The Dodson Four: His 1st Graduation

I'm pretty sure I saw future moments of his life flash before me as his teacher read a farewell poem - (" it's pre-K Joy, hold yourself together") I love him growing & learning, I love seeing & hearing his excitement of the next minute, day, week, month and next Christmas...... And it's a little fun to think about the life journey he will take & person he will become .....BUT as so many Moms, Dads, and others say, I just want to freeze these moments in time! I want to write down every moment possible - record it so at any given moment I can feel the same emotions, see the same smiles, feel the same joy in my heart!! Yes - I know - video cameras, pictures, they capture a fraction of that. And trust me my slices of the pie in the picture department are on the obtuse side. I just might have 360 of the 365 days documented thanks to the iPhone :-)

This week leading up to the BIG graduation night Lance & I have had some conversations about this special moment and how he will have other graduations. We talked about how he'll move on from Kindergarten to 1st to 2nd, all the way up to 12th and then I said I would be very sad when he went away to college & I would miss having him at the house. And we talked about college as we have SO many times. (For the record he was really torn between being a Dentist & a Daddy! I think I made his day telling him he could be both!) So, we're on our way home from Hy-Vee last night- listening to the radio, rather than the Little People Tunes, and a commercial for St. Ambrose comes on. The catch to the rather long commercial "Stay at home & earn your degree" From the backseat Lance starts talking all excited, but EVER so serious, "Mommy, you won't have to be sad. I can just stay at home and go to college!" I seriously laughed (& maybe cried on the inside too) How incredibly precious. Your behavior at the checkout line has been forgiven :-) And its those moments - the non-grocery store checkout line ones- that I want to be able to bring back as quick as a slide of the finger on the iPhone!

So, the BIG moment came & went just as quickly as the past 4 1/2 years have. And the pictures & video (that I will watch a million times while he's growing up over the next 15 years or so) will help me remember just how special the moment was.

Congrats to my thoughtful, moody, spontaneous, loud, energetic, sweet, happy-happy, intelligent, sincere little rule follower!

And onto the unforgettable pics!