Stepping Up

Every so often you can sail above the 24 hour cycle of parenting - the snacks and meals, the negotiations, the constant cleaning up, many scrapes and near misses, etc, and have an indelible, crystal clear awareness of why parenting is really the best, best thing ever, totally worth all the endless bother. We had one of those moments yesterday when Rosemary's year end kindergarten celebration -- billed as graduation, but what on earth is kindergarten graduation? It was basically a concert, with 4 of the classes singing their own songs and then getting together to sing a couple as a big group. It was sweet beyond belief.

We heard about it first as Rosemary came home telling us that there was something exciting happening and she was going to sing into a microphone with 3 of her best buddies from class. She couldn't tell us WHAT they would sing, but then of course like most things we heard (almost instantly) that it was First Grade, First Grade, to be sung to the tune of (of course) New York, New York. Then later there were a few inklings that she and her class were working with Mr. C, their beloved music teacher, on a couple of other songs, one of which was Landslide.

What? Landslide?

Landslide, the old Fleetwood Mac songs, is just on it's own one of those songs, one of a tiny handful really, that makes me have to stop what I'm doing and just dwell for a minute or two at that weird place where melancholy meets happy. It's so beautiful and sad, and the way the notes fit together really gets me. And that's when I hear it on the radio. When 90 plus kindergartners sing it in unison? "Can I handle the seasons of my life?" Forget it. I'm a goner. Never mind all the other craziness of that particular moment, with Sylvia squirming in my lap and dumping her snack and asking for water and poking Maggie in the eye, and both girls saying "Hi Ro-Ro!" in the middle of the song, or the lady who stood up directly in front of us blocking pretty much everything except (happily) our view of Rosemary -- it was magical. The kids were up there doing their movements to the song (climbing a ladder).

And then there's Rosemary. She had a great time. I was so proud of her for totally enjoying her moment on the stage. I asked her today whether she felt nervous before going up there. She looked at me in confusion and said, "No, I was happy! When I was walking into the auditorium, I was smiling, I couldn't stop smiling. You know that feeling you get when you smile even if you don't want to, when you feel like your face is pushing up into a smile?"

It has been a great year for her indeed. After the long, lovely 3 year sojourn at her nursery school, it is such a wonderful thing for her to know that a roomful of strangers can become bosom buddies, and a big jostling place can become home. There are 10 girls in her class, and she loves them all. (She likes the boys all right, but she's not close with any of them, which is a shame, but not a surprising thing.) While, yes, there are a few things I would wish could be changed about her school (science more than once a week, more communication home, etc - it being a big public school after all), my big-little girl is happy and feels cared for and is interested in learning. What better kindergarten experience could you ask for?