Santa Coming!

On Friday we went to see Santa.  We decided not to brave long lines and pay for an expensive picture just to see Santa this year.  I kind of expected that Emily wouldn't want to see on his lap and it was going to be iffy with Sam.  Our bank has a Santa, with a real beard, that sits next to a beautiful tree and hands out candy canes.  You can take your own pictures and every year we've gone, this is the third year, there hasn't been anyone in front of us.  This sounded like a perfect solution.

Paul and I rushed home from school in order to make it to the bank before 5 o'clock.  On the way we talked about seeing Santa and sitting on his lap.  I tried, again, to get them to say what they wanted for Christmas.  Still mum on that topic.  They seemed pretty excited to go see Santa.

Once we got there we walked inside.  They immediately saw Santa but they were really cautious.  Emily really didn't want anything to do with him at first.  She didn't even want me to put her down.  We put Sam on Santa's lap and he sat there, without smiling.  We took a couple of pictures then tried to persuade Emily to at least stand next to him.  She didn't want to.  So instead of pushing the issue I just stood next to Santa with her.  It helped that Santa gave her a candy cane so she had to get a little closer.  We stood and chatted with Santa for a little bit until another family arrived.  We said "Thank you, Santa" for the candy canes and went in line to deposit some money. 

From the line Sam and Emily said thank you to Santa at least 10 times.  Silly kids.  Emily even sneaked in a wave or two.  Overall it was a great success!

Tragedy

I didn't go to work today.  I went shopping with my mom.  I had a wonderful day thinking about Christmas and trying to find gifts that would bring joy to the recipient.  We made it home, dragging, to my babies and Meg.  Meg then asked, "Did you hear about the school today?"  I got a lump in my throat.  My thoughts immediately went to my class.  Today we had our first lockdown drill... at 9:45.  Luckily it wasn't my school.

As Meg went on to relay the event to me I could only think of what would that be like.  How could this happen in an elementary school?  I can't even imagine how that could happen.  As a teacher I wonder if I could have stayed calm and thought clearly to lead my class to safety.  Then I started to worry about my kids.  Did they hear about what happened?  Would their parents be able to calm their fears?  Fears that usually surface during a lockdown drill?  Fears that we normally explain with the small chance that something like this would ever happen, but it did today.  Fears that we can't calm with details about exactly how we would react if someone were to show up in our building.  Fears that all of those kids in that building will have for a long time, if not forever.

I think about the kindergartners in our building.  They are innocent.  They believe in Santa.  They believe in the Elf on the Shelf.  They draw pictures that have to be interpreted and stories that need a subtitle.  They need help opening their milk and putting on their coats.  They shouldn't have to worry about or see their classmates killed.  They should not see their nightmares in real life.

Do I think we need to outlaw guns?  No.  Do I think teachers should carry guns?  Definitely not.  Do I think that we, as a society, need to do something different?  Yes, but I can't say what that is.  I do believe that the people behind this mass shootings are hurting.  They may need mental health help that isn't covered by insurance or that isn't detected or properly treated.  They may have experienced trauma that they weren't able to work through.  Maybe they have not felt needed, loved or supported.  Again I think of the 20 little-ish people in my room every day.  It is my job to make sure those kids have what they need.  If they don't get it at home, it is my job as a teacher to make sure they are loved, supported and heard.  It is my job to make sure they receive the help they need.  And it is my job to be their protector.

What I love about you today...Emily version

Twelve Things I Love About You on 12/12/12:
1.  "Carry You"  When you want to be held or carried you ask, "Carry you."  You rarely want to walk on your own when we are out running errands.  Normally I carry you and Sam walks.  I've heard you telling your babies carry you.

2.  You new found love of jumping.  Lately you have been jumping and jumping and jumping.  I don't know how it started but you love to hold on to something and just jump.  Both your feet leave the ground so it really is a true jump.  The bad part is that you don't always jump in safe places.  You like to jump on the couch and on my legs.  (I have to remember this when I find unexplainable bruises on my legs.)

3.  Elmo.  You have developed a deep love of Elmo.  (Right as the puppeteer is in all kinds of trouble.)  I think it all started when you watched Sesame Street for two straight days when you had croup around Halloween.  You now carry around Elmo and sit on the couch and request to watch Elmo. 

4.  Color You.  You have started to love to color.  You also will request to color by saying something that sounds like color you.  We have been tracing your hand so you like to try to trace your hand on your own.  The other day this resulted in pen marks all over your arm.

5.  Your love of books.  You love to look through books and to "read".  Sam likes to look at books too but not as much as you.  You can spend almost 30 minutes looking through books.  Your favorites are:  Carl, If you Give a Pig a Party ("pig party"), the free Clifford books from Chick-fil-a, and any of the baby hide and seek books.  We routinely make it through a whole book before bed too.  You and Sam love the book You Can Do It Sam!

6.  Your "mommy" skills.  Lately you have really been interested in your babies, and Elmo.  You try to feed them breakfast, your give them milk, you push them in the stroller, you give them kisses and you talk to them.  Too cute.

