Psuedo only child

Much like Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, this is Mommy and Jack Week in the Snarky family. We're spending some quality time together before he starts school next week and Emmie is having quality time with Grandma and Grandpa in Wisconsin before she starts All-Mommy, All-The-Time 14 Weeks next week. That will be followed by New Baby Invasion Weeks in December. I am sure she'll love it.

When I first found out our neighborhood school offered a full-day, five-day-per-week Montessori program, I hesitated for about 2.5 nanoseconds. Full-day school? For free? Where do I sign?

But now as it's getting closer, I am starting to have some pangs about sending my little boy off with strangers for six hours every day. I mean he's going to play outside on a playground without my direct supervision to make sure he doesn't fall off the monkey bars and break his arm. He's going to eat lunch without my direct supervision to make sure he eats his spinach before he gets his dessert. He's going to have to wipe himself after he goes to the bathroom. The pressure, I tell you.

Not to mention the fact he will be in a class of 26 kids with only two teachers. That's 13 kids per adult! I can't even hang out with 13 people at once and keep track of what everyone is doing. How can they possibly watch 13 young children without losing one? These kids are shifty, they can sneak away in a second. Or something. Something terrible.

But next Monday, we'll send him off to school and I'll probably spend the days wishing he was here torturing Emmie and running away from me. I had doubts about Emmie's ability to exist without her brother stealing all the attention. She's always had someone else to play with. Now she's probably going to make me be her playmate. But when he was off at camp several mornings per week this summer, she relished the time alone and enjoyed playing with the train table with no one screaming, "NO EMMIE I AM PLAYING RIGHT NOW," grabbing the trains out of her hot little hands and throwing her to the ground. So I think she'll be just fine.

To celebrate his last week at home, we've been doing fun stuff. Monday we went to the playground and the water park and out for pizza. Tuesday we took the El downtown, went to the Planetarium, had lunch and dinner out and played at the park some more. Today we hit the farmer's market and the park and had pizza for dinner again, followed by ice cream cones. Tomorrow, we have the Children's Museum on the agenda as well as a reunion with his sister.

I know he'll never remember this week in the grand scheme of things, but I hope he's had fun having me all to himself and doing fun things that he loves. I've had a lot of fun with him. I found myself getting teary tonight as he licked his cone at Dairy Queen and smiled at me with ice cream all over his face. That sweet little face will be the one greeting me every day at 2:45 p.m. and I am so looking forward to that part of school -- the part where he runs to me and hugs me with that mega-watt smile on his face and we talk all about his day on the way home. Makes the six-hour separation more than worth it.