The beginning

Jacob started 1st grade on Tuesday. I walked him to school, gave him a hug and kiss and he walked onto the playground with 300 other kids. I watched him get swallowed in the crowd and said a little prayer that he was going to be okay. I went across the street from the playground and like a stalker watched him until he went inside. It was a very very very long day. I have never been so anxious in my life. I think by 2:15 I was going very nearly out of my mind. You see, Jacob has never been away from me for longer than 4 hours, except when I've been in the hospital after having babies. And then people that knew him and his, let's call them eccentricities, were watching over him. Now he's gone for 7 hours with a teacher that doesn't know him or his eccentricities and darn it I miss the kid. Last week I was so tired of him yelling at his sisters, talking my ear off about dinosaurs, and not going to sleep, and now I miss him so much I hardly know what to do with myself during the day. I count down the hours till I can go and get him and know that his is safe. Am I a crazy mom?
Jacob on the other hand likes 1st grade, although he complained that it lasted too long, and that he didn't have enough time to eat his lunch. At home he would take 45 minutes to eat lunch, no such luxuries at school. He loves that he gets 3 recesses and he has the same reading teacher as last year. We'll see what next week brings.

Twisted braided ponytail

This is one of my go-to hairdos when I am in a hurry. It works best if the hair is pretty wet and/or slicked with pomade to keep all the flyaways at bay. Just part the hair in the middle (or anywhere else you'd like) to the crown and section off a small piece on each side at the front and start twisting down to the middle adding hair to the twist as you go. If your daughter is more obliging than mine you can have her hold one side while you do the other, otherwise clip it while you do the other side. Then just bring the two sides together making sure the hair that's not twisted is laying nice and flat, braid down to the end.

Stalling Tactics

My 6 year old has quite suddenly decided that he is scared of the dark. I may sound like an insensitive mother, but I don't think he's really scared. First of all, he has a nightlight and the hallway light shining right into his room, so there isn't any dark to be afraid of. Now he wants us to go in there and talk to him at length about his fears. When we've convinced him(at least for the night) that there isn't anything to be afraid of in his room, he moves onto monsters under his bed. Last week when Greg was out of town, Jacob called me into his room to tell me that he was afraid that there were monsters under his bed. I told him there couldn't possibly be in monsters under his bed because there is so much stuff under there they wouldn't fit. To which he responded, "What if they are just little monsters?" I told him that if that's the case he could just stomp on them. He got his "I have an idea" look on his face, and said, "What if there was a coelyphysis (sp?)under my bed, then he could eat all the monsters." For those that don't have a dinosaur obsessed child, a coelyphysis is a carnivorous dinosaur, you'd have to ask Jacob for more details about it though. I told him that that was a great idea. He could pretend that a coelyphysis that could eat all the pretend monsters (because Jacob knows deep down that monsters are pretend). He screwed up his face and told me that that wasn't going to work because the coelyphysis lived in Asia and not North America. I threw up my hands in exasperation, turned on the lamp, and walked out. No more stalling tactics. just go to sleep!