Something's Gotta Give with Gun Violence

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

I live in Marysville, Washington (and have two kids in school). It's a bedroom community bursting at its borders with 10 elementary schools, four middle schools, and another four high school campuses.

Children everywhere!

There are not a lot of violent crimes here. Still, on Friday, October 24, 2014, a 15-year-old boy brought one of his father's handguns to school with him, walked into the cafeteria, and shot five of his friends and then himself, all in the head.

Only one of the kids survived. He was the shooter's cousin.

There Has Been a School Shooting in My Town

On Friday morning, October 24, 2014, at 10:39 AM, freshman Jaylen Fryberg brought a gun to Marysville-Pilchuck High School, invited five of his friends to have lunch with him, walked into the cafeteria and shot all five, two of whom are his cousins. He then shot himself.

source

I was 3.9 miles away, welcoming my husband home from dialysis and doing a little housework.

A few minutes later the local news app I use pushed a breaking news notification to my phone. I very often don't even pay much attention to them. I did tap this one and read a headline about a possible school shooting here in Marysville.

"Oh God, no", I muttered.

And immediately went into GET-ALL-THE-INFORMATION mode.

I was holding out hope that the word "possible" would turn out to mean that that's NOT what happened.

Alas, it was true.

The Third Day of 3rd Grade

Again this year my son AJ was thoroughly into summer and enjoyed it just as much as he absolutely could....

All the way up until he met his new teacher and saw his new classroom. As he was looking around the portable, he stopped and said, "I'm kind of excited for school to start."

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather!

Sick September

I'm not necessarily sick OF September. Although, considering the subject matter, I could say that I am. Except that, in doing so, I would also be saying skipping OVER September into October is desirable. But no one in their right mind needs time to move faster.

Except maybe Mother Nature who seems to have fast-forwarded the weather in the Pacific Northwest to November. I think I pissed her off with my "I'm ready for fall!" declarations. But I digress.

No, it's that there was too much SICK in my house in September. Like, just too much yuck in one month.

The week after school started the teenager came down with a mysterious fever. Only missed one day of school, thankfully. Her middle school makes so much noise about absences that it like seriously stresses me out.

The very next week my son came down with what was probably the same thing Camryn had. Mark had to pick him up early from school on Tuesday, but he was well enough to go back to school on Thursday.

OK, so each kid got a quick 24 hour illness. Not that big of a deal. Totally normal and even to be expected when you have more than one child.

But wait! The very NEXT week, on the SAME DAY of the week (Tuesday night), AJ gets this really bad headache. He had had a full day of school and gone to a friend's soccer practice. Although it's kind of odd for children to get headaches, I thought he was probably a little worn out. We gave him some ibuprofen and put him to bed.

Around 3:30 Wednesday morning he woke up, came into my room and told me his head was still really hurting AND his tummy didn't feel good to the point he thought he might have to throw up. I asked the typical questions moms ask like did he just need to go potty. I asked if he wanted more ibuprofen. He did so we trekked downstairs. He took the medicine, drank a little water and we went back to bed.

Well, he was right about the nausea because probably less than 30 minutes later he was throwing up. That happened a couple of times before he was able to go back to sleep.

Obviously this meant he wasn't going to school. I had to get up with Camryn, though, and thought AJ would get up a little while after, but he ended up sleeping until 9:00.

He threw up again a little later that morning but then improved quite a bit. He was taking fluids and eating a little bit. He even had some dinner with us that night. I assumed he'd be good as new and able to attend school the next day.

A little side complaint: My son's vomiting prevented me from attending my monthly wine club GNO because my friends didn't want me to possibly transport germs and give them away. Sniff.

Thursday arrives and I try to gauge how AJ is feeling. He seems not totally up to snuff so we decide to err on the side of caution and keep him home. He seemed nearly normal until somewhere around 2:00 when his head started hurting bad again and he went running to the bathroom to hurl.

I was all, what?? You're supposed to be getting better!

Not only was he in pain and vomiting again, he now also had a low grade fever.

Fantastic!

He could not keep ANYTHING down so I couldn't give him ibuprofen to help with the headache or the fever. He had to just lie there and be miserable.

And this mommy's heart ached.

AJ is such the tough little man that every time I asked if he wanted me to sit with him, or almost anything I offered, he very quietly just said, "No, I'm OK."

So I would just sit down near him, rub his back or his head a little, whenever I thought I could get away with it.

He went to bed at 8:30 Thursday night and slept until 7:30 Friday morning. Friday was OK, spent attempting a Harry Potter marathon and recovering.

Every time I call the pediatrician's office when my kids are sick they say "yep, that's goin' around". They also say, "We get real busy when the kids go back to school....".

So I gotta ask, what the eff are the schools doing with all the hand sanitizer they make us buy and send with our kids? Aren't they having the children use it??

I'll end this sob story with this: To my kids, and all kids everywhere, go ahead and be a rebel where viruses are concerned. No one will ostracize you for not catching the bug du jour.

And now you can find me crossing my fingers, toes, arms and legs in hopes that my Diabetic, immune compromised husband doesn't get any of this crap!

