Today is Ben’s first day of kindergarten. This will be the first time he’s been in close proximity with so many kids at the same time. It is also the first time he will be spending any significant amount of time away from everyone in his immediate family.

I’m sure that every parent has trepidations about this day, but this is a kid with a little more going on than the average five year old. Thankfully there are three people in the school office that also have type 1 diabetic kids, so there will always be someone around who knows how to deal with any problems.

We actually worry a lot more about his Asperger syndrome than the diabetes. He’s as likely to shut down and withdraw from everything as he is to lash out and hit the other kids. During the in-person evaluation last week, the teacher got to see him withdraw, but she hasn’t yet seen him being belligerent. If his blood sugar happens to get low, he can get even more feisty.

The silver lining is that Kathy will have a little bit of time every day to herself, something she’s not had much of in the last 13 years.