The Graduate, but without Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft

So now that I've had time to kind of process everything and stop blubbering like a big fat baby, I can talk about it. The graduation, that is.

Five years ago, The World's Most Expensive Preschool opened it's doors just in time before I had a nervous breakdown. The dilemma we had found ourselves in was that there was only one daycare available in our area that would take infants - and although it had received rave reviews from our neighbors, we soon realized that the neighbors' kids were all in middle school now and the quality was going rapidly downhill. I could write volumes about how horrible the place was, but I'll spare you all the gory details and just say that hell was probably a step up from this daycare.

One day, I was driving home from Kroger when I saw this Jeep with a sign on the door for The World's Most Expensive Preschool. I had heard rumors that they were opening one somewhere in our area, but had no idea exactly where or how to get Monkey Man in. Long story short, I found out that it was seven miles south of our home at the time, and I went to meet the owner Debbie and her staff in the infant room.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. Debbie's warmth was so infectious that I immediately felt at ease. The teachers in the infant room were equally as nice and I immediately plunked down a kidney and signed Monkey Man up.

Little did I know that walking in the school that day would be a life-changing experience. There has never been one day that I have worried that Monkey Man wasn't being cared for just as well as if he was at home. Maybe even a little better, since I'm sure none of the teachers drink during the school day to get by. Ahem.

So he was one of the first students enrolled at TWMEPS. And out of the two pre-K classes, there are five of them left - two of the others are in the same class, Sydney and Molly. I remember MM sitting in the little infant table next to Molly every morning, the two of them jabbering and throwing Cheerios at each other. And now look at them. Damn. (Molly is the cheeseball on the right.)

So in those five years, we've had a few of the staff members become almost like family members. We've been really, really lucky.

Anyhow, the ceremony was very nice. They had taken infant pictures of the students and put little hints on them and hung them up in the gym where the ceremony was. Before the kids came out, they had a slide show with pictures of the class - the first picture was Monkey Man - and after that I was sobbing like a crazy person.

And then there was this:


Monkey Man and Marissa leading the Pledge of Allegiance.












Monkey Man and partner-in-crime and BFF Trey (or at least this week they are BFF, all you parents know what I'm talking about!)











Monkey Man getting his diploma from Miss Alana and Miss Kirsten. Yes, he is totally in love with Miss Kirsten. Isn't she a hottie?











At the after-graduation barbeque, where Monkey Man yelled, "Take a picture of me and Daddy and I will pretend to be holding my Ba-ploma!" Um, okay....










So after all was said and done, we went into the cake room where they had promised the kids that they had a surprise for them. The surprise was a really cool t-shirt with all of the pre-K kids' and teachers' signatures on the back - but of course, this caused Monkey Man to burst into tears. Because as every 5-year-old knows, a "surprise" involves something like a monster truck or a Barbie doll, not a t-shirt. Although I would've liked to see the front of the shirt say, "My Parents Spent Over $50K at The World's Most Expensive Preschool and All I Got is This Lousy T-Shirt." That would've been a hot-seller last night.

Last night was a happy night, but a little bittersweet. Knowing that this is probably the only time that I'll get to go through all this is tough. Knowing that my baby is growing up just eats at me sometimes because the days, weeks, months, and years are flying by so fast that I can barely remember the little cherub that he was. But it's all good - on to bigger and better things, right?

This morning, Monkey Man got up and asked when the bus was coming. Um, what bus? Yeah, he thought he started kindergarten today. We had one pissed-off kid when he found out that school doesn't start until September...and believe me, I am going to sooo remind him of this one day when he's bitching about heading back to school in the fall....