Preschool!!

My baby is a preschooler!

I can hardly believe it. With school for the big kids beginning last week, I think that the little man was feeling a little left out.

Friday he and I went shopping for a new backpack and then he happily came home and excitedly packed it up with his squeaky new school shoes (the ones that have been tormenting him weeks...begging to be worn!) and his fancy red guitar lunch kit.

Today, the big day arrived! He was so excited. Here he is...

As we arrived at the school, he was buzzing with energy. We went into his new classroom, hung his jacket and backpack on his hook and placed his lunchkit in his cubby. I helped him with his shoes, kissed him goodbye and away I went!

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Now, I have dropped lots of children (well...four to be exact) off at preschool but I have always had another either with me or waiting for me at home (truth be told, there was a brief time when the teenager was in preschool that I was pregnant with baby #2 but, technically, there was still someone with me...just in utero :).

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This time was different. This drop off meant two and a half hours with no child in tow. What?!? That's right. 2.5 hours of whatever I want. Silence? Maybe. Uninterrupted computer time? Perhaps. A long hot shower with no one knocking on the door? Maybe next week. A run on my treadmill without having to answer questions or help with the Wii or...? Eventually.

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Today, I actually zipped into the city to see a client that is imminently due and hurried home but, the thing is, there is always Wednesday...or next Monday...or the Wednesday after that. Wow.

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The potential for nearly 5 hours a week of time to myself stretches luxuriously in front of me...and yet there is a part of me that is mourning yet another milestone. I will never drop another child of mine off at preschool for the first time. This is the beginning of a new stage of his life and mine. A time of separation and growth...for both of us. This is the time where I may need to start figuring out what I will be when I am no longer the mother of small children. That has been who I am for so long that I wonder...without that, what will I be?

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Maybe that is what my 5 hours a week will be spent doing; figuring that out. In the meantime, I think I may sneak in a little shopping :)