As a mom I pride myself on being the ultimate multitasker. I can talk on the phone, clean the kitchen, mitigate World War III between my girls over the remote control, and compose my next Tweet (a little blogger humor for you) all at the same time. And this doesn’t even include what you can’t see me doing with my all powerful mom mind—like the mental barbs I’m hurling at the dog wiggling past my legs to lick the clean dinner plates in the dishwasher as I unload it.

But there are bypasses along the path of parenting that you can’t anticipate and schedule. You can set reminders on your phone for dental appointments and field trips, but sometimes you overlook the obvious.

It’s been a big week, busy with end-of-school year celebrations and recognition and to say I’ve been focused on Miss C’s last days at her wonderful elementary school is an understatement. I boo hooed as I chose photos from the past five years to send in for the 4th grade graduation slideshow. I talked with her late with night about middle school. But I didn’t ever stop to consider how all this was going to affect her little sister, Miss A.

I woke early on graduation day and headed straight for the coffee maker but stopped in the den as I saw a small figure curled up in a quilt on the sofa. I assumed it was Miss C as this was her big day. I was wrong. It was Miss A, and as I stepped closer I could see that she was fully dressed in the outfit she’d picked out the night before.

We talked for a minute and she told me she’d gotten up in the middle of the night to get the dog a drink of water and that she couldn’t sleep.

“Are you excited about Miss C’s graduation today?” I asked.

“Yes,” she sniffed.

“What’s wrong? Are you sad about her graduating?”

“Yes. I’m going to miss her and her friends in the car rider line,” she said, and then she started to cry.

My girls have walked into school together every morning for two years and they’ve waited for me to pick them up every afternoon. But now they are going to be at separate schools. I hadn’t even thought about how all this would affect Miss A. I hugged her tightly and assured her she’d be making all sorts of new friends in second grade.

I know she’ll be fine once the excitement of a new school year kicks in. I know they will both love their new teachers and classmates come August.  Kids bounce back like a super ball on a pizza parlor game room floor.

Last day of school! As you can see, they are really sad.