The end of school

We finished school today. I get a little weepy here and there. I really can't quite sort out whether I feel like I'm indulging in something when I cry about the kids growing up or whether I'm being forced down that path by a bunch of sentimental chain jerkers. Either way, every year I get misty eyed. I'll be honest that I can't say I felt misty eyed over Eden moving on. She seemed to respect her teacher this year but there wasn't that bond where you know that your kid has a teacher who loves his/her students each and every one and they are all special to her. Her teacher had favorites and Eden wasn't on her short list. I kind of felt sad for her but I do know that her first two teachers were genuinely fond of her and enjoyed talking about her, so I guess you can't have it all. Kait, on the other hand, had that special teacher this year. The one that has warm and special words for each of her students and loves them all completely. I love seeing that coming from a teacher because they make such an impact on a childs life. Some of them grasp that and consider it part of their job description. It's something I appreciate that as a meddlesome critical parent.
I've felt a little person bee bopping around inside of me. Sometimes I take a minute to imagine what the little person doing somersaults and kickboxing inside of me would look like if I could see. Kait wanted to know how big it's gotten so I checked a weekly growth log on the internet. The analogies always crack me up. A bell pepper. Okay. Well, I'm not sure why almost every fetal development analogy is food oriented, but that's what we get so... the bell pepper was kicking it up today. If it were me writing it, I'd use different animals each week. It would be sure to give pregnant women crazy nightmares of delivering a guinea pig, chihuahua or a prairie dog or something. That's definitely something to motivate a woman to take her sticky white baby with gooey hair and often bruised up cone head and kiss it with fervor. All while having the incoherent thought of "thank GOD you aren't a weiner dog!" That must be why they use food. We all know it's not a watermelon in there, we know it's alive and somehow I think the seed could be planted in a crazy pregnant mind quite easily that you've got an alien or furry creature growing inside you. Just sayin.
Eden loves the science of things, so we were discussing how the body breaks down food and passes calories through the umbilical cord to the baby at dinner tonight. She got a bright smile and told me that the baby is like a balloon inside of me and the umbilical cord is pumping it up. I guess this is cute but is it very fun for a woman to think about someone hooking a bicycle pump up to her for the fourth time in her life? No, it's not fun. Do I want to feel like my belly might split right down the middle at any moment again? This is not a trick question. No, I don't!
Here was a grand time I had at the kindergarten party. Another woman who accidentally had a fourth child found out I was accidentally pregnant with a fourth child. She attached herself to me like a leach telling me how horrible it is to have four kids and how awful it is to get pregnant with a fourth child when you didn't plan it. I tried to dodge her, repeatedly rushing over to get my arms pulled out of their sockets doing the parachute game with the kids, but as soon as I gave out, she would catch me again and ply me with inappropriate questions and volunteer an unnerving amount of personal emotions over her FOURTH pregnancy. I didn't learn anything that you could say to make a woman feel better about an unplanned pregnancy but I did learn several things not to say. If this is making you fearful of what you should say to a woman who isn't thrilled to be pregnant, I have a bit of advice. Just laugh when she does and shake your head with a sad smile when she does and whack her on the back and tell her she'll be fine. It's fairly elementary. Don't be surprised if she tells you one day that she has come to terms and then complains for a week straight, followed by another announcement that she is finally happy to be pregnant. It seems to be part of the "process" from what I can determine. Obviously it has nothing to do with not wanting your child. They are purely selfish emotions related to self, not child.
My very most favorite quote of the week is "it all goes so quickly, savor every minute." My reply was "I'll try to savor at least one out of ten and call it good." Seriously, this incredibly short stage is lasting for a significant portion of my life at this point. I did just sit and stare at all three of them. I tried memorizing their faces and funny things but it's just a big mosh. What a waste of emotion and memory space. Now I appear to have completely run out of emotion and memory and I've got another little person to pour all of that into all over again.
For any person reading this who didn't have the sense to laugh: I'm FINE! I'm FINE. I am trying to be funny. It's a raw attempt at dry wit and sarcastic inappropriate humor.