6 months, Preschool enrollment, Local shooting

Well, after posting how much better the daycare was going, last week and this week so far (it's only Monday?! Waaaah) have been back to the beginning! Acey got an ear infection (:( poor, poor him) and the other baby has been more fussy too.. I don't know what the heck is going on! It is STRESSFUL, though, let me tell you! I'm fine around the kids and dealing with them, but it's making me grouchy all the time otherwise. Boo. :(

After Aeson was particularly fussy last weekend and messing with his ear (including outright punching himself in it! ..over and over again!), Eric took him to the dr first thing Monday morning. Sure enough, he had his first ear infection. What is extremely weird is that he hasn't been sick AT ALL. And no sign of teeth either. Just a very random ear infection! Today, we went back to the doctor for his 6 month checkup. He weighs 23lbs,12oz and is 28 3/4 inches long. 99th and 96th percentile. Not as big as I was expecting actually. He is SO heavy to carry around. He's also growing out of his infant seat, but he's just not ready for the bigger one yet. He can't quite sit on his own (he can for short periods of time) and if he falls asleep, we'll no longer be able to just carry him in somewhere in the carrier. Ugh. He met all the 6 month milestones, though, so I was excited about that. Especially since he's 'technically' only 5 months old. :) I was reading Westen's diary the other night and noting how different they are.. Westen LOVED to be on his tummy and was almost crawling at this point but showed NO interest in sitting, while Aeson LOVES to sit and is almost doing it on his own but HATES being on his tummy and has shown no interest in crawling!

Westen's been drawing drawing drawing and writing writing writing. He's loving puzzles and pretend and all things artsy. He's also LOVING learning. We have a new letter and number every week. Did I mention I enrolled him in preschool? I think I last left off with having trouble deciding. Well, after looking more into the schools, I just FELT that I really wanted him to go to the private Catholic school. So.. I e-mailed them and they had openings! I'm super excited about it. He'll only go 3 days a week for half a day. I haven't decided whether to do morning or afternoon yet. He's SUCH a help around here and he certainly doesn't 'need' school, but I think it will be good for him to be around other kids and even more teaching.. Yet it also makes me WAY more comfortable that it's only part-time. The regular public school goes all day every day! Yikes.

I think Eric's decided to go back to school to get another degree to teach. Both his parents were teachers, and I think he'd be wonderful. I certainly hope he does it. I also just finished the application process that I started when I was pregnant with Aeson to continue my master's degree in counseling.. only now, I think I'll work on both the community and school tracks. I would LOVE to be a school counselor and be able to work the hours my kids are in school and have summers off. It's amazing how much changes after you have kids and how they really become your life. Yet, in saying that, I know that's not exactly how it is for everyone.. or maybe it just CAN'T be that way for everyone. I don't quite understand because mine are everything to me. <3

Last week, we had a very scary event happen here. We live in a pretty small town.. We have a university here which adds a lot to it.. Still, though, it's rather small. Anyway, I got a text from a friend saying there was someone shooting at a local store, so to stay away from that area. I immediately called her to get more details and then called every member of my family to make sure they weren't there! We stayed tuned into everything all day and there were a number of rumors going around. Police came from everywhere and the SWAT team ended up sending a robot in about four hours after it started to see what the situation was. What happened was a young man (19 years old, local- not a college student) entered with an AR-15 I think it was called (I'm not up on guns :)), demanded ammo, told the people they didn't want to be around for what was going to happen, shot through the door when police arrived on scene, and then went into the store and shot himself. Needless to say, we live somewhere where something like this has NEVER happened. It was so scary. We've listened to the 911 tape since, and the staff at the store sound terrified. There was also a 3.5 year old boy hiding with his grandfather. It makes me so sad and so frightened. I can't even IMAGINE if one of us had been there. It also makes me incredibly sad for the boy and for his family. I've thought about it a lot since it happened, and I wonder what he was thinking that made him do it.. what his last thoughts were.. if he KNEW how frightened he made SO many people (nobody really knew what was going on at first other than someone was in the store shooting). The counselor in me wishes I'd had the chance to talk to him before.. convince him not to do something like that. It's so true that suicide is a permanent solution to a TEMPORARY problem. I also hope that our children never feel the despair that he obviously felt. His mom has spoken out and talked about him not fitting in and the horrible things he went through in school.. I too was made fun of in school and it still brings tears to my eyes.. I know how bad it feels.. but you grow up and out of that.. you find your way. Regardless, it is something that hits very close to home and something that I feel very strongly about. Something I worry about happening to my own children. Kids can be so cruel. It also makes me think about our society and how they make men think they should be a certain way.. and that guns are powerful.. etc, etc. It makes me very, very sad.