THE FIRST GOODBYE

Tomorrow is Nicholas' last day at Alder Street Learning Center, the pre-school which he has attended for the past three and one-half years. It has been an amazing school, and we feel fortunate that Cate will remain there for at least the next three years.

Tonight we decided to write out thank you cards to three of his teachers- the center director Linda, who is an amazing teacher, his current teacher Nicole, and his former teacher Norma, who has reached him in a way that I can only dream of approaching one day.

The card to Norma is shown below.



Its contents included the following words (along with a Starbuck's gift card and the picture below):



"Dear Norma,

I love you so much. I love you because you stay with me until the end of the day, and you always love doing stuff to me that is so silly.

There's a lot of other stuff that I do not have room for, but I love you because you are my friend and my teacher.

I hope I have another teacher like you because you're my best teacher I have ever had at school!

Love,

Nicholas"

The choice of the sloth for the cover was mine, but the words were all his. Cue the kleenexes please. Sniff. Sniff.