I'm now the mother of a schoolchild. Yesterday we went to orientation. Today I stayed for half an hour, and picked him up two hours later. Tomorrow, I will drop him off at the curb with his little backpack and snack and change of pants for unseen mud emergencies. It's all so normal and ordinary yet it's huge. He's out there, in the world, doing things that I don't know. I watched him for a while today, and he is hysterical at sitting there listening, and learning all the signs (it's an integrated special needs room) and answering questions and palling around with new kids that I don't know. It's craziness. He loves it.