Bozer Dozer

I just signed this sweet baby up for kindergarten.

Please let us have a moment of silence because my heart. is. breaking.

Kindergarten.

And it's true, they don't go to kindergarten in diapers with pacies. (Although, there were times I worried about this guy.)

Now he looks like this

And more often he looks like this

(never fear, kindergarten class of 2012-2013, Captain America will be with you!)

I have never taken kindergarten registration lightly. I am sentimental and (quite overly) attached to my kids, so there was wailing and gnashing of teeth with the other 2. But with Bo, I filled out the paperwork with bittersweet thanksgiving.

Bo is a SMART kid. He is great at math. Bo is a sweet kid too. But Bo has had to work hard at a lot of stuff that came easily to my older 2. His speech has been (and is still) delayed. A lot of things with this little guy have come slowly. He walked much later than the first 2, his eating is still a struggle, potty training almost killed both of us, even his physical heart has been slow to finish developing as evidenced by the murmur we had to have checked out last fall at Children's. Bo has some sensory integration and processing issues that we are working on and believe that he will overcome. And while he functions just fine, his speech and sensory issues have made us wonder if he would be ready for kindergarten this fall. Josh and I have weighed the pros and cons of waiting over and over and created scenarios and possibilities and played out all the what ifs time and time again. And even though he didn't always seem "age appropriate", neither of us were feeling right about holding him back. We knew registration time was coming, though, and hoped for a "sign" of sorts to help confirm our thoughts.

Today, I got to Bo's preschool a little early and was sitting in the carpool line. His teacher "just happened" to pass by our car and I called her over to the window to get an update on my little man. Bo really struggled at the beginning of the year with circle time and worksheets and anything that wasn't playground time. They didn't have behavior problems with him, but his attention was lacking for sure. At this impromptu parent-teacher conference, I was prepared to hear her say that he was behind and wouldn't have been surprised to find out he was doing ok, but what she said floored me! It was definitely a God-thing to bump into her because she told me she felt academically he was definitely ready for kindergarten, she doesn't see any hyperactivity in him, and she thought the attention/sensory things would improve with time and continued therapy. She even told me some of the areas he is excelling in.

How's that for confirmation?

Excited to have an answer, I met Josh at the big kids' school (sob) and filled out the paperwork (sob).  I fought back tears of gratitude that he is able to go and I fought back tears of sadness that my sweet, paci-loving baby boy is 5 1/2 and heading off to big kid school. I pretended to cry with him and said, "I can't believe you are leaving me!" He looked up from what he was doing and said, "You don't have to worry about me, Mommy. I will be fine."

And I know he will.