My Kids Went To Kindergarten!!

I sent my kids to kindergarten this week.

I know, I know, you’re thinking I only sent one kid to kindergarten. Technically I guess you’d be right, but it feels a little like I sent two.  

Logan and Talyn.

From the very beginning I referred to them as “My kids”. I started taking care of Talyn when she was just shy of six months old. Her mom, Adrianne, and I have been friends for years and while she was finishing school and starting her career at the hospital, I was the one who took care of her during the day. If you know me well, you know that I’m not a kid person. I like my own, sure, but other people’s kids…um, iffy.

But Talyn didn’t count as another person’s kid. She’s always felt a little like my own.

What does that mean? Well, it means that I cleaned the snot out of her nose and changed her butt and fed her baby food and watched her learn to walk. I listened as she learned to talk and talk…and talk. She crawled on my floor and slept in my arms and cuddled with me on the couch. I took her temperature and gave her antibiotics and read her books. She was right beside Logan, playing outside, singing five little monkeys, dancing to the ABC song. I knew her quirks and what made her happy. I put bows in her hair and got excited everyday to look in the diaper bag and see what kind of pink frill I was going to get to dress her in.   

When I asked her, “Talyn, how much do you love me?” I taught her how to stretch her arms out wide and tell me, “Thiiiissss much!”

Some days, she was exhausting. Some days, she kept me sane. Some days, she broke my heart. She’s part mine. She’s got a part of me that not many kids get. I love her. And she’s growing way. too. fast.

Kindergarten went off without a hitch. I was surprised. Surprised at Logan. Surprised at myself. Neither one of us cried and if you know me and my son you know that we’re criers.

He was so excited. He had his back pack on and his lunch pail in hand. He never seemed nervous or worried. In the morning, while he was getting ready, he told me, “If Talyn wasn’t there I might be scared but she’s there so I’ll be okay.”

Funny thing was…I felt the same way.

I sent Adrianne a text message the night before that said:

Tell Talyn to take care of Logan. She’s bigger. She has to.

I know it sounds like a lot of responsibility to put on a five year old, but if you know Talyn, you know she didn’t mind. She’s a lot like her mom that way. She loves to take care of other people. And just like her mom…she’s pretty good at it.

It’ll be interesting to watch them continue to grow up side by side. Taking different paths, making different friends. One day, they’ll figure out that boys and girls aren’t supposed to be friends and then hopefully, they’ll realize that sometimes those are the best kind of friendships. I don’t know if they’ll always be close, if they’ll always be friends, but I do know this:

Logan and I wouldn’t have made it on our first day of Kindergarten without her.

I can’t wait until the day when I get to see her dressed in a cheer uniform on the first day of school. I don’t care what her dad says, she’s cheering.

She’s part mine. I get a vote!