Kindergarten already?

So Chris and I embarked on the beginning of a journey last night that is about ready to fast forward the next 18 years. In our school district, they pull all parents together for a preview of the school year to come in an evening called Kindergarten Roundup. Oddly, this year they just had the parents attend this first session - they must know from past experience that it takes parents MUCH longer to prepare for this day than it does the kids. So, we got a babysitter and sat with 100 some parents in the library of our soon to be elementary school learning about the different types of programs they offer, meeting the administrative staff and teachers, ways to get involved in the school, etc.

I was doing alright until the school counselor read off a poem that in short told us parents not to push our kids too quickly because the road ahead is long and steady and how they are still just little people with little hearts that have so much learning to do. At that time it was like it all hit me at once - that my little Aiden was going to start school learning how to read and write, make new friends and go through all of the stages of growing up. And, while he still has so much learning to do, how little he still seems to me and how it feels just like yesterday that he came home from the hospital and learning how to walk and talk. Surely we can't be ready for all of this just yet? It took everything in that moment that I could do to pull myself back together, but I can only imagine what it is going to be like this fall when I drop him off for his first day of kindergarten.

I guess that is why they must give us parents so much time to prepare...