A Milestone For Matthew

Today was Matthew’s first day of kindergarten. He told me months ago that I was not allowed to take him to school because he would be walking with Daniel and Nathan.  But luckily for me, the parents were invited to attend the first half hour of kindergarten with their children so I got to take him to school in spite of his conviction that I would not.

When Daniel and Nathan started school, I did a happy dance as they got on the bus for the first time. But I have to admit that with Matthew I was a bit emotional. You see, by the time Matthew was born, Daniel was in kindergarten and Nathan was in preschool. Because of Matthew’s multitude of allergies, I was less likely to send him to a babysitter. It was a bit stressful (for me and for them) to hand someone my 5-month-old and say, “Oh, and by the way, he is allergic to some stuff…like milk… and eggs…dogs to, his face will swell up…” So until Malia came along, it was just Matthew and me at home. And Malia is four and a half years younger than Matthew so he has been my stay-at-home buddy for a long time. And for all that time he has helped me make bread, clean the house, run errands, do laundry, you name it and he has been right there with me. Yes, he has had two years of preschool, but preschool was five houses down the street and it wasn’t every day.

So as I left him at school this morning, his response being to hand me the appropriate paper per his teacher’s instructions with a quick, “Bye, Mom” as he headed back to the carpet, I’ll confess that I welled up just a bit. He’s obviously ready for kindergarten. I’m not sure I am.