the road called parenthood

sometimes you can be chugging along down the road of parenthood when BAM! suddenly you collide head first into reality. it's funny to think that something that has been there all along could be so surprising. maybe that's what we call "denial?!"

we recently received taylor's inter-district transfer request to attend ACMS. i'd type the whole thing out, but remember, i'm in denial. :) i'll give you a hint... the MS stands for middle school. *gasp!*

of course i've dreaded known that taylor would be going to ms next year, but i haven't thought that much about it. honesty though, it freaks me out just a bit. okay, a lot. i asked taylor's teacher to retain him, but he said no. bummer.

then today i was filling in important dates on the calendar when i see that coming up at the end of february is the family life preview night for 5th grade parents. OH.MY.WORD. my son is not old enough for that discussion!! please say it's not so. here we go again. *fingers in my ears* denial, denial, denial.

on the road of parenthood, i feel myself chugging along, slowly approaching a bridge. i have no idea what's on the other side. clearly i'm terrified. but i find comfort in knowing that many a mom and dad have crossed this bridge before ... and survived.

is this what i felt like 10 years ago, tucking my newborn baby into his car seat for the very first time, carefully loading him into our car and then pulling out of the hospital parking lot... onto the road of parenthood for the first time ever?

i don't think so. babies are cute. middle schoolers, not so much! ha!

so all you veteran mamas and papas out there... do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? what got you through this "exciting" (ha ha) time? what should i do? what should i definitely not do? my stomach is doing flip flops here, people!!

as a side note, can i just say that i'm incredibly relieved that i teach first grade and not fifth!! hello, the grossest things we deal with are nose picking (and eating... ewww!) and potty talk. thank goodness!!!


here's tay building a volcano for a school project