… that our sweet Ana-bear is growing up.

She’s been talking about school all summer long. She was so thrilled when we took her to the store and picked out all of her supplies. What would she draw with the crayons? What would she cut with the scissors? What would she glue with the glue sticks? And what, I ask you, exactly would she be doing with all those paper plates? (A mystery for the ages, I’m sure.)

She picked out a backpack, picked out a first day outfit, and picked out a restaurant for Papi to take her to for a “first day of school” dinner. She talked about her teacher, about the playground, and about all of the other students that she was going to meet.

Last night, we arrived for “Back to School Night” at the preschool campus, and little Ana-bear, so very grown up and excited, jumped out of the car with her pink backpack on, marched on into the school and met her teacher, saw the classroom, and (heaven help us all) called me “Mom.” Mom. Not Mommy. MOM.

And I kept thinking… how did she get to be FOUR so quickly? How did we go from the wiggly newborn who would Houdini herself out of diapers in the bassinet (only poopy diapers!) to this sassy preschooler? How did we go from cooing and giggling to full, complex sentences full of big words? How did we go from then to now so quickly?

I was pondering all these things when we left the school last night and ran by the store. I was watching Ana walk hand-in-hand with Wes, so big and grown up, willing myself not to cry over the inevitable change we’re facing when she did the most GLORIOUS thing ever.

Ana licked the jewelry display case at Wal Mart. Just outright LICKED it. Then turned to a giggling Emma and tried to get her to do the same thing. (I put a stop to that nonsense before it got out of hand and threatened to put some sanitizer on that tongue to prevent any future licking. Bleh.)

You see, no matter how grown up the word SCHOOL makes her sound, Ana is ONLY four years old.

And when I leave the school without her on Thursday, this is what I’ll gladly remember, knowing that we still have many, many, MANY years before she’s really grown…