The years are short....

Today was Older’s preschool graduation. About a month ago, he started practicing one of his songs at home – “Climb Every Mountain” from the Sound of Music. At some point after this his teacher must have told the class that the song was to be a surprise, so he stopped singing it. Whenever I prompted him, he’d say “It’s a secret! I can only sing it at school!”

This glimpse into graduation let me know it was going to be a tear jerker, so I was prepared. I steeled myself against tears. Which by the way seem to come easily ever since I had kids. I was never much of a crier, but now commercials, talking about my kids at work, and all sorts of other mundane situations cause me to well up. Perhaps it’s the constant state of exhaustion I’ve been in that has weakened my emotional reserve. Whatever, it’s embarrassing.

I managed not to cry, through the song, and the emotional rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that they played at the end, while showing a DVD of classroom pictures taken throughout the year (for those parents who hadn’t yet melted.)

It wasn't until we walked down the hall to show Nana and Pop-Pop Surprise’s classroom that the tears came. I looked down at the Baby Room, at the far far end of the hall, where we’d started five years ago. Five years, but it felt like last week.