Life with the Honeybaby: Savor Every Moment

I haven't posted in a few days. My mind's been elsewhere. On December 14th, a maniac forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and killed 20 first graders and 6 staff members with a rifle. When I found out about it after school I was just sickened by it and I started trying to process it as a teacher and a mother. How would I react in a situation like that? What would I do if it were my child that was harmed? How terrified had those little children been? Did they suffer? I was just so sad. Many people texted or Facebooked me to see if I was okay because they were not familiar with where I lived in CT or where I worked. It meant a lot that they cared, but I had to wonder about the friends and families of the victims when they learned their loved one was not okay.

The news has been plastered with coverage and it's so so sad. The night it happened, Kathryn woke up around 2:30am. She hasn't done that in so long and she stayed awake for about an hour. At first, I was annoyed that she was up. She wasn't crying. She was just playing and giggling, but I was tired and wanted to sleep. Then, I realized I shouldn't be annoyed. There were 20 sets of parents in CT at that moment who would give anything to be up in the middle of the night with their child. Once I thought about this, the frustration went away and I was just glad I had my child with me.

My friend Katie called me very distraught about the situation. She was crying and feeling guilty for bringing children into this terrible world. I agree that this world is going to crap and I, too, feel guilty that Kathryn has to see all the bad things that happen. Then I told Katie that all we can do is love our children and make their time with us as happy and fulfilling as we can because we never know when they'll be taken from us. They could get sick or be hurt in an accident...we never know and we have to do our best to let them know how much we love them.

I've looked at Kathryn a little differently this weekend, and I know I'll do the same thing with my students tomorrow morning. I appreciate her little quirks a little more and I'm trying to soak it all in because you never know when time will be up.