Kindergarten Bound

Yesterday was a holiday for my company. I had an appointment to register Aidan for kindergarten at 9am. However, I woke to festival of school closings and the appointment had to be cancelled. Deep down, I was a little relieved. Naturally, I am excited for Aidan to start kindergarten, however, I am sad as well. We will forever be saying goodbye to the toddler stage of life and we are getting further and further from his baby days. Needless to say, Aidan and I cuddled a little closer last night.

This morning, however, the school called and asked if I could come in to register today. TODAY!? But, I wasn't prepared. I had all of my paperwork in order, immunization records, birth certificate, baptismal record, but I was not at all mentally prepared. I had prepared myself for the initial registration all weekend, but I was not prepared for this call and for the registration to proceed so quickly after I escaped yesterday. As I gathered my papers and headed out to the car, I thought to myself. How silly? How can you not be prepared? You were ready yesterday and it is simply registration. It is not as if he has his backpack strapped on and is walking out to the bus stop.

As I turned onto the street with the school, the big yellow bus was parked out front. As the bus got larger, my heart sank deeper. Ughhhh, I did not want to do this. I did not want Aidan to turn 5 so soon. I did not want him to go to kindergarten all ready. I did not want to admit that my baby is growing up. I was buzzed into the school and I opened the front door. The SMELL overtook me. It was THAT smell....that SAME smell that made me sick to my stomach for the first month of high school. There is something about schools that do me in, and this was no different.

I turned the corner and the principal was there to greet me. She was smiling and knew exactly who I was. (She should. She was expecting me, right?) She ran through EVERTYTHING with me. She answered almost all of my questions before I had a chance to ask them and was patient as I muddled through the remaining few that I had. She took me down to the kindergarten room to see their new gym uniforms. Apparently, today is gym day and she was really excited about the new uniforms. She gave me a schedule that would take me through the summer to the first day of school....when I will recieve a supply list, when I will receive uniform information, when I will receive whatever else it is that I am supposed to receive prior to the first day of school. She explained kindergarten round-up and how the first week of school would go. She was so confident about everything and made everything seem like it was under control. This woman must know me. She must know that she had to say everything I wanted to hear or I was going to lose my mind. Huh, you would think she has done this before?

So, here we are....the middle of January, not even 5 yet and already ready for kindergarten. I am happiest when I have all of my ducks in a row. I'm happy that all of the paperwork is submitted for registration. I'm happy that the confidence in the school we chose was confirmed today. I'm happy that we are not on a waiting list for kindergarten. I'm happy that everything is set in motion for the fall.

Hmmmm, how come I don't feel so happy then?