I was a little nervous about the ceremony – not nervous about how Joshua would do, but nervous that it would be, you know, torture for all involved.

But, set your expectations low, and they will be exceeded.  It was so good.  All 60-odd kindergartners did great!  They sang, they played handbells, they walked across the stage and got their diplomas – and every part was adorable.  Nobody cried, peed, disrobed, or even picked their nose.  It was like, perfect.  I am sure the teachers breathed a big sigh of relief!

And I got a little weepy more than once.  How could I not?  I am this child’s mother:

Here he is walking toward his principal, Mrs. Hines, to get his diploma:

What’s super-special about this is that “Mrs. Hines” is better known as “Rita” to me, because she is my mom’s BFF and has known me since I was born. It is really cool for me that she is Joshua’s principal!

Joshua has changed so much this year – almost all for the better – and I am so proud of him! I couldn’t be any prouder. I’m so thankful to be his mommy and excited about what his next years of learning and growing at school will bring!

Yesterday I was reading the e-mail “Parent Page” Joshua’s kindergarten teacher sends out and it said “I can’t believe there are only 8 days of school left.”

WHAT???

Holy Denial, Batman!

I knew Joshua’s last day of school (and Kindergarten graduation ceremony) was June 3rd, but until I read that, I hadn’t fully realized how close that is. I’ve been so busy trying not to vomit that I’ve really had my head in the sand.  Or, more accurately in the toilet.  Or in a Kroger bag in the Kroger parking lot.  But you know what I mean.

It’s almost over.

Kindergarten.  All those months I agonized about it, that first week when Joshua cried every day, all those subsequent weeks when he came home full of confidence and VOLUME and practically speaking a new language, they are almost over!  Kindergarten.  My baby’s about done with it.

Yesterday I was in his room gathering some laundry and I picked up a pair of his Thomas the Tank Engine underpants.  He’s pretty much over Thomas now.  We recently bequeathed his choo-choo table and all his Thomas paraphernalia to his cousins James and Joel.

So I stared at his Thomas underoos and was really, really sad that he has outgrown them…emotionally at least.  How long before it’s no longer cool to wear even Batman or Cars Movie underpants?  When will he decide that none of the cool kids have cartoons on their undies??

I got a wee bit weepy.

He’s such a big boy.  Is it wrong that I want to keep him in underoos forever?

Joshua has changed so much since going to kindergarten.  Bobby and I count the ways and add to them often.  I am sure Emily and I will both have a post at the end of the year about the innumerable ways kindergarten has affected our kiddos and about the million things they have learned.  I giggle when I say this, but in truth, some of this learning has been a wee bit inconvenient for mom and dad.

Like for instance, the unit on weather that Joshua’s class did a couple of months ago where he learned about tornadoes.  And the accompanying tornado drills.  The combination of which has now rendered him terrified of  the possibility of a tornado.  Yippeee!

The other day, he asked me what month it was, because he knew while he was on spring break from school it was going to turn from March into April.

“It’s April,” I replied.

“Oh NO! APRIL!  TORNADOES!” he wailed.  I guess they learned in school that tornadoes are more likely to happen during the spring, which to him means April.  Anyway, he was fairly sure a funnel cloud was going to form instantly and carry us all away.

Yesterday morning shortly after waking, he started in on his tornado talk as we were snuggling on the couch.

“What if we can’t get to the basement on time?  How come it can’t get us if we’re under the ground?”

I tried to convince him he didn’t need to worry about it, but he has taken to not believing a word I say, so it was difficult!

Then yesterday afternoon in the car on the way to Target, he said, “I know a tornado isn’t going to come when I die.”

“What do you mean, honey?”

“Well, God made heaven a happy place, and when I die, I’ll go there, and since God made it like that, no tornadoes can come there.”

GREAT. Now we’re talking about death AND tornadoes.  Yippeee!!

Last night as he was going potty before bed, he asked my husband, “What if a tornado comes while I’m sitting on the potty?”

FOR THE LOVE!!!

Then, 2.2 seconds after I tucked him into bed, the world’s LOUDEST thunderstorm began.  The kind that had me running around lighting candles and checking the TV to see if there were in fact, any tornado watches or warnings.

As you can guess, Joshua was a bit, um, AFRAID.  It took some creative talking to get him calmed down enough to where he could fall asleep.

I have a feeling this tornado talk isn’t over.  Ohio is a stormy place in the spring!  With my kindergarten boy and all his new weather knowledge, I think it’s going to be a very long rainy season.

I drop Kate off at my grandma’s on my way to work in the morning, and then my grandma takes her to school. As I left this morning, Kate told me she wasn’t feeling well and that her throat hurt and her back hurt (enter my suspicion – throat and back ailments aren’t a typical combination). She seemed ok, so I headed on, but about halfway through my commute she called again to tell me she wasn’t feeling good (despite her nutritious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and ice cream, which of course was the only thing that could possibly make her throat feel better). We agreed that Grandma would take her temperature, and if she didn’t have a fever, she’d go to school.

