All I could say to myself was "Awww", when I saw the picture of TLV that his mom had so kindly sent electronically this morning. For, you see, this is TLV's first day at pre-school. Some may laugh at my waxing sentimental, but this is, indeed, a big deal in his life, as well as his mom's.
I do remember taking my own children to pre-school, although way back then, in the dark ages, it was called nursery school. I recall that, somewhere in my brain, I realized that everything changed from that point on, but, as a young woman, I didn't quite understand how or why.
The progression of change is blessedly slow and almost imperceptible.
When it was my first-born being left at the church where the nursery school was housed, I would have still had a toddler at home with me. Even then, it felt like freedom had finally arrived. My son, the toddler, and I would have probably run errands as if there was no tomorrow, or maybe have had a play date arranged for him, either at our home or he would go to a neighbor's to play. As a young mother, I'm sure I crammed as much into my hours of 'freedom' as I could. Now, if I were to be transported back in time to my child's pre-school age but keep my present chronological age, I'd do absolutely nothing and spend all of the nursery school time just being. But, the real younger mothers do not, as a rule, have the luxury of taking time to just be.
When the second of our two children would have gone to nursery school, the eldest would have been going to kindergarten and so, for a few hours, I'd actually be sans children twice a week. That would have felt as if I'd been given whole days of vacation time. I don't remember what I did during those hours, but I'm positive I ran even more errands and crammed even more events into those precious collective minutes. I know I did not spend more time at home cleaning because that is a pattern that has not changed through the years!
And so,back to TLV and his first day at pre-school:
You have two grandmothers who will be angels on your shoulders, for that is the job of a grandmother......to stand as an invisible angel for any number of grandchildren that she has. I love my job as a grannie. I get to be an angel AND I get the excuse to have to bake cookies because my grandchildren are coming to visit AND because I want the cookies to taste the very best, I must sample what I've baked........AND I get to play like I'm four or five years of age, although this can only be sustained for a short period of time.
Just sign me OGA (that's One Grannie Angel)
Ancora imparo
