Now We (Actually) Know Our ABC's:
An Alphabet for Mom
By Sarah Hart
K is for Kindergarten . . . and Kaspie
Yesterday was a big day: Kindergarten registration for my 5-year-old. She was distraught for a month last fall over the fact that she was not old enough to go to school. Every day it was "Mommy, I want to ride the yellow bus like sissy!" So, this was an extra big day.
As I wandered in with my soon-to-be "big girl," a mound of paper (immunization records, birth certificate, a hundred miscellaneous "please sign here" forms) in hand, I began talking with a couple of the moms I know who were registering their kids, too. I marveled as I realized five minutes into our conversation that we had begun talking about when they were just little babies, labor experiences, issues of weight (theirs, not ours), what we knew about them immediately upon first holding them, bringing them home.
Wait, what? I started considering what I was talking about. See, Evie is my last child (I think) and so, next year, there will be a bit more freedom for mom. I will be able to work from 9-3, every day, for real . . . uninterrupted (yes, Lord, I promise not to squander it. . . I will write faithfully, every day . . . sure God, 150 songs a year . . . except when Kohl's has their 12 hour sale, cause I just can't miss that). I have been telling my husband and friends that I am looking forward to not having to work until 1:00 a.m. (I hope); having a bit more "normalcy." So shouldn't I be less sentimental about this?
But . . . the realization that she is growing up hit me harder than I thought it would yesterday. I have LOVED having her with me this year — her last at home — and time alone with her while her sister was in school. It is something that will be gone in September, along with the 4T clothes that she has almost outgrown, the hours of coloring and Barbies, our Monday trips to Subway for lunch, swinging in the backyard whenever we feel like it, the afternoon "Wow Wow Wubzy" time. And those minutes will not come back. They will only as photographs in my heart's camera.
So, God, let me treasure these fleeting moments now, while it is April. For September is coming fast. And so is middle school . . . high school . . . college . . . oh, dear.
So who is Kaspie, you might be wondering? Kaspie is Evie's imaginary friend, who loves Hamtaro, monkey bars, sleepovers and turkey bologna. And Evie has already informed me, the staff at her new school, and half the county that Kaspie will be coming with her to Kindergarten. You go, little girl!
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.
~ Mildred B. Vermont
When loving them most means letting them go
from a place they will always belong,
then from one mother to another,
we pass the love,
we pass the love along.
- Laurie Webb and Sarah Hart