Kindergarten Woes

Little Grantie is 5 and the summer is winding down. This means that it's time for him to start on his long journey to greater education. Today was his Kindergarten Orientation. He was going to meet his new teacher and see his classroom and get "comfortable" with the entire situation. We live across the street from the Elementary School so it was a quick jaunt in the rain. Grant was not in opposition mode on the walk over. But after walking into such a large expanse of a building, he realized there was no backing out. And when Grant is faced with a situation where there's not a way to back out, he digs in his heels, literally. So his nice teacher came to collect him for a little fieldtrip to the classroom while we parents got the principal schpeel. Grant stood firm on that cafeteria floor, not budging. This is what he does when he doesn't want to do something. I offered to walk him to his classroom, knowing really this was the only option unless these poor parents wanted to be subjected to a total mommy/son melt down. So we walked. And the teacher saw me with him and in her quest to make the students more independent, she grabbed him gently by the hand and he gave me the nod that he was alright. It was then that I realized he had taken off the chalkboard sized name tag that they had hung around his neck. I got back to my table and there it sat. Again, I smiled inside. This is so Grantie. About 20 minutes later, he came back into the cafeteria to be reunited with me. I could see a twinkle in his eye and I knew he had enjoyed himself. He told me he was supposed to walk me back to his classroom to show me around and he informed me they would have cookies for us to eat. He went right to the classroom--good sense of direction already. He doesn't get that from me. I would have been over in the 6th grade hall had it not been for Grant. We partook of the cookies--Chips Ahoy special. And on the way out of the classroom, Grant tells me "Those were great cookies Mom. But I don't understand how they made them so fast". The assistant principal was in front of us and she chuckled, as I'm sure she finds reason to do on a daily basis with so many children around. We walked toward home, in the rain. Grant told me he wanted to stay in Kindergarten and he refused now to go back to preschool (he has 2 more days). Oy vey! So after some additional coaxing and another threat of a mommy/son melt down, we were on our way to preschool. Some parents, especially mothers get all sad and teary-eyed on the day their child crosses into Kindergarten. I'm there, providing the teacher with child-sized catcher's mitt, fully waiting for that cross over. It's not because I don't totally adore being a parent, because I truly do. It's because I'm excited to see one of my children grow, to see them take steps toward independence, and to know that they're learning. It's all a happy cycle. Then someday when he's trying to take me to the nursing home, I'm going to do the same thing to him. I'll dig in my heels, I will take off my big ol' moomoo and lay it on the table and run naked through the nursing home so that he can chase me down and surprise me with a plate of prune cookies or something. I know, not a pretty image. But life is about coming full circle.

Love ya Grantie. This is a picture of him with chocolate cake all over his mouth.