Preschool Graduation thoughts

Julia the first day of Pre-K and last day of Pre-K.  What a difference 8 months makes!

I've been blessed to have a great group of "Mom" friends - we met at the hospital shortly after our first born children came along and so all our kiddos are right around the same age.  Over the years we've add many younger siblings to the group and the kids just have so much fun the frequent play groups.  Who knew that I'd meet some of my best friends at a hospital new Mom session 5.5 years ago?  Who knew I would wind up loving all these little children so much and thoroughly enjoy watching them grow up together, have their own conversations, and declaring who will be his/her future spouse!

Recently the Mom conversations have been centered around preschool graduation and amazement at how our children are ready for kindergarten already when none of us are quite ready yet!  It seems that I might be the only Mom in the group that didn't shed some tears at the end of preschool program.  In fact, I smiled a whole bunch.  I just LOVE watching all the little personalities come out in the end of year show.  Seeing which children shout, dance, jump about, which children are waving wildly at their parents, which children are taking the whole event very seriously and barely smiling (Julia falls into this category!) because they are so intent on not making a mistake.  I guess on some level I'm a bit sad that I won't be sitting in the preschool audience for Julia again, but I couldn't focus on that when I was so full of joy for getting to watch her in the first place!  I know that not every parent gets to enjoy these moments and that makes me treasure them all the more.  

The children went back to their classroom after the show while the parents were treated to a slide show set to music of snapshots of the children taken throughout the year.  I did find this a bit bittersweet and my eyes teared up a bit, but that didn't last very long because we headed on into the classroom for the presentation of their certificates.  It was just lovely!  The teacher described each child with a few sentences and then the child proudly walked up to get their certificate and gift from the two classroom teachers.  Julia was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her.  She really grew a lot in preschool - she is more outgoing, confident in her abilities, able to stand her ground with her peers.  I've loved watching her grow in such a supportive, nurturing preschool environment.  And I know she is ready for the next phase of her life - kindergarten.  I am sure we picked the perfect school environment for her and it's a bonus that it's a nice bonus that it just so happens to be the school where Chris works.  

Truly, I am not ready for Julia to start full-day, full week kindergarten.  Luckily for me we have the summer together and lots of fun stuff planned that I hope will make it easier for me to pack her up and send her off to her first day of school with her Dad.  I'm sure that I'll be shedding more than a few tears that day and probably more tears that week.  

And me not shedding any tears at Julia's preschool graduation ceremony?  Well, maybe I am getting better at living in and celebrating the moment - something I've been working on for what seems like forever!