Graduation

Jack and his best girl, Avery

Jack celebrated his past 3 years of pre-school last Thursday at his Pre-K graduation. Parents elbowed each other for the top spots for pictures up front while the kids performed "Bop 'til you Drop", and I cried big, fat alligator tears to the following poem:

"You were six months old and full of fun,

with the blink of my eye, you were suddenly one.

There were so many things we were going to do,

but I turned my head and you were two.

At two you were very dependent on me,

but independence took over when you turned three.

Your third birthday, another year I tried to ignore,

but when I lit the candles, there weren't three, but four!

Four was the year that you really strived.

Why, look at you now, you're already five!

Now you are ready for books and for rules.

This is the year that you go to school.

The big day came, you were anxious to go.

We walked to the bus, going oh, so slow.

As you climbed aboard and waved goodbye,

I felt a lump in my throat and tears stung my eyes.

Time goes so fast, it's hard to believe

that yesterday you were home here with me.

And tomorrow when the bus brings you home

and you jump to the ground,

You'll be wearing your cap and graduation gown.

So I'm holding to these moments as hard as I can,

because the next time I look,

I'll be seeing a grown man..."

~ Author Unknown

*sniff*sniff* dammit. There I go again.  This has been a week of changing tides. Yesterday my niece graduated from high school. She was only 3 when Mark and I met. And now, she's an adult - ready to head off to college. My own high school graduation still feels incredibly recent in my own mind, yet I earned my diploma 16 years ago. I feel like I'm in a Salvidor Dali painting where time is simply melting around me. I need to go and hug my big kid now before he falls asleep and wakes up as a 16-year-old.