"OFFICIAL"

We went to back-school-night last night. That milestone moment left me feeling like I'm now an official parent. One would think the rigors of raising a colicky child, nursing-to-health another from pneumonia, and battling back-to-back illnesses in the dead of a frigid back-east winter all would have given me some inkling of feeling like an official parent. (Seems like you have to go through those 9-hours long ER trips -I've sat through 4 so far- and experience that part of parenting before you can be classified as one.) Again, through all of the bad and good so far, I really didn't feel like I officially filled this role until last night. Maybe it's because attending back-to-school night was the first thing I've done that I can actually remember my parents doing for me as a child. I obviously don't remember much of the early years (although I do remember them nursing me back to health after a bout of pneumonia in the 4th grade). I have one memory before kindergarten and it's of walking down the hallway in my nightgown while dad was rushing to put all 4 of us kids in the car for a late-night ER trip (told ya every "official" parent has one of these stories) to get stitches for Bryan, who had rolled off the top bunk bed at 3 am and split his lip open after hitting his mouth on the bedroom dresser. My next memories start in kindergarten. Since Emma is now in kindergarten, my story comes full circle. I'm looking forward to more milestone moments when I will get that official, "Hey- I'm a parent!" feeling that makes me feel like I'm someone special.