We officially have a preschooler

Gus is now 4 years old. I can no longer be deluded and think that he's still a toddler. On Thursday, Gus will attend his first day of pre-K and I'm already all emotional about it. Gus was in day care and preschool prior to our move, so it's not feelings of him being away from me or anything like that which are causing my emotions to run amok. I think it's more the fact that he'll be going to pre-K at the local elementary school, with teachers that are certified by the state to teach him, with a principal!

In April we attended what is called Preschool Round-up. It's a couple hour time period organized by the school district wherein parents of children who will be of age to attend pre-K can go preview the school, meet with the teachers, see the classrooms and meet with the principal. Gus and I attended this, but it was shortly after we moved, so didn't seem that much different than the preschool that he was leaving, but now it's a whole different feeling. This is his first REAL year in school, is how I'm feeling. I'm sure that I'm placing more weight on this than is necessary, and I'm hoping that it's all part of anticipatory anxiety, but I'm nervous for Gus.


We have our home visit with his teacher tomorrow afternoon, which is like a conference before the school year begins. I'm hoping that will make me feel a little less anxious about everything. I know that he will have fun, make new friends, learn lots and have a blast. I guess, since it coincides so closely with his birthday, it's having a greater impact on my emotions, too. It just seems so unreal that it's been 4 years since he was born. The time flew by. How did four years pass so quickly? How did we go from a little baby who depended on others for everything grow into a smart, articulate, some-what reading boy who just today was pointing out all the palindromes that he could find while we were reading books?

I love that he's growing and learning, I just wish time could slow down a little bit so that it didn't feel like he was growing at the speed of light.