Tomorrow is Tomorrow

Today is Ax’s last day of preschool at the Center for Creative Care for Children. It’s a carefully curated backyard utopia owned and run by part-guru, part-saint, part-education activist Annabelle. I tell myself he will visit for a day here and there as have other preschool alumnae have, so it’s not the end, end. But it is the end, end of a three-year routine that’s guided our family through the transition from toddler to kindergarten-ready.

The Center is a mixed ages situation, with about ten kids max on any given day. When he started there he was one of the littlest, still in diapers. I wondered how he would fare with the big kid four year olds.

Now he is the big kid. One of his best friends is a barely two-year-old, Donny, who idolizes him and follows him around. Ax says, “Donny sure is growing up nicely,” taking pride in mentoring his younger buddy, showing him the ins-and-outs of important things like blocks, trucks, bugs, and dirt.

Ax has rocked preschool. He excels at sharing, story time, painting, running around, make-believe, expressing himself, working with others, and free play in general. I’m very proud of him.

Summer break looms ahead. Well, starting tomorrow, actually. And then kindergarten, middle school, high school, perhaps college, some graduate school, some work of some kind, marriage, kids of his own, various frog-kissing with romance and professions and geography and identity along the way.

But today he’s got one more day of preschool and he’s a master of that. He loves it. So I’m gonna just enjoy the day knowing he’s enjoying the day as well, and try to not get too ahead of myself. Tomorrow is tomorrow.