Messy hair. Loud fake laugh. Sassy attitude. Two crooked big girl teeth. Death stare. I have an almost 7-year-old second-grader. Where does the time go?

Once a week she goes to enrichment classes for the day. On the first day of class, she stops me as we walked through the gate to her classroom and says, “I can take it from here.” WHAT??! I felt a little part of me die inside.

Tonight she sobs herself to sleep and says, “I don’t want to grow up.” Well, I don’t want her to either…

As is the ritual for the first day of (home)school we take back to school photos.