The End of an Era

I've written before (actually, I've written about it many times here on my blog) how I wish I could freeze time. How my children are growing up too fast. How their childhood seems to be vanishing before my eyes.

Today I attended the Mother's Day Tea at A's preschool. And it hit me, for the first time, that when school ends in one month, I will no longer have a preschooler.

Whoa.

I've been involved in preschool since my son, D, started at age 2, in 2006. Heck, we'd even done Mommy-and-Me through our synagogue's preschool, so technically I've been involved since he was 6 months old in 2004! But he started "real" preschool when he turned 2, going three days a week. I kept him going three days a week when he was 3, and reluctantly sent him all five days when he turned 4 (at our synagogue, when they turned 4 they all HAD to go five days a week). I vividly remember attending his Hannukah performance during his last year there. I was crying, because I knew it would be my last time attending the annual preschool Hannukah performance. My daughter would be attending preschool the next year at a local Presbyterian church. I am a very sentimental woman, and soaked up every last moment of that preschool. But I still had a few years of preschool with A to look forward to.

And now, we have only a month left. Next year she will be in a pre-kindergarten program through our school district, so she will officially be in elementary school. My preschooler days are numbered. And I know that before I know it, D will be leaving elementary school for middle school (he starts 2nd grade next year but gosh it goes so fast!) and then my kids will both be in high school and then......

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I need to allow myself to mourn the passage of this time of my life. Preschool is such a precious time, where the kids learn new songs, sit in circle time, and finger paint. Where they tend to invite the whole class to their birthday parties. Where they are at their most innocent. Where they love their mommies unconditionally and unabashedly.

I need to brace myself....because come August, elementary school here we come!