*Sniffle*

My only son is currently with my husband, on his way up to do the mandatory observation in the kindergarten class at the school he'll attend next year. It's a school-of-choice (lottery, magnet) program, but his older sisters are there so he's grandfathered in. I just cannot believe this boy is about to turn five in April, and old enough to go to "big school!"

This was Carter back in 2004....



And here's the big boy more recently....playing with Floam, one of those things that I think some parent must have invented to use with OR without their child. It's fun stuff.



He's my boy who, goofy and silly as he acts on a daily basis, is also my deepest thinking child at this age. The questions are nonstop, and he just loves to soak up experiences and information. I never though of myself as a "homeschooly" type of mom...I just don't have that kind of patience-but Carter LOVES that sort of thing. So, on top of preschool, we've been doing short daily lessons. Nothing to structured or complex, but I'll help him with little books where he does an illustration (usually quite elaborate), he describes the action in the scene to me, and then we come up with a few words to describe the scene. If I want twenty minutes of silence, too, he's always up for the alphabet practice at Starfall. This is stuff that caused me to pull out my hair with my, er, headstrong middle daughter, and sent me into a panic about how she'd do at kindergarten....it's a relief and a new feeling to have none of that worry, but also bittersweet that the past almost-five-years have flown by. It goes by too quickly.

As my kiddos change, it seems like the seasons are REALLY changing in a hurry in western Colorado. I had the most amazing run last night, which was a result of good weather and good timing coming together. I had two children in my care besides my own, and they were both picked up in the early-to-on-time range. The weather was unseasonably warm, but not too warm. I had eight miles to do, and was tired from the weekend. The treadmill would have been the kiss of death and just sucked the life out of me, so instead I took the chance to do a very brisk general aerobic run outdoors.

I knew it would be dark in the last mile, but I knew that as long as I was off our river trail path by dark it would be fine because the return route is along a well-lit, very public street with a sidewalk. It was one of those great sensory experiences-the sun was setting and the sky was a marbled pink and blue, and the smells of dinner cooking at homes above the river trail wafted down, and had a smell very reminiscent of a good campfire meal. What would have been a mentally draining run indoors was invigorating outside-I had that little bit of extra adrenaline going because of the safety issue of getting out of the woods while it was still light, which just made for a great quality run. This is the beginning of one of my favorite times of year here when those of us who love the outdoors get to have our cake and eat it too. We're not at the point where you have to get the workout in by 9 a.m. because it's too hot, but we can leave cold weather gear behind and bust out the shorts. I love it.