As my last one starts school, I'm a bit bubbly

I was standing out in the driveway with my son, waiting for the school bus to come and whisk my baby off to kindergarten.
It was David's first day of school.
He looked so big with his book bag strapped firmly to his back. He was wearing his new shoes -- the zipper kind, so he could put them on himself; which he did with pride.
I noticed his shirt was untucked.
"Didn't I just tuck that in?" I asked him, reaching out to tuck it again.
"Mom," he said with an edge to his voice. "It isn't cool that way."
The youngest of four children, David knows more about "cool" than any 6-year-old should. I chuckled to myself at his candor, thankful that I was "cool" enough to stand at the end of the driveway with him.
Fiddling with his hair (which, surprisingly, he didn't mind), my thoughts retraced the moments of this child's life that had brought us to this point in time.
Taking a momentto look back
It seemed liked just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital.
I remember Robert awkwardly holding his little brother. Robert was 10 then. He has his driving permit now.
Phillip had just finished kindergarten when David joined our family. Andrew was about to experience his first day of school. They are middle-schoolers now, seventh- and sixth-graders.
Yet, it seems that time was just a moment ago -- for me, anyway.
For David, this day has taken a lifetime to arrive. (Literally!)
He has wanted to go to school since he was old enough to say the word. For him, his brothers were having all the fun, even though the boys assured him playing at home was much more fun than school.
Two and three days of half-day preschool wasn't enough for David. He wanted the full school package.
"What am I going to do all day when you're at school?" I had asked him many times over the past year.
"Oh, Mom," he would say, with a concerned look in his eyes.
Finally, I realized I was giving the child a guilt complex.
"You know, David," I said as we were driving in the car last spring. "I think it's time for you to go to kindergarten. You are ready."
"Yeah, Mom!" he said with great excitement in his voice. "I am!"
I sensed that he felt I had released him. And even though I didn't really mean what I had said, I was glad I had said it.
Today, David's lifelong wish was coming true.
The bus drove by to make its turn around. David looked up at me, excitement beaming on his face but there was a touch of nervousness in his eyes. The bus was very big. I gave him a look of reassurance. His full smile returned.
"The last one?" Jody asked as she opened the bus doors.
"Yep," I tried to smile, but the tears were starting to well up in my eyes.
"Sit anywhere you want," she told David as he climbed the steps. Then she gave me a reassuring look as she closed the bus doors.
Goodbye, my baby,but hello, freedom
I stood waving as my last child rode away to school.
My last child ... in school ...
I had spent nearly 16 years getting to this point.
I turned and walked toward the house. Opening the door, I took a deep breath and wiped the last tears from my eyes.
The house was quiet and still.
My last child ... in school ...
As the reality hit me, I raised my arms in the air and began running through the house yelling, "I'm free! I'm free!"
I grabbed a bottle of champagne and a pack of plastic wine glasses (the kind that the bottoms fall off of) and headed out the door.
I had a champagne brunch date with a group of mothers experiencing this new-found freedom.
We made a toast to our children's future and to this, the first day of the rest of our lives.
gwhite@vindy.com