Great.

Except she called me again about 15 minutes later, still insisting that she didn’t feel well and she couldn’t go to school. I could, of course, be totally wrong about this, but I really do not think she is sick. Moms can tell these things, right? Yeah, famous last words. So in any case, we decided she would go to school and I said if she still felt bad there, she could have the secretary call me. I am banking on the fact that once she gets there, she will be fine.

However.

After I got off the phone with her, I checked my calendar and wouldn’t you know it, today is the day Kate will get the H1N1 vaccine at school. This day totally crept up on me. I was planning to prepare her for it, but I totally didn’t, and I was afraid that if I called her and told her after all we had gone through debating her attendance today anyway, that it would be a giant disaster.

So now she’s headed to school as we speak (or I type), blissfully unaware of the fact that she’s going to be vaccinated today. Unless, of course, she does know about the vaccination because of school announcements (the same way she found out about the skating party last week that I was conveniently not going to mention), and that’s where this entire problem is coming from.

Or maybe she is sick, and I didn’t believe her. And if she is sick, she shouldn’t be getting the vaccination. And that, my friends, would be a parenting fail of epic proportions.

The bad news is, although Joshua is apparently very good at school, he grows horns and a tail at 3:15 every day when he walks through the door. From about 3:15 to 5:00 pm every day, he is cranky, tired, fussy, and sometimes disrespectful. He has also discovered a new Olympic sport which practices hard at every afternoon called “Aggravating his sister”.

The other day after school, I don’t remember why exactly, he pointed his finger at me and mouthed off when I asked him to do something.

“Do you talk to your teacher like that?” I asked.

He made a HORRIFIED face. “NO!” he gasped, as if it was the worst thing I had ever suggested.

“Then you don’t talk to me like that. You respect me and behave for me just like you do your teacher!”

Needless to say, I am punishing him appropriately. Seriously, I don’t take that crap.

BUT. On one level or another, it continues. And Emily says since Kate has gone to kindergarten, she has become much more needy and emotional.

So tell me, when do these kindergarteners get over this? Please say it’s soon! I miss my sweet baby boy!

I just got home from dropping Joshua off at kindergarten. He did SUCH a great job. Miraculously, neither of us cried. His only wavering moment was when we said a quick goodbye. He said, “But who will tell me what to do?”

“Mrs. Krumlauf will,” I reassured him, and Bobby and I got while the getting was good.

But we didn’t want to leave him.

Fortunately, his classroom has two windows that sappy parents like us can peer through, and his desk was positioned so that he had his back to us, so we watched him as long as we could.

If I could, I’d watch him all day! I’m going to miss him so much today, my little boy. How can I leave him with someone else for 6.5 hours a day? Who will make sure he eats enough bites of his fruit and CHEWS for that matter at lunchtime? What if he can’t get his pants snapped after going to the bathroom? What if another kid HURTS HIS FEELINGS??? I can’t take it.

But I guess I have to.

Joshua is the kind of kid who will love, love, LOVE school, and do well at it. I know he is ready, and I am SO proud of him. But dangit, I am gonna miss havin’ this sweetheart little guy home with me every day. Wouldn’t you?

Last night we went to a parent’s meeting and open house at Joshua’s school. It is the same school Bobby and I went to, but it’s in a different location now. The building houses K-12 and it’s ginormous. I am fairly sure it will take ME all year to learn how to get from Joshua’s classroom to the parking lot. I am sure Joshua will pick it up much quicker than I.

The meeting was great, but still, at the end, I texted Emily, “I don’t wanna have a kindergartener!”

I don’t want my little boy to be this BIG.

Several times that night, Joshua said to Bobby and I, “I’m really afraid you’re going to leave me here.” He meant right then – and we assured him we weren’t going to leave him there…until Tuesday. Then, we are definitely leaving him there. It about killed me.

Joshua met his teacher, found his desk and his cubbie, and as soon as we walked in, saw his friend Ethan that will be in his class. He met a couple of other kids who will be in the class too, and we walked alllll the way around the room and Bobby and I made him look at ev-ree-thing. Then, since he’d humored us for so long, we let him play on the school playground for awhile. This was, of course, his favorite part.

He left at the end of the night happy and confident, and I can only hope he can summon up the same courage for Tuesday, when Bobby and I will, indeed, have to leave him there. All day.

I know I am going to need a heavy dose of it as well.

I’m not sure how it happened, because really it was not very long ago that they looked like this:

They’ve grown so much since then, and even though Jenny and I (ok, mostly Jenny) are bound to be a nostalgic, weepy mess in the coming days, we are both so, so proud of these two kids. We are so thankful that we’ve had the opportunity to watch them learn and grow in the last five and a half years.

And we are absolutely confident that they are ready for the next step of their journey.

Those two? They will do great.

The two of us? That remains to be seen.