Kindergarten here we come...

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller

Emerson ready to go to his first day of Kindergarten

How did our baby grow into a Kindergartener so fast? Where did that half decade go? When we brought home our newborn, I was so overcome by love for him I could not imagine him going away to school someday. In many ways that seems like yesterday, yet so much has changed in our lives that it seems like a very long time ago indeed. Fortunately, as that vulnerable, precious baby has grown he is showing us that he is pretty resilient and capable. He's a smart boy who loves to learn and loves to be with friends, and so I know school is the best place for him right now. That makes saying goodbye to him each day so much easier, but it is still bittersweet.

As the alarm went off this morning, it hit me that we had entered the end of an era. The era before alarm clocks. The time of staying in pajamas all day if we want to, reading books together for hours, going for nature walks or to the beach on a whim. The carefree days before school became a regular part of our days. I do find comfort in the fact that we get to return to that each summer, and there is something nice about having more structure to our days now.

I also notice how quiet our house is this morning without the constant airplane noises and questions and the stories that Emerson loves to tell. There is something so solemn about the toys he was playing with this morning laying silently where he had left them on the couch and the floor. Charlie feels it too, and he keeps saying that he wants to go to school. On the first day he insisted on wearing his backpack. Those two are such a sweet duo together.

Emerson and Charlie on their way to school.

I think more than anything I'm just so proud of Emerson. Proud at how brave he is to go to a new place, away from us. Proud at how curious he is and how much he loves to learn. I feel honored and grateful to have witnessed so much of his life so far, and proud of the hand I have had in raising this fine little boy to become who he is.

Overall, I think the hardest thing about going back to school for Emerson, for me, and probably universally for parents and children everywhere, is separating. My sweet little boy explained it to me best last week. I asked him if he was excited about school, and he said "no". I asked him why and he responded by making shapes with his hands in the air: the letter I, the shape of a heart, and the letter U. I heart U. Yes, that sums it up pretty well.