Kindergarten!! (the realization)

Well Amberlyn L-O-V-E-S her Kindergarten class! When I picked her up on the first day, she told me all about it! They colored a picture, sat in a circle on an alphabet rug & sang songs, watched "The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar", ate her snack I had packed her, and played on the playground. "Mom! We had recess! Recess is when you get to go out and play on the playground!" she informed me. She was also very impressed with the "chalkboard on the tv". Having not been in a classroom in hum-diddly-hum-drum years, I had no idea what she was talking about. An overhead projector perhaps? I asked my teacher friends/relatives, and found out it's a new-fangled thing called a Smartboard, an interactive computerized whiteboard thingie. What will they come up with next? Anyway, she had a blast, and couldn't wait to go back!
Amberlyn is getting so big, and it snuck up on me. And my life has changed dramatically in the last few days, with her being in school! It suddenly occured to me, on Sunday night, that I was going to have to take her to school every day! I was prepared for Monday, but then I realized I would have to take her on Tuesday as well! And, wait a minute... Wednesday too! And Thursday and Friday, and every school day from now on! No more 2 days a week like preschool! I was going to help my sister-in-law move to Tucson next week, but it hit me that Amberlyn had to be in school, and I couldn't just leave whenever I wanted to anymore. No more week long trips, or going to visit my mom in Show Low on a whim.
And, get this, I have to get my hiney out of bed everyday at 6:45! Those of you that know me, know that I am NOT a morning person. At all. I haven't had an obligation to get up that early on a regular basis since I was in school! I do have to admit however, that I thrive on routine, and I think this will be a good change for me. I enjoy helping Amberlyn choose her clothes everynight, and getting her backpack ready, and packing her snack each day, and getting her out the door and to her classroom. I makes me feel like a "real mom". Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I wasn't a real mom before, but the days of playing all day are gone, and have been replaced with a little more responsibility than had occured to me. They say your life changes when you have kids. It does. It changes again when they go to school!
I just wasn't prepared.