Three years ago we signed the papers for our current home. The previous months had been fraught with the stress of knowing we had to move into a better school district, yet how are we going to wedge our way into the small highly-regarded school that we really-really-super-really want?
Magically, we found a home in the district we wanted, within the boundaries of the exact school we had hoped for. But then "they" told us the incoming first-grade class was overfilled. We wouldn't know until August whether the Cat had been granted entry. In the back of my head, I knew that any school in the district would be fabulous, but we had such high hopes for the particular school into whose boundaries we had just moved.
The call we wanted arrived just days before school began. And with it, we became part of that small school's family. In fact, they opened a new class, which meant all the first-grade classrooms had fewer students. Perfect!
This school year, Spliggle joined the school family, becoming a proud Kindergartner. (Somehow, he has only two weeks left. Amazing.) And this autumn, he will enter first grade, just as the Cat did three years before.
Sure, "time flies" but for me this revelation is overwhelming. In a good way. The Cat has grown so much at this school. This year he has shown particular maturation and is really comfortable. Splig, too, has grown tremendously. He's no longer "the spliggly baby" for certain. In fact, last week we received word that he has officially qualified for his gym's Level 4 team. Two years ago, the coaches had written out a time line on a post-it that ended with "May 2010 = Team." And it came true. (I guess I should have them use the same post-it to predict some lucrative and exciting futures for us all.)
Our May and June feels much different now in 2010 than it did back in 2007.
I know that things can change at any moment. In two years, the Cat will be off to middle school, a place that we all remember as being not the most fun. Given how quickly these past three years have gone, I know this time too will pass faster than I anticipate. But I shouldn't dwell on the unknown, as he still has two more years in a community that has really nurtured him.
Things have changed rapidly in just a year, and even more so in three. It is scary and exciting, both.
