Growing Up

Last Wednesday, I put my tiny little baby on a bus and watched him ride off to kindergarten. He was so excited, holding his big sister's hand tightly - slightly alarmed, but much more eager than afraid.

He came back nearly seven hours later more excited than when he had left. I had committed him (and all my children) to the Sacred Heart several times throughout the day, begging Our Lord, all His mighty angels, the Blessed Mother, St. Nicholas, Pope John Paul the Great, etc...generally all holy dead people I could think of, to look after my littlest man who has the greatest desire, of just about any human being I have ever seen, to learn absolutely everything he can from morning bus to the afternoon one.

I wait for him and my daughter by reading a Mauve Binchy book on the steps of an old historical building in town - just at the site of the afternoon school bus stop. Whitethorn Woods, and I try to distract myself from my restless excitement to hold their hands again. It's the same excitement I feel when awaiting my middle son's school day. That moment when he become thrilled at having accomplished something new - a challenge he didn't even know he would have. And it's the same when I am waiting for my oldest to come out of the locker room from football practice. He's so big! I say to myself. Once he was like you in kindergarten, I say to my youngest who is, by then, already asleep in his booster seat, knocked out from a day in kindergarten.

My daughter now frequently borrows my clothes, has "girl movie nights" or checks out books just for us to read together. Already, she has dismissed school cliques as "being for snobs and people afraid of personality." Smart one, I say tapping my head.

"Enjoy them while they are young," said an old woman to me as I walked them to the corner for ice cream the other night. "They grow up so fast."

No, ma'am. I think I actually enjoy them every year, every day, just as they are. Young, growing, and old - they are amazing. I have great kids, and I love them completely.