We cheer our kids as they grow, learn and reach milestones, but for many of us parents, the latter can be bittersweet celebrations. We understand that our children are growing up and older and, if we're doing our jobs right, becoming increasingly independent. Well, allow me to confide, all is extraordinarily bittersweet for me this year as my daughter enters into the final months of sixth grade and, alas, elementary school. She enjoys being at the top of the heap, so to speak, and is increasingly looking ahead to middle school. I, on the other hand, find myself doing a lot of glancing back, thinking about the special moments of first grade, second and third grades ... throughout it all, holding on to each day of sixth grade with a white-knuckled grip.

And so it was yesterday that I assisted with her classmates' final grade-school Valentine's Day party. I made brownies. I helped the teacher ready the room with treats. I filled paper cups with orangeade. I took pictures. But, for the most part, my daughter and her friends didn't need a lot of attending to. Far different from the Valentine's Day party I helped with when my daughter was a little kindergartener. Back then, these same kids, now on the verge of teenhood, delighted at serving as little postmasters and postmistresses at a valentine-filled post office in the corner of their first classroom. The mind plays tricks, because I remember it vividly ... so it must have been only yesterday.

So it is that we move on. And, on this post-Valentine's Day, my heart breaks as it rejoices.