practices and due dates.
But each year it gets a little more real that time is never stopping. (except around mid July when it seems summer will never end)
Maybe it’s the friends I have with older kids always cautioning me that I’ll miss these days. Maybe it’s the Hallmark commercials or maybe it’s just my old lady hormones kicking in. Each night I ask myself how much longer he’ll still want goodnight kisses. How much longer could he possibly want to be read a bedtime story? How much time before he stops coming to me with his frustrations and challenges? Once in a while he still reaches out to hold my hand and I have to pretend it doesn’t melt my heart or he wont ever do it again.
My oldest is a 5th grader as of tomorrow. While he has always been the most challenging child on the planet, he is my little man. He’s the little blonde-haired blue-eyed boy that introduced me to motherhood and has been with me through all of it ever since. Big, bad, ugly, funny, silly, and beautiful. No matter what I do he still seems to want me around for hugs and kisses at the end of the day.
How much longer have I got? I know that I take a zillion pictures, but it’s because looking back at how far both of my children have come is my trophy. I don’t take (many) photos of the challenging moments because that isn’t what makes this experience rewarding necessarily. Those moments of tantrums and shouted words are burned into my brain already. The pictures are to remind me that we keep going. We get through the tough stuff, we move along and savor the good.
Here’s to another school year. Cheers to accomplishments and growth and knowing we still have at least now to hug and hold and love these creatures we’ve made before the hormones take them to The Upside Down
Sarcasmica 