Tiger Robin.

...
You know, school IS cool but according to one little boy... it is really only as cool as your mascot. Coming from schools whose mascots so awesomely included a shamrock and a friar, I find this comical. Thank goodness my fierce ole' longhorn elevated me to Gabriel May standards. Yep, that's right. A glorified cow tipped (ha... cow tip!)  me into good standing with the police of all that is mascoty goodness.

His standards for mascot worthiness are pretty simple. It just has to trump Molly's mascot.

When Molly left for the big ole' world of Elementary School, I expected the missing. I envisioned the running to an embrace at the end of a long school day. What I didn't expect though was the CRAZY rage of jaded mascot envy that would encompass Gabriel's world. Summitt Eagles? Say it ain't so. Life had dealt him an unfair hand and he was not going to stand for it.

So it became that Milwood Preschool was no more.

Gabriel was a ever more a proud student at "Tiger Robin". I mean, duh, we all know a "real" school has an animal and a regular name attached to it and as an added bonus "a tiger would definitely eat an eagle."

It is with complete honesty when I assure you that not one time in the past two years did he ever ever refer to his surroundings as Milwood Preschool.

That alone is so Gabriel.

Do you know what I love most about this school? His teachers knew it too.

For a school that has several classrooms for each preschool "grade", all filled with loud and energized kiddos, those teachers taught to my child's individual needs in the most caring and consistent of ways.

 Let's be honest. Gabriel's one cutey boy.

In fact, he was even cutey when he first started at Tiger Robin.

Cutey... and crazy.

We had just made the move to Austin, plucked him out of his comforting world and spent the summer on the road. His world was chaos and he was beyond lost in it. What he lacked in the words to explain his feelings, he made up for in a piercing scream. In a rage-filled, full throttle, must-take-out-every-blonde-little-girl-on-the-playground piercing scream. For a while it was every.single.day his clip was moved. It wasn't a matter of IF but more a matter of HOW MANY meltdowns he had in a day. He was confused and I was defeated and sad. The teachers that met us that year were our light. Mine and Gabriel's. To say they loved my child is an enormous understatement. They saw beyond the exterior and courageously worked to empower his beautiful inner being to grow.

Goodness, son. How you grew.

We are officially on our way to Kindergarten to start life as a Comet. Gabe's almost on board with the coolness of comets. Almost. If only it were a dusty space snowball with fangs. Stink.

You were so good to us, Tiger Robin--- nurturing. empowering. strong. Everything in a mascot and more.... the fiercest quality of all being the love you had for my family.

I am so thankful for it all.