Citizenship

It's that time of year! The end of a school year. I can't believe my little man has four days left in Kindergarten. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Looking back, he's grown so much. Kindergarten hasn't been completely easy on him (or us) but I can't imagine a better year for him. He writes in complete sentences and can even write short stories. He can do simple math and reads unbelievably well. He is beginning to tell time and is learning how to count money. He's made some great new friends and learned some awesome new bad words (and the fingers notions to go along with those words). At home, we've struggled with controlling our emotions and being respectful, but that has never been an issue at school.

In fact, Caedmon was given the Citizenship Award for his class for the 2011-2012 school year. We're so proud of him!!!

 My attempt at getting a brother & sister picture. Ha, jokes on me!

Caedmon & Xaria. I hope they are in the same class together next year. Xaria has taught Caedmon so much about being a friend and gentleman and honestly...thinking about their friendship makes me tear up a little.

Here's a little story for you. Around lunchtime Thursday, I pulled the local news website up on my computer at work just in time to read a story about a car chase through three counties that ended up in the city where Matt works; in the area of Matt's district. Which happens to be in the area of Caedmon's school.  Apparently two guys were being chased by State Troopers and the local PD, when they decided to fire shots at the Officers. Lovely, right?

When the car chase ended, the Officers were able to catch the passenger, but the driver remained at large. The news stations were reporting he was armed and dangerous and three local schools were put on lockdown as a precaution. Caedmon's school happened to be one of them.

Typically, I do not tend to think too much about Matt's job. I know it's dangerous, I know he could get hurt or hurt someone else, but I also know that Matt is going to do everything in his power to come home to his family at night. Ugh,both of my boys were within a three mile radius of a person, who had shown no regard for an Officer's life. I *knew* Caedmon was safe at school, but I couldn't help but think about what he might be feeling ... this strange, out of the norm, situation at school where he couldn't be near the windows, blinds were closed, he had to stay in his classroom for an unusal amount of time, what had the teachers and administrators told them, did he know there was a bad guy out there, was he worried about his Dad since he knew his Dad was working that day... All these questions and thoughts were swirling around in my head.

I had been in touch with Matt via text and I knew he was okay - just tired, filthy and covered in ticks from searching for this guy for hours. So I admit - I became that overly concerned Mom and sent Caedmon's teacher a text message since we couldn't pick the kids up from school (it was around 4pm at this time). I just asked that if Caedmon asked about his Dad to let him know he was okay and he would see him tonight. She replied back that he was fine and that they had told this kids this was a precaution.

After the search was called off, Matt went to Caedmon's school to help release the kids whose parents hadn't gotten the message that the school was on lockdown. While there, the mother of one of Caedmon's friends was there and so Matt had her bring Caedmon home. He got home around 5 and the lockdown was lifted about 5:30. One of the neighborhood boys who rides the bus with Caedmon didn't get home (via bus) until 7:30 that evening.

Caedmon was fine. He had a bit of adrenaline rush when he got home and eventually crashed (complete with tears and emotions he didn't even understand) but he seems to be doing just fine.

Me on the other hand...Thursday hit a little too close to home for me. I was glad when both Matt and Caedmon where home!!