(It took me 3 minutes to be sure I spelled that properly and I'm still not sure that I did.)
Anyway, this time next week, my son, my first baby, will officially be a Kindergartener.
*dramatic pause to let that echo into silence*
What a long strange summer it has been and Kindergarten has been at the center of my internal focus all the while. It has gone from The-Thing-Of-Which-We-Will-Not-Speak to the most exciting event in my life since Bon was born. That sounds bad, I know, and it is a little bit because after spending the last few months thisclose with my terrific trio, I am ready for a breather. My excitement isn't all about evicting my Number One Son from the house, though, far from it as I will desperately miss him five seconds after the bus doors (The bus! OMG!) close behind him. No, I'm excited mainly for him because even though he thinks otherwise, Kindergarten is the start of a wonderful time in his life.
Jack could have gone to Kindergarten last year. Born in late August, he would have made the September 1 deadline by a mere 7 days. Tom and I decided to go with when he SHOULD have been born (October 15) rather than when he ACTUALLY was born (August 23) which meant another year at his preschool which has an excellent Readiness program for older kids on the Kindergarten bubble.
We got lots of flak for our decision. Relatives thought we were saying he wasn't smart enough. (On the contrary, he's extremely bright, that was never the issue.) A neighbor accused us of redshirting him. (Yeah, our goal was to hold him back so that he'd be really big and ready to kick ass when they play dodgeball on the playground.) His teachers, however, agreed wholeheartedly with our decision, confirming that he was definitely smart enough to handle the workload but not necessarily mature enough to handle the pressure. We agreed, knowing another year could only benefit our little stress monster. He worked through some of his fear issues this year and I'm so proud of him, so happy to say that he is emotionally stronger and definitely ready to enter the big, wide world of elementary school now.
I know he is ready. He is not so sure. He says it's too long of a day (I totally agree but never to his face) and he's concerned that it will be too much time away from me. And his video games.
That last one makes me wish we'd sent him last year.
He is very concerned about staying for lunch. Occasionally, he'd stay at preschool for an extra hour and have lunch there so he's no stranger to lunch away from home, away from me. He's really fixated on the lunch thing, though, convinced they are going to make him eat "weird things, Mom. I know they are going to make me eat weird things and they are going to make me finish them." I have promised to pack his lunch each and every day and fill it with all the foods that he loves. I have explained that they will not make him eat anything that they serve there since he won't have the money to pay for it. He remains unconvinced. Somewhere along the line, I stopped being the ultimate authority on everything and he hasn't even stepped foot on the bus yet. What the heck?
His other concern is that we will no longer be able to have weekly playdates with my best friend Megan and her children. Our sons are the best of friends as are our daughters. It is so sweet to see. Both boys start Kindergarten next week which has had Megan and I sad that our regular meet-ups will be largely curtailed. I had no idea that the boys had caught on until I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago and Jack wailed, "No, Mom!!! We're almost out of time to be with our friends before we can never see them anymore! We have to see them as much as we can before SCHOOL!" He spit out "school" like the most vicious expletive and it broke my heart to hear his sorrow and know he'd been internalizing his thoughts about school as the killer of fun times rather than the source of them.
Other than actively airing his lunch woes and complaining about the crimp in his social calendar, he's just passively unenthusiastic about the whole endeavor. Who knows what is going on in his mind -- still waters run VERY deep with The Boy -- but he doesn't seem too anxious.
Maybe because I'm not. Oh no, not me. Every time he wakes the baby from a much needed nap waaaay before she would awaken on her own, I get that much more excited for the start of school. Bring. It. On.
Shirts are ironed, school bag is packed, Jonathan T. Tobin is ready to go! Well, his stuff is ready to go, at least.
Remind me how excited I was tonight when I'm bawling next Sunday night, okay? Thanks.
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