too soon

Last night we went to a New Families Dinner at James' new school, and it suddenly hit me that in less than a week, my son is starting kindergarten. My first baby! I mean, look at this kid: does he look ready for kindergarten??

I'm suddenly feeling old. Last night's dinner also made me realize how different things are going to be from the school experience I knew and loved at James' liberal, progressive, one might even say "hippie" nursery school. At James' nursery school, I felt like a bit of an outsider for not using cloth diapers or nursing my kids into their preschool days. At James' elementary school, I'm pretty sure I was one of a very few parents last night who was seriously irritated that the dinner consisted of pizza, chips, and Kool-Aid, which is merely made with fruit juice and not 100% juice. The nutrition nut in me was freaking out a bit, fuming that of course there's a childhood obesity epidemic when schools are feeding kids crap like this instead of modeling healthy eating habits! ...But that's a rant for another day.

Overall, though, it was nice to get to look around the school, see James' classroom, meet his teacher (even if she as young as me and talks to her students in that special, slightly higher-pitched "kid" voice), and get a feel for the place and the people. It won't be our nursery school -- we couldn't possibly ever find another school or teacher as wonderful as what we had there -- but I think it will be okay.

And does James seem excited? Who knows? Right now he is having love affairs with Pokemon and with Star Wars Legos II, so anything else naturally pales in comparison. But his school is named after a famous astronaut, which is very cool for a kid like James who loves outer space, and he did seem to enjoy the school-wide scavenger hunt they sent us on last night to let us look around the school, so I'm optimistic. Not to mention his natural friendliness, adaptability and intelligence. I think he will be fine. It's me I'm worried about.