The next step...

Let me warn you, I will be shocked if the news of this post gets me all misty eyed or makes me want to tear up.  I am just not that way.  I feel like I could explode with anticipation and excitement for my (almost) 6 year old, Ely.   Kindergarten.  This is such a huge milestone - on Monday he is going to have his first of 17-18 "first days of school".  I can see the clock running and maybe when he is all dressed in his cap and gown in 13 years, I will tear up then, but not now.  He is growing and it is just wonderful to see.

One of my most favorite traits of my parents is their excitement for the next chapter.  Whether it was a first day of school, or a last day of school, high school graduation, dropping off at Auburn or my wedding day, it was met with cheerful excitement without a tear to be seen.  I feel like I was always taught to look forward to the next stage and embrace it with excitement.

Yes, with every new stage there is that much more to look back on with fond memories.  I now have almost 6 years to look back on - and I wouldn't change a single memory - dropping Ely off for the 1st day of day care at 12 weeks old, conquering the major milestones of crawling, walking, talking, communicating, Ely's first Auburn game, our first road trip, our first flight, his first trip to the beach, Disney, saying goodbye to Primrose, saying hello to Compass Pre-K, Pre-K graduation.  I think of them all with a smile on my face.

Tonight is the 3rd step of entering kindergarten - 1st was registering at the "big school" in April (I can't imagine how big that school looks to Ely because it looks HUGE to me!), then looking at the teacher list this afternoon and tonight is Meet the teacher.  Monday is our big day.  We are all ready in the Amerson house.  It is a big deal - Sunday night, we are going for a special family dinner (which we NEVER seldom do with the twins) and Al is going with us to drop him off at school (he hasn't done this since our 1st day of primrose at 12 weeks old!).  I won't tell Ely that I am celebrating by getting a sitter and meeting girlfriends for brunch!!!

Facebook, watch out!  Obnoxious pictures of my kindergartener are on their way!!

By the way, we got Mrs. Hill for his teacher.  I have heard wonderful things about her and am super excited.  I am even more excited that we have 6 friends in his class (3 boys from t-ball, 2 from primrose, and our sweet girl friend, Campbell).  Luckily, Ely isn't too comfortable with any of them to be getting into trouble right at the beginning!

Ely and Mrs. Hill

After Meet the Teacher tonight Ely and I went for Chinese on a dinner date.  It was wonderful.  We talked about the classroom responsibilities and went through a whole packet he got from school.  I think he is more ready than he wants to talk about so I am excited!



2 other "big boy" things have happened this week...

1.  Ely has been great at getting money for birthdays, special accomplishments, etc and not wanting to spend it.  It has been good enough for him to take the money and put it in his piggy bank.  Well, lately he has talked more and more about things he wants to buy with his money.  I have been avoiding this until he mentions something that I think will provide more than 10 minutes of entertainment.  Today, in celebration of the last weekend before kindergarten, we took $20.00 and went to GameStop to buy him a new Wii game.  What I love about this, he had it in his mind that he didn't want the most expensive game and didn't want to spend more than $20.  So we looked on line before we went to look at options and pricing.  He saw a Madden football game (for $24.00) and the Mario baseball game ($17.49).  He said he would get the Mario game.  To quote, "I want both but I will get the Mario game because it is cheaper and someone can give me the Madden one for my birthday"!  Oh, won't his daddy be proud!!

2.  Yesterday, I was at the computer checking email first thing in the morning.  Ely woke up and came into the office to say good morning.  I asked him how he slept and he said fine.  Sidebar: the 2 nights prior he had come into our room around 2am because he had bad dreams and couldn't sleep.  Tuesday night I told him he wasn't allowed to do that.  Back to story.  I asked him he if had any bad dreams and he said "No, mommy.  I just turned my mind off.  See, look at me - I have turned it off right now and am not thinking about anything!".  This statement made me laugh out loud.  You see, I can't tell you the times Al and I have had the conversation of how he can just sit and not think of anything, whereas my mind is always churning about something.  Now, Ely has learned this very same male trait.