Preschool Graduations

Last week, my baby boy graduated from preschool and into the world of kindergarten.  I am already more or less an emotional infant during my pregnancy, but this event was in a league of it’s own.  I was filled with a whirlwind of emotions.  Among them, the most salient was the pride of course – pride at watching him beam, hearing him sing his heart out, seeing him laugh with his friends, reflecting on all his growth and accomplishments.  His most noteworthy academic achievements as of late include learning addition and subtraction, currently reading at a second grade reading level, and being a great speller.  But somewhere not too far behind the pride was the sadness that this chapter in his life – in our life – has come to an end.  The days of having him at home all day with me, seeking me out, interrupting his sisters for a piece of my undivided attention, cuddling in the mornings and before naptime, hearing his play and his laughter throughout the house.  Those things are changing, and all I could think about was holding him as a soft, warm, chubby bundle of a baby and missing him already.  So, as I sat there in Mrs. J’s living room and wept, yes wept, Jake put his arm around me and whispered that he understood.  The funny thing was, as much as I appreciated the empathy and the affectionate gesture and just having him beside me, this time, he didn’t quite understand.  This time, I wasn’t crying about the familiar and bittersweet experience of watching Gabe progress in ways that Ari could not.  This moment was all about Gabriel.

Baby Gabriel Pierce:

 

And then, I was happy for him; overwhelmingly so. Still tears, but happy tears. How could I not be happy with him when he was so, SO joyful… it was contagious.

    

Like Gabe, Ari is moving on to Kindergarten at the end of this summer too.  While she did not have a formal graduation ceremony from preschool, that didn’t mean that we thought any less of this momentous milestone in her life.  In fact, like almost everything, we thought more on it than we did for Gabe’s, which is probably why it hit me so hard emotionally when I came to the realization, during Gabe’s graduation ceremony, that he was growing up and has already grown so much more than I was consciously aware of.  Ari’s preschool transition was more formal and a little less formally celebratory.  It consisted of batteries of testing, phone calls with advocates and big wigs at the school district level special education department, research and note-taking, meetings, consulting with third parties, and everything else that I never knew went into devising an IEP.  But when it was all said and done, everyone was happy and relieved and we celebrated this too.

If you didn’t get enough smile from the pictures above, here’s one of baby Ariana Elise:

  

Which brings me to little Bella’s end of the year graduation ceremony.  While Bella isn’t going off to kindergarten and leaving me (seemingly) all day every day like her older siblings, her ceremony served as a sweet reminder to hang on to these moments and the ones that follow, because it won’t be long now…

That girl is just so fun to watch.  I loved seeing her work those scarves – both in her left hand, since she apparently removed her prosthesis before I walked in.  She worked it on that stage, and who would expect any less from the little bug? 

Jake let me have the honor of painting her face in the fellowship ceremony, since he got to do the honors with Gabriel last year.  I loved it.  And I’m going to make up for lost time not being in pictures with my kids with the series you’re about to see.  Shameless, I know.

 

Here, Bella whispered in my ear that she really wanted me to paint a mustache on her (not a part of the program).  So I did.  She loved it.  All her little girlfriends kept mentioning it to her in a very concerned and helpful attempt to bring it to her awareness.  Bella would just tell them, “I know” with a sly grin on her face.

   

I am so proud of all three of them.  They’ve changed, they’ve grown, and life will go on.  I expect it will only get sweeter from here, because it usually does.