The Last Day of Kindergarten

Today was the Cherub's last day at kindergarten, an event that loomed large on my emotional calendar. I love our kinder so much that actually I never want to leave it. It is a fantastic place, with great resources and wonderful staff and I count myself and my boys lucky to have somehow scraped our way in there. When Climber was three we were told by our local council that they did not have a place for him at any of the local kindergartens, and we'd already been knocked back by some out-of-area kinders, so when I heard that our one might have a vacancy I made my sister ring up from Canberra and find out if it was true because we were going through this at that time and I didn't think I'd be able to hear someone else tell me no. But luckily they said yes to us. And I'm still thankful, because both my boys had a beautiful year there.

My plan for this afternoon was to collect the Climber from his last day at school and then just hang around for a while. I wanted to let the Climber, who is also very attached to the place, have a last good play there, because he always wants to play and explore, and I have not really been able to indulge this what with having been so busy, busy, busy at this time of year. And of course I wanted to take plenty of photos and maybe even some video footage of my little Cherub whizzing around with his friends. I wanted to savour it.

But poor old Cherub caught Climber's Slapped Cheek Disease and although when I sent him off this morning he was pink-faced but happy, by lunchtime he was sad and not joining in or eating or anything, and what else could I do with a face like this but take him home early?