This post is in proud partnership with Pre-K for PA, whose goal is to advocate for increased access to pre-k for 3- and 4-year-old kids in Pennsylvania.  But this story? It’s oh-so-preciously mine. Learn more about partnership disclosures here.

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He wore jeans and blue top, accessorized with a hand-picked orange tote bag and a smile I hadn’t seen on him in months.

My 3-year-old son asked me to put on his favorite song in the car and bopped his head to the sound of the beat hard enough to get his sisters dancing too, but not too hard to move the styled-with-gel-for-the-first-time-ever hair on his head.

It was finally his turn, and he was feeling every ounce of the joy on the short, 6-minute drive to what used to be his big sister’s preschool, but now was going to be his.

Not a nerve triggered in him.