Boonies in the Boonies: The Graduate

It's starting. The cycle of starting and finishing. The years of getting older and passing the grades, summer vacations and steps toward empty-nesthood ... what in the world?

Yesterday I was reading through my bloglist and stopped on one of my favorites ... Rage Against the Minivan. She makes me laugh. But yesterday she made me cry. It wasn't entirely her fault, I'd just attended Avery's Pre-K Graduation ... by myself. In a strange place. I wanted my mom.

Her blog post was titled The Parenting Paradox talking about how obviously we want our kids to grow and flourish and do well ... but we want to hold on to the moments, as well: the snuggles, the "mommy-is-the-best-ever," the pitter-pattering of constantly growing feet that remind me of an impending withdrawal from mommies and daddies. They'll trade in all their preference for us and all that comes with being totally content spending the day fighting for our attention for independence and those who suddenly appear much cooler than us. So, if you want to cry and have a Xanax handy, feel free to hop on over and read it by clicking here. And since I'm in a recommending, hyper-linking sort of mood I'll tell you to go download the book, Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry by Katrina Kenison. I can't remember how I came across it: maybe it was a recommendation from purchasing another book, or someone told me about it ... I'm a book junkie these days, remember? But it's a precious, precious book. It gets kinda cheesy and old school at times, but most of it is so sweet I could just cry with thankfulness about getting to experience the miracle of being a Mommy. If you have itty bitties and can spare a few minutes a day to read a chapter here and there, I highly reccommend it ... Okay, I'm done. Clearly, I've gotten distracted from the purpose of this post: Avery's pre-K graduation.

First of all, somehow I never got the letter that there even WAS a pre-K graduation ... meaning I didn't tell Aaron, meaning he already had a dinner meeting, so I had to go-it alone. And this was cause for even more emotions than usual. I can't remember a single event so far where I haven't walked into a childhood celebratory milestone linked arm in arm with tons of family. If the whole fam damily had been there then someone would have remembered to bring her a "Congrats Grad" balloon, maybe some flowers or at least some loud cheering when the preacher bellowed "Avery Elizabeth Boone" over the loud speaker and she made her way across the stage. Instead it was just me ... I did make it on the front row and tried to cheer louder than I usually would have and ran up to snap a pic with my iPhone. Obviously sticking out as the new Arkansas mom. But it's fine. I'm sure Avery didn't notice. She tends to always feel special, just ask her.

Here are some of the pics ... Her big smile reminds me that she always feels loved and probably didn't notice the ackwardness of just having one person cheering her on ... she was just happy to have me there to smile and wave nervously at from her seat.

Avery Elizabeth Boone, I love you so much it hurts!!!

The Graduate, herself!

Heading out for her big night.

I'm not sure why I didn't think about her suiting up in a cap and gown, but I didn't. And watching her put it on was the first time I lost it that night. Obviously not the last.