Last week we celebrated the kids’ last day of school and David’s preschool graduation.
Look at those excited faces! Those faces say WE CAN’T WAIT FOR SUMMER! We can’t wait to explore and go to the park and swim all day! And I’m like, AHA! JK KIDS! Mom only has one working arm so we aren’t leaving our yard for 12 weeks! HAPPY SUMMER!
Look at this one and all those curls.
She asked a lot of her teachers this year and they were so wonderful and loving in response. She took a stuffed toy to school every day, and at drop-off every morning as part of our routine I asked the teacher if Mary Virginia could be her special helper. And every time her teacher responded with delight and enthusiasm as if it was a surprise, as if she’d been wondering how she would get through the day without a little curly-haired shadow under her feet. “MARY VIRGINIA OF COURSE! I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO BE MY SPECIAL HELPER!”
Mary Virginia has learned and grown so much. David helped her a lot this year when she was feeling unsure at school, and it was incredible to see that facet of their brother-sister relationship. She will be the older sibling next year in preschool, and I think she will thrive in that role.
And then this guy, my almost-six-year-old, who grew in confidence and silliness and is so ready for kindergarten. This year he was a role model in his class, he reinforced academic readiness, and his teachers told me that when someone in his class needed a friend, David eagerly stepped into that role.
See that bag David’s holding? I bought it when he started preschool four years ago and planned to paint or sew his name on it, you know, when life slowed down a little. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
I can’t even type that without laughing. It’s so adorable that I thought slowing down was just over the horizon.
On the last day of school David could identify his bag from the other kids’ not because it was embroidered with his name but because it had a bunch of stains, a hole in the side and a broken strap held together with a staple.
Can we be sentimental together for a minute? I wrote this post on David’s first day of preschool. He’d just turned two, was mostly bald, wearing diapers, and slept in a crib. Back then he let me choose his clothes.
Now here he is all grown up and in the fall we’ll drop him off at a college where he’s going to wear the same pair of jeans for a month straight and hopefully eating Cheetos for at least two meals a day, because that would really make his mama proud.
We got to celebrate him at his preschool graduation (which he did last year, but this one was for real.)
On the way to the graduation I warned David that I might cry.
“Why will you cry, Mommy?” he asked.
“Because I’m so sad that you’re growing up! I want you to stay my little froggle dog forever!”
“Oh,” he said. “I thought you were going to say you would cry because you were so happy.”
David was right. At his graduation, watching my eldest celebrate this next phase of life, I could not help but think about how tentative I felt when I dropped David off for his first day of school four years ago. God has used David’s time in school in ways I could have never dreamed of. He’s grown in kindness and love, he has learned about friendship and forgiveness, not to mention the firm academic foundation with which he’s starting kindergarten. God has provided amazing teachers and incredible friendships, all an environment where he learned about letters, numbers, and also about the love of Christ. David has loved school.
Yes, these are happy tears.
Oh my goodness. What precious kids! Mine are younger but I know this day is coming for me! Seeing your older boy and younger girl was like looking into the future. Eek! Congrats to David and I hope you enjoy every moment this summer.