Preschool "Gradulation"

Last Friday was Kai's gradulation from preschool. He is a big boy now. Off to kindergarten in September. It feels like one of those big milestones, gigantic big. Like sleeping through the night. Moving out of the crib. Turning 3. He's not a baby anymore, not a toddler, and now, not even a preschooler. Wow. Its been hard not to be emotional about the whole thing. I think for any parent the transition from really little kid to not so little kid anymore is a big deal.

When your child has a few extra challenges on his plate, it is a really big deal, sending them forth into the world of elementary school. I don't think I have ever blogged about Kai's place on the autism spectrum. Its not something that defines him.  But it is almost impossible to write about this life transition without mentioning it. So much of his preschool experience (and ours) has been colored by this diagnosis and what it has meant for Kai and for us. We almost didn't send him to kindergarten, not this year anyway.

When he was diagnosed nearly 4 years ago, kindergarten seemed so far away. But it was hard not to think about what life would be like when we finally got here, standing on this bridge leading forward into maturity. In some ways, we still have so far to go, so much farther than I thought back then. Yet there have been incredible and surprising and wonderful accomplishments along the way. Autism or not, my heart swells with admiration and love for the little/big boy he is today.

To my surprise I managed to keep my emotions in check throughout the entire graduation. As the kids came out to take their places on the "stage" we captured this adorable moment as little sis ran up to be with big brother. Melt my heart.

And here we are waiting for the performance to start:

Teia refused any hair adornments and barely tolerated a brushing but she did wear a bootiful dwess that she was quite excited about!

And she was quite the rapt audience as well:

The graduation performance itself was a little bit of chaos. The kids sang 5 songs during which 2 children were sobbing, many were leaving their spots on stage, pulling up their shirts and jumping around. It was like watching 30 little wiggle worms. Kai did a great job of staying still and staying in his spot but like the rest of the kids, I think he was a little overwhelmed by the crowd of parents with cameras for faces. He did go up and accept his diploma as the teachers read out each kid's future aspirations. Can you guess what Kai's was? He wants to fix submarines when he grows up. 

Speaking of subs, Greg wore his whites to the grad b/c there was a Change of Command at work that day. The kids were pretty impressed, until they found out he wasn't a pilot or the captain of a cruise ship. And the day ended with us learning that, thankfully, Teia bounces. She fell off the top of the play structure at Kai's school (about 4 feet) but came away from it with just two scraped elbows. With all the meowing she does with her beloved cats, I'm guessing the whole nine lives thing has rubbed off on her. Thank goodness for that. 

So preschool is over for Kai and he is onto bigger and better things! But first, bring on summer holidays and here's to taking it day by day.