Linked up with Elleroy Was Here.

The Second Day of 2nd Grade

My little boy is a 2nd grader!

AJ had a super fun summer that included swim lessons, two weeks at Grandma & Grandpa Summer Camp, playing with friends every day, motorcycle rides with Grampa and starting soccer. Anytime I mentioned school he would moan and groan.

Then he met his teacher for this year. After that, he was all, "So when does school start?" and "Do I have school tomorrow?"

AJ's kindergarten teacher moved up to 1st grade right after K and he was placed in her 1st grade class too. I think having the same teacher, and one we all loved, for two years made him a little nervous for a brand new teacher.

But apparently she'll do.

*First Day of 1st Grade.

A Book About Bullies by a 7 Year Old

My son AJ wrote a little book about a bully in school.

One day John had a very, very bad day at school. He came home whining about his leg and after that his leg stopped hurting. He asked if he could have a cookie and his mom said, "No." But he got one anyway. He is very naughty and he is 7.

Then the next day at school John went to class. Then at 11:55, John went to lunch and after that he went to recess. John played soccer and after that John went in the class and packed. He went home.

At home, he asked if he could go to the park so his mom said, "Yes." So John went to the park. Then a boy named Parkersaid, "Get off my playground or give me a dollar."

Then John started to shake. The bully said, "Why are you still here when I told you to get out of here? In fact, GO AWAY!"

Then John shouted, "NO! You are not going to kick me out of the playground." Then John stood up to Parker and said, "Do not bully me any more." So the bully stopped bullying John and they became friends.

(He dedicated it to his sister Camryn. Not sure what that means.)

AJ's teacher gave this to us at our spring conference a few weeks ago. It was so cute how excited she was. She said, "Now THIS is something you're going to want to save with the keepsakes!"

"And mom will want to blog it", I said to my husband when we left.

Good job, kiddo!

The School Cycle

There is a cycle to each year when you have kids in school.

Every June you are just as ready as the kids for school to be over and summer break to commence. Then August hits and you start counting down the days until you can wave goodbye to your darling children as they hop onto the school bus to begin a shiny new school year.

This September, for me, a whole new chapter begins, as both of my offspring will be in school full time.

Wait. Let me clarify. People seem to think that all day school is literally ALL day. It's really only six hours, which is only one fourth of 24 hours. Which is why moms worship at the school altar.

Nevertheless, this is a big deal.

8 things I look forward to when sending the kids back to school

1. Getting back to a consistent routine

2. Knowing my children's brains aren't turning to mush

3. Space and time to focus on some long-neglected stuff

4. A (hopefully) less messy house

5. Fall also means TV shows returning!

6. Not having to feed my kids lunch

7. Cute pictures of my kids and their backpacks and the school bus

8. This....

Inspired by Mama Kat.

Vocabulary Lesson

My 6 year old son learned this word from his kindergarten teacher:

o·vip·a·rous   [oh-vip-er-uhs]

adjective Zoology .

producing eggs that mature and hatch after being expelled from the body, as birds, most reptiles and fishes, and the monotremes.

That's a very sophisticated vocabulary word for a kindergartner, don't you think?

And, the definition of oviparous gave me another word I didn't know and needed to look up:

mon·o·treme   [mon-uh-treem]

noun

any animal of the Monotremata, the most primitive order of mammals, characterized by certain birdlike and reptilian features, as hatching young from eggs, and having a single opening for the digestive, urinary, and genital organs, comprising only the duckbill and the echidnas of Australia and New Guinea.

Uh. OK.

Wait. What?

The duck-billed platypus is a monotreme.

Oh, that explains it.

No it doesn't. I mean, can a duck-billed platypus really be explained?

Anyway, my point is, my son's kindergarten teacher taught him, and he in turn taught me.

I didn't know the word oviparous (nor monotreme) before my son excitedly recounted what he had learned in school.

I love that!

National Geographic

Summer's Last Stand

For this week's listicles Stasha suggested a Summer 2011 recap.

I am a fan of looking back at what has transpired, because, as they say, hindsight is 20/20....

1. It was a different summer in a lot of ways.

2.  The weather was not very summer-like for most of it.  Really and truly, I am not exaggerating.  And then we got Indian Summer here into September, with a cool rain starting just yesterday, the 25th.  It's like we had an extended spring, a little summer and are now butting heads with fall...?  All I know is it seems to me that we no longer really know what "normal" weather is.

3.  Back in June, we began the summer with a few milestones.  Little did I know how different those things would feel today.  My oldest is a middle schooler, my youngest is a kindergartner, with nothing in between.  I really don't care for extremes, yet one is glaringly personified in my children.  At the time that AJ graduated Pre-K and Camryn graduated 5th grade, I had no idea their age difference would feel twice as obvious in just a few months when they each started new chapters in their little lives.  Wait.  I can't even say "little" about Camryn anymore!

4.  We didn't spend the 4th of July with other families this year.  Was still a good day, but not really special or memory-making.

5.  I dove head first - or perhaps, belly-flopped - into becoming a bonafied blogger.  It's really become a part of me, part of my identity.  I didn't know I had so much to say.  It's very liberating and empowering and cathartic.

