Another milestone

My son's last day of preschool is today.

He's all ready to move on to kindergarten this fall, actually sooner if he could. I, on the other hand, awoke this morning feeling like a part of me is dying.

My son has attended Summit School since he was 11 months old, the first three years fulltime except for summers which his Daddy has off. The past two years, he has attended only two days a week due to the fact I no longer work fulltime.

The morning was a blur of activity, including the additional packing of picnic lunches for both of us, filling out a form allowing the release of contact information to his other classmates, and coping with a last-minute haircut he decided to give himself while I cooked breakfast. Get ready or you'll miss your last day of school, I told him several times, trying to speed up the process of him getting dressed, putting on shoes and combing his hair.

On the drive to school, my son and I talked about the fact that today will be his last day in Miss Stacy's class (a teacher he's had the past two years) and that he'll no longer have French or physical education with Mr. Jean.

"What if I miss it?" my son asked as we slowly walked up the front steps to the school. We can always come back and visit, I said reassuringly, my heart heavy with his sadness. But then I realized, he was only talking about getting to school in time for his last day not about never coming back.