"Good-bye Mr. Chips"

My first born leaves in a few hours to go back to college 3,000 miles away for his second semester of the school year. While I was pressing the last wrinkles out of his shirts to be packed and waiting for the timer to ding signaling the chocolate chip cookies were done, being in the kitchen I started to remember when he was a little boy and how far he has come in reaching his goals. As a toddler, he would organize my Tupperware in categories and in the pantry on the bottom shelf arrange the cans according to size. His pre-school teacher called this "classification" predicting he would be very good in math.

In his kindergarten class, the children were asked to draw a picture of the earth. His picture included the polar ice caps. The pre-school teacher's prophecy was correct. We are very proud of his successes and accomplishments as he excels at his studies in Chemical Engineering but tonight my thoughts are on the little boy who used to sit up on the stool with cheeks brushed of soft flour who helped measure out chopped nuts, sweet bits, and sugar telling me I made the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole world. I hope that included the polar ice caps. Have a wonderful semester, my love bug.