6.  Camryn turned 11 and became a Tween.  My little girl is officially growing up.  You may think your little ones are growing up every day, but let me tell you, it will hit like a ton of bricks when they turn 11 and leave elementary school.

7.  I went from fearing the idea of travelling without Mark for a week to loving it and being so excited about it I could have peed my pants!  It was wonderful to get back to Lake Tahoe.  It was also wonderful to come home, which I think is exactly what a vacation should do for you.

8.  I actually got a tan this year!  Even a burn.  But I had to leave Washington to do it.

9.  The kids' days were filled with Orbeez, Frisbees, tennis balls, Hula Hoops and a Slip N Slide .  Oh and they spent all their allowance on buying ice cream from the ice cream truck!

10.  Then there is the start of school and Girl Scouts.  AJ went from afternoon pre-K to morning K and Camryn is bussing clear across town for the completely different experience of middle school.  This is Cami's first year as a Cadette Girl Scout and I as her troop's co-leader.  We've hit a few bumps in the road trying to get used to everything.  There really have been many changes since last June!

But it's all good.  We are easing into our new groove...or being slammed by it, I can't decide which. Next we will be thinking about HalloGiveMas.  Ohmigosh, really?  Again, already?

Seasons change, time marches on....

"There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart."

~Celia Thaxter

My Babies Aren't Babies Anymore

Of course I knew this day would come. But knowing something is coming doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.

My kids growing up is in no way as hard as, say, a death, but there is a sense of loss involved. It is a change, and every change needs to be processed.

My daughter was a slow talker, but oh how I loved the way she would pronounce things. Flower was “fwow-wow” and hot dog was “ga-gog”. I never want to forget things like that!

My son is was a thumb-sucker and hair player-with-er. It has been really special to have my little boy sit in my lap sucking his thumb and playing with my hair, so happy and content. But he is earnestly trying to kick this habit because he’s a big kid now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t missing it just a little.

My beautiful daughter Camryn is now 11 years old and heading into middle school in a month. She is a full-on Tween, at the stage of childhood where she is a goofy little girl one moment and then a young lady the next. She has ADD so she is slightly less mature than most of her peers, but she is still well on her way. She just became a Girl Scout Cadette and is currently attending her 2^nd year at horse camp. She got her love of horses from my mother. Apparently it skips a generation!

I have a confession. I find myself staring at Cami’s body quite a bit, waiting for any sign of puberty. I want to be prepared the moment she needs a real bra (she sometimes wears little training bras) and hope to God I have a good reaction when she starts her period! I don’t want to be overly excited or giddy which might be embarrassing. Nor do I want to let out a heavy sigh because I know just how much fun periods are.

My adorable son AJ is 5 ½ and starting Kindergarten in September. He attended a year and a half of preschool, complete with riding the bus, so I’m not real weepy about him starting K (although I do know he will begin reading this year and that‘s a big deal). No, it’s more the other things he’s doing now that get me. That he’s already started losing his baby teeth, that he learned how to ride a 2-wheeler in about 5 minutes and suddenly he can reach the kitchen faucet. Oh, don’t let me forget that he’s now spent a couple nights away from us this summer!

Seriously, just how many milestones, regardless of how small, need to happen to a mommy all at once?

Every time I turn around lately my kids get or do something new. They simply aren’t little anymore and that’s crazy. And it’s not only about accepting where my kids are at now, but also what that means in relation to ME as their mom. I have now been a mother for 11 years. I’ve got some real experience under my belt. I find I’m able to share my “motherly wisdom” with others from time to time.

Actually, that last part is funny. On one had I feel like I have some wisdom, but on the other hand one of the things I’m wise to is that I don’t have all the answers. I thought I did before I ever had children. But now, nope.

What I know right now is my children, my beautiful babies, are becoming actual young PEOPLE. Time is marching on….and on and on. And in the immortal words of Steven Tyler, I don’t wanna miss a thing.

The Preschool Graduate!

In reading some other "Mombloggers" (Scary Mommy, My Suitcase Full of Tricks) there seems to be this general consensus that the idea of a preschool graduation, at first, sounds a little absurd. But then you get there and you're all, "That's my baby! Go baby!" And you're happy and proud and taking photos just like all the other crazy parents. Darn kids.

The reason I think even something that seems small in the grand scheme of things IS important, is because it's about celebrating accomplishments.  It's about celebrating LIFE.  And by holding a little graduation ceremony for preschoolers, we're showing them this.  That milestones matter, that they matter, that we love them and we're proud of them.  It's never too early to show our kids those things!

For me, AJ is my last child, therefor this was my last preschool graduation.  At least until perhaps he or his sister have children and they graduate preschool.  My little boy is a Kindergartner already!  Why did his first 5 years go by so much faster than Cami's?  I swear the love and pride I feel for my kids could fill the universe!  On a good day that is.... LOL

And now for your viewing pleasure I present a pictorial of AJ's Pre-K year:

First day of school

A masterpiece

Snow day!

5th Birthday

AJ & Julius - LOVE!

Valentine's Day

Stylin' & Profilin'

That's my boy!