Goodbyes

Today was Jack's last day of speech and occupational therapy for the summer, and it was his last day with these particular therapists. In September, we will be switching him to another school.

We are switching purely for logistical reasons. Jack's current school is 20 minutes away from our home, and the sessions are so short that it's not worth it for me to go back home. On days that he only had speech therapy, I usually only had time to fill the gas tank. I'd often end up just sitting in the car and reading. On days that he had both speech and OT, I could sometimes go for a walk, if the weather and the baby were cooperative, which was becoming increasingly rare.

I felt/feel really bad about making him say goodbye to the therapists and the kids in his group solely for my convenience. He really likes them all and always seemed to have such a good time when I picked him up. But today's experience helped validate my decision. The baby was awake and grumpy, and the weather was yucky (where is the summer, San Diego?!?). No walk for us. So I ended up staying in the car for 75 minutes waiting for his sessions to finish up. There's no way I'm going to want to do that as Violet gets bigger and squirmier. The new school is only five minutes from our home.

And I have to remind myself that these goodbyes are much harder on me than they are on Jack. When we left his last little preschool, I thought he'd really miss it and his teacher. He barely ever mentions them at all. In fact, when I told him that today was his last day with Miss Mercedes and Miss Lee, he got really excited.

"I'm almost four!" he said, waving four fingers in the air. "I get to go to a big class!"

I'm glad someone's glad that he's growing up.