7.  Your vocabulary.  You really didn't start talking until 2 months ago.  Then one day the words starting coming.  You don't have nearly as many words as Sam but you're getting there.

8.  Cleaning.  Aside from a day of rebellion, you are an amazing cleaner.  You usually happily pick up whatever you were playing with and put it back in the correct spot.  On occasion you aren't ready to be done playing with something and then you throw a little fit before you help clean.  Your brother even has found a way to not pick up, he just waits for you to do it.  You also like to clean off the table with a wipe and also clean off your face.

9.  You love of Pinterest.  You LOVE to sit in my lap and look at all the pictures on Pinterest on my Kindle.  You also like to look at any of the pictures on Facebook.  You like to point out the babies and any other words that you know.

10.  Your music requests.  You like to request "Baby" or "ever, ever, ever" when I have the Kindle out.  You love to hold the Kindle and sing to your favorite songs.

11.  Your running foot steps.  You love to run and are usually in a hear.  There is nothing like a pitter patter of little running feet in the house.

12.  Cheese!  You are still up for the millions of pictures that I take and you happily say cheese before you smile.  You do request to see the picture after I'm done though.

What I love about you today...Sam version

Twelve Things I love about you on 12/12/12:

1.  The crib full of stuff that you sleep with every night.  They include:

• two different doggies
• stuffed Pooh
• two Taggies blankies (That look like this)
• two other small blankies
• one blankie that was for your sister but she didn't like it

The pile of your blankies you take to bed every night.

2.  The fact that you know when you are missing something from your crib and request it.


3.  Your enthusiasm for holiday decorations.  We put up the Christmas treethe other night.  The lights are on but we haven't put up the ornaments yet.  You were so excited to see the tree this morning and all of the other decorations.  You definitely liked the singing stuffed animals.  You played with Rudolph on his sleigh and the singing bear all day.  The poor bear has seen better days and I had to take the batteries out because you kept coming to me because he was "broken".  You pushed them in the stroller, fed them food from the kitchen and showed them your cars.  Then you tried to take Rudolph to bed. 

4.  Your usually great appetite.  You normally eat pretty much anything.  You try new things and seem to even enjoy vegetables!  You loved edemame at Papa's and Nana's the other night.

5.  Your persistence with juice.  While you were sick a few weeks ago we were giving you watered down Gatorade.  Since then you try to request juice whenever you are thirsty, even though you only get water.  I gave you orange juice a couple of weeks ago for breakfast and you drank all yours quickly then helped Emily finish her's too. 

6.  Your snuggles.  You are becoming harder to keep still these days but I can still get some early morning or just after nap snuggles out of you.  Some nights after dad puts you into bed I come in to say goodnight and you request snuggles.  It is hard to say no.  You lay your head on my shoulder and kind of babble about what was important about today.  I try to comment on the words I recognize.

7.  Your eagerness to explore.  We went for a hike the other day, on the FIRST OF DECEMBER!  It was warm enough for no coats.  You didn't "hike" much because you were too interested in the rocks on the path.  I pointed out the prairie dogs too and you made sure your cousin Colton knew where they were.  This afternoon your dad was trying to put up Christmas lights and Emily and I were looking at animal pictures on Pinterest.  You were playing with the Mickey Mouse phone but then snuck out the garage to find dad.  Unfortunately you fell down the stairs.  You just wanted to go outside and help with the lights.  Lately it is hard for you to stay in the cart at the store.  You just want "out" or "down" so you can touch and feel all of the fun stuff that is everywhere.

8.  Your emerging mischievous side.  Lately you have been testing limits.  You want to really know what you can't do.  I'm having to really watch you with the Christmas decorations.  You have moved the angels from the alcove and ornaments from the tree.  You also knocked down the small tree upstairs, I'm pretty sure because you were trying to get a better look.

9.  Your helpfulness.  You want to help.  Tonight I was putting away clothes and I was trying to find tasks that you could do.  You wanted to do something to help.  We tried putting hangers into clothes, but that is hard work.  You brought me all the clothes to hang up in your closet, even though some of them were Emily's.  You did a great job hanging up Emily's clothes since you can reach.  Every night when I start talking about making dinner you start dragging in chairs so you can stand next to the counter to "help."

10.  Your concern for others.  Lately you have been reminding everyone to be careful.  You are mostly concerned about Emily.  Meg says that you remind Jack, Meg's dad, to be careful too.  She says you take great care of him.

11.  Your expanding vocabularly.  It seems like you're learning 10 new words a day some days.  You talk about "mama's plate" and all kinds of other two word combinations.  You mimic almost everything I say.  Tonight it was "noise truck" for noisey truck.  Over Thanksgiving you learned about praying.  Now when we eat at Papa and Nana's house you grab our hands and then exclaim, "Ameen."  It is pretty stinking cute.

12.  You love of music.  You still love to play your drum and now whenever I play "Little Drummer Boy" you go find your drum to play along.  You often sway or dance to the music you hear.