Yesterday started with a funeral and ended with a pre-school open house. It was a busy day.
The funeral was good. It was truly a celebration of my 91-year-old grandfather’s life. From hearing the stories that people told, one would be hard-pressed to find a more faithful, hardworking, and considerate man. Of course, we also heard about his stubbornness too, because he was just a man after all.
One of the bright spots of the funeral was the fact that my brother’s family drove from Iowa to attend. We don’t get to spend more than a couple of days with them per year, so it was nice that they were able to come. So after the funeral was finished, we met up with them at a local mall and had our kids (his boys are 5 and 1, my girls are 3 and 1.5) play in the play area. After they seemed sufficiently tired out, we grabbed some pretzels and took a ride on the carousel. The kids all had a great time, which meant that the parents all had a great time too.
We might have stayed longer, but we had to run along and prepare for the next phase of the evening. The Pre-School Open House.
How is it that my oldest daughter is ready for pre-school next fall? I have no idea when that happened. Anyway, we dropped the girls back off with their grandparents for dinner while my wife and I attempted to navigate the halls of higher learning on behalf of our 3-year-old. Fortunately, the faculty and staff who were putting on the open house took kindly to our vacant stares and guided us through the process, answering our questions and giving us a tour of the facilities.
Realistically, having our daughter in pre-school shouldn’t be that much different from having her in daycare, but it feels like a new chapter is beginning in a book that my wife and I won’t be able to put down for thirteen more years. In the end, we turned in our application and entrance fee in the hopes of getting our eldest into a 3-day per week half day program. Before we left the event, we grabbed a couple of balloon animals (it was a rockin’ open house) and a coloring book for our future pre-schooler.
She was so excited to learn that she is going to go to school, she kept asking me if she could start tomorrow. I felt bad that she has to wait until September to begin. But as excited as she was, I don’t know if I’m ready for all of this.
Parents out there, how do you deal with your kids growing up?
Josh Mosey 
You read a book to their kids, hugging and kissing them if they sit still long enough. 🙂
Can’t answer your question today, but am glad your long day went so well.