Some days it feels like nothing happens. Other days it feels like everything happens. And some days you can kinda feel your world shift, even if just a little. Thursday was a shifting kind of day.
After dropping off the little guy at his morning nursery program, the babe and I headed over to her "new" school...that's right, we paid a visit to the local elementary school. At the end of August, the babe will be officially entering kindergarten at our neighborhood public school. I am excited about moving beyond private preschool, but intimidated by the prospect of her joining the world of the "big" kids.
The orientation went well. I think we both felt good about it and neither of us ran into any speed bumps (she had some time with her future classmates in a real classroom while the grown ups chatted with the Principal). I had a good meeting with the school nurse about the babe's food allergies/Epi pens and can say that overall, I was impressed with the people. Sadly, I was not impressed with the physical building and am glad the babe can't see the public elementary school I attended in Canada as a youngster. That said, if I had to chose, I would rather be impressed with the people than the building.
The orientation ended with a little tour of the neighborhood in a big 'oll yellow school bus. When I asked the babe what her favorite part of orientation was, I bet you can guess what she answered. Yup. The school bus ride. While the babe was fascinated by everything about the bus, I spent the whole ride wondering why school buses don't have seat belts. I really don't understand how it is so important for me to carefully buckle my kids into their car seats yet they are able to flop around school bus seats as if they were on solid ground. But I digress...
The babe is growing up. She is heading to kindergarten. I am growing up. My oldest daughter is heading to kindergarten. But what really made the day monumental was that my folks put their house on the market and sold it in a day. This is a house I lived in. This is a house I have visited for the past 18 years. And this is my folks downsizing and moving on from our "family" home.
The combination of kindergarten orientation with the prospect of losing our family home made it a "growing up" kinda day for little old moi. And while part of me wanted to buy the house, move back to Ottawa and enroll the babe in a nice Canadian elementary school, the other part of me realized that time passes and things change more on some days than others. You just gotta roll with it. And maybe shed a tear (or two).
No comments:
Post a Comment