Growing up is harder on Parents!!

My oldest is losing a tooth. I want to smack him back a year. How dare you grow up on me? I still remember him getting the hiccups in the womb and me thinking, uh oh, I'm going into labor! This was of course in January and I wasn't due till March.

With all the growing up around here, however, my dear daughter, Princess E (after Princess P on Super why has decided that she still isn't ready to use the potty. Ok, I can deal, since she's got nine months till she is supposed to go to school. However, she will NOT be walking around in pull-ups when she is four. During the summer, if she has not decided to train, I am going to take away all the pullups and put her outside on the deck with her potty. She can either pee on her legs or use the pot. Yeah, drastic, I know, but she is just being lazy. I mean, if you can roll up on me saying, "I boo boo, change me" then honey, that potty's got your name on it!!

Let's not even talk about Mr. J. Seems like just yesterday he was chillin' in his bouncy seat, now he's snatching pretzels off the counter (with a stool cleverly built out of the top of the trash can, the box of ziploc bags and a broken stool - I kid you not). And talking - " come on Mr. J., it's time to get changed..." "No!" Next thing you know if you don't chase him down, you'll find a, ahem, used diaper in the corner and someone else running around half naked.

So, loose teeth notwithstanding, next September the big C starts KINDERGARTEN!!! Stop the madness, now real school begins. As if I didn't feel like an inadequate parent in 1/2 day preschool, now I have to be supermom in real school.

What are they going to teach him in kindergarten, besides how not to clobber your neighbor or try to pull him down by his legs? He knows his colors, he knows his letters (in and out of order). (A pox on you Word World and Super Why!!! Why did you teach my children better than I could? Even Mr. J at 20 months is running around saying the alphabet.) But I digress. The point is, while my son is certainly not gifted (although a smug part of me would like to think so - he is, after all a Yale legacy child.)I am fully aware that he is going to be way ahead of some of the children in his class. As a former teacher, I know this can be either good or bad. I don't want my child used as the class tutor. Certainly, this reinforces his learning as well as helping others, but I want him to excel! If he gets a good teacher, then he will be given the approriate advanced work.

(Yeah, I can hear you all now - Goddess! Shame on you! This is KINDERGARTEN, for goodness sake. C-Dude is merely a babe in the educational woods! Chill out, you type A evil stage mom!)

And you're right. (Biiiiig Goddess sigh.) I've got to tone it DOWN or I'm going to be that "stage mom" parent. But I do worry. Do I worry enough to homeschool? Hmmmmm, get back to me on that a little later. Meanwhile...hey, I'll just check that loose tooth 5x a day - there's nothing Type A about that......is there?